Difficult topics

[Marsilius]

I do understand that fear of Thai legal sanctions means that certain topics are deemed too sensitive to allow the free expression of all shades of opinion here.

However, if a thread is then blocked as a result - as has occurred today - it seems unfair to delete only the posts expressing (or thought to be expressing) one side of the argument but to leave the other posts intact.

Surely a fairer approach to forum members would be either it to delete the complete thread with all expressions of whatever shade of opinion, or else to ban completely ab initio any threads on topics that are deemed so contentious that free speech will not be possible.

[Neal]

In response to that, I see no problem with the information of the King and where to read about him.
I felt that the posts regarding slight humour in him reading this forum and making comments seemed inappropriate and I strongly worry about any "out of control" posts and their consequences.

i do respect your opinion Ronan and I do hope you and others understand the fine line we walk.
Along with the great information jinks shared with us on the King I did leave 2 posts up for awhile showing that some posts went over the line and were disrespectful and were previously deleted for the sole reason of showing posters that we had already had questionable posts. I have since even deleted those and just left the information up as to information on the King and where to locate more valuable information.
Again I am sorry but this is a vey very sensitive subject that we must have eyes on it 24 hours a day.
I do have no problems if someone would like to post, to open up the thread from time to time when moderators are online and watching what gets posted. Would anyone like that? :dontknow:

Didnt I read somewhere that your gonna have paid Mods 24-7?

[Smiles]

The Board Guidelines have the issue covered already:

Guideline #4 " ... Discussion of the Thailand Royal Family, if that discussion includes criticism, disparagement, insulting language, or accusations. ... "
So why block topics, or delete posts that don't violate this rule? Simple ... just delete those posts (within a topic) which do.
Wasn't that one of the reasons the guidelines were renovated?

I doubt very much that there is some Thai bureaucrat watching Sawatdee like a hawk. I think they are pretty busy watching Thai and Thai language websites to spend to much time watching the farang ones. Even then, if the offending sentences are deleted in a reasonable time frame, all should be well.

[Neal]

No we did not ever state that we were having mods paid 24/7. We are relying on volunteer mods but one mod is to be paid and we hope to get some advertisers and paid memberships to pay him.

While I can appreciate your thoughts on why the thread was locked, the problem was that the comments going back and forth that were in poor judgement and needed to be deleted left a few posters making responses to posts that were then gone. It then did not make any sense.
I needed to make a decision on this issue, I did and that's what I stand up to, my judgement call on a very sensitive topic. sorry if some don't agree but we can't all agree on everything. I think the board has been very very liberal and there has been just about no interference.
You are just going to have to get over this one. LOL!

[Marsilius]

Why not just ban all posts on this subject entirely? That way no one, whatever their particular point of view, can feel aggrieved or misrepresented.

[Neal]

A very good suggestion but I often wonder just how much trouble I can get into with the posts that I have allowed regarding very high up government and military officials. One needs to remember that the board is hosted in USA but we are here!

[Marsilius]

You wouldn't be in any danger of getting into any trouble at all if ALL posts on the subject were banned.