I keep getting complaints from people who wonder why their posts were deleted, while other posts that are nasty and crude are allowed to remain. Invariably, it turns out that the deleted post was anonymous, or was posted with a name other than the poster's usual posting name.

We find that most of the time, people who use consistent identities, post responsibly. If there's something wrong with what they've posted, people take them to task for it and the problem is handled without censorship. HOWEVER we have all sorts of problems with posts where the poster is not identified, so we now monitor all Guest posts. If your identity is established, you can post pretty much whatever you want to post - and face the consequences of community disapproval if you screw up. If you post anonymously, you have no rights here.

We fully realize that other forums don't do it this way - but this is the way we do it. We do our best to assure that posters are who they say they are - and if they're not, we delete their posts.

So, the policy remains: we do not allow anonymous posting. We do not delete ALL anonymous posts, but we do delete most of them.

If you have a legitimate reason for changing your posting identity, we'll try to accommodate you - but you must first get permission from Max, Big Mick, or Joe.

If you forget to put your name on a post, simply post the entire message again, including your name. We'll delete the nameless post, and everything will be hunky-dory. If you feel a post should not have been deleted, contact me directly and I'll look into it. I can often retrieve the lost text so you can post it again - with your name on the post.

Thanks.

-Joe Offer-
joe@mudcat.org