RFD's policies regarding content and deletion of posts ?

[NuggyBuggy]

In a recent thread about a large Canadian bookseller, I made a post about how I am boycotting them because of what I believe are fascist book-banning policies. When I looked at the thread later, I could not find my post. Thinking that maybe I forgot to submit it, I made another post, then bookmarked the link to the post that then appeared in the thread. In my second post I made sure I explained what I believe are wrong with their policies.

Lo and behold, the next morning the second post is gone and my bookmark points to an invalid link. Clearly, my two posts were deleted. But why ?

What exactly are RFD's policies here ? I looked at the "Terms of Use page" and see nothing relevant. Clearly it is not against policy to criticize a company as this happens many times (e.g. see the common and pointed criticisms of Tigerdirect, BestBuy, Staples, Futureshop, etc.). I've seen posts bashing a large footwear manufacturer's sweatshops. I've seen posts claiming that a large Canadian electronics retailer is sleazy and dishonest. What exactly is wrong about criticizing a bookseller which has the de facto ability to control what political viewpoints can appear at books available at retail, and does so ?

And while we are at it, how does RFD go about deleting posts ? Does someone just report a post and then it is deleted ? Or is there some sort of review process by which suitability is determined ? Are there criteria for deletion ? If so, are these criteria published ? And shouldn't posters at least be notified when their posts are deleted (forgetting egregious offenses like spam and shilling for your own company).

Is the problem that the bookseller in question sponsors RFD in some way (I have no idea if they do) ? If so, the application of censorship in favour of sponsors dangerously jeopardizes the site's ability to be objective. Is it because RFD is worried about legal repercussions ? I would hope as a purveyor of discussion, that they would realize that they are not liable for reasonable viewpoints made by users of their sites, and would stand up for their users right to express themselves reasonably and rationally.

I eagerly await any insight here and wonder whether this thread, too, will make it past the free speech filter. If someone is going to delete this thread, please, at least have the courtesy to explain to me why.

[Ryan]

Your posts weren't appropriate for the Hot Deals forum. They should be made in either the Shopping Discussion forum or the Politics forum.

[NuggyBuggy]

Aren't the politics you are implicitly supporting part-and-parcel of a deal ? If I'm buying a product from a company which - perhaps unbeknownst to me - has policies that I might find objectionable, might I not want to know that ? I choose to take this big picture view. Maybe people don't know about Chapters/Indigo's book-banning and censorship policies, and maybe implicitly supporting those policies makes the overall, big picture deal not worthwhile.

Come on, there are a MILLION more posts you could delete which go farther OT than mine. Do you want us to report those to you ?

[bokep]

if you actually read the rules, under the description for Shopping Discussion it says "discuss retailers and their policies here". that pretty much sums up what you were doing, so your post belongs there. it's pretty simple, no? i'm sure the mods didn't single you out in that situation to delete your posts.

[NuggyBuggy]

I could reiterate why the ancillary policies of a company might affect my assessment of whether a deal is hot or not, but I won't. It's right there. I would just ask why they do not, for consistency, delete all the posts :

- in Playstation3 threads talking about how the Xbox360 is better
- in 360 threads talking about how the PS3 is better
- in PC threads talking about how the Mac is better
- in Mac threads talking about how the PC is better
- etc, etc.

Surely all these posts are irrelevant to whether or not a given deal is hot or not, no ? Thoee posts belong in the "Entertainment" or "Computers and Electronics" threads, so why not apply the same deletion rules ?

[bokep]

actually, lately all those posts that you speak of have been moderated pretty well. if you look at all the xbox and ps3 deals you won't see much arguing. in fact i've had a few posts deleted myself in an xbox360 thread when i was calling out fanboys from both camps. in addition, all those things you listed are significantly different than your situation... there's fanboys poking sticks at each other, and then there's accusing a company of being fascist.

go start a thread about it in shopping discussion. you would have gotten better discussion by now...

[Bazooka Joe]

Deletion of posts on here has lately become more of a "our way or the highway" sort. It's a consequence of having an older forum comunity (there are many much worse than here). Unfortunately, it's just one of those things you have to expect in an online forum.

[stealth]

Deletion of posts on here has lately become more of a "our way or the highway" sort. It's a consequence of having an older forum comunity (there are many much worse than here). Unfortunately, it's just one of those things you have to expect in an online forum.

Fair enough. I'd like to see however a brief, maybe 1 word or 1 sentence explanation when threads are locked. Sometimes the reason for it isnt clear at all ( for instance, http://www.redflagdeals.com/forums/s...d.php?t=494402 ) and when time has been invested in a thread it'd be nice to know why it ended, as well to prevent a similar thread from popping up again. I dont think a couple words or a sentence is too much to ask of mods. Plus, it gives us better visibility of mods performance by showing which mod locked the thread for when the RFD awards roll around again.