FATHER GEEK'S views on TALKBACK: A statement explaining Delete and Banning Policy.

This is FATHER GEEK posting on the subject of TALKBACK policy. To put it simply, this is the way it is, the way it will be, the way most of us at AICN's Headquarters want it. And for your information every desenter from this policy on our staff wants harder, stricter policies..... or NO TALKBACK AT ALL!

First off, TALKBACK is not a CHAT ROOM, or a MESSAGE BOARD, or for that matter even a totally free and open FORUM. It is not a DATING SERVICE, or a CLASSIFIED AD SECTION, or a no holes barred LINKS page. It is not a center to tryout your comedy standup routines, nor is it SPAMMING central. It was never intended, or conceived to be such things! It's purpose as Harry envisioned and designed it was/is to give you the AICN reader a place to discuss the "paticular" story/review/news event that appears above any given TALKBACK section in a THOUGHTFUL and CIVIL manner. And in keeping with the style and content of the site in general and the article it appears under in paticular. It was not established to be a site to insult, humiliate, or degrade fellow talkbackers, or our writers & staff, or the subjects of our stories.

When, if ever, has AINT-IT-COOL story policy stooped to the tabloid level of personal attack? Do we publish stories about Hollywood personality's personal lives? Do we tell all about a star's drinking or drug problems? Do we tell you who slept with who after someone's hellspawned party last night? Do we do stories on how much a person is paid, or who's getting a divorce, or even getting married for that matter? NO we don't! We get alot of this information, its very easy for us to come by. But NO, we don't use it and WE NEVER WILL. That's one of the reason's stars, writers, directors, and their agents, or friends talk openly with us about their work... they know that THAT (the work) is what we at AICN are interested in, not their personal lives. If the site's policy is to not dig into the private affairs of these people in our story content then what makes anyone think that we would condone, or tolerate that behavior in our TALKBACK sections. We won't and people who bring it up will be BANNED when caught, people who prolong and enter into such discussions will have their posts deleted when caught no matter which side of the issue they take. If they persist in bringing up the subject they too can find themselves banned. It takes long enough to download some talkbacks as it is. Why would we let them fill up with subject matter in violation of our own editoral policies? Or totally off the subject ramblings, or personal posts that should be sent to us by E-mail, or snail-mail for that matter.

To address the issue of cursing in talkbacks, 1st we're not a bunch of prigs over here. I think everyone on the staff has used curses from time to time to illustrate a point. We discourage such language in your subject lines. "It Fucking rocks", "This movie is bullshit", etc. as shallow as they are won't get you banned. If however you get personal with your 4 letter words ( "blank takes it up the ass", etc...) you could easily find yourself locked out of TALKBACK.

There are several members of our staff that have the power to DELETE messages and/or BAN posters. HARRY actually does very little of this, his time is more useful to the site spent elsewhere; finding and writing the news, reviews, etc. Some longtime members of our staff argue constantly for total removal of TALKBACK from the page. Others urge us to avoid covering stories that we suspect will lead to rabid TALKBACK ABUSE. Stories on the X-MEN and STAR WARS for example. HARRY and I have so-far resisted these arguments and Harry has no plans at present to cancel TALKBACK even though our E-mail is bombarded daily with dozens of requests to do so.

Harry and I both feel that despite its shortcomings TALKBACK when used properly is a GREAT and VALUABLE asset to the content of the site and we don't want to lose that IMPORTANT addition to the page. And we most certainly don't want to shelve stories simply because of a relative few jerkwads that just happen to hang out in the talkbacks like stalkers in the alley behind your house. As a result several valuable members of our headquarters team including myself, and to a lesser degree Harry, have to waste their time policing the talkbacks for everything from hatred, bigotry, offensive language in the subject lines, and near-slander to mindless dribble and simple double posting, from eliminating "I'm 1st" space takers to people testing their passwords and posting blank spaces. This is time, several hours a day, we could, and should, spend uncovering the news, not uncovering filth and stupidity and simple thoughtlessness scattered thru the talkbacks.

You can get away with alot in talkback, we don't have a fulltime paid talkback editor... YET. However when we do see abuses, the many different things I've addressed here today, we will act on them and delete the posts. Unfortunatly this sometimes leads to the deleting of posts that simply refer to the offending ones. The subject of the post sometimes requires this, sorry. If deletion doesn't work then we will ban the guilty party. If the post is rabid or hateful, or offensive enough you could find yourself BANNED for a single posting and all you have ever written (even GOOD stuff) disappears at that time to never reappear. Such is the punishment of being Banned. We delete 100 times for every time we ban. We don't enjoy doing it and when TALKBACK was started we didn't even write into the software the ability to delete or ban. That's how little we thought of any need for it. Unfortunately we quickly learned otherwise.

Now FATHER GEEK wants to congratulate the great majority of our talkbackers, you do a wonderful service for the site. You add to story content. You clarify issues. You raise important questions and others of you answer them. You provide pertinent links and make us smile on occasion. You add extra reviews and offer up much needed thoughtful dissenting opinions to give the site balance. YOU are why Harry started TALKBACK and YOU are why we intend to work hard to keep it on track, up and running. Sorry to put you all through this, but inlight of the recent X-Men excesses I felt that I had to address the subject.

FATHER GEEK out.