Closed Reasonable criticism and censorship

CGSwans

Well-Known Member
15+ year member
I am not one who seeks to make trouble on this site, I value it and enjoy it far too greatly to do that. However, I must protest at the knee-jerk, grossly over-the-top moderation of a thread that simply raised legitimate questions of and fair-minded, civil criticisms of moderators.

I accept that moderators may sometimes close threads and delete posts for the sake of maintaining Zoochat as a pleasant place to e, but I object to that being done when the posts in question breaks no rules, and where my comments are deleted purely for the sake of preserving the self-esteem of this site's moderators. I wish none of them ill, but I will call out and criticise censorship whenever and wherever I see it. Especially for such flimsy, indefensible reasons.

This thread may be deleted. If so, it will be re-posted, time and again, until this site's moderators either a) accept that there role is public and subject to open and free comment, b) show me where in the terms and conditions of using this forum I have broken rules, or c) I am banned from using this website. If the latter occurs then Zoochat would be worthless to me in any case.

All that is required is transparency, and perhaps a somewhat-thicker skin from our moderating team.
 
MARK - I can't believe that you deleted those two posts and locked that thread.

Sim owns this forum and can do what he likes with it but mate, you are a moderator and there was nothing immoderate in either of those two posts.
 
I wasn't really going to post anything here but its all going to be deleted anyway, so what the hey. I find it really interesting, given Mark's and kiang's comments in the "Closed Threads" thread, that this thread - http://www.zoochat.com/38/best-reptile-collection-uk-23844/index4.html - was sitting idle for over TWO YEARS, was bumped three weeks ago, and now both Mark and kiang are posting in that thread rather than locking it and deleting posts. Care to explain that rather glaring double standard?
 
"I wasn't really going to post anything here but its all going to be deleted anyway, so what"

I hope that this will not be the case. There are valid questions being asked which require answers rather than deletion or censorship.... or at the very least some discussion.
 
I wasn't really going to post anything here but its all going to be deleted anyway, so what the hey. I find it really interesting, given Mark's and kiang's comments in the "Closed Threads" thread, that this thread - http://www.zoochat.com/38/best-reptile-collection-uk-23844/index4.html - was sitting idle for over TWO YEARS, was bumped three weeks ago, and now both Mark and kiang are posting in that thread rather than locking it and deleting posts. Care to explain that rather glaring double standard?

Quite happy to chlidonias, i never realised the thread was that old:o

I just want affirm that any thread a year old SHOULD be locked or closed

What is wrong with starting a new thread and why are people taking it all so seriously.
 
I just want affirm that any thread a year old SHOULD be locked or closed

I'm still not sure I see why. If there's an interesting discussion and then, a year or so later, there's new information relating to it I'd much prefer to be able to pop it in the old thread rather than have to start a new one and have the discussion split. But hey-ho.


As an aside, I'm presuming 'over a year old' means 'over a year without a post', as there are a number of intermittently active threads (such as the 'My zoo list' thread) that are over a year old and clearly still in use, so should remain open.
 
kiang said:
Quite happy to chlidonias, i never realised the thread was that old

I just want affirm that any thread a year old SHOULD be locked or closed

What is wrong with starting a new thread and why are people taking it all so seriously.
There is absolutely no reason why an older thread "SHOULD" be locked. And I would still like an answer to the questions in the deleted posts in the Closed Threads thread, with regards to your statement "There is an agreement in place between the moderators and members that threads over a year old will be closed down for the fact it is so difficult to find amongst the myriads of postings on here.":
me: "an agreement in place between moderators and members? Where and when did this agreement take place? As a member I don't believe I'd ever heard of anything of the sort until MARK said yesterday that he would "like to" close old threads."

CGSwans: "Indeed. What possible reason is there to have this policy? If such a policy exists, why is it a) not widely made clear and b) applied consistently? Also, since when does kiwipo - or any other member for that matter - get threads locked simply by requesting so?"

Instead of an answer both posts were deleted for no good reason.

As to why people are "taking it all so seriously" - have you not even paid any attention to the three threads in question? Honestly?
 
I believe these unanswered questions and issues warrant a response to the Zoochat community..
 
I'm still not sure I see why. If there's an interesting discussion and then, a year or so later, there's new information relating to it I'd much prefer to be able to pop it in the old thread rather than have to start a new one and have the discussion split. But hey-ho.


As an aside, I'm presuming 'over a year old' means 'over a year without a post', as there are a number of intermittently active threads (such as the 'My zoo list' thread) that are over a year old and clearly still in use, so should remain open.

Not wanting to stir up trouble (because i love the work the moderators usually do around here) but can I just say that I agree with Maguari... If there's some news to be reported about say "sumatran rhino's" or "northern white rhino's" I'd go and look for the old thread, dig it up and post it in there even if it's over a year "dormant".

I also agree that threads never should be locked, unless it's for a (very) compelling reason (which is usually an overheated debate between two people that is getting out of hand, which is later on usually re-opened on most forums).
 
Not wanting to stir up trouble (because i love the work the moderators usually do around here) but can I just say that I agree with Maguari... If there's some news to be reported about say "sumatran rhino's" or "northern white rhino's" I'd go and look for the old thread, dig it up and post it in there even if it's over a year "dormant".

I also agree that threads never should be locked, unless it's for a (very) compelling reason (which is usually an overheated debate between two people that is getting out of hand, which is later on usually re-opened on most forums).

I agree.

This is Sim's Forum and he may run it as he likes. The moderators are great.

But the ZooChat community creates all content and contributes financially (not nearly enough, I'm sure!) so give us a listen
 
Not wanting to stir up trouble (because i love the work the moderators usually do around here) but can I just say that I agree with Maguari... If there's some news to be reported about say "sumatran rhino's" or "northern white rhino's" I'd go and look for the old thread, dig it up and post it in there even if it's over a year "dormant".

It sounds very reasonable because it also provides context for newbies (to the forum or just the particular topic).

Maybe all threads with extraneous apostrophes could be closed, that'd really tidy things up ;)
 
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