Please grant me freedom of wankers
Ugh. I'm getting the old 'why are you editing our comments, we have freedom of speech' baloney on one of my weblogs. It's as boring as Godwin's law and 'if it weren't for us you'd all be speaking German' (my usual reply: "I do speak German, thanks all the same.") Anyone know a good rebuttal? I gave 'em the 'you are a guest in our house, we expect our guests to be civil towards us and our other guests'- line.
Unfortunately, I know exactly what you mean. It made me delete the comments function on my (former) website. I got death threaths and so on, and then those #$%#!%#@@E$# started about freedom of speech. It made me so extremely angry, because they obviously have no clue as to what it means to live in a free country, what freedom of speech really is.
I responded in the same way as you did (said that freedom of speech does not give me the right to demand access to your house and shout racist nonsense from your balcony), but it did not help :(
I think a lot of people confuse the notion of "freedom of speech" with "freedom of distribution".
These people are entitled to hold any opinions that they want, but there is no automatic right to full and unedited distribution through private channels such as other people's web sites.
I'd say that as long as your site has some kind of clear notice that you will delete or edit posts that (in your editorial opinion) are racist, sexist, xenophobic, whatever, you should just go ahead and stick to your guns.
Freedom of speech means that no one will prosecute them, torture them, imprison them, etc. It doesn't mean that their every word gets broadcast verbatim. "Censoring" is what government bodies do. Webmasters merely edit - an altogether less sinister process.
[And on that note, Stuart realises that his own Comments entry form probably needs precisely such a disclaimer.]