I reread the guidelines of this board and while it does say that moderators have the right to close a thread for any reason, there’s nothing that specifically prohibits discussions of illegal activities. The original poster, Powers106, wrote that he was looking for information for a novel he was working on. And the “plans” that were discussed involved owning a casino or offshore bank, so it’s not like someone was going to rush out and try them.
I’m not looking to flame Nickrz but I think he overreacted. What do other people think? Is there a policy of banning discussions on how illegal activities are performed? Should there be?
I would think that planning an actual crime that the contributing posters should reasonably realize is likely to be committed would be unacceptable. But the course of the thread in question, I believe, was well within acceptable inquiry. If someone asks how drug smugglers get their booty across the border, I’d think it OK for the TM to spill what they know. But if someone revealed that they were really pissed at so-and-so and described their lifestyle and asked how to whack’em, I would hope the TM would reject the opportunity to plan the crime.
No one would have standing for filing a civil suit. As for criminal penalties, the First Amendment would preclude them, just as it protects newspapers, books, magazines, websites, etc. which discuss how actual crimes were committed. “The suspect entered the store, pointed a gun at the cashier and demanded the money from the register” is a blueprint for how to commit armed robbery. If a newspaper was opened up to criminal penalty every time it published the police blotter, we’d have no free press. Based on the information presented here, closing the thread was uncalled for, but then it’s the SDMB’s ball; they can take it and go home if they want.
I also wondered a bit about the closing of that thread - but also reiterate - it’s SDMB’s call, and if they wanted to close it, they can.
But - if SDMB cannot condone any discussions of how to do something that is illegal ie:
I remember not to long ago someone wanted to know how to pass a drug test. Someone had obviously been using illegal drugs, and didn’t want to get caught. I don’t know if this compares, (and personally, I am very intolerant of drugs) but why no outroar about that? I am not sure, but I don’t think it’s the first time that illegal drug use has been discussed and explored on this message board.
Strange. Sounds like a debate to me. Should that thread have been closed or not? If you’re debating the moderator’s actions, isn’t that still a debate?
Personally, I was hoping to avoid any suggestion that I was flaming Nickrz. I just wanted to have a discussion (or general debate if you will) on the subject of what topics are inappropriate for this board. If anything, this thread would probably have been best placed in Messages About This Board but unfortunately threads there tend to get little attention.
We’d probably have to run some statistics on these self-help threads to see which are okay and which are not.
Money Laundering - how do I do it? No
Stealing tanks - how do I do it? No
Hack the SDMB - how do I do it? Way No
Grave robbing - how do I do it? Okay
Blow myself - how do I do it? Very Okay
Trepanning - how do I do it? Depends on the poster.
Wasn’t there a thread about how to dispose of a body that lasted for long while? I guess that wasn’t as seriuos as money laundering. That is the way that law enforcement looks at it, isn’t it? Drugs are much worse than violent crime, right?
Sometimes you feel like a coconut, sometime you feel like a yak.
You might try mailing Nickrz directly and asking him. I, personally, get VERY nervous if a thread or post gives explicit instructions on how to break the law and/or cause mass destruction. I probably would have closed the thread at about the same time Nickrz did. I don’t know.
But I would have added that you should only launder bills and coins. If you put a credit card through the washer and dryer, the little raised numbers and letters will melt back down on the surface, and the magnetic strip just isn’t the same any more.
Lynn
If it’s helpful, I’ll compare everyone to Hitler so we can get this
over with as soon as possible.
As the person who asked how to beat the drug test (and succeeded in beating it thanks to helpful hints from my fellow Dopers), I must say that, IMO, the thread should have remained open.
If The Straight Dope is dedicated to eliminating ignorance, then it must consider all facets of life, even those that involve criminal actions. In his first book, Cecil gave advice on treating pests on marijuana plants. How is that so different from providing info about money laundering?
And, Lynn, don’t compare me to Hitler. I think I am much more like Genghis Khan.
FWIW, I have no problem with the thread being closed. Anything that could potentially get the Reader sued could potentially make the SDMB go bye-bye and is thus a Bad Thing.
Here’s a hot tip for future reference, try not to name a thread like this:
“[insert major crime here]: How do I do it?”
Doesn’t exactly sound like a purely academic question, does it?
Gypsy: Tom, I don’t get you. Tom Servo: Nobody does. I’m the wind, baby.
I posted what I knew about money laundering in that thread because I thought it was a legitimate question in the fight against human ignorance. The term money laundering is bandied about in the press every day but, I think, most people don’t understand it.
The information on how to do it is available to the public. Laundering is expensive and you need a lot of money before you need to seriously launder it. It’s not a white collar crime that Straight Dopers are going to rush out and do because they read about it here. As I said in my post, first you need to have a lot of money to launder.
Terminating that thread was a strange thing for the moderators to do. My first reaction was that they are booger-eating wimps (this is the Pit) but I suspect they got advice from a booger-eating lawyer.
Frankly, in my books, the stock of the Straight Dope is a little off due to this incident of censorship. As posters in this thread have pointed out, there is a confused selectivity about what kinds of criminal activity can be discussed on the SDMB. Considering the current political climate in America one would think any thread on drugs or marijuana would be verbotten and yet they occur.
Money laundering is expensive but I think people would be surprised at how easy it is. It is also a lot more common than people think and if everyone who laundered money was arrested you would see a huge crowd of familiar faces, celebrities, businessmen, and politicians, vastly outnumbering the drug dealers.
A public discussion on money laundering is more offensive to the wealthy than it is to law enforcement. The little people, the tax payers, aren’t supposed to know how the wealthy avoid taxes. (“evade” taxes is a crime, the right to “avoid” taxes is fundamental common law.) I wonder how many wealthy Americans live in homes and drive cars that are owned by a Cyprus/Bahamas/Panama/Jersey Islands company?
By discussing money laundering we offend the true American aristocracy - the wealthy by any means.