SGClub Quoted on TODAY Newspaper - SGClub Forums

**maverick** · 06-02-2009, 10:53 AM

How some bloggersset the tone

Ong Dai Lin

WHEN blogger Rachel Chung read some unkind comments by netizens over the fiery attack on Yio Chu Kang MP Seng Han Thong last month, she felt compelled to respond.
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“I blogged that some people condoned the attacker and felt disgusted,” she told Today.
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The issue of netizens’ reactions to the attempt by a former taxi driver to setMr Seng on fire was raised by Senior Minister of State (Information, Communications and the Arts) Lui Tuck Yew in Parliament on Wednesday.
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He noted that while there were “a small number of comments sympathetic” to Mr Seng, “the vast majority” were “unhelpful, a significant number were unkind ... a small number were downright outrageous”.
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The Internet community had “squandered” an opportunity to show it was capable of a “higher degree of self-regulation” because it had not “done enough to rebut” such comments, he said.
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In one unkind posting, a ************ forum user said the incident should “teach” the MP to respect the elderly and not bully them. Mr Choo Zheng Xi, editor of The Online Citizen, conceded that netizens’ response to such comments “could have been stronger”.
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However, he noted that there were also “constructive voices”. A day after the attack on Mr Seng, the online portal published a posting condemning the hurtful comments over the incident.
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Mr Choo told TODAY: “We said this is unacceptable and there should not be violence in politics. We felt that it was our duty to set the tone of the discourse.”
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Well-known blogger Alex Au, noting that the aim of online discourse is to “allow all sorts of views to flourish”, felt that there were enough responses to the unkind comments.
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Mr Au was part of a group of bloggers who had submitted recommendations on Internet regulation to the Ministry for Information, Communication and the Arts last year. One of group’s recommendations was to advocate for a bigger role for community moderation.
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In a blog posting yesterday, Mr Au wondered what level of moderation R-Ad Lui expects on the Internet.
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While acknowledging that there are “justifiable limits to free speech”, “expressing childish sentiments” is not a reason for censorship, he wrote.
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Mr Choo suggested that influential bloggers can do their bit by monitoring the tone of discussion on topics such as violence in politics. “These are areas that we can moderate to say that it unacceptable,” he told TODAY.
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Blogger Chung, noting that “discussion in the more influential blogs have been quite civilised”, believes that “some level of moderation is needed” for forums that “allow people to go wild”.
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“The administrators of the website and bloggers should be one of those monitoring the websites,” she added.
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When contacted, a spokesman for the popular online forum SGClub.com said that if moderators step in every time a controversial comment is made, the purpose of a forum would be defeated.
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A moderator or administrator could provide some form of rebuttal, the spokesman said, to prevent “unfair statements from hanging” or “to get more members’ attention and thus encourage some form of rebuttal to unfair statements made”.
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“Simply removing such comments do not solve the problem of some Singaporeans being quite insensitive and ignorant, but rather buries them, waiting for them to surface again,” the spokesman added.

**-chocomint** · 06-02-2009, 11:30 AM

haha is the spokeman you?

**svpam_ms** · 06-02-2009, 11:32 AM

More publicity for Sgclub.

**goodman** · 06-02-2009, 11:38 AM

i wonder who is the spokesman!!

**Emolisher** · 06-02-2009, 11:41 AM

So whose the spokeman for SGC? ^^ Seems like a man who is well-versed in words

**Stuoid_Panda** · 06-02-2009, 11:42 AM

who is the person mmmmmmmm!

reading today now!

**[ENEgue]** · 06-02-2009, 12:35 PM

Woah, seems like the almighty google indexed one of the less-than-glamorous posts from SGC and caught the media's attention. Well, we do get a fair share of extreme remarks here, so nothing's new.

Moderation of comments made remains a grey area in many public discussion domains. I'm all for peeps to take the posts with a pinch of salt, lest one becomes troll bait.

Of course, for those that totally cross the line and whose sole purpose is to incite hate, I'm sure the mods would take care of them~

That aside, I hope the YCK MP is on track with his recovery. Also hope the perp is in a 3x3 padded cell now.

**haruX** · 06-02-2009, 03:24 PM

we're on the newspaper! woo hoo

**wenhaosp** · 06-02-2009, 03:30 PM

HAHAHA !!! too famous

**zelcadence** · 06-02-2009, 04:24 PM

Nice comments by the spokesman. Hopefully it'll attract the intended crowd.

**chowychow** · 06-02-2009, 04:34 PM

Wow we are famous!!

**Lancelot** · 06-02-2009, 07:05 PM

Publicity is good for us.

**NORZISH** · 06-02-2009, 07:17 PM

Publicity is = to awareness.

**yunise** · 06-02-2009, 09:28 PM

hmm this is PR..

**DoraTheExplorer** · 06-02-2009, 10:20 PM

SGClub featured on Today

Great publicity.

And those who commented badly on the MP should be thrown into dumpsters. They are either that ignorant and stupid which is bad enough, all its their desire to gather the attention of others, which translates as them being attention-whores, which is worse and should be condemned even more.

**jewlreya** · 07-02-2009, 12:58 AM

Both wrong and not wrong, I would say.

They say Singaporean won't speak up and when they did, they are not allowed to do so. Guess free speech in Singapore will need more time to please both sides.

**Banao** · 07-02-2009, 02:07 PM

This drives home the point that one must post responsibly and be accountable for whatever you type. For the authorities to track the person behind the Avatar and bring him to task is easy.

**corp25** · 07-02-2009, 07:42 PM

one small step for moderator.. one giant step for SGCLUB

**Jodar** · 07-02-2009, 08:16 PM

Ah cool. :]

**Weiwei** · 08-02-2009, 12:36 AM

they can control local website,but not for international website

http://www.sgclub.com/singapore/char...mp_130514.html
http://www.sgclub.com/singapore/man_...et_127949.html

Quote:

Speech by RADM (NS) Lui Tuck Yew at the Committee of Supply Debate on Enhancing Government Communications and Fostering an Informed and Open Society

SPEECH BY RADM(NS) LUI TUCK YEW,
SENIOR MINISTER OF STATE FOR INFORMATION, COMMUNICATIONS AND THE ARTS,
AT COS DEBATE (MICA), 06 FEBRUARY 2009, 4.55 PM IN PARLIAMENT

8. I would also like to take this opportunity to address some comments on my reply to Ms Penny Low about self-regulation on the Internet.

9. They seem to have misconstrued my remarks as “a desire for more regulation on the Internet”. Let me say clearly that I am not advocating this position.

10. In fact, self-regulation is what some bloggers themselves have asked for. In responding to the AIMS committee, a group had proposed for community moderation to replace the Government’s promised lighter-touch regulatory approach.

11. It is for the online community to decide if there should be self-regulation or not. Likewise, it is for them to deliberate on how online postings could be self-regulated or moderated.