BlackJacket
Well-known member
It is this way to me...
You are the owner of a site...if some legal action is taken it will be against you, you pony up dollars and host up a server and build a site, style it and arrange a layout. You put time into it because you love it, the subject your forum covers, or you like the idea of a community getting together. You create an environment where people can come together and enjoy a nice day by the pool... (in this case innocent victim status)
or
You are a spammer, you have an agenda, be it harassing a group of people sharing something in common (targeting specific sites or software or whatever), or trying to generate clicks on something that pays you. It is selfish greedy and hateful reasons that drive spammers. You are in it for number 1 and that's it, an opportunist who will do anything you can get away with. You didn't put up a site, build on a domain, develop a strong community or spend tons of time, in fact you use automated software to attack someones personal property while you go do something else....probably something you love doing from your home, probably without someone spreading another's logo feces all up on your walls. You're whole goal involves peeing in someone else's pool for the benefit of yourself.
Freedom of speech stops the moment it is used to launch an unfounded attack in my opinion. Spamming a site is an attack no different than walking into a gas station owned by middle eastern folk and cracking racist jokes. Not only does it personally hurt the worker you are attacking it hurts the owner as it probably makes a good portion of the other customers uncomfortable and causes them to cease their business in that establishment. You are free to protest something to your hearts content up until the point where it is used as a personal attack. If I run a server, and pay for it's upkeep, it is my personal property. My personal property is not the setting to protest me or my site, start your own and do that if you want, otherwise you are telling me that you don't care if I want to show up at your house, walk in the front door and sit at your table so I can humiliate you and then maybe even record and publish it so i can monetize my wasting of your time and attacking of your personal space.
While we may not like it, cracking jokes at another individual is allowed under our First Amendment right. The same goes for spam. Spam is pure crap but that doesn't mean it isn't covered under the First Amendment. We (as in most of us) have rules setup that spam posts will not be tolerated and we can delete at our discretion. We can get away with this because it is a private community not a public forum.
Just because someone might piss you off doesn't mean they aren't allowed to say it.
Not to be mean, but I don't understand how we as forum and community owners can say who can speak and who cant. Why not just close up registrations on your forum? Or better yet, ask a series of questions that appeal to your ideals and allow only those people to join your community. Spam is spam, whether its online or snail mail. In both cases, it is allowed.
(EQ I quoted your post to respond but most of the message is not directed towards you but everyone in general)