Gregory Storer:

Don't try to disguise yourself! Your action against OLO has confirmed you as an activist. Australia needs many more political or social activists to invigorate our democracy, but your course of action is anti-democratic and that is anathema.

Your action will do nothing to help your cause: when the general community sees someone working towards repression of democratic debate (no matter how uninformed or hate-filled some of the utterances may be) they see that as an attack on the democracy that sustains us all.

As a writer of articles for OLO and as a frequent commenter in the forum, I have taken considerable pains to support the cause you purport to fight for. I am only one of many -- the majority of writers/commenters on the topic on this site. Your action makes me sad and angry because it has undermined the work we have done in trying to change attitudes of those who oppose equality for homosexuals.

Graham:
I am happy to pay an annual fee of $50. Fight on!

Stephen Crabbe

R0bert,

It's not for me to tell you how to counter vilification. And I'm not questioning the values of the articles, I too enjoy reading Online Opinion.

Rather than make me the focus here, it's time to call Graham Young to account for his policy of allowing outrageous, intolerant, homophobic and vilifying commenters on this site.

You can call them to light as much as you like, however, the comments policy is quite clear, Young will not enforce his own rules. (or he interprets them differently).

Hang in there Graham.

And to those who want to complain about the comments and ask for increased censorship... as someone who runs a blog I know first hand how difficult it can be to know when and how to draw the line... indeed what a sensitive gay guy might consider offensive, others may consider worth consideration and sharing.

I personally believe there needs to be much more open and honest discussion about what it means to be gay, what it means to be a lesbian, what it means to be a woman, what it means to be a man who has to pay child support.... interestingly only about 10% of those who pay child support are women

There are real differences between men and women and real differences between straight women and lesbians and straight guys and gay guys...

Let us start discussing these issues rather than pretending they don't exist.

Also, lets start discussing the institution called 'marriage' and what is wrong and right about it... for different types of people.

Perhaps OLO should reward those advertisers that have, rather than oversee their corporate policies in relation to advertising themselves, abdicated such oversight to self-serving battening-on organisations in the form of the Internet Advertising Sales Houses Australia and its agent the Audit Bureau of Circulations, organisations seemingly having their own agenda of suppressing the competition for the corporate advertising dollar posed by sites like OLO. http://bit.ly/e62i1I

OLO could perhaps display photographs of the corporate logos of the erstwhile paying advertisers for no fee, together with descriptions as to how, despite the notoriously high remuneration of senior executives thereof, the outsourcing of their oversight obligations was effected and the consequences of this abdication. The free advertisments could link to the respective corporate complaints departments, perhaps even to the appropriate section of the ACCC dealing with Trade Practices matters.

One never knows, ANZ and IBM might be more than happy, after having been able to rigorously audit for themselves the effectiveness of the OLO site in raising their corporate image free of charge, to pay lump sums of the order of $50,000 each per annum for OLO to NOT carry their advertising. That way everyone could be happy! ANZ and IBM would be 'not advertising' on OLO, and, whilst ever the IASH Australia standover merchant's 'code of conduct' remained in place, ANZ and IBM would know EXACTLY the extent of their costs of having affiliated with that parasitic organisation.

FWIW, the twelve founding apostles of IASH Australia are, according to marketingmag.com.au (See: http://bit.ly/eVh2Jk )

AD2ONE Group
Adconion Media Group
Digital Network Sales
Full Circle
Gorilla Nation Media
MaX Interactive
Multi Channel Network Pty Ltd (MCN)
PostClick
Response Directive
3D interactive (3Di)
Tribal Fusion
Valued Interactive Media

As to what the beneficial ownerships of these claimed entities are, is, on the face of it, about as clear as mud. What does seem to be clear is that those entities are in the standover business. They appear to think they own the internet advertising market, IMO. I reckon OLO viewers could help test that claim.

i used the link
http://www.anz.com/common/forms/default.asp?intID=174

with these things its a numbers game
[if you really care...complain]

here is how i put it
[as a suggestion]
they hold higher weight than complaints

details of your suggestion

recently anz made a decision that is likely to have ongoing negative affect..in suspending sponcership of an online opinion site.

it seems ibm and anz were both targeted to affect certain outcomes/adgenda's.

http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=11583&page=0

it is my suggestion that reactive decision was shortsighted..that fiends dont do this sort of stuff to friends...that either your for EVERYONE having freespeech..or not.

lets face it banking shall shortly need all the goodwilll it can get..[if you dont realise this yet..ask your higher up's]

good will is a thing you can bank on..friends is the only true money ..in any bank

what is the outcome you seek
restore.. the sponsership to online opinion..and offer extra to help it grow

put up a few articles explaining the concepts ..values..held by your bank

I have written an article criticising the religious rights influence in the gay marriage debate , it also cast aspersions on the motives for the religious rights oppositions to gambling as an aside, imagine if everytime Graham received an article such as that, he had to consider whether it would inflame a lobby group to instigate a secondary boycott that would financially cripple OLO. No doubt many would be offended by my comments, no doubt Graham does not necessarily agree with my opinion, but he had the courage to publish my comments without deleting them. I have regularly had debates with others on this site with diametrically opposing views. that is healthy and those that are too immature need to answer one question was it right for visa and the like to shut off the funds to wikileaks.
Graham expect a donation in a few days.