On-line forums censoring too much?

[fraunhofer]

At Astromart there is a lot of talk about Cloudynights on line forum being nasty with those who voice opinions about products the moderators do not like. I received at MySpace this message, >Hi Emil,​

Thank​ you for speak​ing to me about​ the threa​t that I had recei​ved from the on-​line forum​ regar​ding a repor​t to our ISP.


Backg​round​:​ About​ two years​ ago by accid​ent I had expos​ed a misre​prese​ntati​on about​ an old frien​ds teles​cope that I had used many years​ ago. The curre​nt owner​ the same teles​cope gave me a lot of crank​ calls​/​lette​rs,​ but they more polit​icall​y conne​cted at the forum​ an soon after​ I was banne​d.​ Recen​tly I got back on to the forum​ but when it was disco​vered​ who I was, the ban was re-​issue​d along​ with the threa​t to notif​y our ISP.


Throu​gh a voice​ mail I have compl​ained​ to the owner​ of the teles​cope store​ that runs the forum​ in addit​ion to sever​al email​s/​lette​rs to edito​rs of the two major​ astro​nomy publi​catio​ns where​ this on-​line forum​ adver​tises​,​ plus I the two main leadi​ng manuf​actur​es of teles​copes​.​ This is a very effec​tive way since​ the astro​nomy commu​nity is very small​ and word trave​ls fast,​ plus I'm known​ in the teles​cope sales​ commu​nity.​


Anoth​er issue​ was that this same on-​line forum​ has been allow​ing one of the local​ membe​rs here in the Los Angel​es area to unlaw​fully​ use anoth​er form'​s name to adver​tise their​ used teles​cope sales​ busin​ess.​ In my email​s and phone​ calls​ I broug​ht this issue​ up too. Since​ my email​s and calls​ the link to that busin​ess on the forum​s home page has been remov​ed.​ So alrea​dy I have had an effec​t.​ I will not toler​ate to be bulli​ed by hypoc​rites​.​


Andre​w<​ I responded by telling them about other forums including this one.

[matt]

Such is forum life!

But seriously...have you tried to resolve the problem directly, with the person/people with whom you have an issue?

I'm not fully au fait with the background to your dispute, but if things have been said which you both (in hindsight) regret, one of you may have to be big enough to get in touch and try and smooth things over.

Otherwise...find other forums like this one.

Don't worry about the ban. Just move on.

[dannat (Daniel)]

I guess people can alwys take things two ways, I hope many australians have thick skin and aren't offended easily - occassionally there is lively debate on here with some not so polite things said - people can build a bridge, and get over it if they have a problems with vigorous debate - personal attackes should not be allowed of course

It sound slike you were caught between a rock and hard place, some find it difficult being objective in my opinion. hopefully we have been welcoming to you

[Ian Robinson]

If they are misrepresenting , take it to the authorities. (the real ones).

[fraunhofer]

Saw this at another forum regarding Astronomics/Cloudynights

"I have decided to leave CN. I know I am a slow learner but the moderation policy there is too much for me to bear. Due to the large number of posters, many of whom do post interesting things, I have stayed there longer than I should have. However, enough is enough. I know my paltry contributions won't be missed, but if enough of the readership, which is actually the generators of the interesting "content" leave perhaps the policies will change to be more friendly to experienced amateurs such as myself. I won't hold my breath, however.

Philip

John Fitzgerald said:

I have never seen an internet forum of any type, period, that is as controlled and censored as Cloudy Nights is.

Scott Mortimer said:

If people even mention a thought that is slightly off the topic of the given thread, it's deleted out. If you make a negative comment about a type of telescope that the moderator owns, you seem to get moderated even more quickly.

Anyway, it's kind of interesting to see when you get censored, and for so little as a mention of a negative on a product that their sponsor sells. Much of the stuff over there at CN is unreliable IMO because most are hiding behind monikers. It's hard to trust someone talking from behind a "screen". I have wished many times to make my account go away over there. There seem to be at least a few serious types on CN. Wonder why they don't join here?"

[iceman (Mike)]

I'm not interested in seeing people use IceInSpace to badmouth other forums. If you don't like a particular forum, noone makes you visit it. Vote with your feet.

I'm locking this thread now.