Starting Up a Forum

[SaxonPagan]

Okay, here's my dilemma ...

I've just been running a forum (to do with collecting football figures, I'll spare you all the irrelevant details ) and it ran for well over 8 years until ending in disaster quite recently. It also contained a Sports & Social section where some of the members who personally knew each other could talk football/current affairs etc... This proved to be generally popular but eventually nobody dared to say anything because of the PC brigade.

For example, about this time last year somebody wished a happy St. George's day to all and I swear that panic gripped the place!!! You had all the drips saying stuff like "I believe all cultures are equally valid" and one chap even accused the original poster of being "inflammatory", so you can imagine what happened when I casually mentioned Halal Burgers the other day

Anyway, due to being constantly reminded of the T&Cs by some of our more “touchy-feely” members (one of whom, a Social Worker from Essex, accused me of “incitement to racial hatred”) I just pulled the plugs. However, I'd like to get something of a similar nature up and running again but because of anti-free speech laws in the UK I'm sure it would end in a similar fashion. It's quite a ridiculous situation TBH, considering that 90% of the board is totally uncontroversial (and no-one is obliged to go into the S&S section anyway!) but we all know how these PC “enforcers” and general busybodies operate

Can anyone point me in the right direction here? For example, I believe boards hosted in the USA protect free speech to a greater extent, so can any of our American friends perhaps recommend a good hosting company? Obviously, I couldn't afford anything like Skadi but we did have over 1300 members, just to give you an idea. Something else worth pointing out is that I have very limited computer skills and the one I've left behind was just a very basic, free board that my son set up for me and showed me how to use.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers.
G.

PS, I hope I posted this in the right section!

[Hersir]

I heard servage was a very good host, a friend has them and they are very helpful. They answer the support messages within minutes.
http://www.servage.net/

It might be a bit over the top with all the space, maybe there are cheaper alternatives. They are as far as I know hosted in USA. Good luck with your forum

[Ediruc]

The liberal agenda has no problem with infesting even the most irrelevant and innocent of forums.

[Mouse Shadow]

Easy solution to any of that! Put in the title pages, "This is a politically incorrect website." "Racsim doesn't exist here, becuase everybody should be teased equally." "Anyone turning this site into a politically-correct-wanker-web will be banned and their personal belongings site on fire."

[SaxonPagan]

Superb!!! I'm going to bed now (3:50 am) with tears of laughter rolling down both cheeks

And thanks a lot for the suggestion, Hersir, I've just been looking into that one!

[Ralf]

Not so much a reply to this thread but an opportunity to comment on how adult and civilized this Skadi Forum and its members are.

Though the current evolution thread maybe is getting a touch emotional, this is the only forum Ive ever been on, and Ive been on a lot including Christian forums, without exception, apart from Skadi, there is always a group who become rude and childishly insulting if you post anything that is different from their world view.

I think it demonstrates the level of maturity and intelligence of the peoples who are attracted to Skadi, maybe you will be hard pressed to find it anywhere else?

[RoyBatty]

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers.
G.

PS, I hope I posted this in the right section!

Other's here obviously know better about which providers / hosts to go with.

My 1c worth is off topic to your original post but I've always thought it would be a great idea to host a website containing (more or less plagiarised) articles, controversies and scandals of the day collected from the various mainstream media sources and then allowing uncensored commentary, or at least, less censored commentary than what we currently get on for example, the fake "rightwing" Daily Mail.

Just imagine combining football with a "hot topics of the day" section without our PC Controller's interference.

If Murdoch can push his agendas with a formula of football and ZOG propaganda in "The Sun", why can't we do the same thing!

[Méldmir]

I didn't know the internet laws were that tough in the UK. Sweden's biggest internet forum, Flashback, is run from the UK because it was banned in Sweden, since it broke laws here.

[SaxonPagan]

Roy, to be honest with you I often posted controversial stuff that I thought would stimulate debate (in a certain direction ) but all I ever got back were reminders about the board's T&Cs from the fainthearts and accusations of “racial hatred” from the lefties. Sure, I had some allies but I concluded that, overall, it's a sad day if these people are representative of today's British males. Their artificial moral outrage was quite sickening and I swear we're becoming a nation of drama queens, constantly “offended” on other peoples' behalf – often as a self-promotion exercise!

Mind you, I must admit I did post under multiple aliases to give the impression there were many people agreeing with me on a lot of topics

[RoyBatty]

Roy, to be honest with you I often posted controversial stuff that I thought would stimulate debate (in a certain direction ) but all I ever got back were reminders about the board's T&Cs from the fainthearts and accusations of “racial hatred” from the lefties.

Redirect these types of complaints > /dev/null

In other words, ignore. Study the typical complaints and alter the T's & C's to get around most of them. Host the site offshore preferably outside the EU, that way they can whine all they like and people can make more provocative posts. Censor the lefties. You're the boss.

Dedicate a special section (buried somewhere within subsection of a forum subsection) for whining, complaints and arguments.

Restrict the posting rights of the serial complainers, liberals etc so that they can only post there. Ban them from the main threads.

A troll without an audience = a Nobody.

Sure, I had some allies but I concluded that, overall, it's a sad day if these people are representative of today's British males. Their artificial moral outrage was quite sickening and I swear we're becoming a nation of drama queens, constantly “offended” on other peoples' behalf – often as a self-promotion exercise!

I think of it like this:

It's not unheard of (or unusual) for professional leftwing agitators to spam boards with their views. For example, in the Daily Mail which is typically read by right-of-center public, I've seen it happen how an anti-Labour / Gordon Brown article was commented on by "the public".

The vast majority of the comments were pro-Labour / Gordon Brown meaning that something was fishy. It turns out that nuLabour were expecting criticism and had their legions of professional spammers ready to hammer the comments section with support for Labour and negative rep for those who made anti-Labour comments. It was an orchestrated exercise in public opinion manipulation and falsification of what the general readership's views were.

If your "posters" start acting too Leftie, why not simply shut them up or move them to the whiner section. This is what any selfrespecting leftwing board, "The BBC" and even "The Daily Mail" (who are fake rightwing) does. Just learn from them and do the same. Who cares if certain posters will be upset.

Screw em.

Mind you, I must admit I did post under multiple aliases to give the impression there were many people agreeing with me on a lot of topics

That's one way of dealing with things. Like I said, it's your board, your rules. You DON'T HAVE TO play fair. You DON'T HAVE TO be democratic. The competition certainly aren't. Provided you're complying with whatever applicable "Internet Laws" exist (and hosting outside the EU should add an extra layer of protection) you can pretty much do what you like.