Can you delete post "Am I the only one revolted at the sight of Asian children?"

[Anonymous]

please thank you

[Anonymous]

me too

[Anonymous]

me too

[Anonymous]

me too. please!

[Anonymous]

where is the moderator?

[jsteele]

Come on people. Anyone who has been around here for any length of time should already know my answer. The fact that something is offensive is not sufficient for me to delete it. If I delete the thread in question, should I also delete the thread it is mocking? Certainly some posters were offended by that one. What about every other offensive thread on the site?

If the thread bothers you, just skip it. If people would stop posting follow-up messages saying how outraged they are, the thread would sink into oblivion in no time. It's in the busiest forum here and will be buried in an hour.

I do think that the topic was started by a poster who really didn't think things through and, hopefully, is having second thoughts by now. It was a very poor way of expressing outrage.

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:Come on people. Anyone who has been around here for any length of time should already know my answer. The fact that something is offensive is not sufficient for me to delete it. If I delete the thread in question, should I also delete the thread it is mocking? Certainly some posters were offended by that one. What about every other offensive thread on the site?

If the thread bothers you, just skip it. If people would stop posting follow-up messages saying how outraged they are, the thread would sink into oblivion in no time. It's in the busiest forum here and will be buried in an hour.

I do think that the topic was started by a poster who really didn't think things through and, hopefully, is having second thoughts by now. It was a very poor way of expressing outrage.

Let's be honest, this poster made her point very effectively, albeit distastefully. The parents with special needs kids were apparently just as shocked about the post re disabilities. I agree the analogy doesn't make sense to most of us, but the point has been made.

[pmkatay]

perhaps i'm not so familiar with dcum standards for deleting posts. if offensive + overtly racist doesn't cut it, what does? what are the criteria for deleting? thanks.

[jsteele]

pmkatay wrote:perhaps i'm not so familiar with dcum standards for deleting posts. if offensive + overtly racist doesn't cut it, what does? what are the criteria for deleting? thanks.

Posts are not deleted due to the views expressed. Just about every group imaginable has been attacked on this site at one time or another. If I were to delete posts that attacked one group, but not delete other posts, I would be discriminating myself. It's easy to say "delete all racist posts" or whatever, but racism is frequently in the eye of the beholder. Besides, there are plenty of other factors that are the basis of bigotry. When you are faced with sentiments that you find objectionable, you have the option of responding to them or ignoring them.

Posts are removed if they are spam, sock-puppetted, posted in the wrong forum, or outlandishly disruptive to an existing thread. If the Asian children post were posted in the thread that it mocks, it would have been deleted. The poster was misguided in most respects, but at least didn't disrupt an existing discussion.

[Anonymous]

This is the OP of the thread in question (as you can tell from my IP thingee). Sorry, moment of blind anger. Meant to be more farcical than it obviously was, and I'm sorry for the additional hurt feelings it engendered.

Please delete.