Jahanshah Javid

In Support of SP’s RIGHT of Freedom of EXPRESSION!

Freedom of expression/speech is ABSOLUTE, with no boundaries, especially in the political or public arena!!   It is the unpleasant words/statements that are protected; why you might ask?   Reason is that pleasantries do not need protection; it is the words that offend, and in some, but not all cases necessary, that we protect, including vulgarities, although I would not recommend . 

Having established a blog is a privilege, not a RIGHT!   Censoring  bloggers is a slippery slope, where are you going to draw the line?!   SP may have been insensitive in some cases, but SO WHAT, haven’t we ALL!   Fact is that no one is perfect.   We can all get carried away from time to time!  

Hopefully we are not going to witness a censorship TYRANNY like that of Pahlavi/ Khomeini/ Khamenei, followed by the REIGN of TERROR (LOL) 

By the way, I have seen far worst blogs, on this site, than SP’S!

........

Hi! Sargord,

     How big of stage do you want on IC? I checked IC's front page today......I saw a political prisoner on death row......I think it is time to move on from your thread to the more important issues like political prisoners in Iran.... they deserve a lot of our attention!

No unfair thread locks

How about not locking popular threads after only a day and a half, like you did to "Sargord Pirouz username blocked."

Oh well, the point was made, wasn't it. 

...

* در ادامه خواسته‌ها و پیشنهادات به درگاه کریم مکرمات، علیم العلما،سیاح السیهاح،جلال المجللا.. حضرت جهانشاه خان جاوید.

-عرض کنم به خدمت مبارکتان که بد نبود یک عدد دگمه هم در اول صفحه تعبیه میشد تا به حد الماتهت،هندوانه زیر بغل خلق بگذاریم و از مزایای انواع دستمال کشی‌ بهره جوئیم ،باور بفرمایید اهل المکرم صفحه ایرانیان دات کم با این قضیه موافق خواهند بود.

-لطفا آهنگهای دامبول با بیمبول فراموش نشود،هر چه قدر بی‌ سر و ته.. بهتر عام و وای به حال خاص که گنه کرده و گردنش بر دار !

آخر هفته نیکویی داشته باشید.أفضل صديق له..

 مدينة الخطيئة ، باريس، واثنين من أحد عشر ألف.

 النبيذ الاحمر

This will lead to Censorship

My last comment on this important feature is I say do not give Bloggers the right to exclude people from blogs. I do not trust this responsibility to be given at that level. Many people think that Bloggers will abuse this facility to exclude people of different view, or people who will just criticise, not just Abusive people. What people keep mentioning are certain individuals who are Abusers. Isn't that what Admin are for?

If these people who you say "who make it their business to be a nuisance towards certain others. Their comments are either insults or or have the intention to hurt and ridicule" have done this because Admin did not deal with these people quickly and nip it at the bud. No disrespect meant, but some blogs should just be deleted by Admin if they are of that nature, and if there are such comments the Blogger can press FLAG.

Shepesh

What I meant by 'stalker' is very close to what Mehrban has been trying to explain. Just that she uses the word harassment.

I am very much for constructive criticism and lively debates, but in a civilized manner which brings us further. However, as others have already pointed out, there are people on this forum who make it their business to be a nuisance towards certain others. Their comments are either insults or or have the intention to hurt and ridicule. Their behaviour should be stopped without shutting them up completely. The only way to do it, (unless you have a better suggestion) is to allow bloggers to exclude these individuals from commenting on their blogs if they choose to. 

I am all for freedom of expression, be it in the form of blogs, cartoons, poems or comments. I happen to believe, that even if this tool is provided, very few people would use it. I think most of us come here because we believe in freedom of expression and because we like diversity. 

I think that the suggestion by Princess

to allow bloggers to refuse comments from certain users is a very good idea.  And all anyone has to do to see a stalker is to visit Fred's blogs and see Sargord Pirouz's comments.  

Princess

I cannot edit my last comment so have to write a separate one. Besides the previous 2 points I made I'd like to say that changing  the current successful format for a tiny minority who label others Stalkers is counter productive. People who go public with their Political views or creative work should be prepared to handle feedback which ranges from positive to harsh criticism even to a point of feeling insulted. That is the risk one take when you go public and most people on IC do learn to accept it as part of the deal. We had a blog about this and I thought we already voted for Freedom of Speech and no censorchip. Why is it that a small handful of people on IC refuse to deal with this? I believe even harsh criticism can can often show you what your own blind spots are and give opportunities for  self-improvement. Egos may get bruised temporarily but it can often be useful to improve oneself. I have seen cases where some automatically assume questions from people they do not know are a personal attack. That is their problem, please do not make it IC’s problem. Besides that, there are already procedures to deal with insults – the FLAG button or ignore it. If you cannot distinguish between harsh criticism and insult it useful to ask what the intention of a comment was. Are they trying to help or communicating how they feel about you or your actions? Or to insult? For  people that are constantly criticizing when it isn’t helpful or polite, take the it to Admin which will deal case by case. We have seen how some people have been blocked. But this is SO rare, so to take the step of censorship is just for a minority who are acting out of fear will ruin what is already a good format for discussion. Princess, to think that we will get numerous blogs as replies to an original blog will make the site ridiculous. Can you imagine if the first blogger choses own friends input, and then two others who were  excluded create their own blogs as responses, and both these people are not friends! You will get several discussions about the same subject …

Thanks for moving it. Got

Thanks for moving it. Got too boring. Now create a poll and see all the requests graphically.

Ali Mostofi

//www.alimostofi.com

Princess

Please can you define "stalker", and what you mean by your comment?

I disagree with Shepesh

... and others who suggest that the bloggers should not be given the right to exclude comments from certain people. This seems to me the only way to stop some of the 'stalking' that is going on on this site. 

As for spreading mis-information, no one stops people from posting rebuttals as their own blogs.  

Mr Jahanshah

It maybe a good idea to give stars (yes golden stars like in school) to those who been a subscriber for long and with less flags!!!!!!!!!!!! 

That was also my opinion

Sorry Shepesh jon, it seems that I follow you every where tonight ...but na be khoda :)

First time I read this in JJ's comment, it looks so odd to me! I mean

-- Refuse any comments
-- Allow comments only from "friends"
-- Allow comments from all"

???

The site will become so boring! No more comment, no more offense, no more flag?!! Is this becoming just a magazine or what?

But, I said to myself, maybe this option has been discussed by many and the editor finds that it is the best option. So I just shut up :)

Personally, I think this will go against the freedom of speech (comments only from friends???) are you kidding me?

I mean, someone come here and insult someone else and their friend will come to cheer? What's next?

Same goes for the people who blog against the Bahai religion and launch free accusation. Imagine if they opt for "Only friends comments"? LOOOOL

What's a forum for?

The good behavior of the people, warms our heart and make us thankful.....  And the bad ones, just make us to recognize and appreciate the good ones!

JJ

we should give bloggers the right to

-- Refuse any comments
-- Allow comments only from "friends"
-- Allow comments from all"

I think this can lead to people posting blogs consisting of misinformation (for example in Political or Religious discussions) and these cannot be countered by people in the know to set the record straight. I cannot see the point of this at all, except that you want to avoid people who do not "get on" to discuss in the same blog. The solution surely would be self discipline instead of censoring views. This would ruin the blog section of the site in my opinion.

Sometimes you have new Users joining the site who have no "friends" but may have valuable information to add to discussions. How will they become a Friend if they cannot join a discussion and excluded?

But first .....

Everybody should promise  not nagging about their friend's account being blocked! This should not give room to another hate blog or discussion about why and how their friend is getting a  warning now, but 300 years ago a friend of a friend in Caral haven't been blocked for doing the same thing........etc etc :)

* Caral : the oldest town in the world

The good behavior of the people, warms our heart and make us thankful.....  And the bad ones, just make us to recognize and appreciate the good ones!

Souri

Such warnings are common practice on most forums I participate in. 

I think the reservation of the admin in doing so here on IC is potential exposure of the site's policy in being biased or perceived as bias. But I'll tell you, many other forums have no qualms about bias, particularly those that are based on military subjects.

Regarding Sargord Pirouz last blog

That gave me a hint to address one more suggestion:

How about giving a public warning to the people whose account is near to be closed? This way, nobody will complain about that and everybody else could also benefit from the same lesson!

Wow! How intelligent I am! I'm just starting to love myself :)

The good behavior of the people, warms our heart and make us thankful.....  And the bad ones, just make us to recognize and appreciate the good ones!

آقای شراب قرمز

آقای شراب قرمز،

____________

IRAN FIRST

____________

JJ

1) The bottons "MY ACCOUNT/SIGN OUT" are located side by side, many many times when clicking on MY ACCOUNT I get logged out for the pointer not being on the exact spot, which requires to go back and log in again.

Can you move the SIGN OUT botton to the opposite side of the page?

2) I think "Preview comment" should stay since it's a chance to correct spelling, wording...etc before posting the comment.

3) I totally agree with thumbs up or down sys. for comments and even for blogs or articles, but it should automatically be limited to once per user (like youtube).

4) I agree with automatic deletion of an entry once it gets let's say 4 or five red flags.

5) Comments are organized from the oldest at the bottom to latest at the top, so why the number of the pages are at the bottom? that requires you to scroll all the way back to bottom to click on the next page, could that (number of pages) be moved to the top?

#1 and #5 helps the site to be more user friendly.

Revising

allows for removing writing before thinking, mis-statements, errors, remorse, I was high, new learning, refinement…; but deleting opens a can of worms. Deleting a comment as though it never existed is like wiping history. It is irresponsible and allows for manipulation. 

This site has got a few things right. Lets not over engineer. 

Oktaby

P.S.: here is my revision. I forgot to endorse Nazy's #4. However you get there.

i like to second redwine

i like to second redwine requests.

also, can you add a color code system (a la homeland security: green, yellow, orange, red) to each username to see how close they're to being banned (for whatever reason).  that would reduce much ambiguity in light of recent bannings and the gostaakh nature of yours truly. :)

...

حال که تمام خلق پارسی زبان عرایضشان را درخواست نمودند،ما هم چند خواسته داریم که امید است جامه حق بر آن بپوشانید و ما را سرافراز بفرمایید.

-لطفا دستور دهید که هرگاه کسی‌ وارد سایت میشود،بتواند نغمه یی، ترانه یی از موسیقی‌ اصیل ایرانی بشنود،آخر هفته‌ها آهنگ از مرحوم آغاسی باشد بهتر است،آخر ما خوشمان میاید.یاد ایاّم جوانی‌ به خیر !

-غلط اضافه نباشد،دستور بفرمایید یک عدد دگمه در این محل تعبیه کرده و نصب کنند که هر بار حرفی‌،سخنی دلنشین گفتیم،خلق الله آنرا فشار داده و به ما احسنت و مرحبا گویند،این را برای خودمان نگفتیم و بلکه خواستیم اینجور از خجالت دوستان در بیاییم.

-مرحمت بفرمایید،یک عدد دستگاه در این محل بسازند که هرگاه شخصی‌،فردی بد دهانی کرد،آن دستگاه بلافاصله حلق آن شخص را با صابون فرد علای اصفهان و ایضا کرمان حسابی‌ بشوید و دهانش را با گلاب قمصر خوشبو سازد.

-نیکویی کرده و امر بفرمایید که مسابقه یی تشکیل شود و در آن مسابقه میس ایرانیان دات کم انتخاب شود.ما حاضریم تمام اعضای محترم ژوری را انتخاب کرده و خود از خجالت آن میس خانم در آئیم.

-محبت فرمائید و آن کلوب سکس که قول داده بودید،بازگشایی کرده و آقا فرامرز خان را به ریاست آنجا منصوب کرده و حضرت شازده را به نیابت آقا بگمارید.

البته دامنه تقاضا بالا است و ما کم رو !

خداوند صد هزار کرور عمر به حضرت جهانشاه خان جهان گشا دهد.

ارادتمند..

شراب قرمز.

JJJ we don't have to "wait" to see a comment online.

We have to preview but once we "submit" the comment is online.  I think you're talking about users who are not registered or not "logged in".  For those yes there is a delay but I thought that was made to allow time for the system so it doesn't get crashed when it gets too much requests at the same time. 

As for blogger not able to delete comments on their page by others, why not?  Would you please explain a basis?  We're not voting to select a leader.  We simply want control in our own blogs.  Commenting is a big aspect of i.com and limiting it to the 3 options you provide changes nothing, in my opinion. 

Everything is sacred

How about the ability

to have both English and Parsi text without one messing up the format of the other?

____________

IRAN FIRST

____________

Thumbs up

I do think that the next version of iranian.com must grade blogs and all other content according to what readers like and don't like. This could be through thumbs up and down buttons or something similar.

There will be some bias from friends and foes on how they would grade. But only a small percentage of readers have strong biases. Pages get hundreds, sometimes thousands of page views. The vast majority of visitors have no idea who you are. They will grade based on how they honestly think.

But besides this "democratic" grading, I would like to have a section where I or other iranian.com editors would select items we think are important or interesting so that they would get more attention.

It would be challenging to do the exact same with comments. I think it's important to have the latest comments on top, in order to keep the conversations current. But it would be good/ok to have a thumbs up and down system for comments so that people could express how they feel without necessarily posting a reply.

Also posting comments in general need a complete overhaul. The worst aspect of our current system is that it's not user friendly or immediate. You have to preview it first. And then wait a while before you see it online. The extra step and the delay is annoying. Everyone wants easy and immediate publication.

Also if we can, we should give bloggers the right to

-- Refuse any comments
-- Allow comments only from "friends"
-- Allow comments from all

Not sure if we should allow bloggers to delete comments on their page by others. I'm more inclined to think this should be only done by editors. Or we should implement a system where comments that get 5 or 10 red flags would get automatically removed.

People who are constantly rude and regularly tease/harass/attack those they don't like, should not feel that their bad behavior will be tolerated.

I disagree that I should not be able to delete my OWN comment. Comments are not like articles or even blogs. They are momentary thoughts that are often quick reactions to something we have seen or read. If I react in anger, or say something that I later realize was wrong or unintelligent, I would like to take it back. I should be able to revise or remove it.

Another suggestion = Limit the # of words in a comment to 200.

Everything is sacred

About rating blogs and Most Discussed ones

I am not in favor of rating blogs. Also, comments to certain extent do function of rating for a blog. For instance, if I see writers whom I like their work, have all commented favorably on a blog, I am more tempted to read that blog. For that matter, even unfavorable comments by my favorite writers indicate that the blog had something to say which might be worth reading.

I like Nazy's suggestion about Most Discussed blogs. On some blogs, the comments are from few people who have commented many times. So as Nazy suggested, I see value in counting one unique user Id just once when considering Most Discussed blogs. 

I disagree

"People should not be able to revise or delete their comments once posted".  I disagree completely.  If the comment has been the subject of a discussion, then yes it should stay that is what the reply button is for (which I hardly ever use).  If not,  I think everyone is entitled to change their mind and have second thoughts or see things in a slightly different light or add more detail, etc.  Having your comments etched in stone diminishes the fuidity of the process and makes it too dogmatic. 

Agreed and disagreed...............

Nazy jon, while I agree with your suggestions number 2 to 5, I disagree with the number 1 (thumb up and down) for the blogs and comments. Experiences of the past, proved that there are a few groups here who always give a tap on the back of their friends at any cost. In this condition, there's no point nor any value for a material to be rated. People know each others taste and beliefs, since a while. Some people never miss an occasion to revenge a past wound of even some years ago! In this situation, asking us to rate a material, is completely pointless.

Personally, I don't even care of the number of the click that a blog got, leave alone the number of the comments. And yes, I agree %100 that sometimes, friends post complementary "one word" comments like "thanks", "good".....etc etc. Which in fact are meant to say nothing, but just give a boost to the number of the reads (except for the poems, because sometimes there's not much to say about a poem but complementary words).

As I just mentioned, personally I don't pay attention to the number of the comments or number of the reads that an article got, but it is only its content which interests me But....this is me :)

The good behavior of the people, warms our heart and make us thankful.....  And the bad ones, just make us to recognize and appreciate the good ones!

For all it is worth...

Some random thoughts...

1. I think we should be able to elevate good content to the first page by giving it a thumbs up (or a thumbs down if we hate it). Within blogs and features, we should be able to do the same thing with comments we like or dislike.

2. People should not be able to revise or delete their comments once posted. It's ridiculous to go back to threads where an actual discussion once took place and see that people have changed their comments or have replaced them with a dot ("."), and worst thing yet, to see that admin has actually deleted the dot, too, erasing all trace of a person who was once on a thread and said something that may have affected the conversation at some point. This is a community of adults. People should think before they comment and then take responsibility for what they have said.

3. "Most Discussed" should only be when the most number of people with unique ID's are talking on a thread. In other words, each commentator must only be counted once on a thread, regardless of how many times the user leaves comments. Some people inflate the number of comments on threads by empty and complimentary (ta'arof) comments which add nothing to the "discussion," yet push the feature onto the "Most Discussed" list.

4. I hope to see a day when a place on the site's first page is reserved for good, original writing and art only.

I believe all of these suggestions are already in place in sites such as Balatarin, and the programmers could easily find out the actual programming rules and implement them.