ymmv - ignoring people

Wow - I leave the forums for one day and come back and see all this. I admit that I have not read every thread started on the issue, but nevertheless, David, you said exactly what I was thinking after reading some of the threads.

I once almost put someone on ignore, but I hate the idea of censorship so much that I didn't, I had to just take a step back from the issue and not hang out in the fourms for a couple of days.

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i think it goes a bit beyond mass admission.

making a graphic, starting a thread about ignoring them, etc.

but ymmv.

A personal decision to filter out the detritus is not censorship. Preventing others from making the choice to filter or not is censorship. However, I find it interesting that someone can claim to be vehemently opposed to the concept of censorship, while simultaneously admitting that free speech should be limited by the terms of service. Though we must make every attempt to cherish the right to speak freely, even this fundamental right is often curtailed in situations where that right is abused. Slander is never condoned, nor is harassment or words which directly endanger others. The freedom of speech is also often superceded by the right to privacy, as in our own TOS. That's really only a bit of tangential pedantry. I'm not arguing for censorship. I'm arguing for a voluntary cessation of contact with an instigator in order to inform him of his intolerant and abusive behavior. Much like a firebreak which is used to fight a forest fire.

In the end, it's really a simple matter. I am obliged to listen to someone only so long as they show me and everyone else the proper level of respect. When that person fails to respect those whom he is speaking to, then he forfeits his right to be heard, and I will ignore him. He may continue to speak all he wishes, but his words will fall upon deaf ears.

In agreeing to the TOS, we agree to follow Linden rules - of which, certain types of speech are curtailed. Hate speech and the other things listed in the TOS are what I agreed to when signing up. I also agreed to allow the Lindens to be the judge of that, not other players. Other players can abuse report me if they think I am in violation of the TOS, but only the Lindens can dicipline me. I can accept that, I agreed to it before I signed up.

One of the tools that the Lindens gave forum users is the ability to ignore someone. So a personal decision to ignore a poster is just that - a personal decision. Meaning that you and you alone check the box that says ignore. I have no problem with that.

If a person is particularly offensive, enough people will quit responding to their posts on their own without a campaign to get them to do so.

In my opinion, a campaign by other forum posters to curtail someone from posting or at best encouraging the majority to beat them into submitting to expressing their opinion in a more acceptable manner is similar to the puritans forcing women who committed adultry to wear a scarlet "A".

If someone says something that is particularly offensive, I may abuse report them and let the Lindens handle it and I may even say in my post that I intend to ignore them from this point on.

In fact, I actually did post that I was going to ignore someone once and then thought better of it afterwards and did not put them on ignore. I just walked away from things for a couple of days and decided that their opinion had no real effect on my life one way or the other so why let it get to me, I was never going to be able to convince them to see my position and I obviously was not getting theirs.

Also, a lot of the posts that so many are offended by referenced an "accepted/admired" group in SL who banned together to exclude others and got special treatment from the Lindens. I personally don't abide by that opinion but don't you think that a campaign to ignore this person is akin to proving that such a group of people exists?


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If you feel uneasy about ignoring someone, then you need not participate. I don't want to impose my views upon anyone else nor do I wish to silence anyone. You are as free to keep listening as we are to ignore.

I have had no in-world communication with any of the people who joined this movement, nor have I privately conversed with them by any other means. Those people who pledged an end to the antagonism of the prime nuisance did so spontaneously, without conspiracy. All of our discussion and action has been conducted in forum, before the eyes of everyone. Thus, claims of conspiracy can be demonstrated to be false very simply. Unfortunately, that will not deter some people from making the accusation anyways. Of course, those accusations would have been made anyways even if we had done nothing.

(edited)

What is "ymmv?"

"your mileage may vary".

Ohhhh... I thought maybe it was "Yamchatka makes me virile," a reference to Risk.

Ummmm no, that would be kmmv

Cho yabai v_v

Shh... don't tell.