Stamp Forums Censorship

There are many stamp forums on the WEB. I follow this one, "Stamp Community Family" (SCF), "PhilaMercury" Richard Frajola's message board and "Stamp Collecting Forum" (SCF II). The tone of each forum is different. I believe each is targeted towards a different group of collectors.

The SCF I participate with the most is "Stamp Community Family". I find this forum to be more educational than the others. It provides more topics for discussions and freely provides answers to both the novice and long time collector. Those that do participate in discussions are knowledgeable and know what they are talking about. They are not completely set in their ways so they will listen to different sides and other's comments. My hat's off to the many people that freely provide their knowledge to our community.

IMO, I find that a lot of contributors on the Frajola's message board to be condescending and even arrogant at times. Consequently, I don't post there often. Recently, the host of the other SCF has been censoring several post and at times deleting them altogether without an explanation, including some of mine. Without going into the details, I am now banned from that forum along with a couple of very
well respected members so I consider myself to be in good company.

I strongly urge new and old SCF members to be active in their forums and question any censorship, regardless of where it's seen. I have not seen any here so I don't believe it to be an issue on SCF.

Moderators have a hard job keeping us on track and I don't think they get enough credit. However, they need to be kept in line as well. Please don't misconstrue that comment to be in any way a criticism of their work.

Art

Stamp Snobs ? is it possible ?

You're in good company. Bill Weiss, Don Denman, Ian Billings, and myself have all been banned from the Delphi forum in the last few days.

Oh well, more time to spend here!

Which reminds me... time to start up that revenue stamp donation giveaway...

Art, I read the thread I think you're referring to on SCF II (aka Delphi Stamp Forum) and was quite disturbed by the censorship I saw (in the guise of deleting a poster's comments with a note that questions/comments would be answered by PM). I never participated on that forum because it seems to focus on modern US issues and FDCs which I have no interest in, but I did read it every now and then.

My first thought while reading that thread was "why would this moderator so want to destroy this forum"? My second thought was how lucky we are to have Stamp Community Family. Of course we have disagreements at times, but everyone is treated with respect no matter what their level (sadly unlike other stamp forums). And unlike other forums, I have witnessed nothing but fair moderation here.

As for you (and others) being banned over there, it just means that we get more of you over here

Art,
I concur and am one of the last 6-8 people who have been banned for simply posting a dissenting opinion on the other board.

The actions of the Host there of censoring and axing anyone whom he disagrees with is sickening. Under normal circumstances I would say that a Host of a forum there would have control of the forum and run it the way he wants. But this Host did not start this forum over a decade ago. He got control in a special election which was held about a year ago and agreed to the following before throwing his name in the ring.

"Delphi asks for a commitment from you that you will be an active host and do your best to keep the forum vibrant, engaging and trouble-free. I would also ask for a commitment that you will take no action to close or move the forum. Lastly, I would ask that if, for whatever reason, you feel you need to quit, that you turn the forum back over to the Delphi Forums staff."

The Host had to agreed to 'do no harm'. It could not be any more obvious to all involved that this is not the path this forum is currently on. I encourage anyone who has concerns to contact the fellow who owns the forum and let him know your opinion Dan Bruns (dan@delphiforums.com). Note; do not post any dissenting opinion in the forum itself, you will be silenced and banned.

The above said I want to thank Bobby and the other mods here in SCF. It is indeed a thankless job and one that requires constant attention. But beyond that you have to always maintain a fair and balanced hand with the board management and they have done a great job with this; only stepping in when absolutely required.

Don

Debates are healthy as long as it doesn't get personal. I always tell people "Argue the topic, not the person." We have a pretty good group of members here and rarely does anyone get personal so there's rarely posts edited.

Bobby,
Agreed 100%. I was banned for asking a question about a new rule. I won't go into the details but boiled down I simply asked the Host what his intention was with the new rule. Now others have been banned for only saying that they do not agreed with the censorship of the posts. I saw nothing personal posted. Note that all the people who have been banned there are also members here and as far as I know have never had any problems.
The shame here is not just the lost of the forum, it is that this forum was one of the oldest and had a wealth of archived information. Once you get banned most browsers will block you from even viewing the forum. The user has to know enough to go in and delete the associated cookies to even be able to view the forum.
Don

Thank you Thank you Thank you Bobby, Kirk, et al

I have observed several spirited disagreements on this forum and it rarely gets disrespectful. I don't know how much you have to rein in any participants but I suspect it's not that often. Thank you to all of SCF for keeping our forum civil!

After reading all the postings in here on this thread, I get the impression that most of the other forums are 'my way, or, the highway'?

Glad I am in here instead.

Chimo

Bujutsu

Looks like I chose the right forum to be a member. I lurked for a while at DSF / SCF II and didn't really feel confortable in joining. Thanks for making me feel welcome here, even if I do collect Yemen miniature sheets :-)

I've tried almost all the forums and this one is without a doubt one of the best.

I would also add that if anyone who has been banned over at Delphi and had a paid membership you should consider asking for a refund on the balance of your membership fees. Even if the 'defense' is that you broke a rule it would be a new rule that was not in place when you signed up and paid for the membership. You can't have members paying for a membership, then change the rules on them, then lock them out of the services they paid for.
Don

It is indeed a sad day when a longtime important hobby forum arrives sat the point that the Stamp Collector's Forum has. I was the first to be banned ostensibly because I referred to a private email between myself and the Administrator, which he felt was a "major offense" (even though there is *NO* posted rule that says you can't! Nor is there a site rule (Delphi) that say you can't. So he banned me and to top it off, as he did with subsequent bannings, removed all evidence of the posts so that we can not show the "evidence" to anyone. The conduct with the banning of 6-7 different longtime members there and the censoring of their posts (deletions) is Draconian, and the only hope is that Delphi will wake up, see the damning evidence and remove him, then restore the integrity of the site by having a new Administrator step up and run it as it formerly was before this tyrant took over and ruined it.

If you posted an email that I sent you on the forum, you'd have consequences here too. Emails have a reasonable expectation of privacy. I've used DCMA and other legal means to get posts and images of emails removed on sites I don't even own. There doesn't need to be a rule, it's common sense.

Bobby,
Bill only referred to the topic in the email, he did not post the email or quote any lines from it.
Don

Ok, my apologies. I misunderstood.

Pliny certainly had me pegged.