In internet forums, do you censor your thoughts or do you always write what you're thinking?

I sometimes do, if I have an opinion that I feel may be controversial, or if it’s something that if others find out who I am in real life, will get me in trouble. I don’t want to be “jumped on” by others in any forum so I may avoid posting strong debates/arguments.

It all depends on the location and the topic.

I even temper my remarks here if the subject matter is open to everyone; if it is flagged as NSFW I might not. I won’t on a newspaper site or a general comments section, because all that does is serve as ligter fluid.

Depends on the forum.

If it some place where I am anonymous (here, the NY TImes, etc.) then I pretty much speak my mind.

If it is a place where I have to identify myself by name, then I am far more moderate.

There are some discussions that I just don’t weigh in to because I’m not here just to argue for the sake of arguing.

But for questions that are really asking for help I give them my honest opinion.

take a guess

I don’t try to offend people very often.

I rarely censor myself.

For me it depends. I might tone down what I say if I know I am speaking to a youngster or if for some reason I know the person is in a rough place emotionally/mentally. Mostly I speak my mind and don’t hold back. I do try to disagree without being disagreeable, but that doesn’t always work out.

I speak my mind regardless, and tend to do so even more on forums. I see anything else as dishonest and disrespectful.

I am not always as blunt as I should be for fear of being labeled an a$$hole but I do voice my opinion more now as I am getting older than I did in my younger years. I am learning to temper my passion with patience.

This is where emotional intelligence comes in. I’m posting on the forum for some reason, right? If it’s just to put my thoughts out there on display so everyone can know what goes on inside my head, then yeah, no filtering necessary. But if I’m more interested in communication, then I have to take their perspective into consideration. Forthrightness isn’t a virtue if all it does is trigger people’s defenses so that they stop listening.

I don’t participate in a lot of fora. I’m not interested in just spouting off to a bunch of strangers, so I stay here and try to get to know the people as best I can. When I post something, I have a sense of talking to people that I know and care about. That definitely affects how I say what I have to say.

If you’re in traffic, and the driver next to you pisses you off, what do you do? Now imagine that before you lean on the horn or shoot the finger, you look over and see that it’s your next door neighbor; now what do you do? Are you being dishonest or inauthentic just because you don’t go off ont your neighbor the way you might go off ont a total stranger?

People here are my neighbors.

Other than Fluther, I haven’t hung around forums to discuss things with people at all, the exceptions being horror and game forums which I mostly use for asking information, or giving it, if I have it.
On here I say what I damn well want haha. If there’s something I don’t feel comfortable saying and find myself altering my own words, I end up abandoning the answer or question altogether.

I censor myself at times because I have a lot of thoughts rushing through my mind and I don’t think some of them should be out there. I think about what I say/write, but I try to get my opinions out there. I try to be true to myself.

Write the truth & to hell with the consequences…hoorah!!

It depends on the forum, the question, the tone of the thread and how committed I am to my belief or point of view about the topic.

I don’t necessarily censor myself. If I feel something needs to be said, I’ll say it. I can be cynical and I will post comments that reflect that. Don’t think I’m ever terribly controversial but that’s not deliberate. I’m just not. I certainly don’t go out of my way to troll just for the sake of it.

I censor my participation in that don’t put a lot of identifiable info here (or anywhere else online) because I don’t want people I know to make the connection as to who I am. Although I’m pretty sure if someone was so interested they could go back through my posts on this site and put 2 + 2 together. I really doubt anyone is that interested in me though.

I do consider how I say things. Because of the work I do in my real life (this is my virtual life), I’m acutely aware of the person at the other side of the computer. We aren’t communicating with a screen here. There’s a human on the receiving end. A human who may be dealing with things I just have no idea about. So, even if I do feel like telling them they’re a dickhead or whatever, in most cases, I restrain myself. That’s just about being a respectful, considerate human being rather than ‘censoring myself’. I have failed on occasions and typed things I probably shouldn’t have.

I’ll give you my frank, uncensored response to the question:

I have no tolerance for censorship. I regard censorship of any kind as a totally different matter from selectivity, taste, restraint, and tact. I try to practice the latter principles as much as I can stand to, both online and off. Most thoughts and opinions can be expressed without violating them. (I think it was the “tell it like it is” ethic of the sixties that blurred the useful distinction between honesty and boorishness.)

Sometimes I fail, even with a quick finger for the delete key, but I consider it a worthwhile effort nonetheless.

Give me a minute . . .

… is that a New York Minute?
___________

Yes, I constantly censor myself accordingly to fulfill my personal goals of any given moment. Anything less is unrefined, ill conceived, and highly disingenuous. There is no shame in speaking accordingly to every audience at hand. There is no shame in having control of one’s own thoughts before verbally blurting them.

What kind of stupid question is that and how dare you talk about… oops… ah, well, strike that, ah, I don’t think it’s a good idea to share all of our thoughts during a debate. Without a certain amount of diplomacy conversations don’t work too well, right? Get my point?

I usually write what I think but I still try to be polite even when I am disagreeing with someone. There have been a couple of times over the years when I have got into a heated debate with someone on Fluther and felt really bad afterwards for coming across as a little rude/argumentative and so I try to avoid situations like that nowadays. I still love a good debate obviously but I am careful how I word things so as not to seem like an arse!