SweetMercury's dashboard

A comment on the problem "Twitter refuses to uphold Terms of Service" in Twitter:

It's foolish to prefer public censorship over private. – SweetMercury, on May 26, 2008 22:57

A comment on the problem "Twitter refuses to uphold Terms of Service" in Twitter:

"The right to disseminate information is one of our most fundamental rights, and as such I would rather be censored by a court than by a corporation."

Then you are a fool. The limits on censorship contained within the Constitution apply only to the public sector. Corporations have no ability or right to censure you, unless you are on their property. Twitter is a PRIVATE web property, and if you want to use it, you have to play by their rules. Just because you have a right to free speech doesn't obligate Twitter (or any company) to provide you with a soapbox. – SweetMercury, on May 26, 2008 21:43

SweetMercury shared an idea in Paltalk on May 25, 2008 00:59:

Need user-customization of "push to talk."

The push to talk works fine, however, it can be a real pain when using it on a Mac. I tend to use the Command key all the time (I'm a hotkey kind of user), and every time I use Cmd+Tab to another app away from the PTE window, it activates my mic. Not only that, it LEAVES IT ON while I work on my other apps. Then I inevitably come back to see people in the room saying "no sound" or "all I hear is clicking" (my typing).

Ideally, I could assign the key under the "File > Preferences" menu item, but I'd be thrilled with a checkbox that turned it on or off.

A comment on the problem "Twitter refuses to uphold Terms of Service" in Twitter:

"They are protected by free speech laws."
Actually, no, they aren't. In a private domain, free speech doesn't apply, which is exactly why Twitter was able to have a clause in their TOS which sad they would remove someone if they were being abusive. Now they time comes to step up an enforce their TOS, they don't?

They can fall back on the idea of "well, we are strictly communications, we don't mess with content" all they want, but THEIR OWN RULES say otherwise. – SweetMercury, on May 24, 2008 19:39

A comment on the problem "Twitter refuses to uphold Terms of Service" in Twitter:

@deb, well, as far as I know, she hasn't used this as an effort to move Twitter's user-base to Pownce. Plus. I don't see how the two are direct competitors. – SweetMercury, on May 23, 2008 03:33

A comment on the problem "Twitter refuses to uphold Terms of Service" in Twitter:

@deb, and that changes what about my point? Even if a person can block an anonymous profile, that doesn't mean Twitter isn't providing a medium for a person or people to be completely defamed. Which I don't imagine they intend their service to be used for. – SweetMercury, on May 23, 2008 02:59

A comment on the problem "Twitter refuses to uphold Terms of Service" in Twitter:

How many times does it have to be stated that this is beyond the scope of direct harassment and into libel. – SweetMercury, on May 23, 2008 02:45

A comment on the problem "Twitter refuses to uphold Terms of Service" in Twitter:

What about mediating or curbing abusive behavior from one of your users to another would make you cease to be a "communication utility?" I've been involved in many, many online "communication utilities" that drew clear lines about how users could treat one another and still fostered a spirit of open communication and idea exchange—even if the ideas are about picking out socks in the morning. – SweetMercury, on May 23, 2008 01:44

A comment on the problem "Twitter refuses to uphold Terms of Service" in Twitter:

I wonder how it would take for Twitter to ban me if I started tweeting about how @ev is a complete jackass and Twitter is staffed by cowards? – SweetMercury, on May 23, 2008 00:20

A comment on the problem "Twitter refuses to uphold Terms of Service" in Twitter:

Keep in mind, Jason, that you also have the ability to set a good precedent here, to establish Twitter's rights as a private domain.

Yes, you guys allow anyone to join, and are public in that respect, but the law is on your side when it comes to asserting your rights over your service/domain. It's yours. Ban whom you must, in this case, the community is looking for you to not tolorate harassment. – SweetMercury, on May 22, 2008 23:15

SweetMercury replied on May 22, 2008 22:35 to the problem "Twitter refuses to uphold Terms of Service" in Twitter:

@Jason:
"As a communication utility, Twitter does not get involved in these disputes between users over issues of content except in limited circumstances. Twitter is a provider of information, not a mediator. Specific physical threats, certain legal obligations, privacy breaches of specific types of information (e.g. SSN, credit cards), and misleading impersonation are some cases where we may become involved and potentially terminate an account."

Would you care to explain to the community how publicly calling someone a "c---" over your network or displaying their full name when the user otherwise did not disclose it did not violate these terms?

You're not being asked to mediate a bickering session between two users, you're being asked:
1. To protect your users from undue harassment the way you can, by preventing it over your domain/network.
2. To UPHOLD YOUR TOS.
3. To place the happiness and possible safety of your users over your fear of a lawsuit.

A comment on the problem "Twitter refuses to uphold Terms of Service" in Twitter:

My first thought, before I read her article was similar: "why can't you just block the user so you don't see him?"

However, that will do nothing about the fact that anyone else following the harasser will see the foul things he's saying. – SweetMercury, on May 22, 2008 21:34

A comment on the problem "Twitter refuses to uphold Terms of Service" in Twitter:

They'd have to delete an account, Block an IP, block an SMS phone number, and block an IM name, from what I can tell. All doable, really.

Of course, what's to stop the stalker from changing all that info, it's not difficult, if he's determined. Harassment of this type should be covered under criminal law, though, really. Can't call someone a "c---" over twitter from jail. – SweetMercury, on May 22, 2008 19:30

SweetMercury replied on May 22, 2008 18:49 to the problem "Twitter refuses to uphold Terms of Service" in Twitter:

I hope they get on the ball with this.

One question, though, what are Twitter's abilities to completely freeze out a user? (Not that they shouldn't try...)

A comment on the question "May 20: Twitter Downtime" in Twitter:

You're definitely right about the user base being willing to help out. Granted, this particular outage isn't a money problem, but future infrastructure demands could be met by user donations, probably. If every user donated a buck or two... – SweetMercury, on May 22, 2008 08:20

A comment on the question "May 20: Twitter Downtime" in Twitter:

@Thomas? No redundancy? That's horrible! If they lose their data then posterity will be denied the time I tweeted about choosing between crew socks or ankle socks! – SweetMercury, on May 22, 2008 05:45

A comment on the question "May 20: Twitter Downtime" in Twitter:

Do you really think the "time value" we are "paying" twitter with will update their servers or erase the time it takes to make huge changes to what is likely a VAST database? – SweetMercury, on May 21, 2008 17:48

A comment on the question "May 20: Twitter Downtime" in Twitter:

The Twitter home page had just such a "snappy" site, that directed me here. – SweetMercury, on May 21, 2008 01:43

A comment on the question "When is Twitter going to get groups?" in Twitter:

Privacy is definitely a must. I use two twitter accounts just because I use it so much for a private group (my band, we all use it via SMS) but I say things I would like to keep within that context. And I use another account via Twitterific just for regular twitter usage. If i could have one account where I could address a private group like this : dg myGroup ...

That would be awesome.

The conferencing ideas are pretty great as well, maybe a mixture of both features? – SweetMercury, on May 21, 2008 01:40

SweetMercury started following the question "When is Twitter going to get groups?" in Twitter.