Quote from: TomD on February 16, 2015, 01:53:21 AMIts always been my opinion that there should be moderators and there should be a balance between free speech and necessary censorship.
The moderators are given powers to use their judgement to decide whether a member is giving his/her honest opinion about a topic or they are simply trying to inflame the conversation or outright personally attack other members.
The rule of thumb on most forums I have been on is that attacking a member's post is ok if done with some tact , but attacking the poster themselves is an infraction and illegal.
For example
Fair :
This post strikes me as vague and not contributing to the discussion. I disagree with it entirely and i might go on to give my reasons or not blah blah....
Illegal :
The member who made this post is a clown and should shut up or grow a brain before posting again.
Lets let the moderators determine this. If the member is cited for poor display, the member can appeal to Daemon that they disagree with the moderators decision.
Cheers
constant attacks against a member's point of view in his diary should also be prohibited. it probably counts as hogging, though I thinkt the bigger issue is the member's psych well-being. I am not really affected by negative comments made about my point of view, or even against me as a person (because of anonymity). However, I think comments made against DOCTORS are far more defamatory and they feel much more hurt. which is why I totally could not understand FP's rudeness and inane behaviour. As far as patients are concerned, I know surgeon friends and they say that psych well-being is v important for healing. look up the placebo effect for instance, it is scary what the mind can do. So I think people shd refrain from posting excessively aggressive negative comments on patient diaries, esp when they are currently recovering/lengthening.