By Lannie Brockstein.

October 6th, 2019.

First printing: The SCR blockchain.

BECAUSE SCORUM HAS AN OTHER FORUM, that means Scorum's culture is not monocultural or only about sports. Nor is it multicultural or everything equally the same. Rather, the culture at Scorum is intercultural, and thus it is a place where its users can get to know one another not only as sports fans that are each wearing the same Scorum sports jersey, but as individual human beings, each of whom has their own cultural background that is partly based on their own experiences and aspirations in life. That is precisely what Scorum's Other forum is for—so that all Scorum users can also get to know each other as well-rounded human beings.

The culture at Scorum is not only governed by the Scorum community. The Scorum company's own rules must also be complied with. There is a word in the English language for any system of governance that is solely governed by the community. It is the kind of word that makes a person unintentionally spray it when they say it. That word is “ochlocracy”.

An ochlocracy is one of the worst forms of democracy because it is a tyranny of the mob. There is not one ochlocracy that protects the rights of minorities, which is to say that none of them protect anybody whom is not a part of "the mob". In not protecting minorities, they persecute them. Is that what we want for Scorum to be? A place of persecution, and thus of monoculturalism where "otherness" is automatically flagged by the mob, I mean, by the community, simply because that "otherness" is...different?

Otherness is supposed to be different!

Not every totalitarian society is totalitarian because of its government. Some societies are totalitarian because several of its anonymous citizens have formed mobs that tyrannize and terrorize minority citizens, similar to how the hooded Klu Klux Klan did. At Scorum, the equivalent of that is if one or more anonymous users does illegally flag (or threatens to do so) the article or comment of another user, in a boorish attempt to force the legitimate opinion of that other user to change their legitimate opinion to something that reflects a subjective preference of the solipsistic and intolerant user or users.

Sadly, but not surprisingly, politically correct mobs and vigilantes such as social justice warriors have segregated each of the cultures at multicultural Facebook and Twitter into their having become an oppressive totalitarian culture where Freedom of Speech (which is what truly makes for great writing) is neither respected nor protected, where everybody is prejudged as being a racist until they have been proven to have apologized for it, where anonymous whales at Scorum and Steem illegally use its downvoting or flagging feature as a personal attack against those whose legitimate opinions they subjectively disagree with, and where Facebook and Twitter "shadowban" the accounts of users without informing them they have done so.

To remedy those forms of micro-terrorism that have become all too prevalent at Facebook and Twitter, and to a lesser extent at Steem and Scorum, the soon to be released Voice social media platform on the EOS blockchain has specifically focused its development team on empowering Voice users to prevent them from being chased away by the illegal use of downvoting or flagging, so that "everybody's voice can be heard", because Voice strongly recognizes that Freedom of Speech is the lifeblood of every successful social media platform.

Sadly, and like at Steem, it is technically possible (though not in compliance with Scorum's Terms of Use) for the legitimate articles and comments of Scorum users to be illegally flagged, and that is why the Scorum community (and especially its whales) has a moral duty to collectively protect the Freedom of Speech of every user, and thus for the Scorum community to recognize that Scorum's Other forum exists specifically because the Scorum company that is a registered business itself does itself recognize and respect that Freedom of Speech exists, along with the fact that Freedom of Speech is the lifeblood of every successful social media platform.

If Scorum did not have an Other forum that is expressly for non-sports articles, then Freedom of Speech at Scorum could not exist in any meaningful way, for there would be no place to practice it in its depths.

Freedom of Speech at Scorum includes having the freedom to post articles that are not about sports and without being penalized for it. In that sense, Scorum's Other forum is kind of like its atheist forum whereas Scorum's sports forums are kind of like its religious forums. Freedom of Speech at Scorum also includes its users having the freedom to respectfully advertise at Scorum their own articles and comments that are their intellectual property and thus that are their products, similar to the way that Scorum itself promotes the products of companies it sells advertising space to.

Of course spam advertisements that are not relevant to the article or comment they are posted in reply to merit being flagged, but any discerning adult can easily recognize that not all advertising is spam, and any user at Scorum who does not recognize that their own articles and comments are their intellectual property and thus their products that should be politely advertised is not being honest with themselves.

It is often discussed and debated at Steem and Scorum and the other decentralized social media platforms which is the best one, but asking that question does itself stem from a 20th century centralized way of thinking, and not a 21st century decentralized way of thinking, which is what the decentralized social media platforms require of their users in order for those platforms to thrive.

The same way that the footer of articles posted at Scorum have a "promote" arrow that makes it easy for those articles to be promoted at Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, Whatsapp, LinkedIn, and Telegram, every article at Scorum should also have a "promote" arrow that makes it possible for articles also to be easily upvoted at Steem, Whaleshares, and every other decentralized social media platform, in order to help prevent Scorum users from being exploited by Scorum, and also to prevent users of those other decentralized social media platforms from also being exploited there, as upvoting rewards the curator with curation rewards, and the curation rewards of any one decentralized social media platform is not enough of a reward for most authors and curators that are not whales.

Most users of Scorum whom are still centralized in their thinking generally perceive the same article being published on more than one social media platform as "re-posting", along with that being taboo to them. But it is not at all taboo in the world of business for any author to syndicate their articles, which is what "re-posting" actually is, as doing so be no different from the way that musicians syndicate their songs on many different radio stations because not everybody listens to the same radio stations though many of their listeners like the same songs.

As for Freedom of Speech, it is about each person having the legal right to say anything that they want to say, and as many times as they want to syndicate it across the different platforms—especially those that are decentralized—no matter if their article i not about any specific topic (such as sports) in particular. Having Freedom of Speech means being able to talk about farting (though that can be a sport, so perhaps that is not a good example), health, camping, and being a patron of one's local pizzaria, pub, or vapor lounge—and in regards to Scorum, so long as such non-sports in-depth conversations at Scorum are respectfully limited to Scorum's Other forum.

Freedom of Speech at Scorum also includes its users having the freedom to promote/advertise in a respectful way their own articles/products when it is relevant for them to do so (in order to help prevent them from being exploited by Scorum).

In the business world, of which Scorum is a part, if any product is not properly advertised, then it is likely to fail. Furthermore, without Freedom of Speech, social media platforms fail. Freedom of Speech at Facebook and Twitter have become non-existent in that Facebook and Twitter users whom speak freely—as every artistic person must—are in danger of having their account there "shadowbanned", if not banned, altogether. At Scorum, its users are in danger of having their articles/comments illegally flagged, which is also a form of shadowbanning, and that is why the Scorum community must always be vigilant in its standing up to that oppressive form of online behaviour.

At any social media platform, it is usually so that the most widely-read posts are also the most controversial. But there is no financial incentive for anybody to post controversial articles at Scorum if those articles are going to be illegally flagged in voting wars of aggression by any Scorum user who does not respect Freedom of Speech, and who does not respect the moral right for users to respectfully promote/advertise their own articles/products similarly to the way that Scorum itself advertises the products of companies, and if the Scorum community is going to be a silent enabler of that illegal flagging that is an inappropriate use of censorship.

The almost non-existent price of SCR is partly due to Scorum's voting wars that are far less interesting than the Clone Wars of the Star Wars universe, but that are no less evil than nerdy Star Trek fans rejoicing over The Last Jedi having performed poorly at the box office—to the degree where most Sith-oriented Star Wars fans felt justified in their having boycotted Solo: A Star Wars Story out of nothing more than revenge and spite.

Speaking of Star Wars, if you would like to read my latest "HOW I WATCH STAR WARS: Episode II - How Darth Sidious Survived the Destruction of the Second Death Star" which I have recently posted at the Steem blockchain, please click here, but be warned, it does contain possible spoilers regarding the upcoming Star Wars: Episode XI: The Rise of Skywalker. Alas, I was not able to syndicate that article at Scorum without its being able to receive its full rewards, because I posted it first at Steem.

Because there are so many sports forums at Scorum, no hardcore sports fan should actually give a damn if any other users post their non-sports articles in Scorum's lone Other forum—and if they do care, then their care is false, because to be caring is not to be an insular and controlling bigot. To be caring is not to be unjust. To be caring is to be warm-hearted and merciful, rather than punitive and cold-hearted. Tough love is not love—it is a form of mindless hate. It is the Dark Side of The Scorum.

As the "About" page of the Scorum company that is a registered business clearly permits at Scorum for “any topic to be written on”, the culture at Scorum is therefore not meant to be governed by the tyranny of any mob that only wants for sports articles to be posted in all of Scorum's forums—including its lone Other forum that has incredible potential to bring many new users to Scorum. Thus, there is no such thing as “the desire of the Scorum community” (as @pete did phrase it in his comment to @idunique’s article here) without that desire being in relation to the rules set out by the Scorum company itself that is a registered business, one of which clearly states on its “About” page that at Scorum “any topic can be written on”.

In freedom-loving countries where Freedom of Speech is protected, if any of its citizens is watching a t.v. station there and they do not like its programming, then they have the legal right to change the channel and thus to watch the programming of a different t.v. station. That might seem like commonsense to the West's television viewers, but regarding stupid and evil countries such as North Korea where Freedom of Speech is not at all protected by law, every North Korean is required by law to watch on a daily basis the horrible televised propaganda/spam infomercials that North Korea broadcasts everyday about its totalitarian regime, lest they be imprisoned, tortured, or murdered. In China, where Freedom of Speech is also not protected by law, if a citizen is caught having visited a website that has not been approved by China’s community party, that citizen might also be imprisoned, tortured, or murdered—especially if they happen to be a member of the Falun Gong which is a genuinely peaceful spiritual practice.

Any user at Scorum who values Freedom of Speech does recognize that those at Scorum who consider themselves to be the moderators of Scorum but without being their accountable to the Scorum company’s own rules (one of which clearly states on Scorum’s “About” page that “any topic can be written on”), are nothing more than micro-terrorist vigilantes, because they have taken the law at Scorum into their own hands. They are North Korean at heart. What is worse, is that those self-appointed moderators enforce in a wrongful manner the rules that have been clearly set out by the Scorum company that is a registered business, and thus their actions are harmful to Freedom of Speech at Scorum along with the free market price of SCR—especially with the new Voice platform that is soon to be released having made it not technically possible for any user to inappropriately censor the articles and comments of others.

As Scorum has an Other forum, that is clearly where all non-sports articles at Scorum are meant to be posted by means of each author selecting Scorum's Other tag as the main tag before their non-sports articles are published, so that they respectfully are not posted in any of Scorum's sports forums.

If Scorum’s Other forum was meant only for sports that do not have their own forum tag, then it would be titled Other Sports (like at the HFBoards message board), and the Scorum company that is a registered business on its “About” page would not have clearly stated that at Scorum “any topic can be written on”. Furthermore, Scorum's ADD TAGS section that shows when publishing an article would not include tags for non-sports topics, such as tags for food, flower, family, fish, and freddy mercury. Yes, dear readers, at Scorum in its Other forum, its users are perfectly welcome to discuss and debate the awesomeness that is the music of Freddy Mercury!

Thus doth I recognize in my courageously speaking out against the repressive Scorum mafia that any user at Scorum who does not comply with the Scorum company’s own rules, and thus whom is behaving as a vigilante or ochlocratic group of vigilantes in their trying to illegally use its flagging feature to enforce their own subjective rules, is being harmful to Scorum, and thus they are also being harmful to the price of SCR so long as they continue to misinterpret Scorum’s own rules to suit their myopic opinion that Scorum’s culture should be monocultural and not intercultural like in reality it actually is.

If you enjoyed reading this rebellious article, then stay tuned to my decentralized blog articles that I syndicate at Scorum and Steem (because just as not everybody uses each of the different decentralized social media platforms, not everybody listens to the same radio stations—though many of them play the same songs) for the upcoming fourth part in this series of seven articles that I have written about Scorum's Other Forum, and that is tentatively titled "PATRIOTIC DISSENT: Scorum's OTHER Forum, Part 4 - Chewbacca's Food Porn!"

#interculturalism #monoculturalism #multiculturalism #sports #nonsports #otherness #patrioticdissent #truthtopower #freedomofspeech #familyandfriends