Chris,

If you are concerned about people violating the law thereby putting themselves in jeopardy of legal action, then put some sort of warning on the site. Maybe on the heading of the reply screen. For myself I understand the law probably as well as you.

As to conforming to various Codes of Ethic, please direct me to the organization that named you as the Protector of Ethics and Codes. It seems to me that you take much upon yourself as the "Deciderer" of what constitutes a violation and what the punishment should be. The last time I checked by the way, the proper way to address a grievence involving violations of ethics is to follow the complaint procedure of the organization whose Code of Ethics are alleged to have been violated. I haven't seen one that specifies that Chris Bloom is to judge and punish the accused in any fashion.

Now as I have said before since you own this forum, you can make the rules, but when you censor please do not pretend that it is an open forum inviting open, honest and professional debate. Some people will write in ways you don't like. Some will attack. Some will be eloquent and present well thought out postings. There will be some who will always complain about this and that. It is the nature of the human condition. But as I have said before, we are all adults, except of course for the 'cry babies', and we can judge the professionalism and character of the poster by whatever criteria we choose including whether that person is mounting a personal attack or is writing unprofessionally, etc. Except for the 'cry babies' we don't need you to be our Hitler or Stalin.

Now as to name calling, I for one find it extremely objectionable that you are quilty of name calling yourself and most recently in the post to which I respond. I find it un-professional and foul for you to call a poster "Joe Schmo Public Citizen, and more objectionable is for you to characterize a Public Citizen (many here would probably define Public Citizen as American Citizen) as "Joe Schmo" a name we have all come to know is used in negative context and meaning.

Even though you have not yet responded to my recommendation that you publish a list of words and pharases that are subject to a one week or other punishment, in oder that we can know before hand what will get one kicked off the forum, I call on you to see that "Joe Schmo" be on that list, and in all fairness I call upon you, the Deciderer of punishment to ban yourself from posting for two weeks, and to annouce your punishment on the forum for all to see. Yes, two weeks, not one, because as the Deciderer I believe you need to be accountable for at least twice for what your victims are.

Chris, you can call censorship, professionalism, mom's apple pie, a devine relavation from God, or whatever you want. You can also call call crap a Baby Ruth, but most people will recognize censorship as censorship, as most would not eat the crap you might call a Baby Ruth

I'm not advocating for real and hurtful name calling, or for personal attacks on this forum, but for an open forum free of censorship.