At 5:50 PM -0700 2001/07/17, Richard M. Hartman wrote:
>However, I can not support revoking his priveledges because of his tag line.
>That smacks of religious discrimination.
>...
>Moreover, banning somebody because of religious expression may open your
>company to a lawsuit.
At 10:16 PM -0500 2001/07/17, Richard Burmeister wrote:
>According to the stated forum rules, one of the prohibited acts is "actions
>that undermine the purpose of the forums as outlined." Perhaps Mr. Schram
>believes that the repeated use of this tagline does undermine the purpose of
>the forum. (There may also be other rules that apply in this case.)
Personally I do not consider DrumBSF's "God Bless" tagline to undermine the purpose of
the forum. And I'm certain no offense was intended. However, the statement has nothing
to do with Palm software and/or hardware development, and like any comment based in
religion, it offends many. Thus we arrive at what is perhaps the most important area
of 'forum law' if you could call it that: The uniform enforcement of the rules
themselves.
When we issue a warning for inappropriate behavior to one forum member, we are
required to issue the same warning to all others demonstrating similar behavior. Not
doing so opens the company to discriminatory legal action. While we are very tolerant
of off-topic posts and the occasional debasing comments, we cannot allow repeat
offenders to go unpunished, especially after they have been told to cease and desist.
Revoking membership is truly a last resort after all other attempts to resolve a
situation have failed. Such drastic action rarely if ever benefits anyone. Even our
more caustic members deserve the freedom to participate. But remember, the American
concept of free speech does not apply here. This is a privately owned forum. Members
are required to follow the rules, and Palm employees are required to enforce them.
>So, why can't we all just stick to the purpose of the forum, sharing useful
>information that permits more developers to create excellent programs for
>the Palm OS platform?
YES PLEASE! I personally really dislike playing list cop. I have much better things to
do with my time...
Best Regards,
Jim Schram
Palm Incorporated
Partner Engineering
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