Editing and Deleting Posts

I fully agree....I have seen lots of crap (advertising links, swearing) that I cannot delete.

If you notice any new spam/solicitation posts, say today in a 15 day old thread,then you should be able to delete them. Now if you find any spam post in an old thread (generally it should not be there if timely moderation has been done), then you need to send us the thread and we will delete the spam post from here.
As far as updating the pdl sticky page is concerned, it is a very rare case so we would appreciate if you can send us the part which you want to edit in your older post and we will change it from here . You can keep on adding new updated posts in that sticky thread itself.

We have taken away the edit/deletion rights as we have noticed few moderators misusing their powers by deleting genuine posts or threads which had long discussions. Even now we are getting regular complaints of post deletion.

We are looking forward to your cooperation.

Yes I delete posts. Paul and Ohiogal delete posts...and none of us will make any appology for it. We are trying to keep this forum professional and informative. We delete nonsense posts and repetative cut and paste posts. Let us do the job you have entrusted us with....

FYI...I vote that SpaceBlank be shown the door...I have sent him messages and continues to post cut and paste answers with incorrect information. I follow him around...delete, delete, delete.....

all i know is since unregistereds are allowed to post again there are spams,solicitations,and idiots with "dick issues"posting for viagara that get through the mod filter.also alot of unregistered are posting dangerous information like account numbers on their threads.since this a blatant TOS violation how do we handle that?as soaplady stated it doesn't look proffesional when a thread started by an unregistered that contains that info that gets deleted,but there is no response from the OP.i liked it better when people had to register to post.

Jason, are you trying to get rid of us?

It is not a question of getting rid of anyone. Our experience is showing that in the last six to eight months, we have seen many good forum threads and posts getting deleted - either intentionally or by mistake. Again we are not talking about any specific person. It is better to inform us about the required changes/actions that needs to be taken rather than losing the valuable threads or posts. For example we may lose the important sticky's that have been made by our valuable members.

We have a wiki article section where one can publish the same sticky content in an article format which gives one an opportunity to edit articles whenever one feels like. Regarding post deletion, we have already said once before that even if someone welcomes an OP in an UNANSWERED thread and ask him/her to wait for expert advice, we don't think there is nothing wrong in it as the OP feels his/her post is not being ignored. We get post all the time and since we cannot expect all the mods to be present all the time in our forums,so there has to be someone who will acknowledge those unanswered posts. It may sound repetitive but then the OP knows that someone will come to answer his/her question later. In the mean time I have asked the concerned member to not post for the time being.

my point is that we get alot of stupidity.just today someone thought we denied them credit.now i doubt someone who can't conduct a simple search has great credit as they stated.we should make it where registration is required again.

[QUOTE]If you notice any new spam/solicitation posts, say today in a 15 day old thread,then you should be able to delete them. Now if you find any spam post in an old thread (generally it should not be there if timely moderation has been done), then you need to send us the thread and we will delete the spam post from here. [/QUOTE]Jason, I need to be honest. That is a slap in the face. Just the other day, I deleted dozens of spam threads--and as I was deleting them, unregistered folks were already replacing them with more. We end up making the rounds checking the usual suspects because if we do not, then very misleading and false advice ends up staying on the forum, and visitors end up following that bad advice. I take it as a real kick in the stones that you would post a comment like that. There is so much extra crap we have to sift through as a direct result of your rules that there are bound to be things that fall through the cracks. You want timely moderation?? Simple--act to get rid of the endless spam, and put a stop to unregistered posters posting up all kinds of ridiculous nonsense. If I didnt have to spend that time deleting dozens of viagra ads and links to illegal payday lenders, perhaps I wouldn't miss that old spam post or other thing that should be deleted.

In other words, you say you are on our side--now is the time to show it with action. Your moderation staff comes to you looking for help so we can simply do our jobs, and rather than make the changes that work, you throw out a comment like that....?

Quote:

People who post at 3am in the morning shouldnt have to be told that they might have to wait until daybreak for their question to be answered. Yes, I have deleted Blankspaces "I dont have a clue but wait and an expert will be here" 5 minutes after the original poster posts. No welcome...no nothing.

I delete A LOT.....but I am also on this site many many hours in a day. I keep the flow going, deleting answers that dont answer the question that was asked or just gives a bad answer. I probably delete 200-300 spam posts in a day. I take the time to answer idiots who cant do a google search properly and I know damn well wont return BECAUSE THEY ARE NOT REGISTERED!!!! I suspect most of the "complainers" are the same people that we as mods are sending PM's to notifying that they are post bad information....they ignore our emails and keep posting the same crap. So I delete. These complainers are not contributing anything to this forum and are pulling the quality of the good answers down.

Jason...maybe you should spend a day logged in to see the amount of crap we have to wade thru. I answered about 50 questions on this forum and probably 30 in social answers. We mods go thru every post made, double checking what has been posted and deleting the crap, especially from the idiots who post while we sleep. We take pride in this forum and the work that we do. So back us up and let us do our job!!!

Jason,

Case in point....

http://www.debtconsolidationcare.com/forums/showthread.php?p=917746&posted=1#post917746

NathanielCopeland needs to go. It is that simple. The guy has 249 posts, and several of us have asked him to stop posting false info here. He has never responded to any messages from me and he has never stopped posting any of the crap we point out to him as being false. At what point do you allow us to pull the plug on someone like this? Why should this be allowed to continue for so long? We need you to BACK US UP on things like this. Same as spaceblank--the guy posts tons of false information. Rather than relying on us to constantly babysit the same person over and over again, when you are being told that these people provide nothing of value here, why not put a stop to their posting? You talk about how we cannot be everywhere on the forum and how you do not want posts to go unanswered, but if you refuse to listen in cases like this, we spend our time here babysitting people that ignore our requests to them instead of answering posts for people that actually care!!

This cannot be that difficult to understand. By allowing those people to stay here and post like you do, you are forcing us to moderate a known problem child all time. And that keeps us from answering those new posts. If I only have a short time today to spend on this forum, and I spend that whole time deleting spam and correcting ignorant posts that shouldnt be allowed here, then I cannot help the people who really came here looking for help! How in the world does that help this forum?

It doesn't, sky. That's what we've been trying to get across but no one is listening or, they just don't care.Thanks for adding your agreement. I just don't get it.

all or most of this started as a result of letting the unregistered idiots post with abandon again.we see old threads with the solicitations because these things are waking up 3 plus year old threads.90% of the posts by,and threads started by unregistered,and anonymous are idiotic,contain deleteable info,and are basically a waste of time.that is my issue here.get back to where you had to register and all will be fixed.

Not exactly, Paul. The people who keep complaining about us deleting their useless and incorrect posts are registered members (e.g. Nathaniel and Blankspace).The unregistered posters are another issue but also related to the fact that we can't edit/delete.I feel like we're no longer wanted here, honestly.

both can kiss my ass.both should be gone.have no use for them either.

what are we a bakery?there shouldn't be anything we can't edit/delete.again that is up to jason/vikas.as for the two idiots as well as the unregistered.my feelings are in my reply just above.read into it waht you will.btw the bakery reference was about dates freshness expires.

Thanks again for your valuable feedback. We feel that three points have come out from the discussions in this thread...
1) unregistered posters/posts
2) post quality
3) post edit/delete rights (15 days time limit)

It is my humble request to all mods to no take the decisions/replies personally. Generally we have not seen spam posts in an old thread (which is 15 days old) after the expiration of the moderation period. This is because the spams are normally deleted by you all. But even if some spams posts are left behind in a 15 days old thread, then you are requested to send us the thread url so that the required moderation can be done from here itself. We have no problem in giving mod rights in old threads but because we don't have any provision technically to segregate between active and inactive moderators, we had no choice but to apply it on all moderators. This will also help us to prevent these threads/posts from being hacked and we will be able to preserve the important threads created by our valuable members and moderators. Please understand that you still have the edit/delete rights. You can edit/delete the new posts that are being posted in the 15 days old threads. In case you see any spams/solicitations in the older posts or you need to make some updates (for e.g sticky), then like I said before, do send us the required urls for necessary actions.

Whenever you made any observation regarding bugs and other issues,they have been taken care of. In the past you have seen that we had banned or asked members not to post anymore in the forums based on your feedback. This time also I had already asked Spaceblank (I have mentioned it in my previous post) not to post in the forums. Now since you have post issues with Nathaniel, we are asking him not to post as well.We have always given value to your feedback, in the past as well as in the present. So you don't need to feel that we are brushing off your suggestions :)

Sometimes, we have to make some decisions which you all may not appreciate but then we also need to take into consideration few points like increasing thread posts/members and so on. Moreover we get regular mails to allow guest posting and we have seen several guest posters have eventually gone on to become registered members of our community. We need to listen to all for the overall growth of our forums. Based on your suggestions we had implemented a system where only the registered members could participate in the forums. Even in that case, we still got spams.

We often see members asking questions as if we are the creditors or collection agencies or a loan company. These people ask these types of questions based on the search results they get irrespective of being a registered or unregistered member.

As far as spams are concerned we know the amount of time you all spent for moderation and that's the very reason we have introduced moderators points for rewarding our moderators'. We are planning to implement a system which will make our spam filter better as well reduce complaints on post deletion.


We hope you will understand our stand and thanks again for your valuable time.

there is a thread i just responded to titled(security check sysyems)it had two unregistered idiots.i deleted one yesterday,but two more popped up.if i were to delete those i can't lock it because the last post before theirs was in 2010.we need a little more leeway in this respect if you are going to allow unregistered's to post.

Quote:

Hi All,

With all the site changes that have occurred and those that are still in motion, it would be great for us all to meet and discuss how things are progressing as well as the concerns raised in this thread.

The active mods have been here a long time and are very committed to the site. Discussing the growth and ways to improve the site for all who come here could not be better timed.

Would all those concerned be available to participate in a conference call this weekend? Would evening or morning hours be the best option?

It would be fantastic to have an even closer knit mod community by meeting once a month through conference call or a google hangout where we can all be participants in how to improve the community. Not everyone will be able to make a once a month meeting all the time, but we can post minutes for those who could not make a given discussion. It would be great if everyone could make this first one though.

Please post your individual available times in reply and we can coordinate a call.

I will say it was a pleasure to speak with and get to know SoapLady a couple of weeks ago over the phone.

Saturday I work 10-3, Sunday 1-730pm

Great, thanks SoapLady!
Does everyone else have some availability inside the hours and days SoapLady posted?

Quote:

Hi All,

My effort to schedule the conference call was short notice. It would seem there was not enough time to coordinate a day and time that could work for all.
SoapLady's response was the only one.
Lets shoot for next weekend.
All those interested please post a reply with hours of availability for next Sat or Sun.

Best,
Michael

Hi again,

Other than SoapLady, there has been no response to the suggested mod conference call.
I am curious if that is do to lack of interest in the call?

Mods spend significant amounts of time on the site. A conference call to openly talk about skydivers concerns, junk and spam posts as well as insights into developments and direction of the site will provide a backdrop for improvements we all have an interest in supporting.

This coming weekend is my last in the Raleigh NC area. I will be moving back home to Sandpoint ID the following weekend. The weekend after that leads into the 4th of July.

It would be great to get a response from all active mods as to availability for a call this weekend.
If you do not have an interest in attending a conference call that's okay. It would be good to know that too.

Best,
Michael

last weekend,and this one are not good for me sorry.i would like to hash this out as the unregistered's are really becoming a problem.

Oh I agree paul....late at night tons of unregistered posts are happening, I suspect many are Blankspace and other posters we have shown the door. I must have deleted 30-40 last night...totally non contributing posts with no information or repetative info.

Thanks for the response Paul.
I suggested weekend days based on the assumption that it would open up more availability and participation.
Any day of the week can work really.
Speaking for myself, I can be available between the hours of 7 am and 7 pm eastern any day.
Are you available on a weekday Paul?
Lets see what others respond with too and coordinate from there.

i'll let you know about the weekend after this one.might be good for then,but i'll keep you posted.

This coming weekend is very hectic for me. I have a graduation party and 2 (yes 2) wedding receptions.Could we coordinate something the following weekend. I'd be happy to do a Saturday morning or Sunday morning discussion that weekend.

Not sure of my schedule yet...I am getting ready to take my daughter to the airport..she spending 2 months with her dad in Minnesota. My brain is all over the place right now.....

Thanks everyone for the responses!

It sounds like the weekend after this coming, so June 23rd or 24th, may work for many of us. I will make sure I am available when we settle on a time. It would be best for me if it were in the evening. If we do it on Saturday the 23rd I will be in hotel somewhere on mountain time. If we do it Sunday night the 24th I should be at home and on pacific time.

Michael,

It isnt that I do not have an interest in a conference call. My concern is this--will it even be worth our time?

I mean, I aired some serious and documented concerns here in this thread. And not one word of a response came. Not one! If Jason wants us to feel like he isnt blowing us off, and I cannot get a reply here in a thread, are we going to get a reply to a conference call full of concerns?

I am not here to pick a fight. That isnt at all my interest. But we contribute a substantial amount of our time to this place. I do not think it is too much to ask that when Jason steps up and makes those statements that contradict with the actions we have seen on the forum, that it be addressed. I feel that we are seriously being taken advantage of--I feel that Jason is concerned more with site traffic than he is with the quality of that traffic. There comes a time when we have to choose what the primary goal of this forum is--either we are here to gain as much traffic as possible or we are here to ensure accuracy of info for the people that need the help. There is no good reason why any member of this forum should be allowed to treat any other like some of these people have treated others--And that should apply even more to debt samaritans, etc. When I pointed out what had taken place in here, and he wanted to put a temporary ban on this person, there is no call for that. This person was already asked nicely, then cautioned, then warned, then temp banned, all by several moderators, and none of it worked. We need to have a definite plan so that we understand what the priority is for this forum.

I feel that we need to hear from the admins in this thread about this. A conference call is a great idea, but like I said, if I do not warrant a conversation here in this thread with Jason about what obviously did take place and how I was treated as so expendable back then, then how can we expect him listen to all of us on a phone call? It took me actually giving an ultimatum--either she goes or I go--and even then, his response showed a complete lack of respect for me on this forum. I honestly feel that Jason was less than forthcoming in what he said here. I believe he doesnt want us to feel like we have been brushed off, but at the same, I believe he has done just that. As an admin, how can you ask your mods to be patient with you and go along with your plans, when you treat them in such a manner? I was literally ready to walk right off this place and not care either way. I stayed because of an email I got from one of our members, that I had helped out when she was sued last year over someone else's debt. She's in the same boat again and asked for my help again. I stayed because of the people we help. And I am sick and tired of that sentiment being taken advantage of.

As for the conference call, Sundays are never good for me. Maybe Saturday would work better. I am the Central time zone.

Thanks skydiver.

I can assure you that this first call will be very relevant to your concerns raised in this thread as well as similar concerns found in the past year in the mod section of the forum.

My suggesting this call is partially inspired to meet this purpose.

I will be hosting the call as part of the site admin team. I do not take your concerns lightly. I am certain Jason does not take them lightly either. Articulating that to you briefly here, and more fully on the upcoming call, or in a personal conversation, will prove time well spent. I am confident.

Its shaping up that Saturday the 23rd would be the best and nearest weekend day for most of the active mods to get together.
Can everyone reply and suggest a weekday and time that would work well (if at all)? If an evening call Mon through Fri can work, that would give us an alternative.

Dear Mods

First of all thanks for your conference call meeting interest. We were waiting for the call meeting time confirmation replies from your end.

Now let me address all your queries/concerns one by one as I have been doing so all these years. I'm sure if you go through the old posts, you will find that on every occasion you have raised any issue regarding member, bugs,or site suggestions, those threads have not gone unanswered :) There may be very very rare exceptions where I might have missed out a thread.

As per your feedback regarding post quality, we have already introduced vote system in social answers where one can give negative vote to a low quality post and make it the least acceptable answer for the OP. And in forums we have asked some members not to post in forums as per your feedback. Even last time when similar concerns were raised about a few members, we had informed them about your concerns and asked them not to post. Regarding your issues with them posting with different ids, can you give us a suggestion on how we can prevent them from posting in an open forum like ours? If we continuously keep on banning / blocking ips, it will prevent other people who have genuine queries from participating in the forums. This is because the ip loop will be blocked for them also. Well, I have said this so many times :) Even you may have noticed that whenever Mods have mentioned list of user names to be banned from our forums (ref : in this mod forum itself), they have been banned. For your information we have so far permanently banned more than thousand members.
Moreover do you think a permanent ban is the ultimate solution? Even if we ban a particular user permanently,they can easily create a different id and start posting or if we block their ip they may start posting from a different ip - isn't it? That's why we generally avoid giving a permanent ip ban (unless they are spam bots) as it affects a whole lot of people who may have genuine queries in our forums. It has no relation to brushing off your suggestions. The point to note here is on every occasion you raised issues regarding particular members (not to post in forums), we have asked them to do so which shows we have listened to your concern and tried to take necessary action.

Now regarding harassment issues with one or two particular member which are very sparse. Please note that if you have any forum ToS issues, it is always better to inform us via mail, the private messages or mails (preferably snapshots ) that takes place between you and the members at the time it is happening as this will help us get a a clear picture what's happening behind. Since we cannot access member pms, we always don't get the full communication (from both ends) that is being exchanged. It is therefore important to keep us in the loop when messages are being exchanged as it makes it easier for us to take timely action. In Gretchen's case, she also sent us mails/ pms and told us the trouble she was in and thanked the forums for the help she received here and wanted to help others as well. But what she complained was whenever she had a different opinion, her posts were being edited / deleted, minutes after she has made those posts which she found very insulting. It was after we received complaints from you, we had asked her to refrain from making posts. We hoped that she would abide to our request but when she didn't, we banned her. Similarly, we requested you to be patient since Mods' are our forum representative. Any activity without any explanation or rude comments for questions asked by members which looks obvious or unneeded will create confusion or give a wrong impression to others. Response from frogpatch is best example how to deal with this kind of poster where he tells not to engage in debate as it unnecessarily complicates situation. Just avoid them and address the issue the OP has asked. And if any personal attack takes place in a thread we request you to leave it to us to deal with the situation by sending us the thread url. Such instances are very rare unlike spams and I'm sure you can send us those urls. I remember asking Marie Megge not to add links in posts after we received complaints from you. We asked her to list her company in our Ranking chart and signature which she did later on. Since we deal with so many members every day, there may be one or two unfortunate incidents which may not be to our likings. Sometimes confusion arise because we don't get the complete picture of a particular situation. But it is my earnest request not to generalise those one or two exceptions with so many good Samaritans/members.

We have had experience of a different kind when a user called pdlowner was made debt Samaritan and few mods had objected to him being made a Samaritan because he owns a pdl company. Many feared that he may misuse the forums. The Samaritan repetitively complained how he was harassed for posting in the forums in spite of members repeatedly thanking him for giving good answers here in the forums.

Please note that I'm not blaming anyone. I'm just citing an example. Just as we need to give importance to our mods feedback it is also important for us to look into member complaints as well.

Guest members eventually become members because some are not comfortable registering at first, some are not very computer savvy, some prefer to just search info in our forums and once they get help and want to help others as well they register eventually. In all cases its good for our forums. Some take time, some do it instantly. Its just a matter of member choice or the way they look at forums. e.g : http://www.debtconsolidationcare.com/paydayloan/shamrockmarketing-grenterprises.html

yes jason the pdlowner point is right on as i remember him.i was the only one(or one of a few)that stood up for him.in fact there is a thread in this forum where i addressed that as i got into it with a fellow named anthony lemons.set off a firestorm then too.while i am for giving any REGISTERED member the benefit of the doubt.when iron clad proof comes down of mulitiple tos violations.the action should be swift,and hard.no doubts,no questions.i know running this site is not easy,but we are here to make it easier(at least i hope we do)and to that end you need to give us the leeway to edit/delete info from old threads.an old adage to close my post.you can't be all things to all people.

Hi Everyone.

I apologize for not posting an update on the conference call prior to now. As mentioned prior, My family and I moved cross country back to Idaho over the last couple of weeks. Unfortunately I blew out an already damaged knee during all of it.

We are settled back in and I am back to a normal routine until I set up surgery (no rehabin this puppy this time).

Can we all get together tomorrow or Sunday?
How about the following Sat or Sun?

I have a number setup we can use. It is:
[COLOR=#373737]712-432-3030
Conference Code: 671110[/COLOR]

It may be best to assume next weekend Saturday at say 8pm eastern and just go with however many can make it. I will write a summary and post it for those who cannot make it to review and comment.

Please share your thoughts.

Best,
Michael

Michael,
Next Sunday would be better for me. I am in the Pacific time zone, FYI--so this would be at 5 pm for me.

Thanks KS.
Lets take a vote for Next Saturday or Sunday at 8pm est/5pm pacific.
I am good with either day.
As mentioned before, it would be great to get as many mods on this first call as possible.
So far we have one vote for Sunday.
Step right up and place your vote.....

Next Saturday is not good for me as I have a prior commitment, sorry. But I will be there next Sunday if we have it.

Hi! I've been out for a couple weeks due to an illness. Just checking to see if this call took place and, if not, can we get one scheduled?

He is presently engaged in some other task. We will let you know when the conference will take place.