Topic on Talk:Main Page

The second draft of the proposed change was added to the policy.

Since it appears that some people think "freedom of expression" trumps everything else (which it doesn't), I propose adding the following to "We are not censored" on All The Tropes:What we aren't:

This does not give anyone carte blanche to post absolutely anything here, though. Quoting from our policy on Academic Freedom, "If it's not on the topic of creative works, it never belonged on the site in the first place." Someone's desire to exercise their freedom of expression on any matter other than tropes or troping doesn't mean we have to provide them with a venue to do so.

@Agiletek @GentlemensDame883 @Haggishunter @HeneryVII @Ilikecomputers @Jlaw @Lequinni‎ @RivetVermin @Umbire the Phantom @Utini501 @Labster @Looney Toons @GethN7 @Robkelk @QuestionableSanity @Derivative @SelfCloak

Fair enough.

Agreed.

EDIT: If it won't be too much, maybe also add something like: "We are not a government and are not bound by the First Amendment (US) or equivalent. We are allowed (and indeed in some ways and/or jurisdictions required) to restrict what may or may not be discussed here."

Seems fair

Though I agree with the principle, in practice we are thanks to the servers being on the United Kingdom (correct me if I'm wrong). This country has no official Constitution, extended censorship laws, have refused ratings for videogames such as Omega Labyrinth that is the same as censorship since you can't sell unrated games, sent police to people's house for tweets.

They literally register how many people complained about a television program on BBC, a state channel I may add, that given enough calls is always answered by the government with a positive answer they will never broadcast that thing again, and the streaming service of their national television channel has deleted from its services sitcom episodes that may offend someone.

In resume, the United Kingdom is one of the most censorship-happy countries of all Europe. Let's not even talk about democracy, this country doesn't directly elect its leaders.

So, should we count HLIAA14YOG's vote, considering it's backed up by disinformation, misinformation, and outright lies? (The UK most certainly does have an official constitution, and the BBC is no more a "state channel" than PBS is.)

MOD: This is All The Tropes, not All The Politics. Please stay on-topic.

We should. It is not our place to judge the validity of a vote, even if we know it is made based on bad information. If we start deciding which votes to listen to and which to ignore, we might as well be running the site by fiat.

EDIT: We should encourage our users to be well-informed, but for too many people that's far too much effort to put in, so we shouldn't expect or require it.

I admit, maybe I was being pessimistic. We are not censored, we are invisible. If Westminster and the government of His Majesty the King Charles III ever discover we exist, we would be forced out before I can say the word "hentai", because the moment those smart, aware of people of the Parliament, that totally don't make "not-smart" decisions, discover we have pages describing virtual pornography, they will instantly think we are what the locals call "nonces".

So, until that happens, I think the truth is "yes". So I change my vote to yes.

Agreeable to me.

Second draft, incorporating Looney Toons's suggestion:

This does not give anyone carte blanche to post absolutely anything here, though. Quoting from our policy on Academic Freedom, "If it's not on the topic of creative works, it never belonged on the site in the first place." Also, we are not a government, and so constitutional protections of freedom of expression do not apply to us. We are allowed – and in some cases required – to restrict what may be discussed here. Just because someone has a desire to exercise their freedom of expression on any matter other than tropes or troping doesn't mean we have to provide them with a venue to do so.

Looks good.

I have no objections.

Looks good to me.

Looks OK to me.

Looks like we're in agreement. I've added the second draft to the policy page.