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Posted By: Corey R. Shanus

Two points....

First, to answer your question, in the context of a private chatboard such as this the moderator sure can legitimately stop someone from saying things that are unpopular if the moderator reasonably believes that the exercise by that person of his free speech rights would have the chilling effect of preventing or limiting the participation by others on this Board. The moderator's first responsibility is to take actions to safeguard the viability of this Board, and sometimes doing that may legitimately take precedence over the right of a person to say what he wants on that Board. Leon is not having Jay incarcerated, nor is Leon telling Jay he can't take a protest sign and organize a march protesting the corrupting nature of banner ads. All Leon is doing is saying that Jay can't do it on this Board.

Second, I was responding to the criteria that Todd enunciated as being grounds for banning someone. One of those criteria was repeating the comments after a warning. Another was that they be particularly serious. Those were Todd's criteria, not mine, and I merely opined that I felt Jay's posts met them.

EDITED for grammar