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Which miles and points blogs censor comments?

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Old Apr 24, 2013, 9:59 am
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First attempt at a wiki, so feel free to wiki away at it (add blogs, add links, etc, etc):

Censors:
Delta Points (Rens Points)
Frugal Travel Guy
Milesabound - censors himself on rants
milesforfamily
MileValue
Million Mile Secrets
Very Good Points
Point Me To The Plane
Flyertalk
Travel Blogger Buzz - (proof is TBBs own words here)
TravelSkills
The Points Guy
The Points of Life
GodSaveThePoints
One Mile at a Time


Does Not Censor:
First2Board
Fishing4Deals
Food, Wine, and Miles
Hack My Trip
Head for Points
Miles From Blighty
Miles To The Wild
Points Summary
The Points Jock - Bill of Rights +1
ThreadTripping
Traveling Well For Less
Wald Around The World
Will Run For Miles
Doctor of Credit
View From the Wing

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Which miles and points blogs censor comments?

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Old Aug 25, 2014 | 12:04 pm
  #481  
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Originally Posted by kokonutz
Based on HikerT's transcripts, I understand why Gary censors it...but that's still censorship. It's not spam or profane. It's 'just' rude and mean. In a truly free marketplace of ideas Ken's posts would be free to be made...and judged as mostly meritless.
The problem with that approach is that people like Ken can outshout everyone else's comments, rendering the space worthless for actual discussion. You'll notice that is was in fact the readers of VFTW who asked that Ken be banned - and the reason was that he was making numerous rude comments in every thread, comments that added nothing to the discussion at hand and which everyone else got tired of having to skip over. If he'd stuck to only one comment per thread, I doubt he'd have been banned.

Persistent trolls are every bit as destructive to online communities as spammers are, and should be banned for the same reasons.
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Old Aug 25, 2014 | 12:56 pm
  #482  
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Originally Posted by artemis
Persistent trolls are every bit as destructive to online communities as spammers are
True -- and I think most of us can at least understand why VFTW took steps to ban that particular commenter. But please let's not confuse blogs (where only the bloggers get to start 'threads') with online communities.

Last edited by IMH; Aug 25, 2014 at 1:25 pm Reason: corrected careless typo: VTFW for VFTW
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Old Aug 25, 2014 | 1:11 pm
  #483  
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Originally Posted by artemis
The problem with that approach is that people like Ken can outshout everyone else's comments, rendering the space worthless for actual discussion. You'll notice that is was in fact the readers of VFTW who asked that Ken be banned - and the reason was that he was making numerous rude comments in every thread, comments that added nothing to the discussion at hand and which everyone else got tired of having to skip over. If he'd stuck to only one comment per thread, I doubt he'd have been banned.

Persistent trolls are every bit as destructive to online communities as spammers are, and should be banned for the same reasons.
That's a fair point.

Originally Posted by IMH
But please let's not confuse blogs (where only the bloggers get to start 'threads') with online communities.
Also a good point.

IME, the best way to kill a troll is to ignore him until he gets bored. Banning him just incents him to sneak back in.

Hm.

Well, I'm not going to change the wiki. But neither would I change it back someone else does.
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Old Aug 25, 2014 | 1:16 pm
  #484  
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Originally Posted by IMH
True -- and I think most of us can at least understand why VTFW took steps to ban that particular commenter. But please let's not confuse blogs (where only the bloggers get to start 'threads') with online communities.
I don't think there is a sharp distinction between blogs and other online communities. Many of the blogs I read have a regular group of readers who have gotten to know each other via the comments. And while the blogger is the only one who can start a new blog entry, the comment threads can wander quite a bit (and are often the most interesting part of the blog). Also, many online communities have official moderators who can step in to nuke whole threads as well as individual comments, so even though anyone can start a new thread, they are not in total control of it. So the distinction between the two is more a matter of degree than an absolute difference.
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Old Aug 25, 2014 | 1:17 pm
  #485  
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Originally Posted by kokonutz
That's why I called it out, but didn't change the wiki...yet.

Based on HikerT's transcripts, I understand why Gary censors it...but that's still censorship. It's not spam or profane. It's 'just' rude and mean. In a truly free marketplace of ideas Ken's posts would be free to be made...and judged as mostly meritless.
Technically it's still censoring, sure. Though a couple of Ken's posts were, to me, beyond simply mean, and sounded threatening/stalker-ish.

I don't know...what is the ultimate purpose of this thread and wiki - just to track any and all censoring? Or censoring done by a blogger to hide better links, to save face when the blogger posts incorrect information, and stuff like that?

My vote is the latter, personally. Because over time any blog could end up needing to ban a stalker or other really bad actor - especially if readers themselves are upset over it. Or family-friendly blogs that want to keep the language G-rated.
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Old Aug 25, 2014 | 1:31 pm
  #486  
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Originally Posted by artemis
I don't think there is a sharp distinction between blogs and other online communities. [...] more a matter of degree
That's true -- but it's good to remember who benefits most when blog readers start feeling they're part of a "community".

Originally Posted by 84fiero
what is the ultimate purpose of this thread and wiki - just to track any and all censoring? Or censoring done by a blogger to hide better links, to save face when the blogger posts incorrect information, and stuff like that?

My vote is the latter
+1 Completely appropriate to have VFTW's actions noted here but no need to go further IMO.
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Old Aug 25, 2014 | 5:10 pm
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Originally Posted by 84fiero

I don't know...what is the ultimate purpose of this thread and wiki - just to track any and all censoring? Or censoring done by a blogger to hide better links, to save face when the blogger posts incorrect information, and stuff like that?
Maybe add a new section to the Wiki, with wording like:

Censors (trolls only),
Censors (hides better offers, silences critics)
Does not censor

Previous posts have outed Delta Points and Miles Professor for censoring links to better offers, showing complete disgust toward their readers. Seems important to track these offenders.

Last edited by stackm; Aug 25, 2014 at 5:17 pm
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Old Aug 25, 2014 | 5:36 pm
  #488  
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Originally Posted by stackm
Maybe add a new section to the Wiki, with wording like:

Censors (trolls only),
Censors (hides better offers, silences critics)
Does not censor

Previous posts have outed Delta Points and Miles Professor for censoring links to better offers, showing complete disgust toward their readers. Seems important to track these offenders.
That's a better breakdown. ^
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Old Aug 25, 2014 | 5:41 pm
  #489  
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It's a wiki! Edit away! ^^^
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Old Aug 26, 2014 | 10:55 pm
  #490  
 
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Originally Posted by yerffej201
That's a better breakdown. ^
I disagree completely; I don't think there is any point in breaking down people who censor trolls/abuse vs those who don't.

Are we actually saying that a blogger deserves to be put on a list of censors if they decide to ban someone who writes, for instance, "The flowers outside your house smell nice, see you again tomorrow"? Really? What point does that serve? What about the fact that they all delete spam posts, is that censoring too?

Assuming they don't censor on-topic posts/replies/critiques and limit it to true harassment, I'd say leave them in the 'don't censor' category.
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Old Feb 8, 2015 | 4:32 pm
  #491  
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Just had a comment deleted from TravelSkills. Not surprising as it was calling him out for providing bad advice in exchange for a paid product placement, but still disappointing.
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Old Feb 8, 2015 | 6:52 pm
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Originally Posted by sbm12
Just had a comment deleted from TravelSkills. Not surprising as it was calling him out for providing bad advice in exchange for a paid product placement, but still disappointing.
Surprised anyone still reads that worthless site.
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Old Feb 8, 2015 | 7:09 pm
  #493  
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Originally Posted by farwest101
Surprised anyone still reads that worthless site.
Seems a number of people do: https://www.quantcast.com/travelskil...qcLocale=en_US.
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Old Mar 9, 2015 | 4:30 pm
  #494  
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Originally Posted by sbm12
Just had a comment deleted from TravelSkills. Not surprising as it was calling him out for providing bad advice in exchange for a paid product placement, but still disappointing.
Turns out I was blocked from the site. I guess pointing out mistakes isn't taken so well.
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Old Mar 10, 2015 | 8:18 pm
  #495  
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Originally Posted by sbm12
Turns out I was blocked from the site. I guess pointing out mistakes isn't taken so well.
As if we needed another reason to not trust that blog.
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