I'm talking about HK91.com, but let's please not take the discussion over there, because I think my days of posting on that board are about over.
I want to present this as a "what if?" question regarding any discussion board, even this board, to get your feelings on the matter.
A little history lesson: HK91.com was formerly a well known hotbed of flaming and bashing directed towards and from, one individual: an infamous gun-"maker". Prior to the last couple of weeks, there was no moderation of ANY kind. Emergency mods were brought in from another board, IPs were publicly displayed, some folks were banned, and some folks left. Now I think this was a good idea (except for the public IPs) and there has been remarkable improvement.
I thought the matter was resolved, however, a couple days ago, the owners of the board obtained legal assistance (from members of the board who happen to be attorneys) and there were new guidelines set, and offers for any members to bring suit against the board and board owners. From my understanding, anyone who attacks the said "gunmaker" or vise-versa will be warned, and then banned, at that point they can bring suit against the board, if they desire. Now there is more talk by other members about libel and slander charges.
I don't know about you all, but I get antsy when lawyers come in and screw around with things (maybe that's why I dropped out of law school![;)]). I don't 'hate' lawyers, hell, my sister is an attorney. But I think there are some places they don't belong, including a discussion board, absent any actual threats of bodily harm.
Now I know it is a private board, and the owners are just protecting their own asses, but it still leaves a VERY bad impression in my mind. I think it is a very poor solution to the problem that was already fixing itself. I also think a bunch of members like myself will leave this new "sanitary" board, because we feel like we are now under the microscope of a team of lawyers.
I know this would never happen here. The mods are very good at locking inappropriate threads and booting trolls, and the owners of this board would not result to these actions.
But what I just want to know what everyone thinks about this issue.
Again, please don't take this discussion to that board, I'm just feeling your pulse on the topic.