It's not about what I
want to do but about what I may
have to do.
The choice in the poll is clear, because that's what the choice is. As numerous people here have pointed out - and know from experience - once you go down the censorship rabbit hole, where does it end? Right now we have one word. What about all the other words people can use? Where do we stop?
It doesn't. It goes right into turning the forum into another
RetardEra. At which point we may as well shut the whole lot down.
As has been alluded to, the
Australian High Court made a ruling recently which effectively means I (and the staff) may be responsible for the shit most of you idiots post.
And that's Facebook. Where you're required to post under your real name. What are the greater implications for us?
As
Roguey said:
DU's been clear for years that he's not so much "I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it" but "Say whatever you want up until the point where it becomes a legal inconvenience for me."
The Codex has always been a fun hobby. And now, we have a bunch of "free speech" proponents who run the minute shit gets serious and expect me to die on a hill for them.
If you want to post shit on the internet, that's one thing. But if you expect me to take a bullet for that shit, while you scurry off under your fake name and proxy account, that's entirely another.
If you want to be "free speech", that's fine. But you can damn well put your name next to it and stand by what you said.
And how are those crying "free speech" going to feel when I'm ordered to hand over your identifying details to law enforcement authorities? You expect me to refuse and go to jail on your behalf?
Over an RPG website?
We know that a large number of the shit-posters register with free dodgy email accounts and use proxies. Are you going to tell me they're really here to discuss RPGs?
How would you feel if I
require personally identifying information in order for you to post on the Codex? Enter your credit card details here so I know who you are, just in case someone decides to play games over some shit you posted.
But even then, that's not enough. They can come after me now. They don't have to care about you. And knowing half the shit-posters and trolls we have here, I guarantee you someone's already thinking about how much "fun" they can have with this.
We already had someone try to shut us down earlier this year.
On one hand, I could argue the likelihood of that is small. Who's really going to take it to court, and sue for defamation in Australia and actually take it that far? It's not entirely an easy process.
But on the other, it's a worrying trend. It's only a matter of time before someone tries it. And all we need is for one person to give it a go and suddenly, we have some very big problems.
Over an RPG discussion website.
