Grateful Dead

dead.net the official site

Regarding the TOS, we very deliberately wrote them not to resemble the aggressive legalese of AOL et al., and I say this as a co-founder of the AOL forum who, back in the day, got Steve Case himself to let us not be bound by the aspect of their TOS that, say, prohibited the use of four-letter words. Since quoting the lyrics of "Wharf Rat" would get you bounced off any such system, I believed at the time, and believe to this day, that such rules are a bad fit for Deadheads.

Quoting the lyrics of Wharf Rat is, of course, not quite the same thing as hooking online. And I note that she who engaged in the online hooking was blocked from the site within two hours of posting her little come-on in the chat room, and without damage to the myriad Heads who use four-letter words in their posts.

In short, bleep happens and we try to deal with it, depending on the merits or lack thereof of the individual situation.

I mean, it certainly didn't enhance my Grateful Dead experience to have those gyrating screaming chicks flinging their hair and sweat about and committin lewd acts with assorted objects in the guise of "dancing" throughout the show, but you know, I've read quite a few posts over the years from guys who seemed to like the show. Not everything that crosses your path here is going to be something you're going to like, but when it goes over the edge like spam scams and sex peddling and personal attacks, it gets dealt with.

Frankly, in this particular case, the "policing" to which you object is being done by mindless and broken software as a mechanical function. And, as has been reported at great length, it is not triggered by any actual behavior. As the person with "policing" abilities who's likeliest to actually look at the chat room from time to time, I can report with some assurance that the only line-crossing behavior I can recall seeing was from the ex-user to whom Stuman took such exception. I am not especially worried about people's use of swear words, and if they want to talk about illegal activities in a forum that's as accessible to law enforcement as it is to everyone else, that's their business and on their own heads, as far as I'm concerned. See the relevant line in TOS about the New York Times.

Right now the main misbehavior I'm worried about is the software's, but I believe my compatriots who say they are working on it. Thank you.