Scope of 'be nice' rule?

This is meant as a query, not a criticism.
A recent thread on MD apparently said some fairly sulpherous things about Amazon.com. I don't know what is said for sure because the comments had been edited before I read them (a circumstance which invariably leaves me in a state of frustrated curiosity).
I thought the 'be nice' rule mostly applied to other members of Javaranch and that one could bash Bush, ream out Rove, or cuss Chirac at will. Why can't one sulpherously castigate Amazon.com? If that in fact is what happened on that thread, that is.

The comments in this case were actually directed at other members of JavaRanch. Feel free to bash corporate entities to your hearts content.

[ April 17, 2004: Message edited by: Jason Menard ]

Support Tony Bliar

[ April 16, 2004: Message edited by: HS Thomas ]

"Be nice" can be interpretted by the dozens of staff members any way they want. Since MD appears to the source of 95% of our hassles, I encourage the staff to be even stricter there.
So, to make sure that your post doesn't get edited, or deleted, or that the whole thread doesn't get deleted, you would need to make sure that not one staff member would find something less than nice in your post.
There have been a few people that thought it would be fun to post whatever they like and let the staff clean up after them. Naturally, I'm concerned that this wastes staff time that could otherwise be spent on helping greenhorns learn Java. So we ban people that make a habit of being less than cooperative with the staff.

Ok, understood. Editing can lead to misunderstanding, that's all.

Originally posted by Paul Wheaton:
I encourage the staff to be even stricter there.

OOOOOOOOO!! So I am part of the STAFF now!

. That sounds so OFFICIAL!!
So do we get to start having STAFF meetings now? And when do we get keys to the executive washroom??