If I read that right then you're asking that without being judgemental either way, and merely talking about the historical nature of where a persons posts fit in after the event ? I'd hope thats the case, anyway - but even then I'd hope people step back from recent events and answer based on the broader question........
I'd say that if a number of the posts form part of the reason for the person going then obviously at least some of them must be removed. Leaving some then makes it harder as judgement has to be made on every single one outside of the ones causing offence.
Please folks - think before you open your mouth to answer BikerGuys question !!!
Carpathian, hoping this isn't the next thread to go tits up !
Did I run out of fingers????
Sorry Fred.... must have confused this with the Rugby score!!
Sorry Bikerguy... my PC malfunctioned...
Hang on....Lets not get carried away with the gman issue. I don't know what happened but I trust the mods here to have done the right thing. It was just the point about wiping out history. Infact it was you Fred who said "all of his posts are being deleted" that got me thinking. Look at the wider issue, what if we erased from history all the bad things that have happned. We would never have the chance to learn about the past or to get an insight into how we could make things better.
I'm not having a go at anyone......Just though it might be an interesting topic.
I once did an OU course on childcare...
A lot of the course work involved audio tapes of matterial being read by a certain professor of child psycology. Specifically, it included case histories of child abuse.
Midway through the course, the professor was the subject of a down raid by police and evidence came to light that he had personally been involved with the abuse of children... Now, we had to make a decision to make... Did we want to continue with the course knowing that the person behind a lot of it had been abusing children?
Some could have argued that we might have gone on, through our careers, to benefit children and that it was important that we don't be put off this goal because ot this man's actions. Some would argue that to hear information being presented by this person was an insult to those he had abused.
Now THAT it a dilemma...
As far as Gman is concerned.... nothing he said here is of great importance. Nothing ANYONE says here is of great importance. But he did manage to cause great offence and was universally judged by many Mods to be developing into someone we ddn't want around.
So why should the words of someone who has caused offence be allowed to stand in a forum such as this?
I don't see a dilemma here...
Hxx
If you're down the pub with your mates and someone says something out of line, it can't be "unsaid".
If a thread has gone nasty, it can be closed.
If someone persists in causing offence they can be silenced, and leaving their offensive posts in place would serve as a reminder and a warning to others as to why they have been prevented from making any more.
In my opinion, and I can be completely objective about this because I haven't been on all day and have no idea what has occurred so I am talking generally rather than about a specific case, if allowing an offensive post to remain is not going to cause further disruption, the only person to be adversely affected by it would be the person who posted it because everyone would see what they had done. Any resulting loss of respect for that person would then be self-inflicted.
In any event, if it is deemed necessary by mods, either individually or collectively, to remove any post for any reason, then my opinion based on experience is that even if they are inclined to explain privately to the person concerned, they should not attempt to justify it to anyone else.
Ice