Like to see your name being dragged through the mud?

There is an internet forum site called Topix. You can find your city and there will be a discussion board where anyone may begin discussions and post under any name. Used properly, the site can be informational and fun. But that's the catch -- it's not used properly.

Since posters are protected via anonymity, they feel free to post anything that comes into their minds -- true or not, decent or not, anybody's business or not. Posters are deliberately carrying out personal vendettas against innocent people. The victims are being hurt with this site -- their reputations are suffering and their families are becoming, in some instances, physically ill. I have heard of one case where a marriage hit a very rocky point because of scurrilous allegations made on the site.

All the free-speechers yell about censorship, but there are laws regarding libel that definitely apply here. The old example holds that you can't yell, "FIRE!" in a crowded theater. I had a wise professor once who said that when our freedoms are abused, we will eventually lose them. And freedom of speech is being abused on Topix.

There is a ray of hope. One of the posters calling himself/herself "Forum Commando" has decided to monitor and try to shut down the libelous and defamatory threads. He/she has had a little luck so far, but it's not easy to get them to take the threads off. For one thing, their contact information is extremely difficult to follow. I've started hitting the "feedback" link at the bottom and going down to the heading about reporting a bad editor. Then I paste the URL of the page I'm on in the page box.

My hope is that people will begin to see how outrageous this is and will bombard Topix everytime they see an inappropriate post. There is strength in numbers, and if everyone who has been damaged by this website sued, we'd put Topix out of business, which is exactly where it needs to be!