Atogwe also dealing with sports hernia

I’m just saying when you have the choice between OJ and Dahl, picking Dahl would not be the better choice.

isn’t that kind of the definition of a backup?

Have you ever visited a website? Sent an email?

Whenever you send data to anything, you’re sending out your IP address. There is nothing private about it; it’s a 32-bit binary number. Your specific IP address is for your computer. If you don’t want anyone to know what your IP address is, I’d be more then happy to show you how to use a proxy server…but the fact that it can’t pinpoint your location is irrelevant.

But I’d be more then happy to give you my IP address….147-222-129-9

Check it out for yourself: http://whatismyipaddress.com/

This is a good question that I’m sure opthers have wondered as well. Along with “What right does anyone have to tell me what I cannot say?”

It’s because the website is not a government run, strictly public entity where access and free speech prevails above all. This is a community moderated by it’s founder, who has the ability to exlcude any person they want, for any reason they want. (The only time I have seen this done here at TST is when people relentlessly attack other members, or when they use extremely inappropriate and offensive language, or spammers). Its pretty rare here compared to an SBN community such as Bloody Elbow for example.

And the IP address is how peope are identified so they can;t be banned and return over and over again. Thats what the tool is for, besides knowing who is trying to “sockpuppet” (pretend to be someone else).

There’s been some good discussion on moderators and their juedgement in some other communities that I’ve been reading up on…Bloody Elbow and Watch Kalib Run for example.

It basically comes down to this: the community was founded by someone who gets to decide what kind of community they want to have. Peope who disagree and free to leave and start their own community and do the same.

I’m not inviting you to leave, or anything like that I rather enjoy dissenting opinions and people who back up their arguments with reason, as long as it doesn’t turn into personal attacks.

I’m just trying to explain that rights of free speech that the government guarantees you out in public on a street corner do not apply in a community such as this.

It’s like a neighborhood sports bar…someone really does have the right to decide who stays and who goes and your IP is your ID. It may be checked at the door.

Again, the ban hammer rarely comes out here because we have a great mix of people. But we only have that great mix because there are some limits applied.

We have positive people, we have negative people, we have balanced people….about the only thing we don’t want is otherwise good guys going round after round of personal attacks. That’s all. The only way to ensure some doesn’t do that, get banned and come back to do it some more is to have their IP identified to the moderators.

A good guide to posting is to speak as if you aren’t anonymous, as if you talking right to someone’s face. If you say something that might get you punched in real life, it probably isn’t appropriate here either.

Honestly, I do believe that for the most part we as a group understand the illusion of anonymity doesn’t mean it’s ok to act like the biggest jerk in the room, and that’s seen in the difference between this place and every other one out there.

But again, I want to stress I am not inviting you or anyone else to leave; this is an explaination of the relaities of SBN communities and nothing more.

Bloody Elbow has gotten the nickname Bloody Tampon for people getting banned (with no warning) over simple things such as differences of opinion on whats funny and what can be made fun of. Seriously. Its not so bad here.