You're Free to Speak Your Mind!

I guess, but you can speak your mind on facebook too.

It sure seems that way now and did when I first joined this site in 2003. This has always been a good thing about RIA and always will be. But I would like to say that from this point on, I will no longer have anything to do with or related to the hatred of other members on this website, no matter how much they deserve it. It's defeatist to me and after my last visit a few days ago I left a few reviews slamming a couple of users on this site that I don't agree with based on their hatred for other reviewers or myself. I was acting quite immature and it's very out of character for me. This doesn't mean I won't state my opinion and/or dislike for other people in reviews that have nothing to do with RIA; for example: The Beatles, Ronald Reagan, etc. I just wanted to make that clear. That being said, I still won't have any problems teasing MagD or other users out of fun, because I actually like them. But that's all on this topic and I hope this site doesn't go completely under be... Read more

Yes, but getting thoughts from my brain to the text box can be quite a challenge at times.

Yep, but unfortunately some people use it as a forum to spew hate....

Never. Ever. Ever take the freedom to type a strong opinion for granted. . .there are places in the world where you cannot. The varying quality of RIA (and some of the contributors) is a strength - not a weakness. Opinions (good and bad) are reflections of freedom of expression. This is a noble human achievement. . .even when dealing with retards.

Not really: "freedom" to speak one's mind is a subjective idea. There was a time when there was a fair amount of censorship on RIA (before the powers-that-be abandoned the site). One has to understand the paradigm of the economics of the site, and what is allowed to say and what one is not. Doubtless there are things you could post in, say, China or Saudi Arabia that would have been censored here.

...and a place to get the wake-up call that these reviews are written by real people and that while you're pretty much free to speak your mind, consequences lie in wait. This may be the internet, but even the internet is a real part of life.

nice to come here and say what one thinks. speak your mind on all kinds of subjects. some may agree with you others may not. true for most sites.

Absolutely true, but there are also million other places on the web where you are free to post whatever you want. Besides, the internet is not really about "speaking," which presumes somebody is listening, but about writing opinions, usually obscure ones. If posting your writing to the web can really be compared to speech, it is like speaking into a tall glass rather than a bullhorn.

As long as you agree to suffer the consequences, of course you are free to speak your mind. And even if you don't agree, the powers to be will still make sure you suffer them.

So is everyone else and its not always a good thing...

Indeed. And no matter how foolish, repulsive or imbecilic your opinion, it is almost certain to find a community of interest.

But just as important you are also free to parrot out of context snippets from millenia old publications without any discussion or critical analysis and pass it off as comment.

Yep, trolls or no trolls, your opinion means something here!

Along with reading the opinions of others on various topics, one of the primary reasons for coming to RIA. Before the Facebook application came along, I also used to like the ability to speak my mind freely with a fair amount of anonymity (All of my reviews now appear under my real name on Facebook) , but I've given that up for those rather addicting compatability tests.

Even if your opinions are abhorrent, you will find that there are people out there who agree with you! Also, you might be funnier than you think you are.