links, pictures, argue, censorship etc

[pete f]

I talked for some time with Jonathan today about the topic of censorship. It seems their guy was, in my opinion, to quick to delete. I guess others felt the same way, he is no longer there. Then Jonathan asks me to be the censor. I said stop all the censor. Let everyone post what they want, argue, whatever. Only if a post was truly over the top in terms of spam or unruly would I consider taking it down. I told him I felt we members do not really feel comfortable with the link rules, what if I bought a vending machine and someone was looking for one like it? I would be afraid to post the link because the vendor is not a sponsor. We are loosing to much valuable information here. And if some get into heated threads, so be it. I think if you don't want to read thread by certain people you are smart enough to skip over them. Sometimes these threads are actually interesting. While I was talking I complained about the pictures I can't post. A long time ago people put up pics of their stores, cam shots,. etc. That was interesting, and I learned a little.
Well, Jonathan has apologized for having the board running in that direction and told me he would let it go for awhile to test my theory. Will the board be full of spam, sponsors get mad because a non paying company gets mentioned? There are plenty of similar companies selling the same stuff in The Journal. But that is owned by all them also..or it seems. If this is a busy board advertisers will want to buy space for the sake of advertising, not because they are promised a non compete situation. I don't want to see this board be the same as Wasco or CLA, I want to see it run free speech. I don't think I will be proved wrong, so share your links on relevant stuff, post a picture, enjoy the "new" board.

[Anonymous]

I'm not a religious person, but I'm still compelled to say,

Amen, brother.


- John
www.BuyJohnsUsedDryerSheetsAndLint.com (http://www.coinwash.com/temp/dirty_laundry_ha-ha.jpg)

Ok, just joking. Thanks for the official clarification.

- John

[CharlieS]

I agree. One of the things I dislike about CLA (and I am generally a CLA supporter) is that you can't get recommendations or negatives. Why? Because CLA has too strong an economic interest in the suppliers, to the detriment of the operators. Suppliers and operators have common interests, but not the same interests.

The beauty of this board is that it is operator based. If a supplier stinks, I want to know what the problem was and how it was resolved. If a supplier is good, I want to know that as well. Same with equipment. This should not be censored or edited, and especially not based on whether or not the supplier is or is not a sponsor.

Personal attacks and profanity between posters, however, are another issue. These should be edited, deleted, and posters banned. Profanity is never appropriate, period.

Suppliers advertising should recognize that this is simply another way to get their name and product in front of potential buyers. Nothing more, nothing less. No guarantees or expectation that customer complaints will be deleted from the board. The moment that happens, this board loses its credibility.

On a different note, several months ago I posted an Ebay listing for a great buy it now deal on a currency counter. It was immediately deleted from the board. It wasn't my listing, but was just a really good deal that I hoped one of my fellow operators good benefit from. The listing sold for more than double the original "Buy it now" price.

The bottom line is that this board is valuable to operators only if it is open to all of the concerns of the operators, without being moderated based on outside pressures. The tough trick for Jonathon is to figure out how to make this a profitable venture for him.

Charlie

[Kitty]

Charlie my dear,
well said my friend!

We need discussions on equipment, companies and services, and if liniks is part of these discussions bring them on gentleman. As Charlie said, this will increase the value of the board and as we have seem lately the increase in members popping in and out has increased ten fold in the last few months.

We would like to increase thread participation and discussions about equipment satisfactions and disatisfactions along the way as well. It is important not only to you but to the manufacuters, distribs and salesman if they would utilize our excellent staff as a way of monitoring the threads that may have them in thread discussions they would see that having a direct link to consumers like you is a valuble tool for customer service.


Thanks...

[pete f]

I'm looking for my new store thread and came across this thread. By responding I bring it to the top.. In reference to the CLA deal, I thought it OK to make every one take a second look.

[Chuckels]

Censorship never good for adults. As business owners that deal with the public and large industrial manufactures we are I think smarter than the average bear and censorship rubs us in a bad way.

I think the power of this site chiefly is the convenient access to a forum. However, the more important thing we receive is the shared info from one owner to another. In other words the greatest possible value I believe any forum has to offer is providing an OPEN forum and not in providing the information itself. It is either an open forum or a controlled propaganda machine. Consequently when censorship occurs here I feel cheated and disrespected and can not help but to think about other industry related sources of info that attempt to control the flow of info for their own needs rather than the needs of the mat owners. I have had a few of my own contributions vaporized by the whims of the powers and it is demoralizing.
Admittedly the very difficult balancing act for the proprietors of this site is to how to make a profit while leaving the door open 24/7.
Chuckles

[Clothes_Tyme]

I talked for some time with Jonathan today about the topic of censorship. It seems their guy was, in my opinion, to quick to delete. I guess others felt the same way, he is no longer there. Then Jonathan asks me to be the censor. I said stop all the censor. Let everyone post what they want, argue, whatever. Only if a post was truly over the top in terms of spam or unruly would I consider taking it down. I told him I felt we members do not really feel comfortable with the link rules, what if I bought a vending machine and someone was looking for one like it? I would be afraid to post the link because the vendor is not a sponsor. We are loosing to much valuable information here. And if some get into heated threads, so be it. I think if you don't want to read thread by certain people you are smart enough to skip over them. Sometimes these threads are actually interesting. While I was talking I complained about the pictures I can't post. A long time ago people put up pics of their stores, cam shots,. etc. That was interesting, and I learned a little.
Well, Jonathan has apologized for having the board running in that direction and told me he would let it go for awhile to test my theory. Will the board be full of spam, sponsors get mad because a non paying company gets mentioned? There are plenty of similar companies selling the same stuff in The Journal. But that is owned by all them also..or it seems. If this is a busy board advertisers will want to buy space for the sake of advertising, not because they are promised a non compete situation. I don't want to see this board be the same as Wasco or CLA, I want to see it run free speech. I don't think I will be proved wrong, so share your links on relevant stuff, post a picture, enjoy the "new" board.


WOW!!!
Where was this earlier this year when I was looking for information and was told that it was not available because they company did not advertise.

Thanks Petef and Jonathan. It is just too bad that it is too late to get the information that I was searching for.

But, better late than never.

Good going Coinwash :)

[PeterH]

Pete,

There is currently a CoinWash censorship bashing thread over at the CLA site. I don't know what the few people who got "banned" from here did, but it might be a good PR move to do a post over there.

What is really funny is that in the same thread, there are a number of posts deleted by the executive director! They complain about being banned here, but then are being censored there. Quite humorous.

[Kitty]

Peter darling,

No way no how will we put pen or should I say fingertips to key pad to post anything on the pages of other bulletin boards. I think we should dig in our own sand box and keep the peebles out of here, don'tcha think?

I think if anyone reads between the very humorous very obnoxious lines of other bulletin boards can understand that Coinwash wants to manintain a bulletin board free of manipulated content. We do want to keep the board free of cencorship, but I do not find that type of content amusing by any means and all it does is demean those boards when anyone new happens to look in on there board.

As long as they spell Coinwash.com correctly its all good.... :)

BTW how are dear?
Kitty