Censorship.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

The censorship in these forums has gone too far! There was a poorly disguised spam thread in the Freebies forum that was actually starting to turn into a pretty good discussion regarding Black Friday. Instead of merely deleting the link in the spam post, the mods deleted the entire thread. I originally came to the calibre forum to learn more about how to use calibre and I will continue to do so but I have had it with the heavy handed censoring that has been going on in the rest of the MR forums. Bye!

[queentess]

Oh, the drama!

Is this similar to the "You guys are mean and I'm never coming back, so don't even bother responding to me" line that people love to use?

Also, I do not think that word means what you think it means.

[Worldwalker]

I don't think it's an evil plot against us.

No doubt a bunch of people reported the obvious spam. The mods saw it, saw the next few posts were people making fun of the spammer, and just deleted it just like they do all spam. Just a quick "Is it spam?" "Yep." "Nuke it."

[RoboRay]

Can I cry out for attention too?

[sabredog]

Oh dear...

As I assist as a super moderator on a very large model aircraft forum, here is a mods point of view.

Mods do not do this sort of job on a full time basis rather donating their spare time. Thus they often do not have the time to spend editing a thread that might have tens of contentious postings. It simply becomes a far cleaner and less labour intensive option to simply delete the whole thread.

A mods job is often unsung and un-noticed. As a mod, I certainly like it that way.

However some form of recognition from time to time is a good thing. The mods here at Mobileread ride herd to thousands of members from very diverse backgrounds, with an equally wide variety of opinions and beliefs. They do it well, so hats off to them all!

[Salgueiros]

I am pretty sure the moderators have a lot of work, and they do the best they can. However, that per se does not make them immune to criticism. And I do think they intervene too much. Delete a whole thread because of a link?

I see threads being closed by the most ridiculous of reasons. Sometimes i wonder if i came to a kindergarten for sensitive kids or a forum for adult people... If you kill the ability of people to say what they think without resorting to politically correct inane discussions you kill this forum.

Let people disagree!

[Marcy]

Thank you moderators for all your hard, volunteer work. I'm amazed that whenever I report a message as spam, it is usually gone in under 30 minutes.

I reported the message in question today, when it was the only message in the thread. I can understand why a thread started by an obvious spammer was deleted. If the following conversation, which I didn't see, was so compelling, please start a new thread about it.

-Marcy

[happy_terd]

Why not make your own black Friday thread?

[JLeighs]

I own two forums. I have to tell you that there is a LOT of work involved in keeping a forum running smoothly --and mine are nowhere near as large as this one is. I (with the help of my mods) have to monitor spam, keep members from killing each other, and fix anything that breaks --oh, and I have to do it *yesterday*. I also don't really take kindly to members shouting "censorship!" at me when all I'm trying to do is provide a decent place (on my dime, mind you) for people to hang out in cyberspace. I pay for it, I make the rules. I try to keep members happy, but it's damn near impossible to keep everyone happy at all times.

[Jcas]

As a staffer on other forums, i know it is a fine balancing act between running a good board where all can have their say or making sure the forum is not so rule bound that people can't have a say.

Sometimes it is easy to get it wrong, i say that because i was once wrongly reported on here as a spammer when all i was was a very green newb asking an innocent question., but thankfully it was rectified and i can honestly say that i am so pleased as i love to visit this forum.

Staffing on a forum is not easy , but from my observations this forum is not over moderated, and from my experience the staff are very approachable should a situation arise, i for one am a happy camper.

[HarryT]

Deleting the first post in a thread deletes the entire thread. That's just the way that the board software works. Spam posts ALWAYS get deleted.

[HappyMartin]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Deleting the first post in a thread deletes the entire thread. That's just the way that the board software works. Spam posts ALWAYS get deleted.

Good

[TGS]

Interesting isn't it how when mods do something we approve of it's moderation but when they do something we don't like it's censorship

[darknessangel]

I think the mods are ********! And that they should ** **** ** *** * **********!

<subject being removed from the premises>
<shouting in the background>

Aaaahhhhh, don't tase me brah!

[Alexander Turcic]

Moderator Notice
The thread specified was not "actually starting to turn into a pretty good discussion regarding Black Friday".

• There was the initial spam post
• There were six brief replies from five respondents
• One respondent didn't initially realise it was spam (but responded "Doh" further down)
• The other four replies effectively just said "spam"
• Three of the five respondents reported the post as spam

This was a typical spam post as we see it every day. Every respondent knew that. Three of the five reported it, expecting it to be deleted. You can call "censorship" if you wish, but you may as well be calling "censorship" on all the spam-filtering-deleting-and-banning that has taken place, reported or caught by us before reported. It certainly wasn't "turning into" anything that it couldn't and can't turn into with a new thread created not by a spammer but by a real member.

Thanks for your understanding.

Cheers,
Alex