More on Internet censorship
Here are the latest news and ideas:
New hacker's tool for fighting Internet censorship
This is a follow-up to this post. The psiphon hacking program was supposed to be available on December 1, but the psiphon website now says that the user guide will be released in March. I don't think that the program is of much use without the user guide.
Blogging awards
As I said before, one of the biggest problems with Internet censorship is that they don't just ban you, but they also ban your ideas. To change that situation requires changing the whole Internet culture -- and one of the best ways to help change the Internet culture is by changing the criteria for giving blogging awards.
The Panda's Thumb and PZ Myers' Pharyngula blogs proudly display logos for blogging awards that they have received. Two less-deserving blogs could hardly be imagined. How in the hell a blog that is not an open forum can get a blogging award is beyond me. Organizations that make these blogging awards should have some minimal standards for the finalists in regard to censorship of comments:
(1) No arbitrary censorship -- censorship allowed only for comments that are extremely offensive, harassing, etc.
(2) No IP address blocking (blog services should not even offer IP address blocking)
(3) Comment moderation feature must be turned off
(4) No cutoff of comment threads
(5) No "bathroom walls" (Panda's Thumb's term) -- off-thread places for dumping undesired comments
(6) No registration required to post comments (registration procedures often cause problems even where censorship is not an issue).
Also, the awarding organization should have a censorship complaints department.
Ed Brayton's blog
Not only is Ed crazy (maybe I should call him "Crazy Ed" -- I can't decide what to call him), but some of his commenters are crazy too. "Dan," a law teacher who is a friend of Ed's, began a polite on-topic comment with the following statement:
Now that is the most abject, kowtowing, groveling, bootlicking, brown-nosing statement that I have ever seen on the Internet. It just goes to show the mindset of a lot of the people who comment on Ed's blog. BTW, "Dan" is the jerk who responded with nothing but invective in an answer to my argument that FRCP Rule 12 gives judges the authority to dismiss cases where the plaintiffs reject offers of out-of-court settlements that would provide relief equal to or greater than the maximum relief that could be provided by the court. It was at that time that Crazy Ed banned me permanently from his blog.
New hacker's tool for fighting Internet censorship
This is a follow-up to this post. The psiphon hacking program was supposed to be available on December 1, but the psiphon website now says that the user guide will be released in March. I don't think that the program is of much use without the user guide.
Blogging awards
As I said before, one of the biggest problems with Internet censorship is that they don't just ban you, but they also ban your ideas. To change that situation requires changing the whole Internet culture -- and one of the best ways to help change the Internet culture is by changing the criteria for giving blogging awards.
The Panda's Thumb and PZ Myers' Pharyngula blogs proudly display logos for blogging awards that they have received. Two less-deserving blogs could hardly be imagined. How in the hell a blog that is not an open forum can get a blogging award is beyond me. Organizations that make these blogging awards should have some minimal standards for the finalists in regard to censorship of comments:
(1) No arbitrary censorship -- censorship allowed only for comments that are extremely offensive, harassing, etc.
(2) No IP address blocking (blog services should not even offer IP address blocking)
(3) Comment moderation feature must be turned off
(4) No cutoff of comment threads
(5) No "bathroom walls" (Panda's Thumb's term) -- off-thread places for dumping undesired comments
(6) No registration required to post comments (registration procedures often cause problems even where censorship is not an issue).
Also, the awarding organization should have a censorship complaints department.
Ed Brayton's blog
Not only is Ed crazy (maybe I should call him "Crazy Ed" -- I can't decide what to call him), but some of his commenters are crazy too. "Dan," a law teacher who is a friend of Ed's, began a polite on-topic comment with the following statement:
Ed: I'm not sure if this is the direction you want this thread to move in; if not, feel free to delete this.
Now that is the most abject, kowtowing, groveling, bootlicking, brown-nosing statement that I have ever seen on the Internet. It just goes to show the mindset of a lot of the people who comment on Ed's blog. BTW, "Dan" is the jerk who responded with nothing but invective in an answer to my argument that FRCP Rule 12 gives judges the authority to dismiss cases where the plaintiffs reject offers of out-of-court settlements that would provide relief equal to or greater than the maximum relief that could be provided by the court. It was at that time that Crazy Ed banned me permanently from his blog.
Labels: Internet censorship (1 of 2)
posted by Larry Fafarman | 1/16/2007 09:13:00 PM
4 Comments:
What hutzpa! The number one practicioner of blog censorship is calling the kettle black!
At least four of my posts have vanished this week. VIU has disappeared completely.
Voice in the Wilderness said...
>>>>>> At least four of my posts have vanished this week. VIU has disappeared completely. <<<<<<<
I have not deleted any posts in the past week. As I said, if your comments disappear, resubmit them.
<<<<<Now that is the most abject, kowtowing, groveling, bootlicking, brown-nosing statement that I have ever seen on the Internet.
I concur -- it rates quite high on the snivel scale. Ed himself should complain. <<<<<<
Do you think that Crazy Ed is ever going to complain about someone licking his boots?
> I have not deleted any posts in the past week. <
We believe you Larry. Have you ever been anything but the soul of honesty?
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