Should we close the sightings threads?

[CobraCommander]

Less harm in closing them, than keeping them open.

[Zenith27]

I come out of the side of not closing them. I'm not libertarian but censorship is censorship and people should be allowed to post or not post and act on the information as they see fit. This is not communist China. We're mostly responsible adults here right?

[RNSrobot]

Originally Posted by Zenith27

I come out of the side of not closing them. I'm not libertarian but censorship is censorship and people should be allowed to post or not post and act on the information as they see fit. This is not communist China. We're mostly responsible adults here right?

Not sure you quite understand what censorship is. At any event, Cybertron.ca isn't a government site. It's owners are free to moderate it as they see fit.

[Zenith27]

Originally Posted by RNSrobot

Not sure you quite understand what censorship is. At any event, Cybertron.ca isn't a government site. It's owners are free to moderate it as they see fit.

From Wikipedia:

"Censorship is the suppression of speech, public communication, or other information, on the basis that such material is considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or "inconvenient."[2][3][4] Censorship can be conducted by governments,[5] private institutions, and corporations."

Suppression of other information - check
Material is considered harmful - check
Private institution - check

[CobraCommander]

Lower people's temptation to leave home.
People are not always rational, people are panic buying non essentials like Toilet Paper, why? Probably because they see other people buying it and don't want to be left out.
Sure a person is capable of being a smart/rational individual, but put that same person in a mob of people... smart/rational not so much.
So... out of sight, out of mind.

[Zenith27]

Originally Posted by CobraCommander

Lower people's temptation to leave home.
People are not always rational, people are panic buying non essentials like Toilet Paper, why? Probably because they see other people buying it and don't want to be left out.
Sure a person is capable of being a smart/rational individual, but put that same person in a mob of people... smart/rational not so much.
So... out of sight, out of mind.

Ah ha! This was the response I wanted to see!

Bitching about the definition of censorship is deflecting the real issue.

It's all about how much you can trust people to not go against their better judgement. You are VERY correct with your example. Can we as users of this board be trusted with the sightings information as long as the stores where the sightings are from remain open? Now I would argue that in our case it's not irrationality but the perception of risk.

"I am not sick, no one I know is sick, I should go get that TF."

I wonder what the responses to this thread would be if the question was instead "Should we close the sightings thread because we cannot be trusted to not act on it immediately."

[Armagear]

Might as well keep all the threads alive. Doesn't matter what we do. It's a wonder Vancity ain't on lock down with all the stupid I've been seeing. Hell, a friend of mine is total anti establishment and pretty much threw out all the warnings and just basically does whatever she wants. Pretty much screaming we're all sheep. So really, it's a waste of energy trying to get people to do the right thing. Worst case scenario, we get more scalpers selling the figures with a roll of tp.

[Armagear]

Originally Posted by Zenith27

From Wikipedia:

"Censorship is the suppression of speech, public communication, or other information, on the basis that such material is considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or "inconvenient."[2][3][4] Censorship can be conducted by governments,[5] private institutions, and corporations."

Suppression of other information - check
Material is considered harmful - check
Private institution - check

This ain't private, government or a Corp, so you kinda lose out there. Neither are any type of belief system enforced or encouraged here. Save primus! Also, no info is being completely screened, bleached or wiped. So info can still be shared by other means here without penalty of any sort. So you kinda miss out on probably the most important parts of the definition.

[positivelyken]

I would say leave the sightings threads as they are. They probably won't see much activity anyhow, but they may still be of general interest. Yes, some stores that carry Transformers are still open, namely Walmart and Canadian Superstore, and people will frequent those stores in the course of shopping for essentials. No, it's not wise to go out just for toy hunting. But what people do with sighting information is their own responsibility.

[Zenith27]

Originally Posted by Armagear

This ain't private, government or a Corp, so you kinda lose out there. Neither are any type of belief system enforced or encouraged here. Save primus! Also, no info is being completely screened, bleached or wiped. So info can still be shared by other means here without penalty of any sort. So you kinda miss out on probably the most important parts of the definition.

I respectfully disagree with your assessment.