Whining Babies in an Internet Chatroom

[Cannonball]

Cannonball, interesting insight. Only thing worse than a crybaby adult is a crybaby adult who sics attack lawyers on a person that called the baby a name and hurt their widdle feewings. Maybe the thing to do is force people to formally acknowledge (insert legal crap here) when they register which would prevent them from suing anyone based upon what is posted.

To be clear, I had no particular person or even site in mind when I started this thread. I've seen it happen many times in many sites and off the top of my head, I can't remember one time when I thought it was appropriate.

John

Blind Squirrel, (John)

We are in agreement. It is sickening what people say behind their screen names that they'd never say face to face. Such is the life of the internet. No one was more shocked than I was when I received legal notice of a suit. WOW! The lawsuit against me and the site I moderate was started by a lawyer that is specializing in internet law. Can you imagine? That's where we are headed!

I think we can all agree to disagree. I think we SHOULD have some scruples when it comes to posting remarks about kids. I think that these various sites can help all of us. As an example, I've made two posts in the drills portion of this site. I've coaced for A LONG TIME and so, wanted to give people something to think about where they could help their kids. No site has a place for internet cowards that attack but aren't man enough to step out into the open as to their identities. JMHO!

[MTR]

Cannonball, interesting insight. Only thing worse than a crybaby adult is a crybaby adult who sics attack lawyers on a person that called the baby a name and hurt their widdle feewings. Maybe the thing to do is force people to formally acknowledge (insert legal crap here) when they register which would prevent them from suing anyone based upon what is posted.

And here I thought that would be the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights

[jofus]

Well, just remember that fastpitch softball is a sport that young girls play, and as such, there may be some posting and reading on this board

I'm not whining at all, just pointing that out. As a moderator of a different (busier) board, I sympathize with moderators on all boards I troll.

[ssarge]

And here I thought that would be the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights

Neither the Constitution or Bill of Rights prevents me from suing you because I don't like the color of your hair. Or for anything else.

Winning damages is another matter. Thankfully.

Regards,

Scott

[MTR]

And here I thought that would be the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights

Neither the Constitution or Bill of Rights prevents me from suing you because I don't like the color of your hair. Or for anything else.

Winning damages is another matter. Thankfully.

Regards,

Scott

You are correct, Scott, but it should be. These alleged "officers" of the court should know what is valid and what is not and should be taken to task when attempting to waste OUR time and money. OTOH, a judge should be held to the same standards and shut the door on some of these ludicrous lawsuits.

[coolstuff]

You are correct, Scott, but it should be. These alleged "officers" of the court should know what is valid and what is not and should be taken to task when attempting to waste OUR time and money. OTOH, a judge should be held to the same standards and shut the door on some of these ludicrous lawsuits.

When the Internet is involved, there is not much case law and even less legislated law. Judges are left up to themselves which results in a lot of craziness that is not consistent from state to state. Trying to apply pre-Internet laws to the Internet gets funky too.

One question I have is, if I slander someone who is using a handle, who really knows who this person is? So how can the plaintiff show damage to their reputation if anyone reading the slander doesn't even know the real name of the person.

But I don't like profanity on a message board, and I mean the heavy stuff.

[Cannonball]

Coolstuff, I don't know how long you've been active on message boards but it won't take long for a site, even as new as this, to produce known personalities. Yeah, that was a nice way of saying it. When that happens, we will all know real names. Heck, I've dealt with one that has had some 12 incarnations. It also will get to the point where we will all know each other's kids. I've posted video of my girl before but I've kept that on a private site that has copyright protection. You'd be surprised at the video you can see and before you know it, people will be attacking member's kids, ... It can get real messy. Well, I could go on and on about this topic but to be honest, I don't want to give anyone any ideas of other avenues of lawsuits via the internet. BTW, your observations are very astute in your post. Law background?

[Blind Squirrel]

Read a story today in the Newsweek edition with Huckabee on the cover. It was about new sites springing up on college campuses (started at Duke), where people are doing some nasty stuff. The article stated that there is a specific law on the books that prevents the people behind the sites from being sued because of any content that they don't write or modify. The date that the law was enacted wasn't identified.

John

[coolstuff]

Cannonball,

I'm the marketing director at a community college where the college website is under my responsibilities. Also this whole Facebook/MySpace explosion has created headaches for everyone involved in education. Blind Squirrel's post is a perfect example. So I have to keep on top of it. And I have been active on message boards since the days of dial-up access to home-grown BBS systems. I'm surprised no one has made fun of my handle yet - that usually happens. If I have to explain it then you'll know my real name and you can sue my pants off.