Censorship on Answerbank

[Gef]

Have the Answerbank censors gone soft? Some of the replies on the thread about the five teenage deaths in a car crash have been "edited by answerbank". I hate to think what was taken out but going by what is left I would hate to live next door to some of the posters.

[january_bug]

Gef - you'd be fine living nextdoor to some of those posters, so long as you are in no way at all even slightly chavvy (scallish/pikey/twocky/neddy), and so long as your children are little angels who attend Sunday School (or the equivalent for your religion) every week. Oh, and you'd better think and vote right of centre!! If you do those three simple things, you're fine! :-)

[Gef]

Thanks january_bug. I'll get rid rid of my baseball cap, whip the kids along to Sunday school and get rid of my Tony Blair poster. Should be alright then. LOL :-)

[surfer mike]

Don't bank on it..

[january_bug]

Yeah - surfer's right.... that probably wouldn't be enough. Oh - I suppose you'd better sign up for the genocide against (of?) scallies and make sure you become an active campaigner for the reintroduction of the death penalty. Anything less than that and it's not the censors who are soft, but YOU!

Should be perhaps point out that this is really only about maybe up to five people, and that most others in news are actually ok?! :-)

[libertie]

Yep Gef, pretty scary stuff by some posters......can't imagine even wanting to live in the same city as them let alone next door!! On the plus side they are sooooo right wing that by the end of the thread they have lost all credibility and I usually end up just laughing at them!!

[january_bug]

So true Libertie. Ocassionally I do catch myself getting so wound up and then I think the same as you - this is simply not credible, and it's jus funny now! :-)

But celebrating the death of 5 teenagers isn't funny and never will be. I just don't see how anyone can think that's acceptable! (Not that you suggested it was Libertie, I'm just saying that sometimes they go so far that it goes past being funny).

[libertie]

Yes Jan-Bug I know exactly what you mean!

[AB Editor]

HI All,

If I could add my little 2p - the censors have not gone soft - exactly. I think it's important in forums such as these that all views are allowed to be heard, within reason, of course. If anyone feels that a post is inciting someone to racial hatred, please report it so it can be reviewed and removed. I would tend to agree with Libertie in that most extreme views rarely hold up by the end of the thread - and that is the best form of 'censorship'!

[january_bug]

ABE - perhaps, but it does almost appear as though you were condoning the words of the users who were gleefully celebrating the deaths of 5 teenagers. By leaving those comments up, I'm afraid that's the impression that is given.

And as such, I don't see that there is much victory at the end of the thread at all. In fact, I see it as rather a sad day for AB that the comments were allowed to stay.

PS - I don't expect that the ABE will (or should) remove all posts with which (s)he doesn't agree, but this seemed to have gone WAY too far this time. Plausible maybe not, laughable, perhaps, but those posts were often simply SICK and should not really have been allowed to stay. ABE- please tell us why you allowed them to remain.

PPS - Gef - sorry if you think I'm hijacking, but I think we're on the same wavelength on this one! :-)

[Gef]

Many thanks everyone for your replies and support - three stars to you all with the possible exception of AB Ed.

[january_bug]

Cheers Gef!! :-) An unusually feeble response from Ed there I thought. I do worry that with all the awful stuff going on with greenies in CB, that the Ed is exhausted poor thing! :-(