Removing the warts

[70SATMan]

So, another thread and series of posts removed with absolutely no explanations given....

Is the word "Raj" now banned from the site? If so, we need a sticky thread. Oh wait,,,,it was a sticky thread that got deleted. So here's the readers digest version of what I posted last night:

These heavy handed attempts to sweep the Registry's dirty laundry under the internet rug only does a disservice to the members. Locking threads is one thing. It's a good tool to handle situations but, erasing threads is a serious flaw in someone's thought process. If an individual needs to be "moderated" do it with PMs, warnings, timeouts, whatever.. When one arbitrarily controls "history", the truth is NEVER served. How are new members supposed to navigate pitfalls in our hobby if the pitfalls are removed from investigation?

All that is being done is allowing future individuals to be burned and all for the sake of "perception". I like to think that the overwhelming majority of the individuals that contribute to this site are more than mature enough to regulate themselves in a civil manner. We don't need Nannys. Lastly, this site is paid for in part by members of the Registry so, I would expect Moderation to think of themselves more in the terms of Stewardship of the contents of the Forum rather than Ownership.

Thought this needed to be said since there was no courtesy shown to those trying to help diffuse a confrontation between a member and another infrequent poster.

[yale]

Damn. What did I miss?

[72Group4]

Hopefully some light will be provided on this situation.

[Frank Beck]

I was not involved.








Much to my disappointment.

[CamBiscuit]

I'm usually one to sit on the sidelines for this sort of thing but things seem to have been taken a turn for the worse lately….

Sebastianrohrer's thread on his car get's moved to Off Topic because there is a bit of off topic banter……Seriously? Not ok to have a few laughs along the way?

I dont envy the job of the moderator's and I certainly appreciate the time that gets put in by them but there is WAY too much censorship going on around here lately IMHO

[savaden]

I watched the melt down over at the 356Registry, and I would have to say that a big factor in the misunderstandings that ensued was due to heavy handed censorship of contentious threads. Some people have a difficult time expressing themselves in threads and that leads to misunderstanding and people taking offense. Censoring or deleting threads only makes things worse. Over there the contentious behavior led to lawsuits and endless bickering. Don't let that happen here.

SV

[Frank Beck]

Regarding Seb's thread:
It would be no stretch for an honest, casual observer to deduce that Chuck "The System" Miller was offended by comments and used his authority to punish the perps.

Sometimes one must put their own agenda aside when managing the broad, best interests of a community.
It takes very thick skin and tolerance for community organizers to be objective and rule without personal bias.

Chuck, I think if you took a poll here you would find very few who share your overbearing PC ideology.

Once again I am throwing my hat into the ring to become deputized as a moderator.
With the caliber of contributors here I honestly think it would be a very boring job if exercised without the iron fist.

[johns4949]

managing the broad

Sounds like a fun time

[70SATMan]

Damn. What did I miss?

There used to be a thread that the Mods started warning us of the fact that a seller using a different handle (can't remember exactly but had "65" in it) was in fact Raj.

At any rate suddenly on the sticky thread there was an altercation from a user called "original poster" or something like that and "livefromny" about a tool kit and payment for said tool kit. It was hard to follow cause I couldn't tell if "original poster" was Raj or a guy named Joe.

There were also claims by "original Poster" that the board moderators were either hiding truth or outright lying about Raj being this user they warned us about. LFNY posted his side of the story and I posted about my couple of transactions with Raj that went OK if but, a little quirky cause Raj always seemed to have 100+ irons in the fire at any given time and communication with him was often sporadic and disjointed. My experiences seemed to line up with the events that caused the altercation between Raj and LFNY if indeed it was Raj..

Next morning the thread was entirely gone. Great move guys! So who knows, maybe they did make a huge mistake posting that thread in the first place. Didn't do enough homework and rather than admit the mistake, tried to remove all history of the accusations. Of course no one had the courtesy to at least PM other members that their threads had been deleted with at least a reason why.

I realize that a mods job sucks, I get it. However, Moderation is the term applied to overseeing the rules of the forum and trying to counsel members where needed. It is not a tool to Censor history or posts in an indescriminate manner. We have rules for the forum. If clear rules have been broken, fine. Moderate individuals' behavior. If the rules are wishy washy and individual moderators are making personal decisions to Censor then that is a mistake as well. Tighten up the rules if you want a rated G forum, however boring that would be by God!

We all know that when we post, we do so on a public forum and that material in effect becomes the intellectual property of the forum. It says so right on this website. Don't then wuss out, bending over backwards deleting accounts when individuals decide after years of posting that they suddenly want their privacy. Who knows, maybe the Forum was scared off by a threat if Raj requested his account be wiped?

If Raj truely deserved banning (I have absolutely no insight into that) then he should have lost his right to demand anything from the forum. By bowing to his wishes (I'm assuming) the Mods just let Raj punish all the rest of us by no longer having access to the information he posted over the years.

If the desision to wipe Raj from forum memory was solely made by the mods then all I have to say about that is "boneheaded move".

[72targa]

By bowing to his wishes (I'm assuming) the Mods just let Raj punish all the rest of us by no longer having access to the information he posted over the years.

You win the prize.