Social media has become hugely popular over the last few years, however when it comes to connecting with people and sharing content with others, I will always be a forum guy. I launched my first forum around 2000 and have run dozens of forums since then (I currently run three). I have also participated in many forums over the years; such as football forums, tech forums and webmaster related forums. This experience has given me a unique perspective into the world of forums as I have always been on both sides of the fence.
The atmosphere in a forum is heavily dependent on how the owner runs the forum. The rules they set up and the way they moderate the forum influences who stays on the forum and participates and who leaves. Earlier this year I discussed how Warrior Forum has gone down the toilet due to the way their staff moderate the forum. Their moderators go out of their way to ban good members who ask legitimate questions; yet they turn a blind eye to people who are stealing from other members.
At the beginning of this week I experienced heavy forum moderation again. The incident happened on the hosting discussion forum Web Hosting Talk. In June I had started a discussion regarding changing hosts. At the start of this week a member left a message on the thread asking for an update on my situation. I had written a long detailed explanation of how I resolved my hosting problem in the article “My Journey to Find the Right Hosting Solution“; therefore I mentioned my article in my reply.
Please refrain from posting links to your own site.
You may not post any message that directs others to any pages at your own commercial domain, including informational pages. A commercial domain is defined as a site that receives any type of income or links to any income producing properties.
The above is taken from our forum guidelines at www.webhostingtalk.com/rules.php. We thank you for participating here on WHT and we welcome you to open a request on http://helpdesk.webhostingtalk.com if you have questions ever with regard to the forum. Please note this is only a warning and you receive no points against your WHT account at this time.
Soon after my reply was deleted and I got a warning for trying to promote my website. I was surprised by this and when I queried this I got told that I may have been looking to increase links to this blog. Anyone who read the thread and read my reply would have clearly seen that I was not trying to promote my blog. All I was doing was responding directly to someone who asked for an update.
I do appreciate why forums such as Web Hosting Talk try to keep links within the forum to a minimum. Though a little common sense would have gone a long way in that situation. Any staff who viewed that thread would have seen that in the context of the discussion, I was trying to help someone else out.
I find this kind of thing very frustrating and it discourages me from posting there. Specifically, I do not like staff going out of their way to delete posts I took take time to write. Particularly, when I went out of my way to help someone. I know from experience that moderating a forum can be a thankless task, however staff should not be so quick to delete content, especially from members who have been active for over ten years.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this issue. Have you suffered at the hands at heavy-handed moderators?
Kevin
Fully agreed – since we are not talking about scam. There is so much information in the web, so why rewrite? And if you’d put this information together on your own website, so what. Yes, you are probably having the effect of people looking into your website; however, only people who would like to get an answer to the respective question. So, it is always specific. And why should you not be rewarded for the information you have provided. I believe a forum lives from the information is offers to its members.
It is was about the way they handled it. They deleted my post and then sent a warning. They should have contacted me directly before taking that step. In my opinion, deleting posts should be reserved for spam and spam only. It should not be used on posts from long-term members.
The monster forum of City-Data.com was my “home” forum for over 4 years and I had amassed somewhere near 13k posts before I got tired of the politics of the moderating team, as well as the sycophants that both supported and cheer-led them.
One Violation of TOS at C-D that I could never understand – and was tagged for once – was “Discussing Moderation”. This wasn’t a matter of ranting on, page after page, about how unfair and downright stupid the Mods were – no, this was one mention, when asked where I had been after several day’s absence, of having been slapped by the Mods for TOS violation. I immediately received a flood of notices warning me in the strongest terms that such further impertinence would not be tolerated.
Evidently I was never to mention the words “Mod”, “Moderator” or “Admin” ever again.
I hope they’re happy with the “Content Nazi” label I gave them …
Then there are the teams of what I call “Quasi-mod-os” – non-mods who think their job is to report any and every real and imagined infraction to the REAL mods. You can’t achieve a strong sense of continuity in many threads because of these busy little bees buzzing all over your words. It contributes to a strong “Us vs. Them” mentality that again kills any motivation to post.
In their state-data section, which is actually the heart of C-D, it is an everyday occurrence for the realtors that sponsor listings and ads on the board to have uncomplimentary posts about “their” neighborhoods pulled from the board, with no chance of arguing your case. Any negative mentions – “I saw a piece of garbage on the front walk of 1313 Mockingbird Lane” – are instantly expunged and the writer issued a warning.
These are the reasons I’m no longer an active participant there, even though I’m still receiving positive rep from both members and visitors on a daily basis.
Ohh, you guys, this is NOTHING compared to LinkedIn’s new policy- SWAM. This past March, they gave a moderator the power to put your comments on moderation or block you completely. Fine, that helps with spam.
HOWEVER. that single action populates through ALL of the other groups that you belong to.
This happens without your knowledge. And they NEVER tell you who originally SWAMED you or why.
The only way to be able to post again is to write every single moderator of every group that you are a member of, and beg them to take you out of comment moderation.
Mind you, this can be done at the whim of ANY moderator. I believe (I will never know for sure because LinkedIn will never tell you) that I was SWAMed because I disagreed with an Adobe Group Moderator about Adobe’s new lease-only business model. Adding insult to injury, you are NEVER notified that you have been SWAMed. You only realize it after none of your posts show up.
I was a VERY active, contributing member of over 40 professional groups on LinkedIn. Now, I am a member of none. I deleted my profile and will not return until LinkedIn changes this ludicrous policy.
So, at least your moderator communicated with you, at LinkedIn, you don’t get even that courtesy.
http://socialmediatoday.com/node/1591891 for more information about the policy.
Kevin, I am a member over there – not very active I’m afraid. I’m no longer the trusting kind. I don’t like hype and I don’t believe it. I forget to go over there unless I get an email from someone else. If I am interested, I go. If not, I don’t.
I have joined another forum and yes, it costs. The fee is nothing like what WF charges and the people are helpful and very courteous. I find it refreshing. Thanks for this. I need to hear (we all do) about the scumbags. I don’t have any money that I can afford to lose.
After awhile, one gets to recognize the truth…until, like you, we don’t. It will be a long time before you relax your guard or fail to investigate further. I want to thank you for letting us in on your “embarrassment” although I fail to see why you would feel embarrassed.
You should see the Ravelry knitting forum. It’s Knitting! They have zero tolerance on their main boards of anything “off topic” ie not about knitting/crochet etc. Even the slightest jokey comment gets greyed out and labelled for its crime and if you get three strikes you’re banned *for life* from the forum’s main boards! No appeal.
Ya even small time individuals sit there and crack dirty jokes but ban anyone who makes a joke that they don’t laugh at. Honestly people are so brainwashed by the illuminati they are little more than self policing thought police and banning links is supposed to protect us but it’s really just cuz social media is a sad replacement for the free internet and our real lives.
Take it from the aborigines. It captures, alters, and stunts the growth of your soul and as you pointed out the efficacy of human connection and the poignancy of the conversation. I can’t figure out where i fit in. I have my own blog too.
You see these people begging on twitch for money to go travel the country but they have PlayStation plus? And they ban anyone who seems like a spammer to them? Aggressive panhandling is what it is. At least I’m running a business lol.
I asked if i could post a link, didn’t even did it and they said i don’t trust him. Ip ban!! Whatever. Discourage me for even trying to play it straight i should have just posted it. Is cuz people have lost their minds.