What constitutes a violation of your first amendment right to free speech

[Mathew Johnson 123]

What constitutes a violation of your first amendment rights when you have a thread censored or you are banned from a BBS?

Obviously, there are rules to follow. If you attack someone in a personal manner that most would agree there are consequences of your actions.

But what about getting a thread pulled just because someone doesn't like the subject matter and even though it is presented in a professional manner, they are questions that the admin or moderator don't want answered because the truth isn't something they want known?

What about getting banned from a BBS for asking questions to silence you. Is this a violation of your rights?

Mathew Johnson

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Cyclone 25]

no.....no different then trashing a comment on wordpress

You own the software and domain.....not public property.

[Kristopher Pettitt 23]

It's their way of shutting you up so they can make themselves look like the good guys.

[NJWashingGuy 31]

It's their way of shutting you up so they can make themselves look like the good guys.

+ 10,000,000,000

[NJWashingGuy 31]

no.....no different then trashing a comment on wordpress

You own the software and domain.....not public property.

What if the org is owned collectively by its members and operates under the guise of being a non-profit orgaization to further an industry?? ?? Should there be a vote by the membership or is what one person who is the controller says goes??

[KGILL 14]

What constitutes a violation of your first amendment rights when you have a thread censored or you are banned from a BBS?

Obviously, there are rules to follow. If you attack someone in a personal manner that most would agree there are consequences of your actions.

But what about getting a thread pulled just because someone doesn't like the subject matter and even though it is presented in a professional manner, they are questions that the admin or moderator don't want answered because the truth isn't something they want known?

What about getting banned from a BBS for asking questions to silence you. Is this a violation of your rights?

Mathew Johnson

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

This is not an attack on anyone or particular group. Nor is it an indication of my feelings on some of arguments I have seen on the different forums.

You have no 1st amendment rights on a BBS, just like you have no 1st amendment rights at a workplace. The 1st amendment states "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."

If the Admins on a BBS whether it be ***, TGS, PTstate, etc.... censors a thread or bans a member there are no constitutional issues at play. Just like if someone bad mouths the company they work for and then get terminated. You can better believe that when I have employees working for me, and they badmouth myself, or company they will be looking for a new job. Not because I plan to run a dictatorship, but I do not want someone representing me who says negative things about me or my company to the public. Imagine if one of your employees said XYZ Pressure Washing is the worst, they do shoddy work and they rip customers off. Do you want them working for you while saying that? Or would have a now hiring sign posted somewhere?

It happens all the time. There are too many news stories about some dumb waitress who complained on Facebook, Twitter, etc... about customers. Or someone who works in an office complaining about their boss. The news covers it because it is sensational, and they portray the newly unemployed as a victim. I would rather the news just say "Some idiot got themselves fired, and XYZ company is looking for good help. Now here is Steve with the weekend weather."

Edited March 6, 2013 by KGILL

[NJWashingGuy 31]

This is not an attack on anyone or particular group. Nor is it an indication of my feelings on some of arguments I have seen on the different forums.

You have no 1st amendment rights on a BBS, just like you have no 1st amendment rights at a workplace. The 1st amendment states "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."

If the Admins on a BBS whether it be ***, TGS, PTstate, etc.... censors a thread or bans a member there are no constitutional issues at play. Just like if someone bad mouths the company they work for and then get terminated. You can better believe that when I have employees working for me, and they badmouth myself, or company they will be looking for a new job. Not because I plan to run a dictatorship, but I do not want someone representing me who says negative things about me or my company to the public. Imagine if one of your employees said XYZ Pressure Washing is the worst, they do shoddy work and they rip customers off. Do you want them working for you while saying that? Or would have a now hiring sign posted somewhere?

It happens all the time. There are too many news stories about some dumb waitress who complained on Facebook, Twitter, etc... about customers. Or someone who works in an office complaining about their boss. The news covers it because it is sensational, and they portray the newly unemployed as a victim. I would rather the news just say "Some idiot got themselves fired, and XYZ company is looking for good help. Now here is Steve with the weekend weather."

Interesting part of this tho is as follows......

Beth & Rod own The Grime Scene

Bob from Pressure Tek owns PT State

Ron owns PW I

Who owns The ***** one??? I truly don't know. I thought the org was collectively owned by its members. Do the members own the BBS?? Who makes calls on the BBS and how?? Does the membership have a say?

The interesting thing about the ***** site is that it is dedicated to "furthering the pressure washing industry" what exactly does that mean though..... basically in the eyes of who is it furthering the industry and how??

Who is the decision maker for that. What I am saying is that if you are a BBS member there, apparently you were counted as a free member or something like that, or at least in the threads regarding memership numbers that was the case. If someone is banned there, as a free member or BBS member (I don't know the classifications exactly) then how do you get banned for no reason and not breaking the rules. If this occurred on another BBS that was provately owned, there would be a large outcry about it. I have asked and not received an answer about the why, when I got an email stating that it would be reviewed.

At the very least, it is censorship for an unwarranted purpose. How can you expect contractors to respect things like this occurring when the mantra is about transparency and the like??

Not looking to start or continue a fight here, just kinda thinking outloud.....

Sad state of affairs if this remains the case.

Edited March 6, 2013 by NJWashingGuy

[Cyclone 25]

Not looking to start or continue a fight here, just kinda thinking outloud.....

Sad state of affairs if this remains the case.

The truth is in your comment....

When you have to walk on eggshells to make a comment about an Org in our industry, on an industry forum that has a board for that.....something is wrong.

I'm not going to comment further since Beth has laid down the law....

I will say this, it was best for all to be able to discuss these things and when the primary places shut down one side simply because "they" don't or control own a forum, then it's a breach of the spirit of freedom of speech....even though we have no rights on a private forum. Why have a board for everything if everything can't be discussed.

[Mathew Johnson 123]

The truth is in your comment....

When you have to walk on eggshells to make a comment about an Org in our industry, on an industry forum that has a board for that.....something is wrong.

I'm not going to comment further since Beth has laid down the law....

I will say this, it was best for all to be able to discuss these things and when the primary places shut down one side simply because "they" don't or control own a forum, then it's a breach of the spirit of freedom of speech....even though we have no rights on a private forum. Why have a board for everything if everything can't be discussed.

It is just a bad situation. Many of the new people don't understand the history and legacy ( for a choice of better words) that exhist. Many of these guys were not on the BBS prior to 2008 and cant appreciate the fact that history may be repeating itself. A rerun, just on a different channel. If a BBS wants to censor an open forum based on personal gain verses the forum rules, then so be it. If I don't like the meat a butcher is selling, I don't shop there. We all have that freedom.

[John T 744]

You ever wonder to yourself as "Why care anymore"? Stuff like this gets me jaded.

I've always been a person who may "Care to much" and in most cases I got heavily involved in things that I do. If it's fun and rewarding then those two alone to me are great motivators.

When you take away that you no longer believe in something because of maybe the past history and it doesn't seem to be worth the effort to get involved anymore because you just know deep down inside "Nothing is going to change"

So here's the question -Why Care any more about something you just no longer believe in?-

That's what I ask myself and everyday I care a little less to the point I'm soon not going to care anymore.

In my case I get whammied because of the "Failure" of the past where some like to stick it to ya because of the past. That's another argument I need to stay away from as well. A failure is just that and no matter how hard one tried and a bunch of us indeed tried and gave it our best shots-- it failed.

Time to move to bigger and more exciting things then just re-living the past over and over.

Edited March 6, 2013 by John T
Spelling

[Kristopher Pettitt 23]

Here's the bottom line. You can't make an org, say it's for the entire industry, and then kick members out just because they freely express themselves on matters of the industry. And yes if I don't like something I can elect to leave, but just because I don't like one thing doesn't mean that I don't like other things about the forum. In no way is an org representing this industry as a whole if they kick people out for expressing their freedom of speech. An org is not a company, they simply exists for contractors to interact with each other....FREELY. Ask yourself this.... if I start talking crap about facebook on facebook are the administrators going to kick me from facebook, or how about any popular social media I go to, like twitter, myspace, or google+? When an org that is representing the entire industry can understand this concept only then where we be united as an industry.

[seymore 90]

myspace.

Myspace is still around? I thought you advertise music there?

[Mathew Johnson 123]

Here's the bottom line. You can't make an org, say it's for the entire industry, and then kick members out just because they freely express themselves on matters of the industry. And yes if I don't like something I can elect to leave, but just because I don't like one thing doesn't mean that I don't like other things about the forum. In no way is an org representing this industry as a whole if they kick people out for expressing their freedom of speech. An org is not a company, they simply exists for contractors to interact with each other....FREELY. Ask yourself this.... if I start talking crap about facebook on facebook are the administrators going to kick me from facebook, or how about any popular social media I go to, like twitter, myspace, or google+? When an org that is representing the entire industry can understand this concept only then where we be united as an industry.

Well written. Even if you said bad things about mark Zuckenberger on Facebook, I bet you would be fine and wouldn't get kicked off. The reality is that this wasn't about Mike, the prez was talking smack about BOD decisions as the leader of the org that obviously didn't represent the org. Mike called him on it, catching him telling untruths, in the public forum. It was said that Doug R banned him, I was reading the thread at the time mikes post was pulled, I looked to see who was on line and it showed Ron in the admin panel, Doug wasn't even signed into the BBS when Milke was banned. Untruth number 2! It would have happened to anyone who called the prez on his statement

Mathew Johnson

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Kristopher Pettitt 23]

Myspace is still around? I thought you advertise music there?

i used to be a huge fan of MS util they changed everything and took all the good stuff out.

[Kristopher Pettitt 23]

Well written. Even if you said bad things about mark Zuckenberger on Facebook, I bet you would be fine and wouldn't get kicked off. The reality is that this wasn't about Mike, the prez was talking smack about BOD decisions as the leader of the org that obviously didn't represent the org. Mike called him on it, catching him telling untruths, in the public forum. It was said that Doug R banned him, I was reading the thread at the time mikes post was pulled, I looked to see who was on line and it showed Ron in the admin panel, Doug wasn't even signed into the BBS when Milke was banned. Untruth number 2! It would have happened to anyone who called the prez on his statement

Mathew Johnson

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

What org was this done at?