Administrator "Rick" locked my post? What is going on?

[Brickadeer]

If, however, the government stopped you from publicly saying that our government is bad because of X, Y, or Z reason, *that* would violate your free speech.

You're right, no private act whatsoever can destroy a right.

However, that wasn't Cardinal's point. He didn't say that Rick as a moderator shouldn't have the power to lock the thread. Rather, he said that Rick should have left the thread open to see if people participate in order to decide whether or not it should be locked. In other words: he wanted to transform the decision about locking the thread into a majority decision. Rick didn't do that and closed the thread immediately, and that's why Cardinal called the act an "arbitrary exercise of power".

Cardinal doesn't see that (for obvious reasons) this not a realistic mode of moderating a forum. The point of this forum is to provide information about Lego related topics the users might be interested in. However, any level of participation doesn't indicate whether or not a thread provides such information, or, more precisely, it doesn't indicate the quality of information provided in the thread. Seen it this way, Cardinal's criterion for locking a thread is an arbitrary criterion.

The relevant criterion for deciding whether or not to close a thread is the information quality provided in the thread. Rick realized that the thread didn't contain any information, but rather unconfirmed "rumors" and a few "conclusions" based on these "rumors", that the thread itself and any discussion of the stated "rumors" don't contribute to the quality of this forum as a source of information, and consequently locked it immediately. Making this decision depending on participation is, as stated above, neither necessary nor realistic.

Personally, I find that moderators and regulators are not so eager to intervene at any given opportunity: if they are tyrants, they are pretty lame

Edited December 25, 2012 by Brickadeer

[Martin_B]

I'm just worn out from people saying "FREEDOM OF SPEECH! I CAN SAY WHATEVER!" without taking the time to realize that freedom of speech does not release you from the consequences of what you say. I didn't read the locked post, but the reasons it was locked were referenced and spelled out so precisely and carefully here that I'm not sure it matters.

This. What I read of Cardinal's posts seemed to infer that he was allowed to be rude to others (Rick, other people here and even TLG itself) but demanded that nobody should be rude to him because of his own interpretation of what he thinks 'freedom of speech' means. I'm sorry, but it's a two-way street and if you want to throw a concept or phrase around to make your point, at least have some understanding of what that concept means and what it's used for! I really enjoy reading and participating in this forum because you all seem to be a sensible and well-mannered bunch. I wouldn't want anyone to be excluded, but I if Cardinal shows the sort of attitude he's shown so far, I wouldn't want him around until he's learned some manners.

The site rules don't ask too much in my opinion either. They're perfectly reasonable and work just fine.

[Brickington]

I think this is a simply wasted topic, Rick was appointed to his position for a reason, and the ones who appointed him knew that he had these powers. Thus, he's the moderator and he didn't think that your topic was needed. Just pull your pants up and be a man. And adding Freedom of Speech, that's just pathetic. I was born and raised an american and I agree with nothing you said. I think you owe an apology to Rick.