This is my first real blog ever!
I'm not sure why at the age of 30 I decided to start blogging but here goes!
Back at the end of April, I joined a fairly popular website for a small yearly fee (less than $10). It's original purpose is ethnic hair care but there are also places to discuss other topics ranging from the latest celebrity gossip to politics.
This particular site, like every site, had a laundry list of rules that I witnessed several members break over and over and over again without apparent penalty. Not only that but the members were quite feisty. There was not one week where there wasn't a cruel exchange in at least 3 threads. I chalked it up to the site being full of women.
Everything was okay until I posted a signature picture that had heavily political undertones. I received compliments on it and aside from the rare question of its meaning, everything was just fine. Suddenly, a week later I received a private message from the owner of the site saying a "few" people found the image "concerning" and she had deleted it.
I'm not sure when it happened, but it seems the more amoral our society becomes, the more sensitive it becomes as well. I have never been on a site where a photo was not violating the terms of service but was still deleted because a "few" members did not like it. It seems odd to me that the same people who can sit and hurl insults at others would be that frightened by an artistic political drawing.
Pointing out the arbitrary application of the rules to the alleged owner of the site, I was eventually banned with no prospect of receiving a prorated refund. That sux. But, what sux more is that a place that lauds itself on being "free" (pursuant to the old 80's mantra "it's a free country") has turned into a place that gets pissy when someone attempts to use those freedoms.
