Stamp Forums Censorship

"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."

I've alerted Delphi to the situation on the Delphi SCF and warned them that their revenues will drop from non-renewals and lack of advert 'page views'. It won't amount to much in $$$ but I thought it worth mentioning.

I have copies of several of the deleted messages: Delphi TOS say that I may not reproduce elsewhere anybody else's messages without their permission, but I can my own. Of those who have now been banned, I only have one of Art's messages, none from the other members (AFAIK).

I've got some screen captures that I will be "sharing" at a later date. Not here, as I don't want to cause problems, but via my own website. If Delphi wishes to cancel my membership due to TOS violations, they are welcome to. My Plus membership is expiring in 10 days and I am not renewing regardless.

My post that got deleted and eventually got me banned read as follows.

Chris,
Can you please explain your purpose or intent of the new rules? What it is you are hoping to achieve with the new rules?
Regards,
Don

I do not buy into the suggestion that he was doing anything to change the forum for the better. If he wanted to change the course of the forum I have no heartburn with that. Simply post the intentions, hold a poll and/or ask for feedback, and if that is what the majority of users anted than so be it.

But what happened was that an ill-conceived rule was written AFTER the fact to justify Bill's banning. It was highly selective and only covered a concern that was specific with one of Bill's posts.

Once it was pointed out that many other threads and posts would also fit under the new rule he had to scramble to backfill his control to justify his actions. Within 1-2 days this quickly slid into censoring anything that was critical of his actions.

I truly hope that this does not spell the end of the Delphi forum. We could easily contact all of the Delphi advertisers and let them know that we will be boycotting their product until they remove their support from Delphi. But this would harm the entire community, not just the one person who is wholly responsible for its decline.
Don

Edit; I also have quite a few of the original screen shots.

Don and Bill -

I just decided to bail from there myself and have started removing as many of my posts as I can find. That forum has gone steadily downhill since the SG/Bidstart debacle. Maybe if enough of us do the same, they will have a "stamp jigsaw puzzle" that is missing half of the pieces and will be worthless to anyone except as an example of how not to run a "forum"!

Al

It's unfortunate that only one side of the so-called censorship issue over at the other SCF is being told in this thread. And no, I'm not the one to tell the "other side" since I voted either "I don't care" or "what new rules" in their poll. I recall that the new rules were in regard to how posts are done about ebay listings. I think there was a desire to not automatically label bad listings as fraudulent, or something like that. I paid little attention to the whole deal because I don't use ebay and don't care to. I get my philatelic stuff from other sources.

I've generally liked this SCF better because it's more educational and far more broad-based in its topics. I don't collect classic US, or FDCs, or cachets, or dragon cards; and the other SCF pays entirely too much attention to those items, IMHO.

My big hope is that some of those who seemed to be big-time whiners over at the other SCF, and who are now migrating to this SCF, will behave better here. Example: one long timer over at the other SCF was asked to check out the new rules, under Start. Response, which I just saw still up, was that "I haven't checked the Start button in years and have no intention to start now." That's rather disrespectful, to me.

Regards, Climber Steve

It is unfortunate that the Delphi forum chose a name that has the same initials as this Stamp Community Family. For years this forum has been referred as SCF. I think when referring to the other forum, we should always include the word "Delphi" such as Delphi SCF, or perhaps DSCF, to avoid confusion.

Steve,
Let's not deteriorate into name calling. And let's use some logic here, you say that only side is being presented here so the question is, why is this? It is because any dissenting opinions are being deleted by Chris over at Delphi. How you can complain about the lack of two sides of the coin when the primary issue is that the guy is disallowing anyone to post anything that even hints at a dissenting opinion?

I didn't get involved until the poll you mention was put up. I was unsure of answering the poll since I was unsure of the point of a new rule that was so specifically defined. So I asked a simple question and the axe falls? I was never warned, I never got any explanation, I never, ever called anyone any names. I privately contacted the mods and asked which rule I broke. No one replied. To this day no one can tell me what rule I broke.

So if you want to be upset over something being unfair, I encourage you to go post the same question over in Delphi. Perhaps you will have better luck than the rest of us 'big time whiners' in getting the other side of the story out but be prepared to have your questions deleted and your account locked out.
Don

It's also unfortunate that you choose to arbitrarily label those who are being forced out at Delphi as "big-time whiners".

Don: I'm sorry that you don't like for those involved in the disagreement over rules at the other SCF being labeled as "whiners." But that's exactly how those individuals came across for someone like me who was there for information, not for feuding.

My preference is to not see this issue about the other SCF being re-visited here. But that's exactly what some of you seem to be doing. As for me making a post about it at the Delphi SCF, read my original comment above again. I voted "I don't care" or "what rules" in the poll about the issue.

Steve,

No offense intended, and I don't mean to come off as lecturing, but one of the age-old truisms about message board behavior is that if you don't like a topic being discussed, or are not interested in it, there is always the back button.

In my personal opinion, complaining about what other people choose to discuss is one of the most inappropriate things one can do on a forum. If the topic doesn't interest you, then you have the option of bypassing it and not reading about it.

It would be no different if there was a thread discussing the APS board of directors and you came in complaining why people bother talking about the APS. If the topic annoys you, just don't participate in it, and allow those who are interested in the topic the freedom to continue the discussion...

No one is ever forced to click on a topic.... it's not Clockwork Orange and you're being forced to read it.

Steve,
I completely agree, I don't know that anyone wanted to raise the topic here. It belongs in the Delphi forum, but that isn't being allowed.
What started as a simple thing, a debate over the new rule concerning a specific type of post exploded into the much bigger issue of deleting posts and banning people. This had nothing to do with any whiners, it is 100% Chris actions and its negative affect on a long-standing forum.

It only would have taken a bit of tact and common sense to handle this whole thing in a professional way over at Delphi. Instead, one could write a book on how NOT to handle a forum issue based upon how it was done. The result has not made any party happy, it has not helped the Delphi forum, and it has not helped the our hobby.

So while I agree that whining is a problem on many forums there is no way that anyone can lay blame for what has happened at the feet of anyone except Chris. Truth is that he is welcome to come present his side of the issue here, without having his posts deleted and being banned. And that is something that the rest of us don't have under his censoring at Delphi.
Don

Yeah, lets move on and talk about stamps.