Re: A List-Manager Issue: Dealing with attacks via personal email.

[murr rhame]

On Tue, 20 Feb 2001 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

>>> Stifling "free speech" in the name of having a "nice"
>>> list is heading down a slippery slope.  Personally I wouldn't
>>> do it.
> 
> Freedom of speech was never intended to cover speech that
> someone ELSE is paying for.  Ronald Reagan once shouted down
> a heckler by saying "I'm paying for this microphone!"

I don't know who wrote the original "slippery slope" comment.  
You could both be right.  The list admin has every right to
define and enforce rules of acceptable behavior for their list.  
For some discussion lists, those rules should be extremely loose.  
This is definitely a list-specific issue.  Set up the rules that
are right for your forum.  Random off-topic rants or ad-hominem
attacks are rarely acceptable on any list.  On most discussion
forums it would be inappropriate for the admin to squelch views
that simply didn't agree with those of the management.


- murr -