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This is all second-hand, since I'm in no way a Kappa. I just know a bunch. Nothing gives me any special entitlement to comment on this. But KappaKittyCat is a good friend of mine, so I've got a few opinions.
From what I heard, it was a traveling consultant ('TC') who informed KKC of their headquarters' intent to restrict members from posting. Apparently they've been following GC, because the TC was able to figure out who KKC was. "Hey, do you post on GreekChat? Are you KappaKittyCat?"
I'm told by others that there were already rules in place that prohibited members of Kappa from speaking publicly on GLO matters while identifying themselves as Kappas. This is an extension of that kind of rule into the internet sphere.
There are reasons to have that kind of rule in some environments -- for example, in a lot of cases legal obligations can arise when a member (especially an executive officer) purports to speak for the chapter. Other times, they simply might want to make sure chapters speak with a unified voice for PR purposes, and one way to do that is by limiting who can speak publicly about Kappa. People, especially non-Greeks, will often assume that officers speak for their entire chapters. And, of course, there's always the goal of preventing embarassment, because, let's be honest -- we all do and say silly things sometimes. One person said to me, "Think of it this way. I can probably be quoted in the school newspaper as saying something about Greek life as 'L---,' but I can't be quoted in the paper saying that as 'L---, a Kappa.'"
Heck, maybe it was even against the rule for her to tell me that. How sad that would be.
Heather17 above pointed out an example of the sort of thing GLO headquarters would frown on: members who publicly dispute national risk management and hazing prevention rules. I don't think I've seen it from any of the Kappas -- the Kappas I've talked to have been fierce about risk management and hazing prevention. However, I've seen comments favoring more, ahem, "old fashioned" ideas of Greek life from members of my own fraternity, and I have to say it's bothered me.
I don't think that many fewer Kappas are going to post here. I just think that some active members are going to be anonymous about their affiliation and maybe avoid their GLO-specific board. I still think that's sad.
In law, we often say that the solution to 'bad' speech isn't to restrict speech, but to encourage more speech to counteract it. However, GLOs are very sensitive because they know that every event that supports a negative stereotype gets valued ten or twenty times more than events that counteract negative stereotypes. Besides, we're not working with law here -- GLOs are legally free to restrict the speech of their members. That doesn't mean that it's good policy.
I think that the existence of GreekChat, a community that is generally positive and supportive, that celebrates Greek life, and that is strongly panhellenic/interfraternal, demands careful rethinking of how far restrictions on member speech should go. I think that if they're going to restrict member speech, they're going to need guidelines that capture the complexity of this sort of thing and that let their members (and ultimately the entire organization) draw upon the benefits of this kind of forum. Yes, there may be some risks involved; right now, though, it sounds like they're cutting themselves off entirely from what can be a very good thing.
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