With all due respect, why in the world have 2 of my posts been modified.

The first one was in response to iceman where I posted steps on how to download, install and then use Gametime +. That post is now completely incomprehensible and was a complete waste of my time.

The second post was in response to a visitor regarding a rakeback program he had a question with. If you read his question, it was an honest post (not spam) and I gave him a completely honest answer. I understand that you need to make money to pay for this site; however, is it to the point where we have to limit discussions of other signup and rakeback methods? Or are you trying to make a profit on the site? If you need money to help run the site, I strongly suggest that you start asking for donations and provide some type of status per donation level. We are all making money here, I would have no problem donating some money each month to help pay for this site. Regardless, I think locking and modifying posts about rakeback programs is completely absurd and am totally against it unless if it IS SPAM.

I have loved this site since arriving here almost 2 months ago; however, these recent events have me extremely discouraged. I essentially wasted a half hour of my time only to have my posts completely destroyed.

AP,

I can certainly see why you're frustrated...but I can also see why the mods did what they did. There was (still is?) a sticky/announcement post by Tetsuo explaining that they'd appreciate any donations made to help cover the costs of running the site...though I can't seem to find it anymore

I think the post in question showed no real intent to spam or to promote another site, but was just an honest misunderstanding by everyone involved. I'm sure we can all see why ice and tets don't appreciate the promotion of another rake-back site, and I personally fully trust that their goal is not to make a profit off of BTP, but only to help cover the costs associated through their affiliate programs.

I also have no doubt that you were only trying to be helpful in your reply to the post. I think it's important for both parties to realize that this was only a misunderstanding. As far as your GT+ post, I never saw it before it was modified, so it's certainly not right for me to speak on behalf of the mods. But I'm quite certain that they'll be fully willing to explain the reasons for what they did.

For that matter, I may be out of line replying to this post at all; I certainly don't mean to speak for tetsuo or ice. I'd just hate to see anyone leave this site with a bad taste in their mouth, because I know for a fact that ice and tets have established this site for completely unselfish reasons. Please just understand that their modifications were not meant in a heavy-handed way; they're just doing what they need to do to keep this site operational.

-TW

I didnt see the GT+ post so I dont know anything about that one.

The other one where the guy asked about rakeback programs sure did look like spam to me. It was the guys very 1st post and hes listing specific websites? Give me a break.

If you knew how much time it takes us to run this site as professionally as it is run then I doubt you would be saying what your saying.

The link driving policy is explained in the Getting Started / FAQ section, and Ice and Tetsuo have been consistent from the start. The 'BTP Benefactor' status is also there as well.

I understand your position -- this stuff is all over the net and people are going to find it anyway. But allowing discussions of it opens BTP to a lot of gray area spam. Personally, I like that these forums are free from that sort of thing.

One of the most common forms of spam is for someone to ask a seemingly innocent question about some new service or product and ask if anyone has tried it, or they say they just tried it and it works really well...or whatever. People who are associated with the product or service do this all the time while acting like they are just an avg person unrelated to the product.

Add that to the fact that it was his first post and Im very suspicious. Not too mention that its just flat out not allowed here anyway. Yes we are trying recover the costs of the site. And yes we wouldnt mind making a small profit for our time and troubles some day.

The main goal here, however, is to have a great poker forum where we can have a community full of great people and great ideas and concepts and we want to do it spam free.

I respect your right to disagree with the policy, and also appreciate your willingness to abide by it. Lets play some poker!

A while back I posted a question asking about a certain rake site Ihaha it looked really bad like SPAM.). After I realized that BTP was paying for the forum mostly through rake signups...I asked Tetsuo to delete the post. Mistakes happen.


A10 you've contributed some good posts to this forum and I hope you stay.

Sorry I modded the GT+ post by accident and have already apologised in the PT forum - I was trying to reply to one point in A10's very good post but I must have been tired or stupid and I modded (and part deleted it) by accident..


As regards the modding of links to a rakeback site that's Ice + Tetsuo's policy

First of all it looked suspsiciously like a spam post froma new user (and I'm sure we all agree what a good thing it is to stamp out spam fast);

Secondly as this site offers it own rakeback deals and needs them to fund bandwidth you can hardly expect Ice/Tetsuo to be happy about posting links to rivals that offer rakebacks on the same sites...

On occasion I've forgotten about stuff like this and had my own posts modded so it's not that they are particularly picking on you

kenny, I have no intention on leaving. I love this place

excession, thank you for the explanation. That completely makes sense now. I was just frustrated and mentioned it since the error took place at the same time my other post was modified and I was confused as to what was exactly going on.

Its all good...

Well, it's all been said, so I've not much to add. But for future reference:

1) If a moderator alters or deletes a (valuable/lengthy) post erroneously, they should know that it *may* be possible for me to retrieve it, depending on whether I took a backup coinciding with the period it stil existed in its original form. Of course for shorter fire-and-forget style posts, I will probably deny the request on the basis of an investment/reward imbalance.

2) Whenever a member feels mistreated at BTP we ALWAYS want to hear about it so we can rectify whatever errors we made that led to the bad feeling; whether that be in a topic like this 'after the fact', or in changing how we deal with things in the first instance.

3) Thanks to the members here for coming to our aid and helping to explain the BTP ethos and reasoning behind these actions. This suggests to me that we as a site should try to communicate 'the rules' to new or prospective members in a better, or more explicit fashion. Suggestions welcome.

4) We aim to be the highest signal-to-noise ratio forum in existence (exception: Anything Goes, where the antithetical theory applies ). Like any benevolent dictatorship (an undemocratic or authoritarian hierarchy that excercises power for the benefit of the people rather than exclusively in pursuit of self-interest), sometimes the decisions taken 'for the people' may not be popular with everybody, and in the case of this forum, unfortunately sometimes a member's pride is damaged. But we have your best interests at heart, and that is the sincere truth! We think about the bigger, long term picture because we really do care a lot about your environment.

5) If money was our prime motivation, believe me this site would be run a whole lot differently

Every time I see a topic like this I can't help but feel proud and think 'What a great community we have!".