h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

If you believe that the BBC is wrong in stifling debate on Iraq on this website, pease indicate so below :-

I believe they are wrong, but it is their website, so let them at it.

This is by way of an ironic comment.

H.

Yes, you're right, there is No Censorship because you've beengiven an alternative space in which to voice your opinions...

Indeed, BS, because technically "this website" means bbc.co.uk, and you CAN discuss it on "this website" - just not this corner of it. Which is fair enough, I think.

H.

Censorship in general is stupid. I don't know about this because it's not quite censorship, yes, but cutting things out of films and stuff...surely WE can make decisions ourselves. We don't need someone else to tell us what we find offensive...

As for this...I personally feel the news peeps did a 180 degree turnaround on their broadcast. Obvious much?!

two removed posts on this thread


kind on unsettling actually

They aren't removed they're being pre-modded...best guess is that Hoovooloo is interested in commenting on the subject

why bother?

It is unsettling...a thread on censorship and they're sencoring the posts. Does that not just SCREAM irony?!"

Why bother?

Why not?

And the screaming irony was pretty much the point, thanks for noticing.

H.

Well I wanted to keep the thread going...I liked slagging censorship...even more so when I spell it right!

BBC wrong? Not sure about that. As someone said, it's their site. Definitely over-sensitive though.

And asking people to comment elsewhere doesn't necessarily help. Many people want to post comments on a site that they are used to and feel comfortable with, especially when the issue is controversial.

On the whole, I don't think there's any particular reason for implementing this policy now, and it feels a bit mean and condescending. If the government, the BBC, the public, whoever can't handle difference of opinion or even insults, then there's not much hope for any kind of community - censored or not.

I completely understand your point, personally I thought we would all be mature enough to Yikes any stupid people trying to impersonate B*n L*den or whatever. However we have to realise the BBC website isn't just hootoo. They have a fairly large resonsibility of monitoring any war conversations and the easiest way to do that is to make sure they all appear in one place. Sure it might be a bit of an ar$e for a while but it's not gonna make much difference to us in the long run.

I don't think many people are annoyed at the inconvenience (I'm not, particularly) - I think it is more the principle of the thing that is concerning people.

agreed

no, I am definately annoyed at both the inconvenience and the principle as well.

depth-charging conversations on this (h2g2) site is silly.

they found out how badly it affected the flow in this site when they did the same thing over afghanistan, the general election, and a number of other times, so why aren't the italics loudly fighting for the right not to get a massive jump in complaint over poorly thought out censorship policies?

Blues Shark, have you tried making conversation on that "Great Debate" forum where our discussions are supposed to be concentrated? It's closed while the moderators are off duty, so messages are queued for moderation until the next morning. When you want to continue a discussion the next day, you have to search through page after page of new posts.

If this were a public transportation system, it would be shiny new buses we were riding in a few days ago, and now we're carpooling in twenty year old jalopies equipped with timers which automatically shut themselves off each evening.

It's not exactly censorship, just an unnecessary and damaging policy to institute on a seemingly public message board system.

Did it seem sudden to anyone else. I logged on from my GMT +12 (my time zone) and all was a complete reversal from the previous day. That made me very uncomfortable.

Also I don't quite like the feel of most other message boards. h2g2 is like the old comfortable T-stirh that you never want to throw away. Even if, as now, it's getting a few holes in it.

I don't particularly want to talk about ...that thing... no matter where but I think it's the principle...could they stop us chatting about it in the streets? the front desk of the BBC? our human rights should remain intact in cyber-space