Democratic Reform thread- where'd it go?

demonspawn

There a was a thread posted this morning informing us of a new organization called Democratic Reform. There were a lot of very good ideas on the website that was linked and I was really looking forward to a discussion on the subject.

So where did it go? I know mods will lock a thread if they thinks it's not suitable for this forum and that's fair enough, but to remove a thread entirely? Was it just moved to another section?

Iwasfrozen

It was deleted because the OP was advertising his website. Something that's not allowed.

demonspawn

Iwasfrozen wrote: »

It was deleted because the OP was advertising his website. Something that's not allowed.

It wasn't a commercial website, he wasn't trying to sell anything. If there's an emerging political movement in Ireland, I'm pretty sure it should be here in the politics section of boards.

Mods could have simply removed the link and given a warning or just locked the thread. I can't remember when I've ever seen a thread removed completely.

Edit: After reviewing the charter:

7. Political Canvassing

Do not advertise your party on here in posts.

This is not allowed. Any posts deemed to be solely for the purpose of advertising a party many earn people a ban. If you want advertising, pay for it.

Having a discreet link to party material in your signature is fine, so long as it is clearly identified as such. Similarly if you want to have a picture in your signature of your party's logo, that is also fine. If it's overboard we will ask that you change it. Refusal to do so will result in access removal from Politics.

Ok, there was a very small link to his website at the bottom of his post. I don't even think Democratic Reform is a political party yet so can't see how it would fall under this category. I think locking the thread would be one thing but removing it entirely, to me, is unacceptable.

Sand

Youre advertising it pretty well yourself, so Im sure if someone is that bothered they can google for it.

demonspawn

Sand wrote: »

Youre advertising it pretty well yourself, so Im sure if someone is that bothered they can google for it.

That's really not the point now is it? Someone finally took the initiative to draw up a viable alternative to the god awful mess we're in right now and it's shot down before it even gets off the ground. Just leaves a bad taste in my mouth tbh.

Iwasfrozen

You should contact the political mods via pm. Talking about mod decisions here isn't allowed.

demonspawn

Well, I'm gonna risk a ban and the removal of this thread and link the site again. It's ridiculous that someone can't express their political views and ideas on a politics board. I think people should know that this are actually people out there trying to come up with alternatives.

From what I can gather, this Democratic Reform group allows for established political party members to join, so long as their goals are compatible. So it's essentially a political organization, not an actual party.

By the way, I seem to remember a thread started by someone from the Irish National Party, with a link to their site, that was up for quite a while.



See yas in two weeks!!

sceptre

Hey there

I've moved this to the Help Desk. While I can see you've read the Politics charter, you missed the bit about the procedure for raising an issue with a moderation decision: that would be to contact the forum mods, then the category mods if you're not happy with the response and then the admins on the Help Desk if you're not satisfied with the response from the cmods. As Iwasfrozen correctly said above, the first step is contacting the mods, not to carry on regardless as though the charter didn't apply. As I'm here though...

To answer your question, I deleted it.

I also gave the guy who started it a red card as boards.ie and in particular boards.ie(politics) isn't the online equivalent of a Tesco noticeboard, free for all to pimp whatever adverts they want. That's the same procedure for anyone who posts on Politics just to pimp their site etc, regardless of what political grouping people are trying to pimp. We're also not a convenient location for people to just improve their google rank.

The terms and conditions of the whole site (presented to and agreed to by every member on signup) are particular that a member isn't to use the site for advertising or using it as a convenient method of promoting their wares. That includes signing up just to promote a website. We're not going to become the online equivalent of a noticeboard either, particularly not in the Politics section. The Politics section is a discussion forum, not a handy free advertising location for people to pimp their sites, blogs or four men and a dog operations. For some reason the guy who started the thread assumed that this didn't apply to him. We frequently get people pimping their websites, this guy is just one of them. If they want to advertise, the site has paid advertising options, details are available by contacting hello@boards.ie by email.

Aside, do not lower yourself to reposting a link from a thread a forum mod has deleted for being in express contravention of the site rules. That's not appreciated. I've snipped your reposting of the link above, the rest of your post is intact. I appreciate that you may not be aware of why the thread was deleted, though the correct procedure would have been to ask rather then adding on the equivalent of an "up yours" before getting an answer. If you've further questions, I can offer you this thread or PMing me (which should have been step one) as options. You're also free to appeal the decision to the cmods for Soc (listed here) if you'd like to take a third option instead. The above is enough, I hope, to answer your query as to why it was deleted.

demonspawn

I can appreciate the rules are there for a reason and you want to avoid having the forums overrun with party adverts, but I think when it's a new political structure or movement I think some discretion is warranted.

Would the a discussion about the emergence of a new political movement be acceptable on the politics forum? Also, how can such a discussion take place if we are unable to link to the website in question so that people can make informed comments about this new group?

If the thread had been posted by someone not involved with the organization, would it have been allowed to continue?

Also I think that removing the thread in question entirely with no explanation as to why is somewhat unfair to the original poster as well as to those who wish to discuss the subject. I've seen many instances where the forum rules were bent or broken and cards were given out or threads were locked.

sceptre

Every few weeks we get a new supposed political movement pimping their wares on the Politics forum. They've become as popular as protest signs since the recession started. Discretion is a fine thing but we're still not a Tesco noticeboard.

If it had been posted by someone with no connection to the organisation, it would fall into the "not spam" category. Nevertheless, there's still little information that it's an actual organisation as opposed to one man and a dog so I suggest making a case for some or all of the aims of the organisation as opposed to the mere advert notice that the original post was. Again, not a Tesco noticeboard. Odds are good that a "hey, I heard about this new organisation starting and here are their aims, what do you think" thread wouldn't last particularly long before being locked at the very least: every little town has its own guy starting a new political organisation these days and short of setting up a "pimp your party" forum, we don't exist to promote them. What we do exist to promote are political discussions. These guys have views that you like? You'll get more mileage out of discussing the views. There was a time when the forum moderators and members (some of whom correctly reported this post as barefaced pimping) were far more amenable to new threads about the myriad of new organisations starting up like little cottage industries. Then they started coming in droves merely to pimp their sites. We don't look kindly on them any more. We're a discussion forum and will remain a discussion forum.

The thread wasn't removed without providing information to the original poster: as I clearly said above, the original poster was sent a formal notice by PM. It was sent as an infraction notice as that poster hadn't read the site rules, as well as for the convenience of other Politics moderators, all of whom are equally aware of the text of that information provided to the original poster. That's actually pretty charitable: we tend to remove adverts without notice most of the time and this was an advert. That's what happens on the entire site. Presumably on this occasion you have some sympathy with the "item" the guy in question was pimping. I can offer you sympathies on that but we still delete advertising pimpage without informing everyone about it. That's not going to change: site members prefer to see their site minus the spam or notices telling them that we've successfully deleted Yet Another Spam Message.

demonspawn

Fair enough, thanks for not banning me.