I imagine some people who read my rants about my MySpace account getting deleted dismissed my protests based on the reasoning that MySpace is a private entity that can do as it pleases as long as it doesn't violate the law, or that I could just go to another Web site, maybe even set up my own. Well, here's an article that addresses those contentions: Rights like free speech don't always extend online. Here's an excerpt that I think is most relevant:

Service providers say unhappy customers can always go elsewhere, but choice is often limited.

Many leading services, particularly online hangouts like Facebook and News Corp.'s MySpace or media-sharing sites such as Flickr and Google  Inc.'s YouTube, have acquired a cachet that cannot be replicated. To evict a user from an online community would be like banishing that person to the outskirts of town.

Other sites "don't have the critical mass. No one would see it," said Scott Kerr, a member of the gay punk band Kids on TV, which found its profile mysteriously deleted from MySpace last year. "People know that MySpace is the biggest site that contains music."

Yes, The Donnas' message boards were a different story; they were microscopic compared to MySpace, so the above didn't apply to them. But the leaders of those boards and much of the rest of their membership took pride in the community of the boards. As a community and not a group like, say, the student body of a military school, views that were differing and reasonable should have been tolerated.