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miretogo

macrumors regular
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Aug 19, 2014
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Every front page article can be commented on - but not this one. Why?

Is it possible the MacRumors wanted to censor people who would have criticised such pandering "identity politics" - especially after the last news piece of this kind (from February 24th, titled "Apple Retail Stores Celebrating Upcoming International Women's Day With Today at Apple Sessions") was criticised by many?
 
Let us not scare what little women on MacRumors are on this site.

We need to provide a day for them to keep them happy. :)
 
@Hexley

The former discussion (on the 24 February article) was not against women - it was against "identity politics" and pandering. I would also find it off-putting if Apple announced they were "Celebrating the men working at Apple".

And my comments here are also not against women but against censorship.
 
@Hexley

The former discussion (on the 24 February article) was not against women - it was against "identity politics" and pandering. I would also find it off-putting if Apple announced they were "Celebrating the men working at Apple".

And my comments here are also not against women but against censorship.
I love to see people celebrated; just would be nice if everyone got their turn.
 
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Let's just say we didn't feel like we needed a repeat of the exact same discussion. You're welcome to continue in the other thread.
That's interesting. There is basically a repeat of the exact same discussion every time you release an article announcing a new device or a new software update. "It's going to be so cool!" "I hate it already!" "Steve is rolling in his grave." "I can't wait to get it!" Are you going to start blocking comments on all new product announcements henceforth? This website, according to your 20-year anniversary article released recently, is all about the community and the discussions, not only the articles. Sad to see you've forgotten that fact merely days after spouting about how proud of it you are.
 
That's interesting. There is basically a repeat of the exact same discussion every time you release an article announcing a new device or a new software update. "It's going to be so cool!" "I hate it already!" "Steve is rolling in his grave." "I can't wait to get it!" Are you going to start blocking comments on all new product announcements henceforth?
100% bang on. Very strange and difficult to defend decision.
 
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I haven't posted here in eight years; I lurk though. I signed back in to address this one.

If the issue is trolls, then keep the discussion available to only members with an established forum history. [See the PRSI forum]

Shame on you MacRumors. Unproductive and unrelated comments is not a reason to edit: [not allow] legitimate opinions entirely.
 
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The lack of comment section is censorship.

Are you being censored? Because that means the government is preventing you from publishing your thoughts.

Are you forbidden, by law, to write a blog post, tweet about it, rant on Facebook, send letters to the editor of your local newspaper, or stand by the side of the road with your own cardboard sign, to share your views?

A third-party, for-profit news website turning off comments on a post, because predictably a bunch of He-Man Woman-Haters(tm) come out of the woodwork every year to complain that The World Does Not Revolve Around My Fragile Male Ego!!! and DEBATE ME!!! for one day, is not censorship.

It's saving themselves a lot of time and headache, stopping people from getting into dumb arguments, and is a refusal to feed the trolls.

If you have further questions, I refer you to the perennially useful: https://xkcd.com/1357/
 
MacRumors are well within their rights to leave off the comment section on some article if they think nothing good will come of it (i.e. it'll be more work to moderate than it's worth), and since it's a not a government provided forum, nobody's rights are getting trampled.

(The "how dare you not let me complain" tone of some of the comments in here is ample explanation of why the comments were left closed.)

That said, it'd be nice if the end of the article had a notation in small print (similar to the PRSI ones on some articles), that pointed out that the comment section was intentionally left off. It'd save me, and likely others, the ten minutes of trying to figure out how my browser was broken, trying others, etc.
 
MacRumors are well within their rights to leave off the comment section on some article if they think nothing good will come of it (i.e. it'll be more work to moderate than it's worth), and since it's a not a government provided forum, nobody's rights are getting trampled.

That said, it'd be nice if the end of the article had a notation in small print (similar to the PRSI ones on some articles), that pointed out that the comment section was intentionally left off. It'd save me, and likely others, the ten minutes of trying to figure out how my browser was broken, trying others, etc.

Good suggestion. I've added a note at the bottom of the article.
 
Every front page article can be commented on - but not this one. Why?

Is it possible the MacRumors wanted to censor people who would have criticised such pandering "identity politics" - especially after the last news piece of this kind (from February 24th, titled "Apple Retail Stores Celebrating Upcoming International Women's Day With Today at Apple Sessions") was criticised by many?

I have a feeling they did it because of comments exactly like this.
 
Why this narrowing of the zone of permissible discussion?

If there is hope for our democracy, it lies in the comment threads.

You must not read many comment threads - they frequently devolve to toxic exclusionary "my way or the highway" messes. Even here on macRumors. Especially for topics that the most toxic people consider "controversial."

See 4Chan, many Reddit moves recently, any local newspaper's online comments section... There is a whole online culture of making comment threads as gatekeepey and bullying as possible. And it's RUINING democracy, not helping it. Conspiracy theories, outright lies being passed as truth, and now foreign interference by brigading with lies. No, comment threads aren't the hope at all.

Personally, I would have preferred they had gone with the "this comment thread is in the Politics section" restrictions, but you know what? MacRumors is a private entity - they can do whatever they want. If you don't like it - leave and go to a comment board that is more to your liking. I'd rather not have toxic commentary here. (I'm not saying that OP or the person I'm replying to were going to post toxic comments on this news story, just that the news story was certain to draw them. And my comment "leave and find a comment board you like" is directed at those who would post toxic comments.)
 
You must not read many comment threads - they frequently devolve to toxic exclusionary "my way or the highway" messes. Even here on macRumors. Especially for topics that the most toxic people consider "controversial."

Which is why I usually don't comment at all on anything, as can be seen by me having been a member for a while now and only having a few hundred comments. For there are few things more humorous than posting about a topic based upon personal experience (and thus factual), and then having some anonymous stranger trying to tell you that you're wrong. :rolleyes:
 
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Moderator Note:

Just a heads up... this thread is discussing the decision not to create a discussion thread for the International Women's Day article mentioned in the thread title. If you want to discuss that article or the merits of International Women's Day, please use the Political News thread linked below.

Some comments discussing International Women's Day in this thread have been removed since they are off-topic.

 
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Not to provoke any flamewars here, but let me share where I'm coming from, and it does relate to both the original story that this thread references (now moved to the Politics forum), and the claim that MacRumors is wrong to disallow comments on it.

About 30 years ago, I lost several classmates - all women - to a deranged shooter who blamed feminism for his rather sad and tragic life (parental abuse, inability to complete school). I mention this not as a trump card to stop conversation, but as a real-world example of what happens when misogyny takes root and is given terrible power.

I've been on the Internet since I could first switch on a 300-baud modem. I have seen every sort of forum, mailing list, USENET thread, you name it. I've seen raucous discussions, fun and funny threads, arguments, but today's echo chambers - and the playbooks that certain groups use to either trap people in gotcha arguments, or foreign powers use to create dissent - are very different.

I may have been slightly exaggerating in my earlier post, but not by much. There are some people who, disappointed in their lot in life, are quite literally radicalized online through videos, forums and other things which encourage them to see other groups as scapegoats, and suggest that these 'others' are obstacles to their success.

Thus we get everything from pick-up artists to abusive controlling boyfriends to those who choose to kill (for 'honour', or out of rage, or, stoked with hateful books and YouTube channels).

(Yes, not every man will behave like this, but; everyone who behaves like this is a man, so it is incumbent on us to examine why we have this strain of masculinity that has become toxic primarily to the men themselves, and those around them.)

It is arguing in bad faith to try to pretend like all of this isn't happening and we're just having an intellectual chat over brandies by the fireside.

To complain, with enormous entitlement, about not being allowed to weigh in on a relatively nice story, in order to somehow turn it around and proclaim it as evil. (Black is white, ignorance is strength, it's opposite day again).

To ignore the hundreds-of-years-long struggle for equality, the battles to get even modest gains in civil rights, the fact that the ERA still hasn't passed, that women didn't have the right to vote until VERY recently in some places, to pretend that we don't live in a society steeped in patriarchy (where do you think you're getting that sense of entitlement, dudes?)... is to argue in bad faith.

It isn't sexist to point out sexism. It isn't reverse racism to point out racism. The key difference is, who has the actual power in our society?

And are you perhaps tricked into siding with those with the power, to entrench that power further, rather than siding with those who do not?

The paradox of tolerance is that a tolerant society must (wait for it)... be intolerant to intolerance. There are legitimate debates to be had about many issues, but pretending to want legitimate debate when the real goal is to try to radicalize others is a strategy to try to make society intolerant, and it is entirely proper - I would argue, necessary - to deny such people a platform.
 
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