Political censorship of posts by mods

Subject: Political censorship of posts by mods
From: GUEST,Guest
Date: 02 Mar 08 - 12:10 PM

It keeps happening, and just happened again in the 'Popular views of McCain'. I'm following all the Mudcat rules, nothing in the post was a personal attack on another poster.

In fact, it was a pretty innocuous post, critical of all three US candidates & whether the economy or the war would be the #1 issue in the fall election.

And not the first time this happened either.

Nor am I, apparently, the first poster it has happened to.

So, is this what we can all expect? If we offend the political opinions of a Mudcat moderator, we will be censored?

Subject: RE: Political censorship of posts by mods
From: John Hardly
Date: 02 Mar 08 - 12:16 PM

"So, is this what we can all expect? If we offend the political opinions of a Mudcat moderator, we will be censored? "

No. It is not what we can all expect. :^)

Subject: RE: Political censorship of posts by mods
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 02 Mar 08 - 12:19 PM

I don't know, not being a Mud Clone, but my guess it it's because guests need to post with some sort of regular user name. A lot of anonyous messages have been deleted recently, some of them perfectly innocuous so I don't think it's content-related. Pick a name for yourself and try posting with it consistently, and see if this keeps happening. Also, non-music threads need to stay below the line (I mention that because I think I just saw this thread up at the top. Could be wrong though.)

Subject: RE: Political censorship of posts by mods
From: George Papavgeris
Date: 02 Mar 08 - 12:26 PM

Bonnie is correct on both counts; no Mudcat moderator myself, but the policy is well understood, and publicised. Look in the FAQs.

Subject: RE: Political censorship of posts by mods
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 02 Mar 08 - 12:26 PM

Never happened to me, in the years I've been here,though I think I may have been told off once or twice by PM.

One problem with posting as a Guest is that you can't receive PMs, and you can't send them either. The only contact is up on the public forum - and even that is pretty unreliable, since anyone can post as GUEST,guest.

Subject: RE: Political censorship of posts by mods
From: Jeri
Date: 02 Mar 08 - 12:28 PM

No posts have been deleted from that thread.

Subject: RE: Political censorship of posts by mods
From: wysiwyg
Date: 02 Mar 08 - 12:37 PM

If anyone has a problem with site moderation, all they need to do is follow the FAQ and email Joe Offer if they don't care to register. Starting a thread about it is NOT in the FAQ.

~S~

Subject: RE: Political censorship of posts by mods
From: Riginslinger
Date: 02 Mar 08 - 12:48 PM

Sometimes, and I don't know what causes it, my "cookie" will need to be reset. When that happens, the post will just show up as having been posted by "Guest." It will disappear shortly after that.

Subject: RE: Political censorship of posts by mods
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 02 Mar 08 - 12:49 PM

Ah - but if you send an email you send an email address and this means you can be contacted.

Subject: RE: Political censorship of posts by mods
From: Bill D
Date: 02 Mar 08 - 12:52 PM

Joe introduced a rule last year that unsigned posts in the BS area are SUBJECT to deletion. If you forget to type in your handle...even if it IS only 'Guest', you may discover your post missing.

You need a cleverer handle which distinguishes you.

Subject: RE: Political censorship of posts by mods
From: Jeri
Date: 02 Mar 08 - 12:56 PM

Let me say this again: NO posts were deleted from the McCain thread.

You need to type in a consistent name if you don't want your non-music post deleted, but that didn't happen this time.

Subject: RE: Political censorship of posts by mods
From: Amos
Date: 02 Mar 08 - 12:58 PM

It sometimes happens that the Submit process gets interrupted somehow before the new content is written to the thread DB at the server. I have had it occur a few times. It is not a personal action (see Jei's post above).

If you are using preview you can also believe you have submitted before you actually have, although this is rare in my experience.


A

Subject: RE: Political censorship of posts by mods
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 02 Mar 08 - 01:02 PM

You can also think nothing's happening, click on it 2 or 3 times and hey presto - triplets.

Subject: RE: Political censorship of posts by mods
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 02 Mar 08 - 01:08 PM

Sometimes I think I've sent a post, but don't check it's gone in, and later it's not there. I'm pretty sure that what has happened is, I pushed preview, but didn't follow up by confirming the posting. Moral is, always check by opening the thread.

Subject: RE: Political censorship of posts by mods
From: John Hardly
Date: 02 Mar 08 - 01:10 PM

I've had posts censored. At least twice.

But even so, I would bet good money that what happened in the case of the above "guest" is as Amos suggests -- because I had it happen to me twice yesterday. I posted twice yesterday and had the post not appear. I was lucky enough, one of the times, to notice and I was able to back my way all the way back to my reply box, hit "submit" again. It still didn't work the second time, but the third time (as they say) was a charm.

Subject: RE: Political censorship of posts by mods
From: Big Mick
Date: 02 Mar 08 - 01:10 PM

I will reinforce what Jeri has stated quite clearly twice now. There have been no deletions from the McCain thread. You have recently had, as you well know, several posts reinstated that met the rules. Those reinstatements came with an explanation that restated the rules, which you quoted above. This all leads me to question your motive in starting this thread. I certainly hope it isn't to return to the bad, old days. Your posts, while they may be hard edged, have been consistent with the policy. As long as they remain that way, you will not be deleted. The "political opinions" of mod's have nothing to do with it. That we disagree on issues is not the criteria.

Mick