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Old 08-05-2013, 11:12 AM   #28
SnowTroll
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Join Date: Jan 2011
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Re: FYI Mudconnector forums shut down

The thread just barely started to stray in the wrong direction, if you ask me. It's hard to talk about the TMC situation in general terms without talking about the content of the heated discussion over there. Two people here already took measures to make sure the readers here know which side of that discussion was the more offensive one, and another person started naming names.

Forgetting the whole religion issue, I think the core question is: Do we, as internet users, have a right to control the type of content we see and are exposed to? Meaning, if I were to go to a news website expecting to read today's headlines, and I saw a banner ad for a porn site (let's assume no graphic images, just maybe slightly provocative ones, with a clear indication that the ad linked to a porn site), when I wasn't looking for or expecting pornographic material, should I be offended and feel as though I've been violated somehow? Let's say I have a moral objection toward porn, but on the whole, I respect everyone else's right to make their own decisions regarding that industry, so I'm not offended by the nature of the material, specifically, more by the fact that I feel I have a right not to have that type of material slap me across the face unexpectedly. Is this something I ought to make a stink about, because my rights were violated?

I think most people would say yes, because pornography is one of those special things that is, per se, offensive. A lot of places have laws about that type of content and those types of ads.

Let's say I go to a website for hardcore roleplaying muds, and while I'm there, I see a banner ad for a hack and slash mud that doesn't tolerate roleplaying. I click on the ad and waste time reading about this mud, before I figure out that it's a non-rp mud. I went to that roleplaying mud website expecting to read information about roleplaying muds, and against my will, was presented with an ad for a different type of game. I wasn't looking for or expecting that information. I was even fooled by it. I'm not offended, specifically, by the fact that some people enjoy non-rp muds, but I didn't look for or want that information in the ad. It was shoved down my throat, and I feel tricked. Is that something I ought to make a stink about?

I think most people would say no. I think even if that ad for a non-rp mud was an ad for a grocery store, or a webcomic, or anything else I wasn't interested in, people would say it's not a big deal.

Where things went wrong in TMC is that if you're a devout atheist (by "devout," I mean one of those atheists who doesn't just not ascribe to religion, but strongly believes that religion is wrong, stupid, and is a bane in the world, so you zealously advocate against religion as strongly as religious people advocate for their religion), then religion is closer in your mind to pornography than to an ad for an unrelated type of computer game. And if anyone dares to speak anything even slightly against religion, you get equally...let's just call them passionate...types responding.
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