Simple question do you think that people should be able to speak about anything they want on public bulletin boards like here? I am not referring to topics promoting illegal activities or anything like that.

Does everyone have the right to express their opinions even if they are out of the ordinary?

If you answered yes to those questions then does everyone have the right to feel they will be safe from being attacked for expressing their opinion?

Thats a tough question to ask, freedom of speech is not really free at all. Sure you cant get jailtime for writing what you want, but you sure are going to get critized. Or worse, beaten if its in real time. My friend had this problem, he would wear a shirt that said "Jesus is a ****" (Its a band shirt) with a nun masturbating on the front. Sure its "Freedom of speech" But that doesnt mean some christian loving Zealot isnt going to trounce him on the spot.

i believe everyone has the right to their own opinion and has the freedom of speech.of course that is on both sides of the subject at hand but i don't think one person should be punished for something they say or believe

I don't know Why do you ask?

yep, say it like it is.. I have been slammed on here for some of my thoughts.
So what, I worry not.

NO,
The people who own this site have the say!!
Just as you have the say about what happens in your house.

I also think nothing but gun pictures in a profile is in extremely poor tatse and says a lot about mentality.

You asked.. you got an honest answer.

no

In a situation like this. free public forums, freedom of speech is allowed, but only to the extent that the creators of the site see fit.

People bring this up once in a while here, and it's like this.

Someone created this site. They get to make the rules. The mods are in place to enforce those rules. Regardless of whether or not there are gray areas in the rules, they are enforced to the best of the mods' abilities.

Some things that are said are not deemed " acceptable " by the creators of the site.

That's one of the things that keeps this place from breaking down into a free for all full of bad language or personal insults which can be found on the vast majority of forums on the net.

Whether or not we agree with all of the restrictions placed on the language or actions here, it is what it is.

Someone slammed you?

Express out of the ordinary opinions? Certainly. Judge and belittle and bash others based on opinions? Certainly not.

And yes, the first can be done without the second. We ARE supposed to be adults here, right?

Nothing I can't handle...

This is a private site. They made rules. We have the choice of following their rules or leaving.

Btw, what was your name when you were on here before?

They could argue with your opinion if they have a different opinion or information that you do not have.

I was thinking about this so much I went back and read the rules of the site once more. I believe that even though certain opinions or topics may not be in violation of the rules they can still be censored by the admins at their discretion. That is fine with me personally.

However, the rules do state :

1) Do not attack/slam/insult others. You can discuss the message or topic, but not the messenger - NO EXCEPTIONS. If you are attacked by another user, and you reciprocate, YOU will also be subject to the same consequences. Defending yourself, defending a friend, etc. are NOT excuses. Violations of this rule are taken very seriously and may result in being banned without warning!

2) No explicit, sexual, offensive, insulting or vulgar language. The Mingle2 forums are rated PG-13. The only exception is the Sex and Dating forum which is rated R, NOT X.

3) Hijacking a topic by making posts which are off-topic and unrelated to the original post is considered rude. Please try to keep your posts pertinent to the topic at hand. We will allow some leeway in this area, as there is some amount of "topic drift" that occurs in a normal conversation that we will permit. However, members who we feel are continually and intentionally hijacking topics, especially after having been warned by a moderator, may have their posting privileges suspended. We ask all users to do their best to stay on-topic.

That seems to me to be happening in just about every thread I have seen on here in the past week or so to one person or another. It is only human nature to want to defend yourself when you feel like you have been attacked even if it was not intended to be that way in the first place. How many topics have your read lately that stayed on topic?

The only reason I posted this question was to find out how others thought of it. I somehow tend to learn new ways of seeing things when I ask a couple questions and get multiple views in response.

I have seen very few slams and/or attacks myself. What threads are these in?

99% of the time, any attack is only in the mind of the person who thinks they are being attacked.

There are some that find anyone who disagrees with their position/opinion to be " attacking " them.

you have a right to express whatever opinion you like as long as its not a direct attack on another person here.

and fearing whether you will be attacked for your opinion isnt something you should be worrying about because you can't expect everyone to agree with you.

whether you take a disagreement as an attack or not is on your plate.

I don't believe that 'freedom of speech' is a basic human right.

Otherwise the world would be in chaos.

My students do not have the right to tell me I am rubbish at my job.

I do not have the right to tell them they are rubbish at their subjects.

And in public forums, we do not have the right to go around telling people what we really do think of them.

We have the right and priviledge to post in a forum, because we have agreed to the rules. When we overstep the boundaries, we lose that right and people should not complain. If we cannot agree to abide by the rules, then mouthing off about freedom of speech, will get no person anywhere.

We sign our work contracts, abiding by the rules, so if we were to tell our boss he was a tosser, chances are, we are to be fired.

We do have to right to challenge anything that we feel is unfair and claim discrimination in anything we do, that is a human right, but freedom of speech??? Nah, I don't buy it. We think we do, but we don't.

We do have the right, to speak with our fellow members of the human race in a dignified, respectful kind way. How we execute that is up to us, we have the right to speak as we wish, but if we do not conform to guidlines, terms and conditions, then freedom of speech is not going to get folks anywhere, aside from in a pile of poo.

Well, as far as Rule 3 is concerned...I have no problem (most of the time) if my thread morphs into another direction...in fact, I try to keep my topics open enough to encourage change. Of course, I don't have a thin skin & I realize that it's all in good fun.