i have responded directly to someone before with a difference of opinion, but in a non threatening manner.   certainly nothing that stood out as rude or socially unacceptable.

i get a response from the "webmaster" telling me that my comments were offensive and had to be removed.  i didn't make a big deal out of it, but it certainly became clear where things stand.

So I am not as crazy as I thought - I saw McCarthy yesterday

[I am saving this blog just in case if technical problem is going to make it "be gone" and in such case my websites will be more technically "stable" - I can also recommend my servers providers as reliable and inexpencive]

Never thought I will live long enough to see anything like that ...again...

Still, I'd rather dilute myself thinking of "technical problems at TK's blog platform" due to blogs been posted twice - I do have high opinion of TK's founders.

David, I'm quite positive that there is a software error or two.  I'm probably the person that Peaceman was "having a disagreement" with.  That week, I made a few grammar corrections to some of my blogs that were weeks, or months old, and they all hit the front page again, like I had just published a set of new blogs.  I'm also pretty sure that it would be easy to double post a blog. 

So far as Peaceman's comments being removed from one of my blogs, a friend of mine who reads my blogs mentioned that to me, and I wasn't sure why they were removed.  Then, I read the rules and guidelines for blogging and making comments.  I'm pretty sure Peaceman broke the guideline titled "Don't be a jerk" towards the bottom right of that page.  Under that category, it says "hateful or inappropriate messages will be removed" and his comments were pretty full of hatred toward my blog.  http://community.tradeking.com/account/rules_and_guidelines  I would imagine that some of the "censorship" that takes place is in the interest of keeping a friendly atmosphere.  I can understand some of that...I'm all for free speech and such, but the last thing I want is for the TK blogs to turn into a disaster, like the Yahoo! forums are...I mean, geez...those are just horrible.  I don't mind *some* moderation, so long as it isn't overly heavy-handed and is clearly explained to the user or community why moderation or "censorship" occured,  when and if it does happen.   To be clear, there is a difference between "censorship" of ideas and "moderation" of pumpers and dumpers, trash talkers, etc. 

David, I don't know what blogs your referring to that have been censored, but there were some general thoughts.  Surely things haven't gone McCarthy style around here... ?

How dare you attack me !  You flatter yourself !

Good one Peaceman.  I regret that our previous communication was so negative.   Good to see you're still around. :)

Mike, thanks for the reply.  

David, good topic you brought up here.  

Mike

thank you for confirming "tech problems with blogs" - that probably leads us ( not to beat on a dead horse) "communications" topic - have the customers be informed of ongoing problem - no "speculations/tensions" would arise.

 Danny

"Surely things haven't gone McCarthy style around here... ?" - of course, NOT here, as I said I have respect for TK's founders/team - I know where they came from.

"McCarthysm" might have different faces - in time of crisis media spreading false "everything is OK rumors" is in clear violation of "real freedom of speech" and shall be prosecuted for "citing irrational optimism and helping selected few to salvage their wealth during nationwide distress"

Danny/PeaceMan - this market makes people jumpy - "can we all get along"?

P.S. I did not see the TK's rule "don't be a jerk", now I am wondering how come I am still able to post :))

hehe, don't worry David, you're no jerk.  Sometimes you piss people off cause your posts are so "hardcore trader" in attitude, but it's all good.  As I've stated before, I like that about your posts, and a few others have mentioned that as well too.  For some reason, the "insert link" button isn't working, but the "rules and guidelines" can be found here. 

http://community.tradeking.com/account/rules_and_guidelines 

Good Monday morning!

I wanted to hop in, since it came up, and explain our moderation practices/policies, and talk more specifically about this weekend and locogmac's comment. Danny is absolutely correct: I will remove comments that violate our terms of service and community guidelines. I will message the person who posted the comment that has been removed and ask them to feel free to restate whatever they said, but within our guidelines. I've fortunately had very few personal attacks to remove in this community. Most of the posters here completely understand that you can disagree with another community member's opinion without getting personal - and that's definitely the kind of thing we like around here, spirited debate. We're all adults, so it should be easy to remember that there's a world of difference between "Your opinion stinks" and "You stink". I will be quite honest: In my 13 years of community moderation, this is the most civil community I've ever managed. I hope we continue modeling that as a group as we get bigger - I have a lot of confidence that we will :)

Now, about this busy weekend. My poor boss, Mike Massey, was the victim of extremely bad timing. I had to travel and was out of pocket on Friday and over the weekend - possibly the worst time in the history of TradeKing to have been gone, since things were quite busy. He valiantly pinch hit for me in reading and moderating the community while juggling a whole host of other issues - so when I had a chance this morning I went in and reviewed the weekend's moderation. The comment on locogmac's blog that he is referring to was removed in error and has been reinstated. We apologize for having given the impression that we were censoring the comment because it referred to other brokers. As long as you don't actively promote another broker by name you're fine to talk about the fact that you trade with other brokers.

Finally, I wanted to address the "censorship" notion. Freedom of the press and of the citizenry to have public discourse is a U.S. government-guaranteed right in the First Amendment. It is a common misconception that First Amendment rights apply to corporate-run websites. We aren't the government - heck, if we were I'd like to think the mess that's happening now wouldn't be happening, but I digress... We like transparency and we are thrilled that you folks come and talk about what's on your mind - that's why we're here! As long as you stick within our guidelines, you're golden. However, "free speech" doesn't apply - if you do break our rules, my little red delete button gets used.

Hope that helps clarify things other than what Mike referred to earlier in this thread. You can always drop me a note on private message if you need any clarification of things that are going on in the community - you'll normally get a fast response from me weekdays between 7a-7p EST and within a day on weekends.

Rebecca

quoted per Rebecca: "As long as you don't actively promote another broker by name you're fine to talk about the fact that you trade with other brokers."

The comment "Locogmac" is reffering to did not have "name" nor "promotion" of "other broker" - all it had "other broker" words, but whatever - as you said "that is your site and 5th does not work here" ( as well as in all other places unless ...)

And...none has got any "notification" of comment being "moderated"

So, I do prefer to think "that was a true technical problem" - with my luck I observed a lot of those lately all over the places.

Hi David,

As I said in my original post, your comment was removed in error. It was not removed because of the mention of the other broker. Sorry if I was unclear - I was trying to speak to locogmac's question over whether it was okay to talk about other brokers, not saying that's why your comment was removed.