I had an email conversation with Mr. Betz of nj.com today about posts being deleted on their board.  For those who are interested, I will post the conversation here.  I urge you to save your posts and report them to him when they are deleted for no reason (as mine was):



Mr. Betz,
I believe you are aware of some of the complaints about posts being deleted from the Rockaway Township message board. I posted the following this morning, and it has since been removed. I see nothing in this post against your rules. It was the first post in a thread, so it didnt get deleted because posts above it were removed. I and many others are concerned about freedom of speech on the nj.com boards. In the Rockaway Township board, there is one poster (todddavid) who has basically taken over the board. He posts more than any 5 people combined. Many peoples' answers to his posts have been removed. By selectively deleting posts, nj.com is making a political statement.
I would like to know why my post #1560 was removed and what nj.com is doing to guarantee free speech on your message boards.
I look forward to your reply,
Rick S
 
1560. No middle ground
by RockTwpRes, 3/3/04 11:18 ET
There can be no middle ground. All the 'olive branches' that Rev. Ireland offers (or will offer in the future) are (will be) minor and side issues.
The main issue is the number of congregants that they have now and in the future, and the traffic those congregants will generate.
Look at Rev. Ireland's two quotes in today's Daily Record article:
"We are willing to make concessions," Ireland said.
"We can't change the size of the congregation," Ireland said.
So tell us - what concessions could they make to reduce traffic, when they can't change the size of their congregation.
What concession will they make in the future? Megachurches attempt to grow and CC will attempt to grow. If their track record for growth is any indication, they WILL grow, and they will grow quickly. How will CC address future traffic issues / growth?
Will they promise us not to grow? It'll never happen. They'll never make a meaningfull concession because there are no concessions they can make that will both allow them to grow boundlessly and also address Rockaway Township residents' traffic concerns.



Mr. Betz responded with a canned answer:
From: Dean Betz <dbetz@nj.comDate: Thursday, March 4, 2004 8:34 amSubject: Re: NJ. COM Rockaway Township board
Thank you for contacting NJ. com.
We don't maintain post-by-post records of messages in NJ. com's forums that are removed. You can find guidelines for what we consider to be appropriate behavior at http://www.nj.com/forums/index.ssf? help.html. Our User Agreement at http://www.nj.com/useragreement/ governs your use of this site.
There are a number of reasons why a legitimate post might have been deleted from our forums. When we delete an inappropriate post, any posts that were made in reply to the offending post are also removed; it's simply the way that our forums work.
Occasionally, when we remove an inappropriate post, we also remove all posts made under that nickname. That might result in a legitimate message being deleted that was in response to a post that in itself might not be objectionable, but might have come from a forum participant who is abusing the opportunity that we provide.



Obviously, that was not a satisfactory answer.  He did not read the copy of the post I sent him.  He merely gave out a canned response.  I replied with this:
Mr Betz,
The point is that I saved a copy of the posting. I included it in the message to you and it appears at the end of this message. I believe the message in no way violates your rules and I would like a clear explanation of why posts that support the Voices of Rockaway Township are being removed from your site while posts that support Christ Church are not. Again, your site is starting to appear as if it is politically biased.
Please look at my post at the end of the message and either tell me why it was removed - what could have been wrong with it, so I can become better informed about how I should post in the future, or tell me what we need to do to examine why posts in favor of Voices of Rockaway Township are being removed from your board.
Thank you,Rick S



This time, he appeared to read what I wrote.  His response:
From: Dean Betz <dbetz@nj.comDate: Thursday, March 4, 2004 10:21 amSubject: Re: NJ. COM Rockaway Township board
I don't see anything wrong with this posting. However, it's possible that other posts were entered under this forum nickname that might have been inappropriate, and might have led to the deletion of all or many posts entered under this forum nickname.
NJ.com has no position on local issues in Rockaway. Our role is to provide space for people to discuss what matters to them in the town.
You can find guidelines for what we consider to be appropriate behavior at http://www.nj.com/forums/index.ssf? help.html. Our User Agreement at http://www.nj.com/useragreement/ governs your use of this site.



He at least agreed that the post should not have been deleted, but the question is, why was it and many others deleted:
Mr. Betz,
Most of my posts have not been deleted.  Nobody went in and deleted everything that I wrote, so I must believe that posts are being selectively deleted.  There are a number of people from Rockaway Township who feel that their posts are being removed for no reason.  Again, there is one person on the board - todddavid - who seems to be controlling the board (30-40% of the posts are his).  Whenever anyone makes posts that he doesn't like, the posts seem to disappear.  Members of Voices of Rockaway Township have posted simple meeting notices and have had their posts removed for no reason.
Rockaway Township is in the middle of a very large political debate over the application of Christ Church to purchase property in our township.  For whatever reason, posts that are against the applicant are being removed from your board.  This is causing your board to take a political view on the situation, something that I do not think you intend to do.
I urge you to investigate the situation and find out who is removing the posts from our board and why.  I also urge you to look at policies about post deletion and re-educate whoever you have employed to remove the posts to follow your own rules.   There are a number of Rockaway Township residents who fear that someone who represent Christ Church in this matter has an 'inside contact' to someone at nj.com.  I urge you to do something to alleviate these fears.
Thank you,Rick S



I haven't heard back from him since my last email.  I am assuming that I will not.  If you have REASONABLE posts deleted, contact him at dbetz@nj.com.  Let him know how you feel about your posts being deleted.  Hopefully, if posts continue to be deleted, we can get nj.com to clean up their act!