Originally posted by magkelly The fact that the original poster felt he had to reopen the discussion in a closed thread via a new thread, rather than just quietly asking the mod "Why?" maybe tells me all I need to know about the intent of the closed thread.
We don't know whether Wheatfield tried to quietly ask the moderators "Why". Also, not that Wheatfield may not have had an issue with the moderators at all. Probably he simply wanted to alert forum users to a potential problem for foreign buyers and hence thought he should post that somewhere more prominently.
I don't know the real motivation for sure either, but I surely know that the information available to us is certainly "not all we need to know".
Originally posted by magkelly If they feel a discussion has gotten out of hand, or a poster has, they have a perfect right to close said thread as they please, and they don't need to even explain why.
They don't have to explain their actions. But a forum where moderators explain their actions is
- a friendlier forum, and
- helps users to avoid violating policies in the future.
None of the policies quoted to me (e.g., regarding disrespecting B&H representatives) applied in my case. So I'm left guessing what the moderator didn't like.
Originally posted by magkelly I've seen several posts and threads here in the past that have been absolutely aimed at causing a disturbance.
That may be the case, but that's not really relevant to this thread here. None of the respective threads/posts were aimed at "causing disturbance".
Originally posted by magkelly Yes, posts like these get closed and with good reason.
Again, the posts you mentioned have nothing to do with the posts discussed here.
Originally posted by magkelly These stores contribute a large chunk of change that enables this forum to operate.
Is that so? How do you know?
Another user told me that user donations recently covered 3x the amount to run the forum. Assuming that is true, in principle, the forum would not need to rely on further income?
Originally posted by magkelly Probably because the mods realize that it's likely to be more of the same, ...
And based on the
assumption that is going to be
likely to be more of the same, some useful content gets deleted / closed as well? Is that just collateral damage?
Originally posted by magkelly If there is one thing I've learned about being on forums like this it's that there is ALWAYS someone there ready to second guess the moderators, to challenge their authority in every which way to do their job, to needle them, the people who run the place over them, and whatever sponsors the board might have if any.
Sure, but again not relevant to this thread.
Just because such people exist, not everyone who raises a concern regarding a moderator action fits your description above.
Originally posted by magkelly Put yourself in their shoes for a moment. Think about the fact that they do have a large bill to pay every month just so they can keep this place going, and DON'T okay?
Please see my comment above about the user donations. They seem to be coming in plenty at the moment.
If I put myself into the shoes of someone running a forum, I realise that the reason why this forum gets a lot of hits is because users create useful content and are available for other users to help them out.
Without the user-created content, there would be not nearly as much as traffic and hence very little chance that any store would be interested in becoming an affiliated store.
Hence, if I put myself into the shoes of someone running a forum, I would always put the interest of the users first. Of course, aggression or any form of disrespect towards affiliated stores should not be tolerated, but we are not talking about such things in this thread. (I would not have been surprised if some of the less subtle messages against B&H would have been removed/edited, but I was surprised that posts/threads that had a different intention were deleted/closed).
Originally posted by magkelly Even when I owned the board and had the perfect right to say "Enough please!" it was never "okay" with a certain contingent of people who were determined to cause trouble amongst us.
That's deplorable, but again, not relevant to this thread.
Originally posted by magkelly Judging by the bulging folder of saved threads that I've printed in the time I've been here I cannot help but realize how valuable an asset this board is to Pentax people.
How many threads you have saved are from the "Ask B&H" section and how many are from user-created content?