Free speech, it should be reminded, is protected only in public areas. Internet forums are not publicly owned areas, that is to say they are not financed by tax dollars. They are private areas, or privately-financed and managed areas. And in such areas, free speech extends only so far as the owners of that space allow it. So it is entirely within my right as a moderator to enforce the rules against the slinging of hateful epithets. It's akin to racism, and is that allowed?

You might disgree with the rule against personally insulting moderators. So what, You're allowed to have opinions. If they are negative, keep them to yourself. I have quite a few negative opinions about some members, but i don't try and insult them to feel cool/better.
So if you insult me again, There will be no discussion. I'll send you away for a week or permanently. You want to know why this site is going down hill? it's the members. it used to be that we had 1 or 2 stupid members.
Now it's half the userbase.

If someone insults me i dont give a shit really. but you know what Aemaeth is a big boy and if he makes a judgment call to ban you for insulting him i wont say a word :)

However
i think he is referring to things such as stated below

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
which in my opinion should be the only bannable offense on issues such as insulting

But what do i know, im just tap right

Flame Wars Rules! These Rules Are Simple:
- No creating threads with the sole purpose of flaming a specific user on the forums. I.e. Creating a thread named Spitfire.
- You may swear etc in this forum but keep in mind using profanity proves the inability to express ones self properly.
- Try not to spam!

Not following these rules WILL result in a ban! No matter if your a Member, Veteran or a Moderator!

next user that breaks this rule will be gone

lol isnt this exactly what i just said........ur sloooooooow ski

By the description of the steam room:
and following by the rule:
I don't see why it is illegal.

well we are quoting rules stated by the Admin not dan

the link to the post can be found here Flame Wars Rules!

how about if someone is feeling like insulting you, be a bigger man and ignore it. dont close it, post in it or tell anyone about it just simply ignore it and lets see how much fun they will have insulting you when no one gives a shit. That is the whole point of insulting another person, is to get their attention and see their reaction. Now if this was in real life, that would be another case, but seeign this as just simple forums and like, wake up ITS INTERNET, dont even give a ****. I speak from personnal experience, ignoring does much better job when u cant do anythign about it irl

you kids are ****ing retarded.
it's called the steam room, i can insult anyone i want to when i want to, as long as the title does not include your name, now shut the **** up already.

"where there is a man, there is two more nearby insulting him."
in my opinion, constantly creating threads to blast the same group of people, or even the same person, over and over again is a bad influence for the site and should be ban justifications, but if it is just a few posts than i think that should only be up to the one being insulted. If he doesn't give a royal ****, then we shouldn't care and should just ignore the dumb bastard. And the justification that veterans are treated differently is stupid, too; their just the unlucky bastards who are being singled out. We would all be looking at this the same if it was baseball4lyfe who was being blasted in the same manner as aethmaeth; we would just find it a whole lot damn funnier
EDIT: Shift, i just noticed you'r post, and sorry dude, but i think aethmaeth has a point. Sure you can say what the hell you want as long as it doesn't have their names in it; you'll just get banned the same anyways.

People take what you say now days to heart, and others are just down right hateful and want others to suffer with them. They are JUST WORDS!

I can only ignore it to an extent.
It's not just insulting me, It's akin to being racist like i say.
Do you see anyone here who called someone a "******" or something similar still on the boards?

You're still making a thread to specifically insult someone, name or not.

i was just using that as a general statement, aemaeth. I fully agree with what you are saying, but i do not personally think that our voice should be stomped down, unless its the constant ragging and blasting, i.e. the past few days where you was being ragged on. thats all im saying

You can insult me all you like, but when it comes down to personal insults, like, if the user is obese, and the offending party mocks that, Don't you think that isn't fair?

no, it is not fair at all, and that wasn't what i was meaning. If people make personal insults to an individual and it could be viewn as racial, sexual or theological {religion and state of mind included} then it is wrong. I have no problems with you so far aemaeth, and i hope i never do, but im just trying to view this arguement from both sides to actually try to make progress in this standpoint, instead of "your gay!" "well, your even gayer!" arguements.

Thanks for pointing that out, Aemaeth. I normally just ignore half of the things that go on because I figure it's the Internet and at least half of the people don't really care about punishment because in RL, it's not important, so I have always taken the same kind of stance because usually I figure words and just odd combinations of letters.

I will try to take a better stance on combating these personal attacks and insults. Not only does it make the offensive party look dumb and possible create a gang of members against your cause, but it's just plain rude and impolite, even if this is the Internet. I'm not saying you have to be a goody-good-good to everyone, but being a prick to everybody and just making blatant personal attacks just seems like a bullsh*t way to try and make a name for yourself.

If you have something to say about somebody, you better have a really good reason why you believe this statement should be made, and possibly offer a logical alternate solution that would alleviate the problem at hand. I know this post will most likely just be shrugged off by some minor detail or for being too blatantly stupid, but try taking a shot of reason and call me in the morning. Nice people don't always finish last.

You know, Jedi, i think that summed up this entire thread into one good post. That was very well worded. lol

NO...you can not...keep doing it and find yourself banned daily.As long as I am an SMod and watch these forums you WILL behave yourself or take your retarded ass someplace else.

Aemaeth and Jedi both made very clear and relevant points. It may be the internet,but you are not alone here and free to abuse another member just because you feel like it.It has always baffled me that people think that anything they say is "ok" It isn't ok to be abusive and hateful.
Fuggy can call me a Nazi all he wants,and you all can mount a campaign for chaos and no rules.
Guess what?? It wont matter,because there will always BE rules and what is and is NOT acceptable behavior.

Shift if you think I will shut up and ignore what you are doing ,you are dead wrong.