Blogs, Moderation, and Free Speech

[NoeJeko]

I have received a growing number of concerns regarding the moderation of the blogs. Please allow me to explain why we must even have rules regarding our blogs.

If someone uses a blog site such as Xanga, Blogger, or sets up their own Wordpress blog, their blog is attributed to just them. If they want to blog about how much they fap or what drugs they take - no one blames Xanga (or other "blog" site).

The difference here is - if people decide to blog about stuff like that - MMOG is blamed. Our staff is blamed for not keeping the blogs clean. Conversely, if we moderate them too much, then we're "suppressing free speech". It's quite a fine line we have to walk between allowing open degradation of our community image and infringing upon the blogger.

In that respect, the staff has been told to keep blog moderation to a minimum. Basically, we don't want to see anything posted there that could get us shut down, could damage our affiliations, or could get us flagged by search engines for containing adult content. Such actions would damage the community as a whole (especially if our server is confiscated for investigation). We'd like to see meaningful blogs posted there, but we cannot control that. Besides, certain individuals have extremely random personalities so that is an expression of them.

For the record, Xanga, Blogger, etc. all reserve the right to sue you if you violate their terms of service. I've linked an excerpt from the Xanga Terms of Service, but other popular social networking have similar policies:

Originally Posted by Xanga TOS

upload, post, email or otherwise transmit any Content that is unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, tortious, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, libelous, invasive of another’s privacy, hateful, or racially, ethnically, sexually or otherwise objectionable;

...

Xanga reserves the right to take appropriate legal action against anyone who uses Xanga in violation of the Terms of Use. Whenever Xanga learns of any use of Xanga in violation of or that may be in violation of any applicable law, Xanga may report this to law enforcement authorities and otherwise cooperate with such authorities in their investigation.

Reference: Xanga TOS

While we're not threatening to sue you if you break our rules, we are stating that we will remove any content that is not in accordance with our rules and possibly ban repeat offenders. Please try to understand.

[Torikakae]

I for one welcome this moderation. Good job, mods~

[Miyuki]

*noted*

And don't abuse the blog feature plox

[SweetieBoo]

i support you on that. ^_^

[k0n]

Aye~

I guess we have to limit what we can say in this site then. For those who want to say anything beyond those limits, please take it somewhere else.

[Beato]

It's really weird why someone would post such things in the first place o_o

[NoeJeko]

Originally Posted by k0n

Aye~

I guess we have to limit what we can say in this site then. For those who want to say anything beyond those limits, please take it somewhere else.

It's not just "this site" - it's any site out there. Even if someone sets up their own blog on their own server, their ISP or host has certain terms/conditions.

[AzurePandaPaws]

Seems sensible enough to me. I've no objections.

[Globalastro]

its sad it has to even be said. What ever happened to common sense? Things posted in blogs are open to the public. The public includes your mother, father, grand mother, grand father, priest, teachers etc.
In otherwords, dont post stupid crap i.e. wht was afformentioned by Noe if its something you wouldnt say in front of them.

i feel sorry for all of the mods for having to root through blogs for further moderation.
but thanks for the blogs. It gives me a place to whine and complain about my life where if i get flamed, i can delete the flame and dont have to worry about taking up forum space that can be better used by more meaningful and intellegent threads

[NoeJeko]

A note on comments:

The blogger has the ability to delete user comments. That said, the staff will not respond to comment spam, flaming, or other comments unless they are elevated to us via the "report" function. We will respond to anything illegal, sexual, etc.

[Miyuki]

Originally Posted by NoeJeko

A note on comments:

The blogger has the ability to delete user comments. That said, the staff will not respond to comment spam, flaming, or other comments unless they are elevated to us via the "report" function. We will respond to anything illegal, sexual, etc.

This.

spams, flames, its all on your own, except when you reports them, then will take action [yes, there's a report function with "" icon, below someone's post avatar.]

Zero tolerance to any illegal posts, as noe mentioned, sexual, drugs and stuff. This applies to 'unwanted advertisement spams' like those 'free services' or anything that...just unwanted link spams, lol.

Now then, please enjoy your profile blog, and blogs it!

[Rhois]

I totally support you on this Noe. ;3
Just one question, what do you mean by "Meaningful Blogs"?

[Miyuki]

Contents, reviews, etc.

Not spams or 'empty spams' but...we can't control those ._.

[NoeJeko]

I mean anything that has words. It's not our place to determine what's meaningful and what isn't to the users ... to a point. If a blog entry consists of:

Title: ???????????????????
Content: //////////////////////

... it's not meaningful and will be deleted as spam.

[Medoria]

Also, as a common sense note here- whatever you blog about on the internet is there for your potential boss to read. I know when someone is looking to be hired here we check their blogs (usually found by not only their name but their email too). Looks pretty bad to an employer when you discuss your extensive use of drugs or call your girlfriend your *****, etc.Not saying you won't get hired for that, but not exactly off to a good start (and really, you probably don't stand a chance in hell of getting hired).
Just know that everyone on the internet is public, so don't write about something that you don't want your mom, your sister, your best friend, your boss, your teachers, your lover, etc to read.

[Blue]

Got it.

[Rusty]

The moderation is more then fair.

As someone mentioned though, it is sad it had to be stated.