From our FAQ page:

Is there anything we cannot say at The Blogmocracy?
The Blogmocracy prides itself on its protection of the unfettered free flow of ideas between our citizens (posters). Therefore, we have a strict policy of defending, and respecting the idea of one’s free speech, and right to say practically anything they wish (but should be prepared to defend it). Accordingly, in almost all cases, if there is any question as to the acceptability of one’s speech we will lean towards letting it stand, and against any form of censorship.

However, like all freedoms, the freedom of speech at The Blogmocracy has its limits, and certain types of speech are simply unacceptable and will not be tolerated. It is the policy of The Blogmocracy that all of its citizens (posters) hold themselves up to the highest standard of civility, and above all be polite. If an Admin becomes aware that one is violating the reasonable standard of politeness, actions will be taken to rectify the problem such as warnings, deletions, or if the problem persists; banning. (see the About page for policies of banning and deletions).

From the About Page

See, what was happening here under total free speech was that people were throwing personal insults at each other instead of having a civilized disagreement and discussing the issue; it was likened to chimpanzees throwing feces at each other. The following is just an excerpt of one day (yes it was a bad day) before 1300EST on a weekday across multiple threads:

You cut and pasted that, asshole.

You’re a libturd loser.

Fuck you you commie loving bastard.

We have a blithering idiot on aisle 16.

You are a jackoff and go fuck your self.

This was frankly disrespectful not only to those reading but to those who worked hard to bring us quality posts.

These are clearly personal attacks. We can’t tolerate that anymore. Frankly, if you were reading a blog somewhere and you saw that…what would you think?

Now, as for vulgarities.

We aren’t banning swearing, we are asking for some restraint. We reserve the right to delete comments if they are inappropriate. What is inappropriate? See the Supreme Court decision on pornography. ‘We know it when we see it’. Please, we are all adults here. Have some respect. Will we be a nanny blog, no.We will let most things slide but we still have to reserve the right to delete.

The other problem we were having was people continuing arguments across threads and across days.We aren’t going to put up with that. Keep it on the thread where the fight started and we will let all yinz (y’all, youze guys) fight it out. We will even put up a fight thread so that the issue can be argued and settled there. Do not chase people across threads.

In order to have all sides heard we, the owners have a few rules. They are simple, and they should be fairly obvious to anyone who comments on blogs. Care to guess what they are? No? OK, Check these out:

The owners reserve the right to delete a comment if they think that the comment is foul, a personal attack, or is generally over the line of civil discourse. Will the owners use this hammer? Hopefully never. We really we don’t want to have to do that here. Ask yourself this:

Would you say that in the meat world to a real human who is standing right in front of you?

Just because we don’t delete or act on a comment does not mean the we agree or condone with the comment.

ANYTHING written on this blog is the responsibility of the person who wrote it period.

Any failure of comprehension is on the writer when emoticons or sarc tags could have been used to clarify meaning and nuance.

Any Blog owner who posts here might be held to their rules on their blogs. After all what’s good for the goose…

Please be aware of the rules and societal standards.

-CW