Subj : Re: Computer Kits
To   : Arelor
From : Jeff
Date : Sat Jan 29 2022 13:17:22

On 29 Jan 2022, Arelor said the following...
 Ar>  > Regulation and control... like banning people who refuse to follow the 
 Ar>  > Remember when I said to hold that thought about people being cut off fr
 Ar>  > friends and family by being banned? Here we are. People don't just get
 Ar>  > randomly banned. They get banned because the platforms are exercising t
 Ar>  > regulation and control that you believe they should have.
 Ar> Some platforms are better at keeping order than others.

True. That also depends on one's definition of "keeping order." Obviously, if
order is to be kept, then someone must make the distinction, however
arbitrary it may seem, as to what's acceptable behavior and what is not. If
those decisions are simply not made, then that's chaos not order. And I can
guarantee you that not everyone is going to be happy with all of the
decisions made, least of all those adversely affected by them.

 Ar> The RPG.net forums directly ban certain opinions. There are tons of
 Ar> stories online talking about people getting randomly banned from there
 Ar> for petty or unexplained reasons.

And you feel that handing moderation of the RPG.net forums over to the
government would improve the situation? What do you expect the government to
do about this?

 Ar> RPG.net used to be THE forum you visited for RPG related discussion. It
 Ar> is no small site. It is not an insignificant piece of the Internet. It
 Ar> is (well, actually "was", because it comitted suicide) the goto place
 Ar> for people interested in a certain hobby.

If they "committed suicide," then it sounds like they faced consequences for
their decisions.

 Ar> And, in the most RPGish tradition, thy exercise their control by rolling
 Ar> a die in order to decide whether somebody gets banned, apparently. Heck,
 Ar> they have a public thread in which they display bans as trophies.

And this should be illegal or regulated somehow? Should there be laws
against arbitrary forum moderation? Should the government take a more active
role and be responsible for deciding who gets banned and who doesn't? What
government's jurisdiction does RPG.net fall under, anyway?

 Ar> Of course they have the right to do as they please but that turns the
 Ar> service into a bad service.

And the people who are not happy with the service leave. No one is obligated
to participate in the RPG.net forums. I've never heard of them until now.

 Ar> And a whole lot of services are just like that. So yeah, I think the
 Ar> ideological or random banhammer is something that exists even in big
 Ar> platforms and is something to be concerned off.

I originally thought you were just talking about Facebook, Twitter, etc., as
"social media," but the inclusion of internet forums is quite an interesting
development. I feel even more strongly that these should be free from
government regulation, with a few exceptions involving indisputably illegal
activity.

Jeff.

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