Locking Threads & The 1st Amendment

[The4thSurvivor]

According to Wikipedia.com

"The First Amendment to the United States Constitution is the part of the United States Bill of Rights that expressly prohibits the United States Congress from making laws "respecting an establishment of religion" or that prohibit the free exercise of religion, laws that infringe the freedom of speech, infringe the freedom of the press, limit the right to peaceably assemble, or limit the right to petition the government for a redress of grievances."

"Although the First Amendment explicitly prohibits only the named rights from being abridged by laws made by the Congress, the Supreme Court has interpreted it as applying more broadly. As the first sentence in the body of the Constitution reserves all legislative authority to the Congress, the courts have held that the First Amendment's terms also extend to the executive and judicial branches. Additionally, in the 20th century the Supreme Court held that the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment applies the limitations of the First Amendment to each state, including any local government within a state."

Blah blah blah. What I am trying to ask is your opinion, whether you be a casual Newgrounds.com visitor, a member of a few months, or a moderator that's been here for years, with whether or not locking threads on ANY forum board violates the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.

So, more or less, do you personally think it violates the first amendment, locking threads so no one else can voice in on a topic? Or even if they re-open the topic, then it gets locked again? I'm only asking this becuase a few days ago I had something serious to say about a topic that had gotten locked right after I read it, and before I had a chance to post.

I know this is political, and most people do'nt like that kinda jazz, so this will most likely get locked as well, and probably just out of spite.

It's a damn shame that such a 'respectable' site such as NG.com (hehe respectable XD) has such shitty moderators. For all of the mods who are doing their job right, more power to you. To all of the douchebags mods out there, and you know who you all are, eat shit!

>.>

<.<

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[The4thSurvivor]

Anyone think locking threasds comes near to violation of the amendment?

[Ansel]

Thanks for reminding me why I don't come here anymore. The first amendment does not guarantee your right to say whatever you want, whenever you want, wherever you want. This is a privately run, privately-owned website, and you agreed to the terms of use/service when you signed up. You agreedto be moderated.

[rainmaker]

Newgrounds doesn't have to grant you First Amendment rights. You accept THEIR terms by posting on the boards. Besides, there's a little "net neutrality", anyway, and since when has anyone paid attention to the Constitution for anything?

One of those terms is, "please don't bitch about modding." Or do so in a more, uh, tactful manner. That's a pretty rude thing to say when you don't actually have to make a decision or anything.

[The4thSurvivor]

I personally dont care about this topic, someone in the general forum was bitching about it. I just wanted to see what others thought. And as for the Terms & Services or whatever, I know that I agreed to be modded. Once again, I was just wondering. chill the fuck out

[Malachy]

Newgrounds is a privately owned entity, completely capable of policing it's own content.

Chances are if the thread was posted in Politics and it was locked, it was probably a cross-over thread and the users were instructed to continue their conversation in an established thread.

Freedom of speech only covers the government. The sanctimonious "freedom of speech waah waah" crap that some "enlightened" teenagers throw around here is not only annoying, but also totally against what they are claiming is wrong.

For freedom of speech to work, you have to take the feel good with the not-so-nice. A private company as Newgrounds, inc. is allowed to set out rules and policies which users are expected to abide by.

All I can see from this thread is this:

people berating you for using wikipedia as a "source" for your information on the constitution.

people telling you the same thing I just did, although probably in better wording, or in some cases in a demeaning tone.

somebody telling you you're going to get banned for breaking the rule about complaining about locked/deleted threads with a new thread.

to save you the trouble, I'll just lock this now. If you have a question about a locked thread, read the lock message by the moderator or send the moderator a private message. We are always happy to answer questions. Make sure you are nice about it, though, as we may ignore a PM of "OMG WHY DID YOU LOCK IT YOU ASS?!?!?"

[JoS]

I can lock topics whenever I please. I am nto bound by your Constitution. The First Amendment does not apply in Canada. This is why Canadian mods lock/delete/ban more on average than American mods. We get the outsourced dirty work. Kind of like how if the US wants some head of state knocked out of power, they don't usually do it themselves, they get the locals to do it.

I am like the Contras of Newgrounds. Viva la revolution.