The people who edit, delete, etc are all acting as Max's proxies - with his consent. Since he does, and furthermore has stated that he reserves the right to delete, alter, edit, etc ANY POST or thread on the site it is not an imposition - but a possibility for any posting.   ** BY POSTING ** any author of a post on this site is agreeing to those terms.

The Mudcat Cafe - reserving the right to do these things is of course very sensible but it is not the same thing as anonymous fellow posters doing this as what certainly and often would appear to be a rushed, first and only resort. Would you accept that imposed judgement and 'silent deletion' by anonymous fellow posters remains a big deal to the victim - even if (some of) the perpetrators appear to take it lightly as if it were some kind of game?

It is imposition when any form of censorship action is imposed without the poster's prior knowledge and possibly against their wishes - especially when the same result may be achieved by less drastic and more open and proportionate forms of action.

But no matter how sensible the principle may be - to claim that posters have ever agreed to these terms or even been asked to - is really questionable. Most of us would have taken such a thing as read anyway - without any need for it to be spelled-out.

Before you can contribute on many sites you do have to agree to the terms. One of the good things about our forum is that posters do NOTt have to do this (yet). And perhaps you will accept that we have not - in any formal sense agreed to these terms - have we?

MMario when you and I started posting here - they certainly was no set of terms like this - were there? And there was not this - 'The Mudcat reserves the right' etc. Perhaps you would agree that the introduction of this (and the further measures now detailed there in the FAQ - was bolting the door after many horses had already bolted?