Why was the “Social media” thread deleted?!?
A lock I can understand…
I had wrote some posts that I would like to post in a thread of their own… But no… Deleted!
A good moderation is to remove offending posts and then possibly lock the thread, but deletion?
Too bad that the flame-war between a former Moderator and his opponent could ruin it for all…
UMMM, sorry about that. I’m 1/2 to blame. [sigh]
A number of individual posts, and at least one thread I remember, appear to have been deleted by their own authors, who were not moderators.
If a post as been responded to, only a moderator should be allowed to delete a thread.
I’m pretty sure that’s how it works, you can only delte or lock your own post if you are not a moderator, and you cannot delete a thread that had replies.There’s also been some confusion over locking a post vs lockign a thread. ANyoen can lock one of their posts, that just means no one can directly reply and quote that message - they can still reply to other messages in the thread. Only a moderator can lock the entire thread.
–Randy
Frankly I’m surprised it lasted as long as it did.
It must have been a real flamefest to have been deleted…[*-)]
Not really but it had a bit of a flicker. I think the biggest thing was it was totally off topic.
But as I said, apparently two different posters, not moderators, did delete posts that had been replied to. In one case, the member deleted all his own posts, and in another, a thread will all its replies disappeared. While it’s possible the moderators or administrators made these deletions, as near as I could tell, the deletions were made by members and not moderators.
- The thread Graffen complains about was deleted by Steven Otte of Kalmbach magazine, not by a user moderator. Steven is representative of the forum owners,who have every right to delete whatever they don’t want in their forum.
It was deleted because it was totally off topic for the subject of model railroading - consisting mostly of discussions about whether Facebook is a good thing or not, with one poster (TA-something) taking the opportunity to do what he has done before - whining about the concept of Kalmbach deputizing user moderators to lock posts or ban users who are deliberately trying to provoke fights.
You don’t have to agree about which users are troublemakers, but the owners of the forum (Kalmbach) do not want fights here, and have deputized a few users to act as their sheriffs, breaking up fights and telling off perceived troublemakers.
If you cannot live with the fact that your threads can be locked, posts or threads can be deleted or your account can be locked if you are perceived as acting in a manner calculated to create trouble, then you have the option of starting your own forum elsewhere, or to go elsewhere.
It is not a human right to be allowed to say or write whatever you want on someone else’s forum.
Personally I would prefer that threads merely get locked instead of deleted. But the forum owners (and their representatives) have every right to police their forum in any way they see fit - including deleting threads.
- The user who got all threads started by them (and all posts in those threads) deleted was a young child who had some trouble dealing in a mature way with suggestions and comments, Eventually he got some sarcastic comments about small children who puts their fingers in their ears and throw temper tantrums while refusing to listen.
Instead of just stopping posting (or amending his ways, so he would not get quite as many negative reactions), he in a
Me too, I pretty much expected an insta-lock to be honest since it seems like a lot of threads get locked pretty quickly, and sometimes unnecessarily in my opinion.
Cahrn
The thread was fun to read while it lasted, until it got too personal. I won´t miss it and I can understand our host´s decision to delete it completely - way too off-topic to be kept for those following us!
Anything happen while I was gone?
… just the usual much ado about nothing!
I’d like to make a few comments, I’m not Kalmbach but I am one of their “Deputy Dawgs”, a forum moderator.
The goal and role of the moderator is to police the forums with respect to the policies set out by Kalmbach / Model Railroader magazine, and to enforce them as well as possible according to the directives we receive from Kalmbach-- they do own this place. There are many things that get talked about in the forums, or put into signatures, or posted once in awhile that are technically against the stated policies of the forum. I’m probably guilty of some of them myself even. Generally speaking I think Kalmbach is pretty tolerant overall and permits a wide range of topics and a latitude of opinions. But there are some topics or tones that are nearly always verboten, such as trolling, flaming, advertising, cussing, or generally making a nuisance of one’s self. Posts or even entire threads exhibiting these tendencies are in direct danger of getting locked or even completely deleted without notice or even much comment. Although, in general, it is the usual custom of the moderators to lock threads where possible and generally with a closing comment to wrap things up and encourage folks to move along. However that is not a requirement, and the owners (Kalmbach) can certainly police the site themselves in any manner they choose.
There has been a real push by Kalmbach / MR to clamp down on advertising in the forums-- including threads related to buying & selling, regardless of whether they are overt or covert-- and frankly, judging from the tone of our hosts, they regard the covert attempts with even higher disdain, IMO. They have also been very sensitive lately to posts that are inflammatory, hugely off-topic, ill-tempered, or simply out-and-out attempts at trolling. They have a large concern for the content that gets posted here-- for several reasons. One reason is that they wish this to be a “family-oriented” forum. A place where 15 year olds can come and read and participate a
As I recall, the OP merely posted to point out that Facebook was a good way to show his layout. It was not intended to be a post about the pros and cons of Facebook.
The most unfortunate aspect of the thread was the unfounded attack on a former Forum Administrator by one of the repliers to the post.
Rich
Thanks, John, for giving us some background info on the legal side of a forum - good to know!
It is my sincere opinion, that with a little more respect for each other we don´t run into a situation where either a “deputy dawg” (I like that one, John) or our host has to step in in order to keep this forum an enjoyable one.
In the said thread, Todd gave a comment that I can only wholeheartedly agree to.
IMHO, all has been said to that particular thread, so I´d like to quote Julius Caesar, who supposedly said “Bis repetita non placent!”, literally translated into “constant repeats don´t amuse me”. [swg]
Roma locuta, causa finita? (Rome has decided, the case is closed)
The most unfortunate aspect of the thread was that all the anti Facebook/Twitter crowd that kept going on and on about the evils of Facebook. None of the pro Facebook guys took offence to it, they only said why they used it. The Crandell and myself thing should have been dealt with in a PM, which is what we have done.
The reason I have a problem with the deletion is that I can´t find it in my heart to start a NEW thread where I would like to debate how FB (or other social medias) can be used in real time Op-sessions…
It is probably going to start another mindless argumentation on why social medias are stupid…
John, you can lock this thread now…