I know the one Bill posted on the robbery at Mara Porini was deleted because of copyright violation, but Jan only posted a link to the article and then continued with an account of theft on her trip. What happened???

I can't find it either. I hope it wasn't deleted because that would be just plain wrong. They (Fodors) should not hide the fact that thefts on safaris can happen. It is information people should be aware of. I will take more security precautions at camps/lodges than I have in the past because of Jan's experience. Maybe she should post again without the camp's name?

"What happened???"

Maybe when it comes to posting about things that reflect negatively on Africa travel (like armed robbery of safari camps) the policy is "no gnus is good gnus"?

I was looking for it yesterday, too. Wierd....
Cindy

Hello,

I may be mistaken, but I think Jan's story was one of the posts on Bill's thread, so when the thread was removed it disappeared too. Maybe someone should re-post the link to the article (not the text) and hope that Jan will re-post her story. Personally, I think it's helpful to know where the theft took place -- though to be honest I don't recall Jan mentioning the name of the camp.

Cheers,
Julian

"I may be mistaken, but I think Jan's story was one of the posts on Bill's thread, so when the thread was removed it disappeared too."

Jan posted her story of the camp theft as roughly entry # 18 on my original thread. Shortly after she posted that my original thread was removed.

The next day (yesterday) she started a new post titled I think "Camp robbery" with the link to the Mara robbery and a re-telling of her tale ... I think there were only 2 or 3 replies to that one before it too was removed.

"Maybe someone should re-post the link to the article (not the text) and hope that Jan will re-post her story."

That's exactly what Jan did in her "Camp robbery" post but it was also flushed ...

Bill

Julian,
The new thread Jan started yesterday entitled "Robbery on safari" or something like that was a re-post of her story with just a link to the original article. I was the first person to post a comment under this thread and I don't know what was said after mine. It would be disturbing if Fodors deleted it just because it was negative news. We all need a reminder once in a while that these things can happen on safari and to take as much precaution as we can. Jan never posted the camp name, but I think you can easily figure that out by reading her past trip reports since she mentioned that she's stayed there 10 times.

I don't understand why Fodor's would do this...very strange. I wonder if this thread also will dissapear....
Cindy

It's not like we haven't posted all kinds of negatives about our collective experiences before so it does seem extremely odd!

Is the camp owner perhaps one of the site's paying sponsors?

I don't think she even identified the camp.

I had posted on Jan's robbery report. I, for one, was glad she told of her experience, and that I read it before it was deleted. It is a good reminder to be careful -- no matter where we are.

gee, I was starting to feel that we got booted due to the exchange between Julian and I on Bill's thread. We were kibitzing about keeping cash under Julian's big kitty - you had to be there, sorry, it was late night chatter - quite relevent though

This btw, is the 3rd deletion of threads where Julian and I were discussing things. I'm feeling paranoid.

I'm not sure if I feel better or worse about the deletion, if the reason was that Fodor's couldn't handle an honest thief report - You out there editor? Can you explain.
Most respectfully;
Sherry

Yeah - this censorship is troubling. I add to the motion for the moderators to explain, please!

All in favor?

Aye

<font color="green">Cyn</font>

This thread is deleted for sure now Sherry is talking about Julian's big kitty again!

Just sent this thread to [email protected] asking for an explanation of the second (non-copyright content) message about the theft. I asked them to explain to the Board.

Will post if I receive a reply.

CW

This is not good if posts are being screened.

I read the Arusha Times on occasion and a couple of months back a group of bandits stopped a van not far from the Kili airport, took all the passengers off the vehicle and robbed them. No one was hurt. At the time I couldn't understand why it wasn't mentioned on this board. The article may still be in their archives.

I have no problem with posts being screened or deleted - after all this is a privately owned site and it's the right of the owners to decide what is and isn't acceptable.

But I would like to request some consistency in how that is applied and, where users are unable to discern the reason behind a deletion, for an explanation to be given - mainly because we can hardly attempt to avoid breaking whichever rule the moderator is adhering to if we don't know what it is.

So all I'd really like is an explanation of the situation from an editor/ moderator.

Many thanks

What’s this? We definitely need an explanation from the editor. I missed Jan’s post. I hope it wasn’t anything serious.
Since many Fodorites aren’t very rational and start rethinking their trip if something “bad” happens in the country they’re going to, I do a lot of self-censorship. For example, I never mentioned the Naivasha camp owner who was killed by robbers last year, not even when his camp was mentioned in a thread, but I had no idea it was against Fodor’s rules to write about crime.
Here the link to the Mara robbery: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article...324350,00.html

well i don't work for fodor's but i can pretty easily guess the explanation. It's a copyright violation.

Posting a paragraph or two and a link to the rest is legally &quot;fair use&quot; and allowed. Posting a whole story violates copyright laws.