Censorship is a big deal. It is an especially "big deal" in an internet forum which describes and promotes itself as an "AA group", not only because the founders of this program envisioned AA as a self governing benign anarchy, but because censorship per se is the historical weapon of choice used by governments, corporations, organizations, religions, cults, etc. for stifling discussions which may lead to, ironically enough.....anarchy.ann2 wrote:....Not a big deal is it?....
In order to avoid the "chilling effect" of censorship on discussions, most internet forums apply censorship lightly, impersonally and objectively using automated word-sensitive programs designed to alert and refuse submission of posts which contain certain words--words which any reasonable person would consider vulgar, profane, or offensive. When censorship is applied in a heavy-handed, subjective and arbitrary way by live monitors after a submission is posted, not just to words judged by the reasonable person standard, but to any word or idea which happens to offend the personal bias of any particular "monitor" on any particular day, that kind of censorship tends to have a very "chilling effect" on not just the "offending" posters but all other forum posters as well, especially newcomers to AA.