Hey Mods!

“i agree with everything in your previous post, HPD...my comment was about the drama and inaccuracy of your use of the phrase "silencing speech"...by your own admission and confirmation from a mod, your post was allowed to remain on this thread and therefore, your speech was not silenced

well put pepsi...same thing happened with me”

“if you delete a thread can you at least give us a summery of what was in the thread? We shouldn't have to miss out on good gossip just cause we weren't around at the time.”

“my phrase "silencing speech" was 100% accurate - the post on here was not the one that was silenced”

“LOL!@thrifty I agree! I feel deprived when that happens”

“I agree Thrifty. I hate when I log on and see someone commenting that a thread was deleted because so and so poster said something innapropriate and I didn't get to read it first. Probably better that I didn't but still....
Kind like rubbernecking on the freeway or watching a police action from a safe distance. Don't want to look but can't seem to look away either.”

“from: http://www.thebackpacker.com/info/terms.php

We may modify or remove any Content from the Service at any time without notice to you, including removal of Content that we believe to be obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, excessively violent, harassing, or otherwise objectionable.

nothing about violating terms of service...they just have to "believe" it is obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, excessively violent, harassing, or otherwise objectionable

continued:

MONITORING OF SERVICE CONTENT; RESOLUTION OF USER DISPUTES
No Duty to Monitor. We are under no obligation to restrict or monitor the Service or any Content in any way. THEBACKPACKER.COM DOES NOT REGULARLY MONITOR THE ACCURACY OR RELIABILITY OF CONTENT. However, we reserve the right to modify or remove any Content at any time. Any opinions, advice, statements, services, offers, or other information or Content expressed or made available by third parties, including other users, are those of the respective author(s) and not of TheBackpacker.com. TheBackpacker.com neither endorses nor is responsible for the accuracy or reliability of any opinion, advice, information, or statement made on the Service.

it's a free country but not a free website

also, (and i found it interesting that the old terms can still be found by clicking on "terms of participation" under the "submit message" "preview message" buttons) a lot of people would do well to follow matt's main rule:

Please respect all users of thebackpacker.com and act accordingly. Please treat Trail Talk as a face-to-face conversation. If the message you are posting would not be used in a face-to-face conversation, do not post it.”

“All of that is completely irrelevant. The fact remains, they are silencing speech on here.

By you posting that, the speech that was silenced is not somehow un-silenced.”

“exactly”

“you can use whatever rhetoric you want, but it sounds like the mods are doing the job that any and all moderators do on any and all message boards - delete posts that they feel are inappropriate or in violation of the boards' terms of service.

You can call it "silencing" if you want... heck you could take it even further and say that they're deliberately singling out and silencing people whose opinions they disagree with - after all, the terms do say that mods can delete anything they believe to be objectionable. It doesn't matter what you call it - it's the job of any moderator.

And think about this - if you do think that you're being silenced as a result of a moderator bias, do you suppose this bias will lessen through your actions of spamming threads with your complaints? Might want to rethink that strategy...”

“You can call it "silencing" if you want...

Thank you. I did.

As I said before:

“It doesn't matter if it is "their house" (I disagree with your assessment that it is) or not, they still are silencing speech that breaks no rules.

Whether or not they have a legal right to do so is also irrelevant. The fact is, they're doing it and it should be known, discussed in fact.

Apathy is what has brought our country to where it is. Apathy can bring down this site too. I make no apologies for bringing this to light.””

“I'm afraid you missed my point. What you call "silencing" the rest of the humanity calls "moderation." Rhetoric can lead a person to making some awful silly claims. You can take any sort of logical thing and use rhetoric to twist it into darn near anything you want (don't believe, me? go ahead and try me - give me any sort of situation and I'll use my mad rhetoric skillz to make it sounds just plain ridiculous). My opinion is that this "moderation=silencing" might fall more into the "silly" part of the venn diagram there.

Then again, I know the anger one feels at having a post deleted - the need to respond, to question, to attack. My advice to you would be to cool off a bit to avoid getting yourself put on timeout. Though not as directly, I also stated this in my last post when I pointed out that discussing the downfalls of moderation on a moderated board is a good way to get yourself even further moderated.”

“The only problem with the moderators "silencing speech" is that they aren't doing enough of it. In some cases it should be 100%”

“I raise a toast to my collegue from North Carolina! Well said!”

“+2 hyway!! This should be a backpacking board not a whining debate board.”

“Yeah, sort of like campfires should be just about hiking. Next time I am on a hike, you clowns leave off all that jibberish about things not related to hiking. I just want to hear how many steps you took during the day!

Well, maybe not.”

“One or more of you is on a absolute roll.

I truly think you have completely become consumed with the power.

Sooner or later, around a campfire, it will be a lively discussion.
last edited: 4/19/11 4:35:35 PM”

“Oh, by the way, if you haven't kept up, all the mods got outed over on Latta.”

“The mods have this weird image of Trail Talk once upon a time being the Disney version of Camelot. In truth it was how Camelot probably really was if such a place existed - best men sleeping with other mens wives, women riding naked, people crapping out in the open, weapons worn and ready, etc.”

“all the mods got outed over on Latta

what thread?”

“hyway - "best men sleeping with other mens wives, women riding naked, people crapping out in the open, weapons worn and ready, etc.”"

..sounds like a paradise.”

“exactly, that's trail talk :)”

“I will have to search, CB. Dig around, its over there somewhere and it's accurate.”

“Hyway is a Mod!”

“I was a Mod. But I quit when I went on my short long distance hike. I never got the chance to ban anyone or delete their threads.”

“chili, i was told youre a mod”

“I quit when hyway went on his hike.

Resistance was futile. I had some input on how it should work, but bailed before the axe began to swing.”

“yep, the writing was on the wall. The noble Paladins were adamant about "cleaning up" trail talk to return to some former trailtalk that never existed.

Its easy to make a mockery of the current moderation. For every thread they delete you can go back in time and pull up a dozen threads just like it.”

“Which goes to show, it is hard to curb power.”

“Well, you should never have gotten paladins to be mods! I think that warlocks or mages might have been better, you know, with the whole "smiting" thing going for them.




Or maybe a rogue....”

“I have been posting that 'two fat peeps in the pool' pic for a very long time. Its serves the same function for moderation as a canary does in a coal mine. Of all the time it has been posted it has only been deleted once during the early days of Elise and even she didn't delete it the 2nd time I posted it after she got used to TTs ways. This is just a few posters turned mods with god powers pushing their puritanical ideals on the rest of us.”

“There are no rogues in the game I play. They have always been and always will be, Thieves.”

“BTW, the pic I posted wasn't pornographic. It might have been disgusting, but I didn't know disgusting was against board rules.”

“What rules? We have entered the realm of flying by the seat of the pants as far as the mods go.”

“

Suck it Mods!


lol”

“look its one inch wang.”

“That kid needs a better keyboard.”

“or a wig”

“That no One Inch Wang! I One Inch Wang!!!!!!


Wang only One Inch!



Herro Miss Maple Leaf.....”

“hmm.....”

“OMG OIW where have you been...I heart you!!!”

“One Inch Wang still where always been. Been verry busy with job. Many many womens like to be lick in crrazy place. One Inch Wang making much moneys! Last week One Inch Wang buy first CD. But no can afffford CD player, so must borrow girlfriend's. She let me play music when not using tongue on crazy place.

I like you verry much but pleese to not send any hearts to me. Hearts to tough to eat with out much long cooking.

Are you still marry to Mr. Tree beerd?”

“LOL your our resident sicko”

“I don't know, mapes, I think there are others around here that may even top OIW.”

“We should run those sick bastages out of town on a rail.”

“Maybe some of them. Can we please keep the others for entertainment? Pretty please?”

“keep us good looking ones, anyway.”

“Obv.”

“Could you please fix the two Life in Violin's New Jersey threads violin murdered today? I have some very important Snooki news to post.

Thanks!”

“Lmfao!

Or as q would say, flamo!”