Tom Doyle :: TALK

And he didnt say you could not recommend anyone, just that you had to reveal your relationship with them if you do.
You are acting a bit obtusely with them in the replies above. Sorry

Hi Alan

I completely agree with having forum rules.

My issue surrounds his definition of “vested interest”. I don’t have a vested interest in Blacknight or any hosting company.

It’s not as if Blacknight are going to charge me any less if I recommend them on a forum.

If I was going to benefit from recommending someone, then I have a vested interest. But I’m not, so that is clear to me that I don’t have a vested interest.

If I don’t have a vested interest in a company I am recommending, it doesn’t say anywhere that I have to disclose my relationship with them.

So you like him Alan are the ones acting “obtusely”.

Well perhaps “vested interest” was the wrong term but the actual guideline is:
“You are welcome to recommend or fairly criticize a product or company. But if you have a connection with the company or any other potential conflict of interest, please state this in your reply.”
It seems pretty clear to me.

Hi Alan,

I’m beginning to think you have a “vested interest” in AskAboutMoney at this stage with your defence of this ClubMan character.

If we go back to the original reason for the post being removed, it was because he stated I had a vested interest in the company I was recommending, which was an untrue statement. This is where my issue with it all started.

“Vested interest” isn’t mentioned in the guidelines as you have brought up, so why was my post removed for that reason?

I questioned why my post was removed. His reasons were because he believed I had a “vested interest”. So regardless of what the guidelines stated, that wasn’t the reason he gave for removing my post and giving me a warning.

I also think you are acting “obtusely” again to think that everyone that everone posts a message on the AskAboutMoney forum recommending another business reveals their connection with that business. That simply doesn’t happen. It would be a boring old place with repeative content if it did.

Furthermore, if he had an issue with my comment, why didn’t he just ask me the simple question in public - “what is your connection with Blacknight”, instead of going on his high-horse and closing the thread and removing my post?

All this is what I have an issue with - what’s the point in having a forum if you have someone dictating the content that goes up there. Fair enough if it’s slanderous or potentially harmful to someone, but for simply recommending someone… that’s just not right.

Sure it might as well just be a blog then…..

Its true (removes mask) I AM ClubMan! Muhahaha

To be fair to the moderator, I think all that was needed was something along the lines of

“we are a partner of Blacknight and have done design work for them in the past”

To qualify your recommendation.

Which, I think, is more than fair.

and to continue my point, while you might have been or are a customer of other providers, you’ve only built sites for one, and only one lists you on their site as a Partner…

@ Alan
Really wouldn’t be surprised!

@ Stephen
Firstly, to be fair to the people that use the site all he had to do was ask me state my position if he felt there was something underhanded going on - rather than hide behind his ability to censor posts.

Secondly, you’ll find many companies that have us 2bscene listed as their partners - that doesn’t mean I’d recommend their services.

I also commented from my personal opinion and not from a 2bscene point of view, but that also wasn’t taken into account.

ClubMans actions were over reactive and obviously trying to protect something that he has a vested interest in. Would that be fair to say Stephen? Does he get special treatment for looking after your business on the forum?

quite the opposite Tom - if you were following the thread you would have seen one of my earlier posts got nuked.

Hi Stephen,

I’m guessing your handle is “boskonay”.

If so, you had got a vested interest and secondly, you were given the chance to clarify your position.

Unlike my post which was removed and then the thread was closed.

Tom

Just so it’s 100% clear.
Tom has no vested in us or vice-versa.
We’ve used 2Bscene’s services on and off over the last 5 years and have been very happy.
Tom’s used our services for the past 5 years and seems to be happy. I have no issue recommending Tom.
My reply to that thread got nuked as well - and I was being 100% upfront about who I was

Michele

It’s imply likely my post, and subsequent clarification (and the one that you didn’t see that was nuked) simply tried the mods patience so he closed the thread.

To be fair, AAM is a private site and they can do what they like

Hi Stephen,

Again I have to stress, you had a “vested interest” for your post, so I completely understand his reasons for removing it.

He was right to remove your post, since the original post was quite specific in the hosting companies that the OP wanted advice on.

My whole issue is how he dealt with my post. Whether it’s a private forum or not, there is a certain way you should deal with things.

Implying that I’m dumb is bad enough, but making it out that I had a “vested interest” in who I was recommending was bordering on slanderous.

Tom

Ok, I think the real issue here is the attitude of this Clubman guy (aka Alan O’Rourke possibly!)

I moderate forums too and I know how tempting it is to act Godlike and censor posts and ban people but I never did because I wanted to provoke debate and increase the size of the forum.

To make a snap judgment on someone without knowing them by calling them “Dumb” or “Rude Time Waster” in my case, is extremely ignorant and quite possibly Libelous and myself and Tom would be well within our rights to bring the matter to the courts.

Agreed here on some points, I just got banned for trying to talk it out with Brendan on the website (thought he was decent until this).

Never used bad language, was never aggressive to anybody and always tried to clarify why i felt why i did (I even apologised for having a go at a mod incorrectly!).

Its a good website for information but the mods are completely out of order and very poorly educated on man management and most definatly dont know what the term “discussion” means.