I enjoy the Café for the educational, informational and often amusing value of the posts. Even after 30+ years of performing as a hobbyist thru to my current pro status, I rarely leave the Café without learning something new. I believe this is a venue worth protecting and I appreciate the guardians who watch over the various arenas.

I recently responded in the heat of the moment to a couple of, in my opinion, idiotic posts in an abrupt and brutish manner. I returned a few hours later to edit the harshness from my post. I was a little surprised to find the harshness already edited from my post with the general intent completely unaffected. The "idiotic" posts were likewise edited to present more positive references. I appreciate this thoughtful attention...especially since each of the posts could just as easily have been deleted...with cause. Instead, as edited, the posts served to advance the goals of that particular topic. Bravo! Censorship? Maybe...but, in all honesty, I should have taken responsibility for censoring my own harshness before the staff was forced to do so.

I'm reminded of the people who complain about the rules and regulations applied to concert venues, nightclubs and shopping malls. These are private establishments with rules and limits created to promote a visitor-friendly, productive environment for the greater good. If the rules offend, the visitor is welcome to carry his or her business elsewhere. Without the rules and generous judgement of "Café Guardians", the Café wouldn't be the enlightened resource it has become. Participation is a privilege, not a right.

Thank you, Steve...and Staff...for your service.

Skip Way
Raleigh, NC

Thank you Skip. We appreciate your thoughtfullness in writing your post. Moderation of the Café (while it may be "censorship" to some) is a labor of love. As you can imagine it is not easy to keep all of our 20,302 + members happy. However, we do try to do so and while we may not always do what each member feels is the "correct" thing we do appreciate all comments, questions, concerns etc.

Mya

Let me add my appreciation for your comments, Skip. It's not an easy job but we try to do our best. The old addage of "you can't please all the people all the time" definitely fits here. The staff is not perfect and mistakes are made but we appreciate the understanding shown by most of the members at the Café. Steve, Mya and I are always available to listen to concerns and we take all comments seriously to try and improve the Café in order to keep it the best site on the net.

Well I was going to reply to the thread I started on this topic, but now the topic is locked. What's with that? It actually underscores my general point that moderators over-moderate on this board. In another answer given by management here, mention was made that the moderator couldn't recall a particular deleted topic because there are so many (hundreds apparently). I understand the occassional need to clean up and maintain bandwidth etc. but you guys seem deletion happy IMO.

As I said before, I understand the need to moderate- I'm not arguing for the abolition- just a relaxation of the totalitarian leaning moderation philosphy at work here.

Sweden has the rule of law as does North Korea- where would you rather live? Please do not infer, that I'm directly comparing TMC to NK, I'm just saying there are degrees of freedom and TMC is one of the more restrictive posting environments I've experienced.

I appreciate the work it takes to maintain this board and I expect nothing whatsoever to change as a result of my expressed opinion but I just had to let management know that I (and others apparently) believe that the moderation philosphy does more harm than good.

Thanks for allowing me to vent.

I'm sorry that your thread was locked. Apparently Steve locked the thread, which is a common thing done here when a thread has been answered. I apologize for that. However, I still do not know on what you base your belief that there is too many deletions. And you still have not given me an example. One of my concerns here is that you are believing there are too many deletions based upon your post count. If this is your reasoning you may have in fact not lost your posts at all but they have been combined with other posts. The information is still there.

Until I have more information I cannot address this further. However, If you have any other information please do supply it and as I have also stated I will do what I can to help. And as I have stated your opinion is important to us. Weather or not you believe me, that is your choice to make.

Mya

Kamus, I'm sure Mya can help resolve your issue but I'd like to point out one thing.



Hundreds of posts is an understatement but we're not saying we delete that many, just that we read so many it's impossible to remember everyone. So far today, there have already been close to 500 posts made and each of those need to be read by a staff member. The need to "clean up and maintain" is not an occassional thing. Specific rules violations like using profanity, double posting, unacceptable linking to other sites, advertising for free, severe flaming and off topic posts account for the majority of the edits and deletions. Many times your post may be deleted because it references a post that was deleted for major rules violations.

As Mya replied to both of your posts, without specific examples of the posts your talking about, we cannot give you complete answer. There are so many variables, that it would be impossible to make a definitive statement without specifics.

Steve, Mya and I are here to help and we're more than willing to investigate any concerns you may have about arbitrary deletions

Hi there!

Just curious:
I was a bit surprised to learn that some threads are sometimes actually altered instead of just being deleted. Is there any indication in the thread that this has occured when it happens?

Ity might be 20,000+ members but only 80+ are actually on line at any time and these are probably the only regulars the others have joind simply to ask aquestion then disappear..

You couldn't have put it better Kamus..Hear hear !

Howard

I would like to say thank you for your responses. You are all entitled to your opinion and we take themn all into consideration. I will now be closing this discussion. If you do have anything specific please feel free to pm either myself Steve or Dave with the details and we will deal with them then.

Thank you again for your comments.

Mya