1st Amendment

[webmaster]

As most of you know, this is a moderated forum. Members in good standing have no restrictions on posting while others are screened if they have a pattern of flooding, attacking others, hijacking, vendettas or other behavior that is a red flag to me. All posts, moderated or not, are reviewed.

When a member is moderated for whatever reason I frequently get nasty emails accusing me of violating their 1st Amendment rights and worse. Let's review the 1st Amendment:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

The 1st Amendment protects you from the Government suppressing your free speech. If someone comes to your house to convince you of how to vote you have the right to tell them to shut up and leave. Publishers of newspapers, books and other publications (like Web sites) have the right to post or not post anything they'd like, with some limitations. You can exercise your 1st Amendment rights by starting your own Web site and publishing whatever you want.

While I have been attacked before for my moderation decisions, the nastiness has reached new levels. People come to the forum, ignore the rules and guidelines and then attack me when I moderate their posts. Recently a member posted a comment that I considered possibly libelous and it was removed. After they posted it again I put them on moderation. I was immediately flooded with dozens of emails from them with the word "NAZI" repeated hundreds of times. Nice. Despite this disgusting behavior they are still allowed to post, although heavily moderated.

This is becoming more common as civility, courtesy and respect for others seem to be disappearing. It was disturbing to read how many of you think nothing of giving the finger to your fellow boaters and lake lovers.

As this problem grows I am forced to step in more if I want this forum to remain a friendly and helpful place for those who love the lake. If a comment of yours is not posted please review the content of the 1st Amendment before sending me hateful NAZI emails.

This problem is not limited to our little forum. Some large national forums have recently announced new moderation policies to stop their sites from becoming cesspools of rants and hateful comments. Additional steps are being considered to prevent that from happening here.