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Event Cancelled

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Re: Event Cancelled

#31

Post by paulgb »

DannoHung wrote: post #5
dotBen wrote: post #4

It's kinda funny and clever. It will fall down if they do it consistently. People who want to attend these kinds of events will begin to know that the "event canceled" stickers have been put up by the government and are false information. Presumably the stickers will look the same, and also who goes and bothered to put up "canceled" stickers if they genuinely are canceled? It may even become a cachet - "dude, our eve…

Simple way to defeat that is to just come up with a bunch of different sticker designs. Or, you could be even more devious. The town council could start putting up fake posters in non-designated spots that would mislead people to believe that something was happening when it wasn't. That way, non-approved locations will become associated with poisoned wells. A random person wouldn't be able to trust flyers in non-appr…

So they'd be combating sign pollution by putting up more signs? Doesn't seem like much of a solution. Even if they succeeded and people stopped posting up "real" posters, as soon as they stopped posting "fake" posters the "real" posters could go back up again.

Re: Event Cancelled

#33

Post by Keyframe »

protomyth wrote: post #29
Keyframe wrote: post #21

Or they could just, you know, raise fines to absurd heights so no one ever again will think about putting posters outside of designated areas.

the problem is finding someone to fine and proving they did it (see tptacek's comment on false poster on acts he hates).

maybe if every poster, that will get out on a public surface, should get a city (or whatever legal entity) issued mark/stamp on it... like some products have already, cigarettes, coffee etc. (for taxation/anti-smuggling purposes). That could alleviate false poster issue and be cheap to implement. Might as well earn some cash for the city to keep those surfaces clean / lit or whatever.

Re: Event Cancelled

#34

Post by pyre »

RyanMcGreal wrote: post #32

Here's a crazy idea: why not just let people post notices in public places to promote their events and not bother trying to enforce a bylaw against it at all?

Great idea! I'll paste my poster over top of that stop sign over there! It'll have great visibility!

Re: Event Cancelled

#35

Post by ostrichpincher »

A little comment on the Ghent mayor's office intentions:

The normal way of doing things is this: When a police officer notices an illegally put up poster, he has to do all the necessary paperwork to aid the public prosecutor in his legal actions against the person or organisation who put up the poster. That's, if the responsible person or organisation is known. If not, the police officer will have to do some inverstigative work. After that it has to go to trial and could cost the defendant 120 EURO per poster, while costing the community much much more. (cleaning, police hours...)

You can see the means and hours that would have to go into this...for a poster. Still, the city wants to get rid of the problem. Hence, this idea.

It's true that from a legal point of view, the city itself is culpable of putting up stickers where it's illegal to do that. They've admitted to that, but say that it's a choice between doing the 120 EURO fine thing or the quick and more cost effective way while getting public attention for the problem they want to address and create awareness for.

And since the story was all over the news...a job well done.

Take care, Karl (pinching the ostrich)

Re: Event Cancelled

#36

Post by fauigerzigerk »

ostrichpincher wrote: post #35

A little comment on the Ghent mayor's office intentions: The normal way of doing things is this: When a police officer notices an illegally put up poster, he has to do all the necessary paperwork to aid the public prosecutor in his legal actions against the person or organisation who put up the poster. That's, if the responsible person or organisation is known. If not, the police officer will have to do some inversti…

Or to put it differently, a choice between due process and political campaigning.

Re: Event Cancelled

#37

Post by jcl »

RyanMcGreal wrote: post #32

Here's a crazy idea: why not just let people post notices in public places to promote their events and not bother trying to enforce a bylaw against it at all?

Pretty much for the same reasons that graffiti is illegal: Public places are often private property. Someone has to pay to sandblast or paint over those eyesores. And the broken window theory says crime increases in areas that are not well-maintained.

Re: Event Cancelled

#38

Post by [deleted] »

Keyframe wrote: post #33
protomyth wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the problem is finding someone to fine and proving they did it (see tptacek's comment on false poster on acts he hates).

maybe if every poster, that will get out on a public surface, should get a city (or whatever legal entity) issued mark/stamp on it... like some products have already, cigarettes, coffee etc. (for taxation/anti-smuggling purposes). That could alleviate false poster issue and be cheap to implement. Might as well earn some cash for the city to keep those surfaces clean / lit or whatever.

[deleted]

Re: Event Cancelled

#39

Post by RyanMcGreal »

pyre wrote: post #34
RyanMcGreal wrote: post #32

Here's a crazy idea: why not just let people post notices in public places to promote their events and not bother trying to enforce a bylaw against it at all?

Great idea! I'll paste my poster over top of that stop sign over there! It'll have great visibility!

Here's an idea: let's assume most people aren't idiots. That way we don't have to ban an entire sweep of activities on the basis of a marginal edge case.

Re: Event Cancelled

#40

Post by pyre »

RyanMcGreal wrote: post #39
pyre wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Great idea! I'll paste my poster over top of that stop sign over there! It'll have great visibility!

Here's an idea: let's assume most people aren't idiots. That way we don't have to ban an entire sweep of activities on the basis of a marginal edge case.

> let's assume most people aren't idiots

That's where you're thinking breaks down though. There are a large enough portion of idiots to ruin things for 'the rest of us.'

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