Tuesday 23 January 2007

"Flaming" as Freedom of Expression

I posted to an online forum recently and got "flamed" (defined in Wikipedia as "the act of sending messages that are deliberately hostile or insulting"). I responded to the unfounded accusations, taking care to use courteous and restrained language but I got flamed some more. So I decided to stay away from the forum.

I contacted the website owners asking that my posting be deleted so that it would not attract any more flaming. The website owners refused to oblige. They claimed that freedom of expression meant forum members could post any messages they wanted and I had the right to respond. But responding only seemed to spark more personal attacks from these people, so of course I wasn't going to give them the pleasure. That would be a total waste of my time.

The website owners' assertion that forum members had absolute freedom of expression was not, strictly speaking, accurate. Members are not allowed to make any references to rival sites. So much for the website owners' mantra of freedom of expression.

Sounds like hypocrisy to me.

No comments: