Offensive Screen Names

[bwana devil]

i was going to reply but your post is such a mess i dont know where to begin.

[Zetack]

[ QUOTE ]
racist slurs, nazi references and 9-11 disaster references are offensive to me . i dont want to see them. im a member of the ACLU so dont make this some ridiculous argument about freedom of expression.

[/ QUOTE ]

A member of the ACLU and you think arguing for freedom of expression is ridiculous? ... interesting.

Look, we all understand that there's a difference between govenment censorship of free speech and private entities barring expressions they don't like. The latter have much greater latititude, and rightly so.

Nevertheless, we place great value of freedom of expression in this country and many of us don't like to see it lightly curtailed even by private actors who have the right to do so.

A screen name is a fairly innocuous and unobtrusive way of expressing oneself. So, ok, the name one chooses may be offensive to some, but because I value the right of people to express themselves and because this is fairly innocuos way of expressing an offensive belief, I'd rather see very little in the way of suppression of that expression.

You're playing in a Casino, a guy sits down next to you and you notice that he has swastika tatooed on the back of his hand, and his chip protector is a 100 dollar custom chip with Bin Laden's face on it. He's polite and friendly and doesn't talk politics, mention Nazi's or 9-11. Are you really trying to get him kicked out of the casino for offending you?

--Zetack

[uaw420rook]

I think the spirit of good ethics, the poker sites don't want offensive words being used, that truly upset people and are widely excepted as offensive. One example would be " Ihavethebloodynuts", this would probably not be offensive to a great majority of poker players On the other hand "Ihaveabloodycunt" would be offensive to a majority of poker players. I mean if "adolfhitlergassedyourmama" was used, than that would be offensive, where as Adolfhitler, shouldn't be offensive. I personaly don't care what anybody uses, but I can understand why folks would be offended by certian uses of the language. I mean if I see Cornelklink should be offended because he was a Nazi Soldier. I think most sites do a pretty good job in cleaning up reported obsenitites.

[bwana devil]

[ QUOTE ]
A member of the ACLU and you think arguing for freedom of expression is ridiculous? ... interesting.

Look, we all understand that there's a difference between govenment censorship of free speech and private entities barring expressions they don't like. The latter have much greater latititude, and rightly so.


[/ QUOTE ]

a clear well thought out argument. thank you.

i wrote the ACLU bit in response to a poster stating that he would not want to keep others from saying they disagree with Hitler or binladen. personally, neither would I. but that’s not really what the screen name was being used for in those examples. Write a book or make a speech and develop the ideas to the complex issues if someone truly believes that. but there are no free speech rights over your 8-10 characters for a screen name on a poker site which you pointed out is a private business—but that goes w/out saying but i said it anyway.

in those examples they were simply used as inflammatory statements whose only purpose is to get a negative reaction. And some people say, “well then just don’t react then.” as you mentioned this is a private business that has the right to ban what they deem offensive. it’s in the site’s best interest to curtail this type of occurrence. So the site may take it down or i may file a complaint through email.

we all have different levels were we find things offensive and we all find different things offensive. some people find it offensive when his country is insulted, when his mother’s name is degraded, when his race is put down, or when his religion is attacked.

i personally get my buttons pushed when the deaths of thousands of innocent people gets trivialized as a joke.

all this being said, im not laying awake at night worrying that people have “cleverly” spelled racist names as screen names. I just got into this thread and found it interesting.

as far as the B&M example, you raise an interesting point. The real question at stake here though is whether id be offended and the answer is yes. would the casino do anything about it? im sure they wouldn’t but i dont really expect them to.

bwana

[dibbs]

I always was surprised that the Bin Laden based SN's were allowed, I can only imagine how bad those freaked people out.

I'm offended that I can't say "you're welcome" at a Party table.

[JerseyTom]

[ QUOTE ]
I know what you mean, I saw one "GeorgeWBush".

[/ QUOTE ]

POTD?

[12AX7]

Read it right to left.

[12AX7]

Well, policy issues aside, ignore it. It's clearly a ploy to get folks to overplay at him.

Personally I'd like to be able to change my viewable screen name to something random every time I change tables, so the Poker Tracker folks can't follow me around so easily. Now *thats* what I want.

Anyway, an offensive screen name backfires when I run into one. I'm going to watch that person even *more* closely because he's caught my attention. LOL!

[ QUOTE ]
There was a poster on here (I believe it was Fuji) who had a name along the lines of iHAVEbigTITS or something. Someone complained about that, and he was forced to change it.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, that screen name offends me. I think that iHAVEbigMANboobs or iHAVEbigMOOBS is much, much better, and more accurate.