People have the absolute right to protest and make a nuisance of themselves in public in the real world. That's what the First Amendment protects.
You must read some different Constitution than I do, the First Amendment does not protect people being a nuisance. In fact just the opposite, it protects the right of people to peaceably assemble. Someone being a nuisance is not doing that at all.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
The line is drawn when either violence or threats of violence occur. "Disturbing the peace" is an exception and normally requires one to be loud and disruptive in a way that goes above and beyond simply stating your opinion in a forceful way, in an area where the person can not be avoided by others in a public place. Normally loudness is required as well, something that really isn't possible on the internet (I guess all-caps could be involved). For the most part, arguing in a thread where a specific topic is being debated can be totally avoided if you aren't interested in the debate, and the forum has the ability to put someone on ignore if their opinion offends you. There is no real reason why a person can not be avoided in a public forum. If a person tries to get around the attempts to avoid them (lets say by PM'ing or e-mailing after being asked to be left alone) then you could have a situation where there is harassment, but that of course is an extreme example.
And there you have it. A member inserts himself into every thread, PMs and insults people, doesn't listen to any warnings about his "disturbing the peace", flies in the face of the moderators and so gets banned. With 100% agreement as well.
Banning (or jail in the real world) should only be done when someone's words endanger others. On an internet board that could be when someone threatens someone else, knowingly lies about others or uses the board to engage in illegal activities. Once you start doing otherwise, you allow people to squelch unpopular opinions and often times the "truth" of a matter in exchange for faux peace. There are people here who are perennial nuisances and blowhards who do so for no other reason than they can, and yet they have never been banned. That opens the forum to accusations of bias which should be an unnecessary concern if normal real world standards where applied to everyone.
Then you would have, in both the real world and Internet, complete chaos with people throwing insults at each other, inserting themselves into conversations where they have no stake just to basically shove an opinion in, be able to defame someone's character outright, and be both a public nuisance and disturbing the peace. That is why in both cases the law can step in and say, enough is enough, and does.
The excuses used to silence people here (who were telling unpleasant truths) are essentially the same one governments tried to use to try to silence people like Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela. Both men where accused of being a nuisance when what they said made people uncomfortable.
Oh my God, please tell me you didn't just compare or try to use such incredible people as King and Mandela to Moogy's SDS comments as metaphors? Or even insinuate that a hobby forum falls under the same level of importance as bigotry and racial prejudice? :eek
The same principles that the US founding fathers felt where important for the "real world" are also important for virtual communities for the very same reasons. If people want to second guess what's works for hundreds of years as a way to encourage a marketplace of ideas and discourage abuse of power, I guess they are welcome to.
The Founding Fathers are well in their place here, where a group of people work together to come to consensus and follow rules (laws) long thought out and put together with input from many people over many years. Now the RPF staff could certainly turn fascist if they wanted to. Why? This isn't a government body, it isn't a national entity, it's a hobby forum and the owners, moderators, etc. could say "my way or the highway". This place is not owned "by the people" any more than any other forum technically is, nor any corporation. The fact is that compared to many forums the RPF is far more open, broad minded, and if anything follows our Founding Fathers ideals very well.
Again...in the "real world", you can't get arrested because of how you say something unless that thing is a threat or would cause real danger to others, no less get what is essentially a life sentence in prison. You can be sued if you knowingly lie about someone, but that's another matter. In all the forums that I've been on that I've enjoyed the most the moderators where seldom seen, seldom had to act against anyone and seldom had any hand in the flow of communication. At one time, that's how the RPF was run as well and makes for easy moderation. When you start voting members off the board due to unpopularity of opinions and how they were stated, you start making things hard for yourself.
And again, nobody was voted off for their opinion, but keep using that slant and saying it enough times and maybe someone somewhere might believe it. It's HOW you put forth that opinion that counts, and why some people are banned (or arrested). I can guarantee you that if you walk into the middle of a state capital and start loudly decrying the way the government is run, or if you stand in the middle of WalMart and start yelling how badly they treat their workers, you WILL be arrested. No threats, not even insults, just your opinion which might be unpopular. Go ahead. Try it.
