Censorship

[jaiman]

I thought this is an open forum where we are all free to speak what is on our mind. However I have found out that there is censorship.

I'm not trying to start anything here I just beleived this place was full of honesty and we are all free to speak our minds with out the need for deleting legitimate questions.

Respectfully, Jai

[Stefrobrts]

Jaiman, this question comes up a lot. Here's the deal. This is a private forum, and all the members are really guests of the forum owner. The forum owner has asked us, the moderators, to be sure the rules he set out are followed. One of the main rules, as we repeatedly stress, is to be nice to each other.

Occasionally a thread will get so out of hand with rude responses, that to cut out the rude comments and the responses to those becomes a huge task, and leaves a thread that is barely coherent. When that happens the Moderators will often cut the thread down to it's most basic posts and lock it to stop the rude posting, or delete the post entirely.

There are only a few people on this forum who still don't get that rudeness to fellow members will not be tolerated. Until then, other content may be lost along the way while we clean up the mess, which is our job. We have no desire to censor discussion on this forum in any way! There's a way to ensure we'll keep our noses out of it, in fact, it's simple, really - be nice!

[Rivetedude]

Well put. This is an excellent community and when the proper kindnesses are rendered, you can find any information you are looking for.

[Silvertwinkie]

I don't feel for the most part that there is a heavy hand here in regard to censorship, but there are times when a mod needs to take some action that may or may not be popular. I think all in all there is a good balance here.

[Rivetedude]

I actually have yet to see a knock-down drag-out brawl like you inevitably see at just about all other public forums. My hats off to the moderators for sheltering the forums as they do. It's nice to be able to kindly put in your two cents without evil repercussions.

[85MH325]

And I can tell you first hand as a participant in some of the more controversial topic threads that have come through, as long as you merely state and/or defend your perspective on the issue rather than attack other members' perspectives, Andy and the moderators are extraordinarily tolerant.

Roger

[Tarheel]

I agree that the mods in here have been very fair at least as far as I could tell. They do an excellent job specially considering the pay.

[sovereignrwe]

I'm buying the first round of "cyber soda's" for the Andy and the forum moderators.

This is not to say that jaiman doesn't feel like things could have been handled differently. I do not know the specifics of that situation.

[jcanavera]

Originally Posted by sovereignrwe

I'm buying the first round of "cyber soda's" for the Andy and the forum moderators.

Please make mine sugar free......

Jack

[Janet H]

And mine merlot....

[tmcdougald]

I think we can remember "HEX" and the great job the mods did controling him.

[baldeagle]

Just to add my 2 cents worth.


I would be the first to stop participating (even little) if the threads got "out of hand".

Three cheers to the moderators!

There is enough stress in the world and this is a respite of common interests.

[kposey]

Here Here!

[davidz71]

No complaints here. I'm comfortable with how things run.

[jaiman]

My only problem with this censorship/edititing is that my question was not allowed to be viewed by others. In private messages from 2 mod's they both agreed it was a legitimate question. Simply put a "member" posted a statement. In that statement he/she made a claim that I challenged. He/she very quickly back-pedalled. So evidently I was not off in my question. The thread is still up, questions were deleted, and the thread was closed. I believe favoritism came into play here. A well respected member made a faux paux and the mods saved his butt. Again, I am not trying to be a agitator, I just believe in fairness for all.

[jcanavera]

Originally Posted by jaiman

I believe favoritism came into play here. A well respected member made a faux paux and the mods saved his butt. Again, I am not trying to be a agitator, I just believe in fairness for all.

As one moderator who wasn't directly involved, I will state that there is no favortism or attempts to save anyone's butt when we take out the editing pen. We look at each post and when we find the trigger point where things go south, that's where the cut goes. I can tell you that these things are talked about amongst us all before and after we take action. We don't always agree in totality, but we do what we think is best for the forum and its members.

Sometimes that means looking at the original post, determining its intent, and maybe pulling a post while in itself is not improper, is the kickoff point to the thread going downhill. In this case your post was victimized by the the one's that followed and it was determined to bring the thread back to the original topic which was informational in nature and not a post to examine business practices.

Jack

[jaiman]

Jack, well stated and understood. I will now reluctantly, let it go.

Jai

[Stefrobrts]

This was an interesting thread, but I think it pretty well ran it's course, so I cleaned up the unnecessary stuff, and I will close it.

Thanks for all the input, everyone.