I had several posts deleted recently form the NJ.com board. Below is a record of communications to the editor of the website...some of this may be useful in understanding what may be going on...some may be "just for the record".. (For the first e-mail to betz, to understand context, refer to the deleted posts by time, and not the order they are posted in my e-mail to him.) -------
To: Mr Betz dbetz@nj.com Monday Mar. 8, 2004- 10:28 am Please read this. Does your board have a political agenda or commitment to Christ Church's application to Rockaway Tonwship's planning board??? Like many other posts on the Rockaway Township board regarding Christ Church's application the planning board, my post's have been deleted. If you are not in a position of authority, or cannot control this situation, perhaps you can direct us to someone who has authority to address this limitaion of free speech look into this. Below are several of my posts, which are in tone with the conversation, and the Poster they are addressed to. Please respond, and thank you for your attention. Mark
1604. Todd works by deleting posts by markb123, 3/8/04 9:24 ET
Todd works by deleting posts
1603.1. And Delete, Delete, Delete by markb123, 3/8/04 9:54 ET Re: How Todd Works: by mrsstark6, 3/8/04
His big weapon is the delete tool if you pin him down, or get him cornered, he'll delete your post.
1604.1. Mine are deleted also! by markb123, 3/8/04 10:05 ET Re: I will contact nj.com by anotherWML, 3/8/04
2 from today:1604. Todd works by deleting posts by markb123, 3/8/04 9:24 ET
And a previous post twice:
I posted this question to you last night Todd, and it is not on the board.Did you delete it???Did I touch a sensitive topic??I poted it laast night about 11:30 PM.Here it is again.I will cross post this particular post question on the board that allows Free Speech on this topic, so even if you do delete it, others will see it.The address of the Free Speech Board is: http://www.activeboard.com/forum.spark?forumID=17042&subForumID=17134&sparkKey=fca30fedad4e35cb038653d40fb3e53cb0
Don’t you dare say I am angry, because I am not.Don’t you dare say middle ground, because there have been no concrete, reasonable offers, and once Ireland is in, all opposed don’t trust his motives.Don’t you dare say less people care about this, or the majority of people are for the move because of 300-400 people attending a meeting. That many is a huge representative population when looked at in ratio to the other planning board meeting this town has held.
Now onto my message that I am sure you will have some canned reply to.
Why do you continue to say that you believe the majority of people support your cause?You and 1 or 2 other people (and you probably use an alias for one of the nicknames) are the only individuals that I have ever noticed in support.Ohhh, and I am curious....where are the posts from a few people who were claiming that the resistance of the church is racially motivated that I saw in this very board yesterday???????It would be nice to have an opportunity to address them and have of a few of the Rockaway residents against the Churches construction/move here, also explain their reasons. There are concrete reasons that are not racially based, for the residents of Rockaway to continue to fight this new Festival Ground/ Campus that Ireland is trying to construct.All along, the organized resistance, and the people not necessarily aligned with any group, have been taking the High Road. The tax, traffic, infrastructure implications and other assorted reasons are cause enough to shout out against this proposed terrible encumbrance upon the residents of this town.
----------
Moday Mar. 8, 2004- 10:48 am To: Mr Betz dbetz@nj.com Subject: Banned from posting. Hmmmm. No profanity, nothing in my posts except debate material. Very interesting. Seems strange. You have an e-mail from me that this relates to. Perhaps you care to respond. Mark ----------- From Betz dbetz@nj.com, Moday Mar. 8, 2004- 10:55 am
The Rockaway Forum is intended for discussion of local issues in Rockaway, not for complaints about how we manage our forums. We ask people to keep postings relevant to the forum to help keep it useful for its intended purpose. Dean Betz Editor NJ.com ---------- To Betz dbetz@nj.com, Moday Mar. 8, 2004- 11:10 am Mr Betz, The post I made originally that was deleted mentioned very little about the mangement of the board. My deleted posts , as well as other people's deleted posts messages all have one thing in common however, and that is opposition to Christ Church application to the Rockaway Township planning board. Myself and several thousand other people would say that the propsal is a "local issue" in Rockaway, and indeed very "relevant to the forum". Are you indeed in charge of this bulletin board? I anticipate your response. Mark ------------- From Betz dbetz@nj.com, Moday Mar. 8, 2004- 11:12 am NJ.com does not have a position on local issues in Rockaway. Our purpose is to provide a place for people to discuss issues in the town, and based on the back-and-forth in the forum, it looks like both side of the Christ Church issue have take advantage of that.
------------- TO: Betz dbetz@nj.com, Moday Mar. 8, 2004- 11:17 am
So would you then care to explain why my posts, and several several other whom are not in favor of the applicaiton have either been banned or had their posts deleted?? --------- From: Betz dbetz@nj.com, Moday Mar. 8, 2004- 11:20 am 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. ----------
To: Betz dbetz@nj.com, Moday Mar. 8, 2004- 3:42 pm Mr. Betz, Thank you for replying to me with your responses, which are below. I found it very interesting that you sent me the identical response letter that you sent to another person who questioned deleted posts, and in my opinion, the questionable, if not biased editing, of the Rockaway bulletin board when it comes to the issue of Christ Church's application to this town's planning board.
I don't work in your field, yet I am trying to understand something, and was wondering if you could clarify a thought I have: I wonder if perhaps the advertising rates for the message board are determined by the number of "hits" your website gets? Is it possible that the reason why one or two posters in particular who seem to have an unusually large percentage of (in my opinion) contrarian posts, may in turn be spurning a large number of "Hits" on the NJ.com website?? Would your organization benefit from something like this, or perhaps even encourage someone to do this? Just my curiosity at work here.
Please respond, and thank you. Mark ---------
From: Betz dbetz@nj.com, Moday Mar. 8, 2004- 4:12 pm We respond to many users each day, which has led us to compile and use lists of frequently asked questions in order to provide useful information as quickly as possible. I apologize if that seems impersonal or off-putting.
In direct response to your questions:
"I wonder if perhaps the advertising rates for the message board are determined by the number of "hits" your website gets?"
The way we manage our forums is independent from advertising issues.
"Is it possible that the reason why one or two posters in particular who seem to have an unusually large percentage of (in my opinion) contrarian posts, may in turn be spurning a large number of "Hits" on the NJ.com website?? "
No, I don't believe that to be the case.
"Would your organization benefit from something like this, or perhaps even encourage someone to do this?"
No. ----------------
End of e-mails for Monday March 8, 2004 My Closing thought…. In their advertising media kit the following statement exists, and I wonder if the number of hits on the bulletin boards are included in these figures.
“ NJ.com receives over 1 million unique visitors and over 50 million page views every month. It's an audience we deliver to our advertisers every day in ways that help them grow their businesses. If you're trying to develop a larger audience for your business we can tailor an advertising package that works for you.”
