Concerns

[Rhode Block]

I looked for a while to try and figure out where to post this, I hope this is the correct place.

Later yesterday evening, the conversation between a member, who had been rather active, and a vendor (or two) got somewhat heated. The thread itself was interesting, it switched sides of support from being for the vendor earlier, and then turned against the vendor as time went on. It was difficult to really see why the switch happened, but the original poster seemed to have been unhappy about waiting for a tune or something of that nature. The vendor at one point seemed to have been helpful in trying to help the member, but the relationship apparently took a negative turn. The ensuing argument possibly painted the vendor in a negative light, with supporting text and messaging conversation for the member.


That thread was then deleted/hidden entirely.


The member then posted a goodbye of sorts this morning, mentioning the deleted post and citing that as sort of a reason for leaving.

Then THAT thread was deleted/hidden as well.

This kind of comes across as censorship in support of the vendor over the member, and I’d like to ask the moderators/owner of the site, if that is in fact what happened.

Was the members thread deleted due to the negative stance towards the vendor? Were they deleted at the request of the vendor, and does a vendor have that power?

There’s lots of good information on this site, but to me, it raised a few concerns. If threads are being deleted due to negative feedback, it’s essentially altering the reviews of a product, and shielding the vendor, while deceiving and possibly censoring the community.

 

[DaJackson]

The thread wasn’t deleted.

Tork Motorsports - Why I've Made my Decision (John Bushbaum)

Occasionally the moderators need to put a thread in “time out” in order to clean it up, decide what actions to take and then can release it back into the wild. That’s what happened here.

 

[DaBears4Lyfe]

Its all been sorted out Rhode! I appreciate the support but it looks like I reacted to quickly and Sal the owner of the site cleared things up for me. I do agree with the Mods locking the thread. I explained why im not longer working with them and rather it just become a merry go round of pointing fingers we can leave it at that.

I originally thought the thread was deleted from messages received and the fact that it was gone. I shouldnt have reacted so quickly to think I was being censored and asked Sal or the mods what was really going on. I apologize for that.

 

[Rhode Block]

This is the transparency I was hoping for.

I like this forum a lot, even if I am sort of a lurker. It just sort of concerned me that it disappeared. I’m not really on either side of the argument, as I don’t have either product mentioned, don’t prticularly know bears ((infact I hate the bears and wish they would loose every game for the rest of history)) and honestly think locking it was maybe the best option for both parties.

Just sort of wanted to know why things weren’t visible any more.

The thread wasn’t visible to me until Jackson posted his reply and the explanation for what happened. Thanks Jackson!

 

[DaJackson]

This is the transparency I was hoping for.

I like this forum a lot, even if I am sort of a lurker. It just sort of concerned me that it disappeared. I’m not really on either side of the argument, as I don’t have either product mentioned, don’t prticularly know bears ((infact I hate the bears and wish they would loose every game for the rest of history)) and honestly think locking it was maybe the best option for both parties.

Just sort of wanted to know why things weren’t visible any more.

The thread wasn’t visible to me until Jackson posted his reply and the explanation for what happened. Thanks Jackson!

Generally threads only go to time out for a very short time. I don’t know how long this one was gone as I was off the forum today until after it had gone away and come back. I don’t think there is a good way to tell people it’s going away vs being deleted. However, Sal has strongly encouraged us (AKA threatened our Stingers) to not delete threads outright. So unless a thread is far over the line, it’s likely a thread that has disappeared is being cleaned up and will be back. Most are just going to be locked.

Individual posts on the other hand will and have been deleted but usually only when they are over the line. Sometimes we will credit the post instead of delete it, however sometimes things are so out of hand that it’s hard to slice out the bad stuff and keep the value.

So moral of the story, threads generally won’t be deleted. Posts will be deleted if they are entirely against the rules. If you want to know where a post/thread went message the Mods, we will let you know as much as we can.

 

[eflyguy]

I was the one who moved it until we (moderators and site owner) could decide how best to handle it.

I moved it because it was yet another example of certain members violating forum policy (which all members agree to when signing up, just FYI) and it had nothing to do with anyone being a site supporter.

We strive to make this a welcoming, friendly community. Unfortunately there are people who can not abide by those guidelines, so we have to step in to try and mop up the fallout without removing the constructive content - and that's why threads might vanish temporarily. If it is a "popular" thread, a note might be left behind, but this one had very little participation so I did not feel it was necessary.

This kind of comes across as censorship in support of the vendor over the member

I want to thank you for asking the question - these are difficult decisions because we don't want to come across that way. I actually posted a similar response in his "farewell" thread to try and make these points known, but we decided to restore the original thread so his "farewell" was no longer relevant.

 

[ScottM]

Job well done moderators, not just regarding this incident...but for all that you do behind the scenes to keep things going in the right positive direction.