When living your life impacts others in a negative way, it's time to re-examine how you're living it. My original request was simply to have the thread removed so the venomous, childish ranting directed at student athletes isn't immortalized. I fully realize it pales in comparison to boards of AQ schools (I live in central Ohio afterall) but that doesn't excuse it. Those boards are filled with commentary from people who have little if any interest in the University outside of their ability to throw on a jersey and become a card carrying member of the mob. I get freedom of speech / expression ... I just don't understand why it has to be carved in stone for everyone to see long after those that typed it (hopefully) realize it was a mistake to voice it.
The reason it's "carved in stone" is that this is the Internet. For better or worse, that's how it works, and as big boys or girls we should realize that and make our own choices about whether and how to participate.
Also, by virtue of the fact that everything we post reflects on us, you should have nothing to worry about. People who think the way you do have the ability to join you in forming positive or negative judgments about users of the Web site and their ideas. Conversely, people who don't think like you can form judgments that are as opposite to your judgments as they wish. In that respect, it's no different than how our opinions work away from the Internet.
For example, I disagree with you about censoring or deleting threads that contain direct criticisms of individual student-athletes. The football and basketball players at OU are considered to be public figures under our legal system. They're limited public figures, but they're public figures nonetheless. Further, they're all legal adults who could go join the military, kill other human beings and be exposed to life-alteringly horrible events, but you apparently think that they shouldn't be able to handle public criticism of how they play games or conduct themselves in the community while receiving something of immense value in return for their participation in college sports.
Whether or not somebody goes too far in that criticism is a matter or opinion, and it could also become a legal matter if it crossed over into defamation of character, invasion of privacy or casting someone in a false light.
That's how it works, Bub, so you might as well be an adult about it.
As a final example, and I don't post this to be mean or to call you out specifically but rather to try to help you understand, you posted something in September that "impacted me in a negative way." You were undoubtedly just living your life, so it just speaks to the issue of subjectivity and letting the chips fall where they may when it comes to freedom of speech. Here's what you wrote:
For a good dose of Marshall math mixed with Appalachian grammar all under a warm blanket of blind Groupthink loyalty, check out this gem from Aaron...
As a longtime resident of Appalachia who has some Appalachian roots and whose grammar is as good or better than anybody else on this board, I found that slightly offensive. But, my "recourse" was not to ask the mods to delete it - it was to remember that Bobcat36 has posted something of this nature and to form a bit of a judgment about that. It's that simple.