My apologies for recent threads

[RangerJoe]

ORIGINAL: LarryP

I referred to Twitter and Facebook because they censor according to your political side. I do not consider myself a "haemorrhoid" or hemorrhoid, spelled correctally. [:D]

There is the English spelling and the American spelling, both are correctly spelled different in many cases.

[RFalvo69]

ORIGINAL: RangerJoe

ORIGINAL: LarryP

I referred to Twitter and Facebook because they censor according to your political side. I do not consider myself a "haemorrhoid" or hemorrhoid, spelled correctally. [:D]

There is the English spelling and the American spelling, both are correctly spelled different in many cases.

I think that the point was that the word must be spelled correctally. [;)]

[LarryP]

ORIGINAL: RFalvo69

ORIGINAL: RangerJoe

ORIGINAL: LarryP

I referred to Twitter and Facebook because they censor according to your political side. I do not consider myself a "haemorrhoid" or hemorrhoid, spelled correctally. [:D]

There is the English spelling and the American spelling, both are correctly spelled different in many cases.

I think that the point was that the word must be spelled correctally. [;)]

Yes! [;)] You are correctum.

[RangerJoe]

ORIGINAL: LarryP

ORIGINAL: RFalvo69

ORIGINAL: RangerJoe




There is the English spelling and the American spelling, both are correctly spelled different in many cases.

I think that the point was that the word must be spelled correctally. [;)]

Yes! [;)]

Wouldn't that be colorectally as in "Let us see where the sun don't shine!" [X(][X(]

Yes, I have had that happen. No, the doctor (according to the staff) would not sign a statement stating that on such and such a day he examined me and found that I was not full of it! [:(]

[Kuokkanen]

Oh boy, this thread escalated quickly.

ORIGINAL: RFalvo69

ORIGINAL: Kuokkanen
It can take strict moderation to keep such nonsense out, and then crowd cries censorship. It's on the news.

What part of the crowd misses is how there can't be "censorship" on a private platform. You agree to the platform's terms of use and then you have to abide to them.

There is really not much difference between this forum and, let's say, Twitter. What changes is where the bar is positioned. Here political or religious posts are a big no no, while on Twitter you are free to express yourself on these matters - but still you can't lie, condone/incite violence etc.

How well does Twitter enforce its terms of use? I hear a large number of accounts has been deleted this year alone for inciting violence, and that those same accounts have done that for many years. And that Twitter still has a large number of such posts and others that violate its terms of use. Last week was news about child porn on Twitter. Amazon booted Parler from its servers with claims that Parler don't enforce its terms of use effectively enough. But then Amazon took in Twitter which seemingly has the same problem. Assuming they even consider it a problem.

Many of the posts on Twitter I'm referring to are in violation of Matrix forum's terms of use and also political in nature. I can PM links to twitter itself as well as to related articles and YouTube videos if asked.

[RFalvo69]

ORIGINAL: Kuokkanen

Oh boy, this thread escalated quickly.

Well, no. We are talking about the role and rules of forum and social network in the current era - and how both are evolving. I see this as an healthy discussion about a social phenomenon, not a political one [:)]

How well does Twitter enforce its terms of use?

Both badly and with an inconsistent approach. This is why I wrote about "changing times". Never before Twitter was the political platform recent events turned it to be. My guess is that the guys running it were caught totally unprepared and their approach to the problem was all over the place (if you were a Very Important Person some rules didn't apply to you in name of... dunno... a higher importance of your words).

I do like what we are seeing now: all are equal in front of the Terms of Use (*). Then, of course, you need an infrastructure in place to implement this. Bots are only partially useful (recently a chess channel on YouTube was blocked by an algorithm due to sentences like "White is in a better position than black"...) However, as I wrote, once again internet needs to adapt to changing times, and I'm pretty sure that it will do.

(*) Those who think that Twitter blocks only a certain political side (this is valid for Scandinavia too - just an example) should, maybe, look harder at that political side, not at Twitter. And, anyway, "blocks" is the key word here, not "censors".

[Lobster]

I remember when the worst thing about twitter was people posting about every little thing they were doing. "just ate a cheezeburger", "clipped my nails", "picked my nose" [:D]

[Kuokkanen]

I have remembered few things. This month Facebook has took action to posts related to incident in Capitol building on 6th day. Just mentioning it seems to be enough for some kind of action that can be interpreted as censorship (details escape me right now, but I can look up references).

Couple months ago was news about one Hunter Biden, first in New York Post. Twitter blocked/censored/deleted links to related article on New York Post site, and may have had influence in other posts (within Twitter) as well.

Even earlier YouTube removed/blocked videos related to Corona virus with claims about misinformation (others may have done the same). Some of the removed videos had doctors talking about the virus.

All in all, claims about "big media censorship" isn't entirely without a base, and general public has took a notice. As result, Twitter's stocks have took a dive, and I say it's well deserved.

[edit]
Do you remember when anything (including war games) with Confederate war flag were pulled off from stores and Web?

[RangerJoe]

ORIGINAL: Kuokkanen

I have remembered few things. This month Facebook has took action to posts related to incident in Capitol building on 6th day. Just mentioning it seems to be enough for some kind of action that can be interpreted as censorship (details escape me right now, but I can look up references).

Couple months ago was news about one Hunter Biden, first in New York Post. Twitter blocked/censored/deleted links to related article on New York Post site, and may have had influence in other posts (within Twitter) as well.

Even earlier YouTube removed/blocked videos related to Corona virus with claims about misinformation (others may have done the same). Some of the removed videos had doctors talking about the virus.

All in all, claims about "big media censorship" isn't entirely without a base, and general public has took a notice. As result, Twitter's stocks have took a dive, and I say it's well deserved.

[edit]
Do you remember when anything (including war games) with Confederate war flag were pulled off from stores and Web?

+1

[RFalvo69]

But, as I wrote, I'm not denying chaos right now. The social platforms, IMHO, started too late to take a course correction and adapt to the new online realities. Also, we see them as monolithic entities, but I guess that they are composed of many people with many sensibilities, so someone can consider acceptable in his watched area something that it is not accepted by someone else in a different one - and before a general course of action is decided mistakes and inconsistencies will happen.

If I disagree with the "they are censoring this political side!" approach is because, at the end of the day, these are commercial enterprises, and thus they can't allow to alienate part of their subscribers based on their ideology alone. I can sympathise: I cannot deny my restaurant to people from a certain party/political area. If they do decide to come to me to eat together after some big meeting... who cares from which party are them? [:)] However, I will throw out people who gravely misbehave.

ORIGINAL: Kuokkanen
Do you remember when anything (including war games) with Confederate war flag were pulled off from stores and Web?

Yes. But now Germany allows the use of the Swastika in video games (where it was forbidden, as was forbidden in everything that was not considered "culturally relevant enough to allow for it"). Internet learns. Slowly but it learns.

[RangerJoe]

There was a US Army division that had the swastika in in its uniform patch.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/45th_Infa ... ed_States)

[MrsWargamer]

I'm an active FB user. At one time, my teddy bear Frank had an account, and several of my Barbies had accounts. I made them all their own email addresses through Outlook. They were all separate from 'me' in all ways, other than computer and address of origin. And they worked fine. I deactivated them myself for my own reasons.

Then my friend is routinely getting banned, for supposedly bannable adult content, which is clearly not being banned on most of their friend's accounts. The obvious conclusion is, once the algorithm takes a bead on ya, it will systematically attack you for the slightest hint of an offense. I can verify this, as I got a warning for a meaningless comment, on someone's thread, and just commenting on that thread in a harmless fashion resulted in a 3-day ban. This indicates the program considers it a banning offense just for posting to the thread.

I rarely get any trouble on FB, but today I have all of 7 people on my 'Friend' list, and I post inside of a group I created. I no longer initiate posts on my 'Wall'. and I mainly post limited comments on friends' threads. I am largely invisible to FB in the process. I mainly use it to talk to about 3 people in the same way most chat back and force on their cell phones.

So it would NOT surprise me if some think our social media is censorship heavy when in reality, I think it is mainly a non-human algorithm at work.
Once it targets you, the rules are more programming than human bias. Having multiple FB accounts is a ban. Having someone other than your real name is a ban. Having other than your real picture is a ban. And my teddy bear Frank used his real name Frank t Bear, and his actual picture (he's a fine-looking teddy bear too), and has his own email address. And was even listed as my husband (in his profile he said I spend too much time on FB). FB has algorithms that are utterly worthless if you know what you are doing. But the moment you cross the line with the rules, your account is in the crosshairs and it is doomed. FB is worthless for people who want large sums of contacts, and the desire to post contentious comments. It's ideal for teddy bears though I gave my friend my Barbie Rebeccas's (she's a doctor eh) FB account, but it didn't last long

This forum is a case of there is little point in making an account if you are going to endanger it with contrary behaviour.
Because we tend to be persons who want to build our reputation among our fellow forum members. Otherwise, the site is only good for buying the games.
I wouldn't be doing myself any favours getting myself banned.

Twitter is only useful for people who are ok with pointless character limited comments of little real merit.
Which is likely why some use it. Because that's all they are offering.
Being banned from Twitter is likely one of the most useless punishments out there.
Being banned on YouTube could totally ruin your income stream.
Being banned on FB could distance you from a large number of friends.
Being banned on Twitter only results in embarrassing silence and the inability to post idiotic comments.
And there is no shortage of text-based mainly options on the internet.
But Discord, for instance, won't help irrational posters rant efficiently.
I have no sympathy for the whining of the irrational.

A bigger problem is it is obvious, if you have enough money, you can have a news outlet, that can spread easily found content, with excessive bias and reach a wide audience who probably will believe anything. I think this is becoming plainly a problem globally. It appears 'news' is more dangerous than the current viral problem. It's likely causing more harm. No one trusts anyone's news. It's always 'lies'. Facts mean nothing to people these days. They are downgraded to 'opinions'. If you don't like content, it is easy to just call it a lie or a conspiracy. We are never required to actually confirm anything. I know the earth isn't flat. But no amount of proof is going to deter the believers that it is flat. Heck, just last night my friend Sue was over. She's so utterly hardcover Bible. She doesn't believe dinosaurs ever existed. Showing her the fossils won't help ya. THAT is why news media sources have such a hard time in 2021. Because we are cherry-picking what we will believe.

I know why Hitler was his own biggest problem. But people will argue over the details all day long And none of us were there. All we have are pictures and videos. There are now almost no living persons who remember 1945, let alone 1935. I usually hate comparisons with Hitler and the Russian form of communism. I was not alive during Hitler's life. I was never breathing during Stalin's reign. I watched them tear apart the Warsaw Pact and remove the wall though. I am not sure China's commies are the same as Russian commies. I'm a Canadian, and Canada is a socialist country in its way. But we are not China. Socialism is not communism. Saying so means the person doesn't understand either. China has some very brutal behaviours. I don't think it is because they are communist. I think it has more to do with their legal system. And they have the muscle to get their way inside their country.

[Erik Rutins]

Well, this thread has been getting into current politics, so it's time to lock it. However, I'll just add that whatever social media started as, it has in my opinion unequivocably become a corrosive force with regard to our common social bonds, or at lease exacerbated the effects of already corrosive forces. In my personal experience, what social media promised and what it actually has achieved are two completely different things. It's hard to see how any present day discussion of social media can avoid current politics though, so likely best to steer clear of it.

Regards,

- Erik