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The Effects of Censorship — a Tale of Two Websites

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the something-to-think-about dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Two message boards devoted to the same topic have each been on-line for roughly eight years. One is censored, and the other is not. The two forums are virtually the only ones devoted to their topic (polygraph testing, a fairly arcane one), so they're in "competition" only with each other. The result? The uncensored forum has more than six times as many posts as the censored one." To be fair, there are a few other differences between the two forums, but the point may still be valid.

12 of 146 comments (clear)

  1. first uncensored post by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    cmdrtaco smells bad.

    1. Re:first uncensored post by The+Moof · · Score: 3, Funny

      ******** smells ***. I don't follow...
  2. umm.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Does the censored one get "FRIST P0ST!!!" posts?

    Also, FRIST P0ST!!!

  3. 6 times as many posts is not necessarily ... by garett_spencley · · Score: 4, Funny

    * post censored *

    1. Re:6 times as many posts is not necessarily ... by The_Wilschon · · Score: 5, Funny

      Parent is making things up. I'm certainly not gett~$^NO CARRIER

      --
      SIGSEGV caught, terminating

      wait... not that kind of sig.
  4. Anecdotal Evidence Does not Warrant a Headline by Russianspi · · Score: 5, Funny

    Wow. One website has a green background, and another has a blue background. The one with the green background has 12x as many posts as the other one. Coincidence? I think not.

    1. Re:Anecdotal Evidence Does not Warrant a Headline by CarAnalogy · · Score: 3, Funny

      Argh, modded down because of stupid pull-down automodding.

      Fixed now :)

  5. Wow, such insightful research by piemcfly · · Score: 4, Funny
    Talk about useless research.
    I wonder what their research proposal looked like.

    I bet it goes something like this:

    research hypothesis: censorship leads to conversations (c) being censored
    H1: c1 > c2

    Null-hypothesis: censorhsip has no consequences whatsoever
    H0: c1 = c2

    Money needed for research: $12 million + travel expenses
  6. 6.5x posts in unmoderated forums.... by jozmala · · Score: 5, Funny

    Why polygraph is bad.
        Cheap V|agra.
            Beatiful Blondes.
    Polygraph for therapy.
        Exotic Massage.
            Asian TEENS!
                HOT LADIES.
      FREE BOOKS!
          BOOKS ABOUT MASSAGE.
              HOT CHICKS!
              ENLRAGE YOUR PENIS.
      Grow HUGE Package.
      Taste of china.

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  7. Re:Melodramatic by sukotto · · Score: 4, Funny

    Of all of the terms that get tortured out of proper use (on this board, esepcially), "censorship" is one of most abused. When you We do not torture terms here at Slashdot. (We may, however, subject them to severely harsh treatment, inflicting traumatic pain and degradation. But not *torture*, oh no, never *torture*)

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  8. Re:polygraph testing? by Otter · · Score: 3, Funny
    I think you're confusing polygraphers with Jedis or Betazoids or something like that.

    That said, your theory is still an improvement over the one in the original story...

    --
    What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
  9. Re:But the quality of the posts by DittoBox · · Score: 2, Funny

    Something concerns me though. There's the more pertinent question of your sanity, now that we know what you drive.

    Actually it's not really a question. It's more along the lines of "WTF dude!?!?"

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