Spaw,

As a card carrying member of the ACLU, its seems a bit odd that you would hold the views you do regarding anonymous Internet posting, considering the position of that organization on an issue you obviously feel so strongly about, although I can appreciate one need not agree with all official positions taken by the organization of which one is a member. However, the ACLU's position on anonymous posting on the Internet is very clear, your membership notwithstanding.

To suggest that forum moderation is censorship is specious. Any forum can, and often is, censored by those who control access. Which was, in fact, the issue I was responding to initially in the GUEST thread: limiting access to GUEST users as a means of silencing views which are not in agreement with the Mudcat mainstream.

I have no desire to take up anything with Max. My initial contribution to the GUESTS thread was in response to the suggestion--made by others, not myself--that Mudcat should change the GUEST log-in policy. The justification given for those changes mentioned two threads: the CM/DB saga thread, and the (name deleted) thread. The original post to the GUESTS thread suggested that the forum was being abused by GUESTS in the CM/DB thread in the same way the forum was being abused by GUESTS in (name deleted) thread.

I suggest they were used by the GUESTs in each instance quite differently. In teh CM/DB thread:

1. Guests in the CM/DB thread were choosing to post anonymously to express a dissenting, controversial point of view which was at odds with the views held by a majority of people participating in that thread.

2. Guests in the (name deleted) thread were clearly abusing the GUEST log-in feature to engage in troll activities.

IMO, teh two are not equivalent.

The former is about free speech in this particular forum, and the rights of anyone, member or guest, to voice unpopular opinions anonymously in this forum.

The latter is about Internet abuse by trolls.

I disagreed with original poster's assertion that GUESTs in teh CM/DB thread with "abusing" the forum by choosing to post anonymously. As long as the site owner chooses to allow anonymous posting, I believe all users, whether members or guests, should respect the site owner's decision to allow anonymous posting, even if they disagree with it.

For those who feel so strongly about anonymous posting that they are willing to start flame wars over it in this forum, I would respectfully suggest that the burden for getting it changed lies with you, and not those who support the Mudcat status quo.

Anonymous posting is currently allowed here. It is my opinion the membership should stop harrassing and flaming those who choose to avail of that option to contribute to Mudcat.

All