On comment abuse

On comment abuse

Posted Nov 20, 2003 17:30 UTC (Thu) by taruntius (guest, #1140)
In reply to: On comment abuse by james
Parent article: On comment abuse

James' suggestion is indeed just about the best I've read so far. But as for this part:

(Currently it looks as though the "right" to post comments is part of the package you buy with a subscription, potentially making it legally dodgy to ban subscribers from posting. But IANAL.)

I don't think there's any problem with that at all. It's just a matter of the language used when the subscription is bought. As long as LWN's subscription policy includes a clause stating that posting comments is a privelege, not a right, and that said privelege may be suspended at LWN's discretion if the subscriber abuses that privelege, then there should be no problem.

Consider a similar case: you may well have paid ten thousand dollars for a membership in the local country club, which entitles you to use the club's facilities. But if you always show up there stinking drunk and make a habit out of hitting on all the other members' wives, then the club would be well advised to suspend your priveleges.

This situation seems to me similar to the classic "tragedy of the commons", but with one difference: because you have to pay to get access to the commons, you have an even stronger obligation not to befoul the commons precisely because other people are paying for access to it too.

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