greg,

one of the deciding factors which is required to answer your questions, is whether or not bakerlab is a government or private entity.

if it is a truly private entity, they can pretty much do as they wish, without any law being required to explicitly give them authority to do so.

if it is a government entity, then things become more interesting. they likely have authority to moderate postings encouraging the commission of a crime, those which would invoke an imminate danger to health or safety, and those which contain "fighting words".

although they may claim omnipotent powers to act like a private entity, the reality is they are more constrained, and it is very questionable that they can properly control the dissemination of factual material.

so, the question is still unanswered, is bakerlab a government, or private, entity ?

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According to Mod.Sense claim it is clear that R@H is impossible to use GPU technology but since human mind has no limit why not project administration announce international algorythm contest for the R@H-GPU solution?!

Perhaps the sponsoring university might offer free tuition for winner or some encouraging money reward.

It is just very unfortunate that this cool project getting left behind of GPU advancement.

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From: UW Information Technology Service Center
University of Washington

The Baker lab seems to be part of the Biochemistry Department:
http://depts.washington.edu/bakerpg/

well we all know the Penguin likes to be "bad" as is his name.

as to your inability to edit in the line of your duties, then we should bring that up to your groups web department. I would think there is something they can do.

as to quoting law, what law says I can not post a persons address here?
so far all I see is you claiming privilege as moderator to edit/hide any post that contains an address.

what law/rule from the university prohibits me from posting an address?
what state law/rule or federal law/rule applies?
what rule from the project applies?

if none of the above, then I have the right/privilege to post and address.

Well, for starters, the capabilities of the message boards are all from the standard BOINC server code provided by Berkeley. Secondly, I do not desire any ability to edit posts of another user. It would simply result in accusations of misuse, and putting words in people's mouths. As you can see, removing words from their mouths is tricky enough.

I was not the one quoting law. I do not claim to know if any laws pertain to your post nor my removal of it. I've already referenced project rules that apply.

It is possible that you are correct and have the "right" to post something more then has been allowed. To exercise that right you will have to contact the Project Team and ask them to rescind my decision.

As for my "...group's web department", I am a volunteer. I am not a part of BakerLab per se. I have no group, nor any web department.

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Rosetta Moderator: Mod.Sense

According to Mod.Sense claim it is clear that R@H is impossible to use GPU technology but since human mind has no limit why not project administration announce international algorythm contest for the R@H-GPU solution?!

Perhaps the sponsoring university might offer free tuition for winner or some encouraging money reward.

It is just very unfortunate that this cool project getting left behind of GPU advancement.

The source code is already available, free, for academic use.

The project is non-profit, you can make a donation here and suggest that it be used to fund such a money reward.

It might be a better use of time though to learn more about how GPUs work and what their strengths and weaknesses are as a computing platform. Once you achieve that, you will either see how to easily write the code to do it, or how it is not feasible to do so. Either way, you will have learned something useful.

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Rosetta Moderator: Mod.Sense

i assume this to be true, as i have no reason to believe otherwise.

nonetheless, moderators act as agents for bakerlab, and as such, bakerlab can be held legally liable for the actions of any of their agents, should any such liability exist...

its simply the legal doctrine of respondeat superior...

so, what was the decision?

apparently, we can't post the physical address of the historical building named the White House...

but since dead people have no legal right to privacy, are we allowed to post

1. the FORMER addresses of DECEASED hollywood stars? (apparently, we are allowed to hyperlink to these addresses)

or

2. the latitude and longitude of the gravesites of DECEASED public figures?

are either of these two "permissible" ?

just trying to understand what the objective criteria are for permissible posts...

I am a volunteer. I am not a part of BakerLab per se. I have no group, nor any web department.

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I did not intend to imply any disconnect between my role as a moderator and any liability to the project.

As for the rest, I'll tell you what, post only what you feel is reasonable and relevant, don't repost information I've already removed, post within the forum guidelines, and I really don't believe we'll have any problems. Indeed that is the case virtually 100% of the time.

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Rosetta Moderator: Mod.Sense

There is still the issue of "privacy" regarding public figures.
The post contained an address that to the best of my knowledge did not violate any privacy rules or forum rules for that matter. As has already been stated, public figures have limited privacy when out in public. The post was about something that is public knowledge and is out in the public. So in this case it was within the scope of the privacy laws and general rules covering public figures. The location of the house is not a privacy issue as has been established already.

You selected to remove my post on the basis of so called liability and privacy which you brought up on your own. You being a volunteer took it upon your self to use these issues to defend the project and the school from any possible liability though there is no liability to be found in my post. As a volunteer do you have any connection to the project legally or in title other than moderator?

You have yet to point out what rule I violated other than your own "privacy" code which is not based on any rule or law that the project or the University have published.

Being that neither me or Penguin violated any rule of the University or the project or the forum you should reinstate the posts and consult the schools Attorney General and Rule Cordination Office for further guidance in such matters.

To borrow from Hamlet: "ay, there's the rub"

It seems to be the contention of the majority of recent posters to this thread that what has been removed, was both "reasonable and relevant" and "within the forum guidelines."

Otherwise, the objective criteria of the guidelines need to be explicitly stated, so we don't run into ex post facto issues, like we apparently did.

Since I am unaware of any guidelines to the contrary, and dead people have no legal right to privacy, in my next post I'll provide a short bio and list the latitude and longitude for the burial location of one of my favorite comedians...

As for the rest, I'll tell you what, post only what you feel is reasonable and relevant, don't repost information I've already removed, post within the forum guidelines, and I really don't believe we'll have any problems. Indeed that is the case virtually 100% of the time.

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Not certain what relevance you feel the opinion of the majority of posters has here. Lovely bio on Jack, remove GPS coordinates with 6 decimal precision and I don't see any problem with it.

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Rosetta Moderator: Mod.Sense

i believe we were self-moderating pretty well among ourselves...

Not certain what relevance you feel the opinion of the majority of posters has here.

interesting. may have to take you up on your offer, and ask dr baker himself, what he thinks about censoring the location of a hollywood star's grave...

Lovely bio on Jack, remove GPS coordinates with 6 decimal precision and I don't see any problem with it.

still waiting for you to explain all of your criteria for censoring...

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since we apparently can't post gps coordinates directly, here is a linky to gps coordinates for Jack Benny's grave.

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and here is the location of the cemetary as a whole (and not any one specific "resident"):

Hillside Memorial Park
6001 W. Centinela Avenue
Culver City
Los Angeles County
California USA
Postal Code: 90045

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dead people are boring

and yes I am waiting for a true explanation other than I feel like doing it because I can from Mod. for removing direct links to locations of people living or dead. that is still censorship and again has nothing to do with forum rules or law or any other issue that was expressed earlier.

just because you can do it and feel like you need to do it does not mean you have to do it or have the legal authority to do or act on behalf of the university.
as far as I can tell other than your self proclaimed authority as moderator you yourself have said you are a volunteer. as far as I can tell you have no backing from the university for your actions nor from the project that can withstand any legal test.

so again I say that our posts were/are valid from any standpoint that is published from the project or the university or the state. so those posts other than the inflammatory remarks should be put back into the thread.

Thread locked, game moved to new thread.

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Rosetta Moderator: Mod.Sense