Censorship
 

I don't necessarily support Mitch's views, nor as a former journalist do I support censorship in general.

But I confess to feeling quite uneasy about the inconsistency of censorship practised in the 'Safari clothing' thread. Some of the childish nonsense which spoiled that thread was deleted within about seven-plus hours. Good.

But even more nonsense followed that and has remained for something like 30 hours. And not a single compatriot of "hereandthere" has rapped him/her over the knuckles for sounding off like a maladjusted juvenile. I don't accept the potential excuse that a weekend has intervened. My wife has been involved in managing a website forum and knows full well that more people are likely to misbehave on weekends than any other time. So her busiest time deleting crap from that website was at the weekend.

Are Fodor's or some of the regular posters on this site going to reassure me that everybody here is subject to the same rules of behaviour?

Hi Afrigalah,

Fodors is sometimes a bit slow on the uptake -- if you email them with the username of the offender (eg hereandthere), the administrator will usually delete the offending post quite quickly.

I haven't really noticed a pattern in terms of which posts get deleted (any gratuitously mean ones are usually quick to go, as are any travel agent self-adverts). I'm afraid I haven't been keeping up with the safari clothing thread much, so I don't know which ones have been deleted.

Cheers,
Julian

Hmmm Julian, we'll see how closely Fodor's monitor their own site and whether anybody in the greatest democracy recognises what I call a 'fair go'.

afrigalah:
I did not comment on hereandthere's post for several reasons:

I did not think it was worthy of comment. Sometimes these "juvenile" comments are best left unaddressed;

Dennis' preceding post summed it up well (Dennis is clearly self-identified as from the U.S.);

BTW, how do I know that hereandthere is indeed my "compatriot" [U.S.]? I have not seen any self-identification as such--If I base it solely on the content--s/he could be a provocateur. Not worth rising to the bait.

As for the censorship, if by "selective" you mean that they are being preferential, I am not sure that is the case here. Rocco had some of his posts removed [with some of the same content.] Indeed it may have been his "sh"""y" post that triggered the deletions.

I have the impression that they respond more to complaints than to initiating deletions on their own. I could be wrong, but it may simply be a matter that someone objected to the earlier posts and no one raised an objection to the later ones--and readers let the thread start to fade and die.

Fodor's is not a government; they are a private enterprise. They don't offer a guarantee of free speech, nor should they. They offer these boards, and, like any other organization that offers boards, Fodor's properly reserves the right to remove whatever they want. They may or may not be even-handed, but that is their right and privilege.

Those who don't like that have several options: they can demand their money back and take their business elsewhere, they can start their own boards with the post removal policy with which they feel most comfortable, or they can continue to post on Fodor's anyway.

I'm with Rizzuto.

That said, I will add that I certainly agree with you that the "censorship" is not even-handed and does seem to imply favouritism towards some posters.

Like bat, I also get the impression that threads on Fodors aren't constantly monitored but rather editing is done only after someone reports a post. Did anyone write to the administrators about hereandthere's post? If so, and it was allowed to remain, then I agree there's some uneven-handed censorship. Otherwise, I think it's possible that they just didn't see it.

Well, darn, I did miss this.

Roccco and Bwana disagreeing (heatedly)? Quelle surprise.

Hereandthere's comment? I certainly hope Bwana wouldn't think that hereandthere's "compatriots" in any way agree with that idiocy.

As I don't know what was on that thread and what wasn't, I don't know who or what was censored/deleted and who or what wasn't. Is there favoritism toward some posters? I can't imagine Fodor's editors are that organized. I have seen some very offensive remarks remain on this and other boards for outrageously long periods of time. However, I have never written to Fodor's complaining about anything, even when I've been offended.

Leely,
The posts that were deleted from that thread can be found here -

http://www.bums-aus.de/censored/Fodors-4-34678437.htm

One needs only to take a look at the link that Mitch conveniently chose to talk about the PHOTO VEST that I bought to see why I took offense:

http://www.campco.com/humvee/bdu_vests.html

The link features American soldiers with their machine guns and artillery vests (not photo vests).

When I do a google search and type in "Humvee Photo Vest" here is the first link that pops up:

http://www.lapolicegear.com/saphve.html

Surprise, this is the very vest that I bought and the same company that I purchased it from.

I have just grown tired of Mitch's anti-American statements and, trust me, this coming from me, someone who is pretty non-conformist rather than a conservative Republican. So, I called him on his anti-American and anti-Fodorite statements on this thread which has worked its way down the list but is still currently on the board:

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34678437

It seems that Mitch wanted to play police detective or SS (Schutzstaffel) when he was in Zambia and has really felt the need to try to break the news about my "commercial interests" in Zambia, I guess not realizing that I had already been forthcoming about my intentions while he was away. It did not stop there as he also asked around about other Fodorites.

Anyway, it is all misplaced machismo that has no place on this board. I just wanted to provide a bit more background so that anybody reading this would be able to see the big picture, even if it does portray me in a negative light.

Thanks, Patty.

I'm surprised--why would those tame-if-annoying posts be deleted? It seems obvious that there is no organized editing/deleting and that it's pretty complaint-based, as Patty, bat, et al, have suggested.

Leely,
I agree. I was surprised they were deleted too as I've seen posts that were far worse stay.

Rocco,
You seem to be playing a little police detective yourself ;)

Patty,

Yes, after the fact detective work, indeed. The best offense is a strong defense, rah, rah, rah! ;)

Rocco-what does it matter if you have a commercial interest in lodges in Zambia? if you steered people to a lodge/camp that was not as you advertised, your credibility on this forum would be diminished. I have yet to hear a bad thing mentioned about ANY lodge/camp you recommended. Being new to this forum 5 months ago, I respected your knowledge of Zambia and CHOSE to take your suggestions. I did have other choices but CHOSE yours. That doesn't make you bad, just very, very helpful as others are on the forums. As far as the censorship goes, if noone responds to the offending threads, they disappear in to cyberland. anyway, just wanted to put in my 2 cents worth and I only have 19 hours until the ride comes to take me to the airport! :-d :-d :-d
dennis

Dennis,

Thanks for your support. Fortunately, I have had mostly good to incredible experiences at the places I have visited with only a couple exceptions (Djuma Vuyatela and Kulefu).

Also, just by knowing the areas, I was able to form opinions on places that I had not yet visited, such as Puku Ridge, Luangwa River Lodge, Kasaka and Chongwe. I will have you know that I was unsure on where to ultimately recommend to you, Kasaka or Chongwe, this before I had actually visited either, but after staying at each, I am relieved that I told you to stay at Chongwe as it was incredible.

Dennis, go out and eat your favorite hometown meal tonight because no matter how good the food is at Luangwa River Lodge and Chongwe you will start to miss hometown food by the end of your stay! :) (Time for dinner for me, I guess!)