Smiler is one of my favorite Axers. He always provides invaluable contribution to the threads.

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Jones writes 'it'd limit what is written on Ax, ppl would fear reprisal, legal action or whatever.'

But for good reason, right? I mean, what if they are breaking the law by saying damaging, libelous remarks about someone else? This brings up a whole other topic of how we feel about the laws in each of our countries. That is a much bigger topic that just Ax. We shoudln't assume that the existance of the internet is going to 'fix' each of our legal systems by allowing anybody to talk smack about anybody. It is easy to consider that idea if you are not in a position to have your business damaged by some anonymous person on an internet site. Most of the people on Ax are not in that position.

That would bring me to my next point... what if Ax instated these strict registration requirements and a lot of people went to another Kickboxing website? Personally, I think that would be great! :-) The people that would stay would be much more enjoyable to interact with. No more smack-talk. Or, there would be smack-talk,

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Dynamo
Why are you doing this?
So much infighting. This is such a waste of time.

...But...what have I got to lose...nothing.

'Ax is great for info but it it is hardly democratic.'

Let me make this clear to you. Ax is a website owned by me. I can do whatever I want with it. I have no idea where you developed this expectation that Ax should be a democracy-based website. This is not the first time that I've heard that comment, and I think it's ridiculous. The content of this website is filled by the community. The website is not RUN by the community. I put a lot of effort into developing and maintaining this site.

'How many times have you Brian kicked out people from AX??'

I'm not sure of the exact number, but it's about to have one more added to it.

'And if we are such a community here how come YOU ONLY decide to kick people out?'

I don't only decide. There is a small group of Ax moderators that help in making more difficult moderation decisions. But, I consider their ideas because I respect their input, not because I'm bound to them. Utlimately, I decide what happens with my website.

To put it simply, the content of this website is community driven. However, the rules and regulations of the website are NOT community driven. I occassionally ask for input from the Ax community, like I'm doing within this thread, but I make the final decisions on how the site is run.

'The thing you two trying to present and put it into effect here is called censorship.'

First of all, I'm not only talking about one idea. I'm talking about multiple concepts. That is why I assumed that you didn't read the entire thread, because you keep missing the details of the conversation.

Secondly, let me say a few things about censorship. I think censorship is very misunderstood. In reality, there is no such thing as a censorship-free environment. How can I say that? What is censorship? To me, censorship is a consequence for the things that you say. Sometimes, that consequence comes in the form of a law that says "You can't say that or you`ll go to jail!". Sometimes, censorship is less defined, but it still exists, like in the case of people from the KB community blacklisting someone for posting their opinion on an internet forum. That is still censorship. It is censorship coming from the larger community.

If I were talking directly about censorship being instated by the Ax Kickboxing Website, then you can see plenty of Censorship by looking at our list of rules for the site. Rules = Censorship. We have some rules, so we already censor what people can say, to a relatively small degree.

I am not proposing more Ax censorship. What I am proposing here is a lack of hidden identity. This provides an opportunity for censorship to be provided by some other force outside of Ax, like the legal system or the black-listing by those in the KB community. If you have a problem with the legal system, or with the KB community blacklisting people, then why don't you deal with those problems directly? Don't blame Ax for those things. Those things exist without Ax. Ax has probably protected some people from those things, but those problems exist regardless of Ax`s policies.

'even if Brian will make this a paid site nobody will check if it is really me or not.'
or
'tell me how in the world will you verify my true identity if I fill up my profile with bullshit?'

Firt of all, it has little to do with what you fill into your profile. You can say that you weight 367 lbs and are 7'8" tall and I'm not going to verify that. What I would verify is your identity... your real name.

How? If I were to receive payment from you, wouldn't I be able to verify your identity? If I accepted payments, I would only accept Paypal and Credit Card transactions. and I would only accept payments from a card or paypal account in your name. So you could, potentially, register under your friend`s name and use your friend`s credit card or paypal account, but they will get in trouble if you break the law in their name. Or, I could catch you and you could be banned from the site and possibly be taken to court for identity fraud.

Aside from payments, there are other ways to verify someone`s identity. For instance, providing a telephone number or an address that can be searched and linked to your name. Or you could send a scan of a recent utility bill, which can then be verified by that utility company. You could scan a driver`s license. There are lots of options for identity verification. Many of them are dependant upon the country in which the person is located. I could offer all of the verification options, or just a few of them, depending on how many resources it would take to support each verification process.

None of these verification processes are perfect, but they would verify most people. The verification process has almost nothing to do with the contents of your profile. The only thing it would change is your 'real name' and 'country' fields would be filled in automatically and you wouldn't be able to change them (unless you moved to another country).

I'll give an example of some real-world 'censorship' provided by the Kickboxing Community: Fast-forward to the future. Let's assume that Dynamo`s real name would be verified. If I lived in Slovakia, I might choose to avoid working with Martin Belak because I thought he sounded really stupid when he posted some ridiculous comments on an Internet Kickboxing website. If he were completely anonymous, I would not know such things about Marin Belak. I would be in the dark. However, with a real identity established, I could link his comments to him and conclude that he has been hit in the head too many times and that it would be a business risk to work with him on a promotion.

See? It's all about honesty. You decide to say something, then people know what you have to say. They get to know the REAL you. It would make people think before they speak. I've been using my real identity since the birth of Ax. I'm not afraid to say what I think.

What is everybody so afraid of?
I know the answer to that. You're afraid of having to deal with the messed up aspects of the Kickboxing community at large. Well, maybe it`s about time that we started dealing with those problems, rather than avoiding them with anonymous identities.