Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

First off, I`m usually not the one to start problems, but over the last week or so...I have been seeing things on the forum posts that have me a bit concerned. I have seen several posts deleted, and from what I have read, in my opinion, I could not see any reason why. The only thing I can see why is because someone did not like the topic or the direction the topic was going. Correct me if I`m wrong, but the forums are created to discuss ALL topics(with-in professional reasons and no one gets hurt in any manner) no matter if you agree or disagree. The purpose of the forms is to get your ideas or opinions out there and discuss them with others that may have another view point or maybe share yours. Personally what I feel that I am seeing here is censorship. And after I have said that word, I personally feel that this post will deleted or maybe my account will be deleted and be banned. If the SUN gods feel that is what you must do, then by all means do what you feel you have to....but I really feel that I must make my opinion known. If I am wrong, then someone please explain to me what I am seeing.....I only see a few reasons why posts should be deleted
and that includes someone posting blatant lies, rumors, cussing and unsubstantiated slander of another just to name a few. 
Am I alone in seeing this or are there others??

I have only seen 3 threads disappear - 1 was an ad that was better placed in the Marketplace, and 2 were threads that went against SUN community guidelines for conduct on these forums.

Censorship is not at play here, IMO. Censorship is when you want to put up your own website and someone brings it down because they don`t like what you are saying. When your posts are deleted for not following the rules on someone else`s board, this is not censorship ... this is their site which they have full rights to, and they have the final say on editing. Just as if you have a site in which people can post comments or forum postings - you`d have the right in that case to delete posts which you found to be outside your comfort zone.

I don`t know why you think you would get deleted for voicing your opinion ... My feeling is that SUN always welcomes feedback and discussion about their site and policies.

Hey, nicely said!

P.S. how do you know that a thread has been deleted, I guess I have missed that one. . .

DipLady... you can tell a thread has been deleted when you get email notification of new posts. By the time you follow the link (in the email) the webpage says something like, `this post has been deleted.`

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Vincent Wilcox (a.k.a. KRAKR)
Drummer
My band: Letters Make Words

Here`s one for example:
http://www.startupnation.com/pages/community/forum_posts.asp ?TID=5327&TPN=1

Ok, that explains it. I do not get email notification. Thanks for the explanation!

Hi twc238,

Thanks for voicing your concern and for your well thought out post. You clearly have a strong interest in what is happening in the StartupNation community forums and we are grateful to you for that.

It is an exciting and rewarding endeavor to open up a forum for members to connect, learn from and mentor others. We are extremely proud of the manner in which the StartupNation community reaches out to and supports one another. The smarts, wisdom, experience and just plain old being nice to one another that goes on here every day is a joy to behold.

We do receive messages every day from community members who express concerns about specific posts. The `Report abuse` button is available on every single member post. We review each abuse report and assess the post using the Community Forum Posting & Private Messaging Guidelines. Some of the posts are in clear violation. Some are clearly not in violation. And some walk the line between the two. It can be a challenge to make the call on those but we do so with the spirit of the stated goal in the guidelines:

The StartupNation forums & Private Messaging are a place for people to connect, learn from and mentor others.

We understand that at times some members may not agree with the assessments that we make. We must, however, make the call and trust that the StartupNation community is a more valuable resource due to our diligence.

By all means continue to let us know how you feel. Offer your praise, critique, suggestions & feedback. We`ll continue to do our very best to make StartupNation the best it can be.

Cheering for your great success,

Joel

I`ve noticed it happening as well, and I agree that it`s wrong. Sure, it`s `your site`, but when nobody is a member anymore, does it matter? We`ve been getting quite a few really basic questions lately, such as `help me make money in spite of no ability or talent`, and I`m only slightly paraphrasing. Why are dumb posts ok, but our reaction to them not ok?

This site continues to lose web traffic for reasons just like this.  The less relevant and interesting the discussions, the less valuable the site.

I think a much better way to handle this would be to have some form of volunteer moderators rather than a few people who call all the shots and only explain them in the vague manner as shown above.

Sure, it`s a community, but when people start to move out of the community and others don`t move in, resale values plummet. Kind of makes your exit strategy a little difficult, doesn`t it?

I think Joel said it very well. I don`t think it has to do with "what", the topic is about or what direction it`s going in. It`s just that personal attacks and criticism, have nothing to do with business. No one needs to be critical to share a differing opinion.  This is a great forum for everyone to learn from.  It looks like new members join daily.

Thanks Sun!

Sure, I would guess that new members join daily. One question is how many leave daily or stop contributing.

Censorship is definitely the right word when some posts remain due to the poster being a SuN favorite, while others disappear when they aren`t. To put a finer point on this, if you`ve been on the show or podcast, or have a blog here, your opinions are golden. If not...