So, the other day I created this item:
And a user wrote something like "He was the worst prime minister ever". :P
Some do believe it's true. Harper wasn't appreciated at all by certain people in Canada. I'm not one of them, though. I actually think he wasn't bad at all. But that isn't the question.
The thing that bugs me is that the message of the guy who wrote it was deleted.
Honestly, I don't understand it. Unless he has deleted his own opinion, I don't think it should have been removed/moderated. No matter the ( lack of ) quality in the opinion, an opinion is an opinion. This website is about opinions. All kinds of opinions. It was up to someone else to reply to him and engage a discussion.
I was actually going to write a reply to him. I think it could've turned into a good debate.
Besides, what he wrote wasn't directed at Stephen Harper personally (ex: he didn't say "he's ugly, stupid, etc." :P ), it was directed at how he handled the position of prime minister. He simply said he was the worst according to him. That was like giving him a rating of 1 star, which the website allows. To me, it didn't matter if the user was wrong or right, or if he didn't take the time to write a bunch of paragraphs. He had the right to voice his opinion, didn't he?
If he was indeed moderated, I strongly disagree with what was done. Freedom of speech, as long as it's not used to promote hate, racism, extremist ideologies, etc., you know, the usual stuff, should be allowed in here.
It didn't matter if his opinion was biased or weak. It was an opinion.
If you're going to moderate all kinds of comments such as that one, you'd better start giving up on Opiwiki already. Because your website won't be about all opinions. People will quickly notice it and will not be interested in participating actively. Internet is a world where you meet all kinds of folks. Actually, the world itself contains all kinds of folks. Good, bad, and in between. That's just how it is. And your website, whether you like it or not, will be visited by all kinds of folks. You can't hide Opiwiki from people. You can't create a filter to get the userbase you want. Because, if you did, all your polls, opinions, rankings wouldn't be a true reflection of things.
But you can encourage the creation of discussions which can open the minds of certain gentlemen who simply need to be told a few facts. Ultimately, some people like that "he's the worst" guy can change if they are confronted with more solid counter-arguments.
And if they don't, they just deserve the -1 points and the low community accordance they're eventually gonna get for being biggots. :P
It isn't about freedom of speech. It's about having some goals and principles set. Every single forum that is moderated (99%, and the other websites are not worth mentioning) has some "freedom restricting" rules set.
This is our new rule and it's described and open for voting and discussion here: meta.opi.wiki/discuss/110080/Guideline-an-OpiWiki-opin...ast-one-argument. Feel free to reply there.