The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #93659   Message #1871351
Posted By: GUEST,lightnix
29-Oct-06 - 10:20 AM
Thread Name: BS: Closed threads & deleted posts.
Subject: RE: BS: Closed threads & deleted posts.
Shamble, I think you need to get over yourself. As a long term forum user and occasional moderator, I've developed the following view over the last few years...

Nobody has a "right" to post anything, in any web forum, anywhere, other than the Adminstrators, to whom the site belongs. Web forums are not democracies, they are privately owned and run websites and if the owners don't want to see certain things in their websites then those things don't go in.

Forums are not "services" in the strict sense of the word. They (and the various functions and facilities they offer) are merely courtesies extended by the voluntary administrators who run them, often at their own financial expense (especially in the short term) and their moderation team. As long as membership is free, nobody has the right to expect (let alone demand) any level of service of any kind, particularly one that is higher than that which the voluntary team who run a forum are prepared to provide.

Nobody forces anybody to visit, register with, or post in any forum. The whole process is entirely voluntary and if a member doesn't like the way a forum is run, the best thing to do is not go there. Getting involved in the politics and starting fights, especially with moderators will get you precisely nowhere (except maybe a ban). Nobody is going to change the way they run their forum just to suit the wants and whims of an individual member or two, especially once the total membership number has risen beyond a few tens / hundreds.

Moderators are not censors, they are closer to being newspaper sub-editors. When somebody makes a post to a forum, it is as though they are writing a letter or submitting copy to a newspaper and, as with a newspaper, the editor and sub-editors may go through that copy and edit (not censor) it, so that the message published in the paper is clear, concise and in line with the "profile" of the publication.