There's something I can't understand.

I'm sitting on what seems a comfortable chair, but I can't get all the comfort I expect. I'm continuously changing position but it doesn't help. Sometimes I feel like I'm slipping off.
This chair looks really good, a red velvet cushion on the seat, a finely carved wood structure - a masterpiece of wood carving art, that surely required a lot of work, time and skills.
But it's not comfortable as expected.

A closer look shows that the carved wood tells a tale of thoughts, opinions, questions and answers; a melting pot in which different people meet different ideas and share parts of themselves. A relaxing chair called Message Forum.

* * * * *

Maybe it's only something I still can't understand, but I think it's worth to tell my whole truth. Let's first state my personal point of view.

I'm not offended or annoyed by meaningless posts. I simply ignore them, though sometimes an apparently meaningless message turns out to be in some way thought-provoking.
Some concepts are categorical imperatives, others aren't. The concept of "beauty" in arts is an imperative; what you like or not is not imperative (an example: Picasso is a great and produced "beautiful" paintings, wheter or not we like them). "Meaningful" may be both. Something is meaningful if adds some new information to my knowledge, but out-of-context information is totally meaningless (an example? knowing how Microsoft bonds are performing today is totally meaningless if I'm trying to figure out how to handle WinSockets exceptions).

In all our everyday communications we have a set of implicit and explicit rules about what's meaningful and what's not; then, our personal taste decides what's interesting and what's not. Of course, "meaningful" and "interesting" aren't the same thing. Since 1992, I manage three message forums; one of them is the largest (actually its backup sums up to 1.4GB of plain text files) collection of meaningless scrap, vulgarities, flame wars and swearing I've ever seen, but - for a lot of reason I don't list now - it's *interesting*. Another of those forums is meaningful only to me and about other twenty people; sometimes I find it really boring, sometimes not - but it's a really useful communications channel. The third forum is the weirdest collection of artwork and poetry parody ever seen: meaningful and interesting.
What happens if I post some C++ code in each one? In the first one, the feedback would be probably a rude invitation to go and make some profit on some parts of my body, in the second I'll get technical opinions and some optimizations/fixes, in the third I'll surely get my code rewritten in rhymes and/or a MIDI song based on it.

A set of rules explicitly states what's into each forum; other implicit rules, that everyone can make out by looking at the contents, help to understand how's each one interesting or meaningful to a person.

* * * * *

Let's look at the Msg Forum policy: we've seven points; 4), 6) and 7) can be classified as "legalese"; 1) and 2) are explicit rules. If I'm interested in pornography or like to start flame wars, they let me know that I'm in the wrong place. 3) is another explicit rule that aims to keeping a low "noise/signal" ratio in the communication, so if my replies are almost one-line msgs like "Cool!", "It's really true!" or "Wow", it let me know that I'm again in the wrong place. 5) is clear like water; I cannot complain here if RC doesn't work. So good.
Now I go to the forum and look here and there to discover what's going on. Someone speaks about his/her freaks; another person tells about living in an apartment block; other people discuss of slang; someone asks information about fishing tools. There's a mysterious RWAC going on, that catches my attention. Wow! Wild and free messaging!

* * * * *

But, wait a moment. People complains about crappy messages. People complains about meaningless threads and idiotic postings. Uninteresting messages are deleted!
How can I understand if my ideas or opinions are of any interest? How can I understand if I'm annoying a closed club of friend? Or maybe is some form of censorship or racism against someone? Who knows! ...and, by the way, deleting my postings is really a personal offence. Who has the rights to decide to delete my always meaningful and worldwide interesting opinions?

Why don't we state - as first, second and third rule - what's accepted, what's not and that uninteresting stuff is unconditionally deleted on the opinion of the webmaster?

This will give two results: (1) everyone knows that if his/her msgs. disappear, it's nothing personal at all but simply an editorial choice; (2) who can't stand such rules or is looking for another kind of free forum understands that he's in the wrong places.

* * * * *

As a personal note I never deleted a word from the message forums I manage. Sometimes I banned a person, but simply because I received formal complains about his behaviour. As far as my personal opinion about freedom of expression is concerned, I only reject any kind of communication that can be classified as a clear and present danger for the community, is a criminal offence or in some way is anti-ethical.
Well, it's not true. On a daily basis, some messages are rejected and don't appear on the forum, but none is deleted - and all are automatically indexed and backed up (the whole thing is a bit more complex: messages older than 60 days or exceeding a count of 65536 are backed up and put off-line; every night the archive is backed up on tape; every week the off-line messages and other information are backed on a CD and stored in a fire-proof safe behind a painting hanging from the wall which combination is my birthday, 24-09-1970; the part of this sentence from "stored" to the "birthday" -bounds excluded- is false).

* * * * *

Now the chair is again comfortable; the sun is setting down while the train runs to Milan Central. Far away from the railway, green fields become the suburbs of Milan. In ten minutes we'll be at destination. F., sitting on the seat in front of me, is sleeping; golden sunrays create a suggestion of colours on her dark, curly hairs and on her pale skin. It's time to go. Now, I'll save this, turn off the computer and open the window. The train, in a few minutes will slow down and gently roll while heading for the Central Station, that will show three large, round and iron gray mouths. From the open window, I feel a spring-scented evening while the last moments of sun disappear behind a building.

At home, again.

AP.