Posting Messages of Hate

I have received yet another message of hate in my guest book. I suspect that it may be the same person who composed the first one, but they won’t put down a valid email address or name (other than saying they are from “Paris, Texas”). That’s the way hate is. I likes to be anonymous. It will never make itself known in public.

I have a long standing policy about posting to this board. I post a lot about issues important to the gay community, but I also talk about a lot of other issues. On every single issue, I welcome all opinions, both for and against the arguments I put forth. It really doesn’t matter to me if you agree with me or not. I do love to be challenged to look at issues differently, and that is where opposing points of view can be very enlightening.

But there is a strong difference between opposing points of view and hateful messages, and if you don’t know the difference, you shouldn’t even bother to respond to the posts on this board. If the point you are trying to make can only be made by using hateful epithets, then your argument is so weak it’s honestly not worth talking about.

The guest book, comments to entries, and the forum have not required moderation for people to post. That is, when you make a post to this board, it is immediate, and it is seen by everyone... immediately.

That has changed with the guest book. The guest book will now be moderated. I will review it periodically for new entries. If they contain hateful messages, you can rest assured that they will be deleted on site. Post away! I figure it takes you a lot more work to type your hate out than for me to simply click on the “delete” box.

I’m a bit more lax about the forums (there’s also a link in the upper right hand corner of this page). They are open to a whole range of subjects. In fact, if the poster of the hate message reads this and really wants to post hateful messages, I’ll set you up with your own little forum and you can post away. I rarely go to the forums myself because I’m so busy with this blog. They really belong to the public, and I’m totally open to others forming their own forum subjects within the forum. I do visit occasionally to check on issues of legality and that sort of thing, but unlike the guest book, your posting (assuming it’s not advocating illegal activities) will not be deleted. The forums do require registration. You will have to enter a valid email address and you will have to respond to that email address to post to the forum. Other than that, the restrictions are posted in the General Information section of the forum.

In short, the blog is where I’m the author. The forums are were you are all the authors.