did your keyboard just break?

and they buy.... a lot of barbies??? I think they accidently bought the luke thinking it was a Ken in beach outfit....

Hey. I'm the James that Cory was speaking about. Email me at DepmodeETS@aol.com and we'll complete the transaction. Thanks for picking it up.

Welcome to the world of the internet, where information travels at hyper speed and people from all over the world can communicate with each other at any second of the 24 hour day.  

Today, something happened that I was not anticipating. I was informed that two of my posts had been reported as being vulgar/insulting, and were thus edited for content.  At first, a couple things shot to my head right off the bat:

1. Where did I miss the forums rules outlining what could be talked about and what could not be talked about. Where were the forum rules that dictated what was off limits as a topic, the rules that told me where my freedom of speech needed to be contained in the community?

2. Why was one of my post being altered when in my views, it was no more "vulgar" than a previous post I was responding to. The other posts by the other forum members were not altered.

3. Finally, why was what I viewed as a joke, being taken so seriously? I won’t go into great details here, but it's not like I had nudity or "swear" words in my post (the classic easy to go against things).

So these three issues shot right to my head, and made me start thinking about the online community I am participating in. We all come from different areas, and we all have different perceptions on the world we live in. At another forum, I was once posting in a thread that was titled "Sexy Actresses." The thread did not had any nudity in it, but it had pictures from magazines such as Maxim and Entertainment Weekly. There was one female poster that was saying things such as "This thread needs to be deleted right now! Kids come to this sight! This forum MUST be G rated!" This throws up alarms right away. Here I am at a website that is all about collecting, and star wars, and is mainly adults that like to communicate from all over the world. Here is a lady that is demanding that the site become a G rated site. I responded with something to the tune of "The Star Wars movies are not even rated G. The world is not a G world. We live in a reality where there is happiness, death, good, and bad. Not everything happens in carealot, but at the same time, not everything broods from hell." I understood the woman’s conviction that she wanted a safe place for her children to visit... But really, how does she figure she can and wants to make me a G rated person? If she doesn't want her kids to see or read something, then don't let them. Set the limits on them, don't set them on others. This is just one small example of what I am thinking about.

On another note, I was also told by the moderator that because I am a guy, there is a double standard about guys and girls. If guys say anything in a sexual way about women, it can be taken bad, and thus should be kept on the down low. Remember I said double standard? But apparently at this site guys are just supposed to take these comments. Now, I couldn't care if someone said something about a guy or a girl, especially if it's in a joking manner, as that is all I've seen at this particular site. What I'm not down with IS a double standard, and it's not cool.

Welcome to reality? Yeah, right on. I hear ya, and I've been here. I'm in reality, and I'm also connected to the internet, and sharing a part of my life through a new medium of our culture. It's a tricky area, and it's something that everyone is going to have to work on.

Now to my main point at hand. I don't want this to happen to me again, where my posts get altered, and I in turn feel like an ass. I've felt rather comfortable here, and I've enjoyed everyone I've met here. If posts are going to be edited, I think it's not unjust of me to ask for a standard for the editors to base it off of.

I know a couple of you own this site. Its y'alls place and what y'all say goes. What DO y'all say? What one person thinks and says *MIGHT* not be cool and ok with what the next person says. As I've said already many times, we're all different people. Not everyone is going to be happy. I think there needs to be standards set up. Like a rule of conduct or whatever. No double standards. No letting some people slip and others not.  Is this going to be a G site? Is it going to be a XXX site? I mean who knows, really? I came here to talk about star wars, collecting, and to socialize. I'm sure everyone else is here for the same thing.

As a last comment... I mean no ill will to anyone, and I'm not mad. I wasn't even going to say anything until I recieved the double standard comment, and started thinking about how some people need to lighten up a little. I feel that the society I live in today harbors the belief that people can find anything vulgar, be offended, hurt, and have the right to complain about it to anyone. Personally, I feel offended by those people. I feel repressed and limited by their oppressing stance on life, and the inability to take a joke.  And that's my opinion; I can't help but have it.

Post thoughts below, as I'm sure some people will have some. I just typed this out quickly, so don't bother correcting my grammatical errors if any are present  

And once more, I'm not trying to be a jerk, or directing malice towards anyone. I would just like to get an opinion out here and hear some others thoughts, and hopefully issues like this can be aided (but something like this will never be permanently fixed, as it is life: ever changing and evolving.

so if I fake admit ur my hero, does that intital me to a smooch too?

Let's try to keep this away from certain body parts, if you wouldn't mind James...    Thanks!

How 'bout we just change your answer here to:

Droid  

don't throw stones at me, but one of the reasons i like Wrath Of Khan so much is because the space shots look so friggin cool, as do these pictures.

wal-mart has similar items. i've seen them called 10 inch figs. I dunno, I'm not down with them. simply cause they are so close to thr 12", and I dont want to buy both, so i'd rather just get the cooler looking 12" figs.