My latest post has disappeared

[Jim Hargrove]

Hi,

Two or three hours ago, I made a lengthy post to the “Which came first, the bus or the Rambler?” thread started by Steve Thomas.  My post seems to have disappeared, along with posts by John Butler and, I think, Denny Zartman.

I worked for over an hour on this material, and I neither mentioned nor attacked any other forum member.  Anyone know why these posts disappeared?  Sadly, I didn’t make a copy of my work and I don’t think I broke any forum rules.

New posts can take a while to appear, but the time here seems excessive.
 

[Pat Speer]

Although I am far from active as a moderator, I can still see posts that have been hidden due to violations such as insults or anti-semitism, and no posts on that thread have been hidden.  According to the thread, your last post was yesterday morning. 

Edited May 1, 2022 by Pat Speer

[Sandy Larsen]

I lost a recent post and I noticed that Denny Zartman did too, on a different thread/topic. (I was going to reply to his post, but it had disappeared.)

Sorry for your loss Jim... My loss wasn't a long one like yours.

[John Butler]

1 hour ago, Jim Hargrove said:

Hi,

Two or three hours ago, I made a lengthy post to the “Which came first, the bus or the Rambler?” thread started by Steve Thomas.  My post seems to have disappeared, along with posts by John Butler and, I think, Denny Zartman.

I worked for over an hour on this material, and I neither mentioned nor attacked any other forum member.  Anyone know why these posts disappeared?  Sadly, I didn’t make a copy of my work and I don’t think I broke any forum rules.

New posts can take a while to appear, but the time here seems excessive.
 

Jim,

Your post was exceptional and had material I wanted for later reference.  So, I made a copy.  I have sent it to you by email.

I believe this is the right one for today.

I hope someone offers an explanation for this.

Edited May 1, 2022 by John Butler

[David Andrews]

Post a link here so we can find the re-post, thanks.

[Sean Coleman]

2 hours ago, Pat Speer said:

Although I am far from active as a moderator, I can still see posts that have been hidden due to violations such as insults or anti-semitism, and no posts on that thread have been hidden.  According to the thread, your last post was yesterday morning. 

Is every post read and approved before appearing?

[Jim Hargrove]

1 hour ago, John Butler said:

Jim,

Your post was exceptional and had material I wanted for later reference.  So, I made a copy.  I have sent it to you by email.

I believe this is the right one for today.

I hope someone offers an explanation for this.

Got it in email.  Thanks so much, John! 

It is interesting that my post appeared here long enough for you to copy it before disappearing. 

Although a few formatting issues arose, your help will make it MUCH easier for me to repost the essay.  Thanks again!   

[James DiEugenio]

So let us see it Jim.

[Jim Hargrove]

The post that Mr. Butler helped me reconstruct can be read HERE.

[John Butler]

"On 4/30/2022 at 10:48 AM, John Butler said:

Yes, but.  Were the Paines doing that out of good Quaker principles, or were they working for a government intelligence agency?  I vote CIA.  And, in the case of CIA or ACLU, I vote CIA.  I vote the cameras were Oswald's.

W. Niederhut replied:

Agreed.  And how did the Paine's "good Quaker principles" work out for Bell Helicopter profit margins after 11/22/63? 

Honestly, DiEugenio has the patience of Job to repeatedly take the time to debunk all of the incessant gibberish posted on this forum by the resident Lone Nutter "cognitive infiltration" tag team.  Basta per Dio...

IMO, anyone who claims that Ruth Paine wasn't working for the Company is living on Planet Posner."

One of the missing posts contained this:

"Honestly, DiEugenio has the patience of Job to repeatedly take the time to debunk all of the incessant gibberish posted on this forum by the resident Lone Nutter "cognitive infiltration" tag team.  Basta per Dio..."

I re-posted the bold print in a response to one of Jeremy B's post.  Was this offensive enough to be lost?  Edited?  I don't think so in comparison to some of Jeremy's posts.

And, if things were censored, why Jim Hargroves post?  Was there a technical problem, or human involvement?      

 

Edited May 1, 2022 by John Butler

[Pat Speer]

1 hour ago, Sean Coleman said:

Is every post read and approved before appearing?

To my knowledge virtually none are. There was a time when things were so heated on this forum that we needed three to four moderators to keep everyone in line. Some of the problem people had to be put on "moderation." This meant that their posts had to be approved before appearing. After awhile the main problem people left and the ones who remained were far more civil, so, outside of Kathy having to step in and handle the occasional dispute, no moderation has been required. At this time, moreover, I don't think there are any active members who are on "moderation."

I can pretty much guarantee that the disappearance of Jim's post was due to a glitch. But I haven't read it. I suppose it's possible it was insulting to others and was removed by Kathy or someone else for that reason. But that doesn't make much sense. As stated, most offensive posts are still visible to moderators and former moderators, so appropriate action can be taken. And besides, Jim isn't the type who fills his post with insulting all caps insults or who threatens to sue his fellow members or even the forum itself. 

The one topic which was banned from the forum for better or worse is discussion of a Jewish conspiracy to kill Kennedy or others. While I believe in freedom of speech, this topic almost always ended up ugly ugly ugly. It also led to cyber-attacks by pro-Israel groups. So I backed the former administrators of this forum when they banned that topic.  

[Paul Brancato]

FWIW - a month or so ago. Post of mine disappeared, and I only figured that out because someone quoted from it, but when I looked for the original it wasn’t there. I vote glitch.

[Joe Bauer]

21 hours ago, Jim Hargrove said:

Hi,

Two or three hours ago, I made a lengthy post to the “Which came first, the bus or the Rambler?” thread started by Steve Thomas.  My post seems to have disappeared, along with posts by John Butler and, I think, Denny Zartman.

I worked for over an hour on this material, and I neither mentioned nor attacked any other forum member.  Anyone know why these posts disappeared?  Sadly, I didn’t make a copy of my work and I don’t think I broke any forum rules.

New posts can take a while to appear, but the time here seems excessive.
 

One of my posts was recently "disappeared" also.

I trust whatever moderator did this, did so for a rational "best for the forum" reason. 

I'm not even going to ask why.

The forum has been run so well the last few years I just trust our moderators judgments in these matters.

I can live with a few of my postings being deleted.

Heck, sometimes even I look back and wonder how I could have posted certain thread response commentaries that upon later reflection make me say "ouch." Many times I have gone back and deleted the worst ones myself!

 

Edited May 2, 2022 by Joe Bauer

[Mark Knight]

Pat Speer understands how the system works here. The moderators do NOT read every post; we simply can't, and still have a normal life. We try to use our best judgement, based upon the reports we receive, as well as our own reading of the posts we do see. I can't speak for ALL the others, but occasionally we remove some content if we judge it to be offensive. Not always are the removals complete posts; sometimes they are just comments we find unnecessarily provocative, or which contain unwarranted personal attacks.

Sometimes we move certain threads to other areas of the forum, such as the pro/anti Trump posts that get moved from the JFK Assassination Discussion Forum. So it's quite possible your post wasn't deleted, but rather moved to a more appropriate area of the Education Forum. A bit of SELF-moderation would, of course, would keep this as a DISCUSSION forum, and not a snake pit of argument and ad hominem attacks, as other forums seem to be.

"Check yourself, before you wreck yourself" is a phrase my niece uses a lot. But that's a philosophy we all should apply to our posts here. I've made posts in the past 17 years that I now regret, and I know I'm not the only one. My advice is, if you disagree with something in someone else's post(s), do your best to disagree without being disagreeable. Cite your reasons for disagreement without resorting to personal attacks. If you say something like "Only an idiot would believe that!," you're attacking the intelligence of the other poster, and not their argument itself. [I cite that because it seems to have been a common style of argument used by David Von Pein, who has been banned from the forum for such tactics.]

And YES, the Invision software used on this forum is sometimes subject to glitches. I'm not an IT guy, so there are occurrences that occasionally leave me baffles as much as anyone. The moderators try very hard to NOT censor the exchange of ideas, including ideas we may not necessarily agree with. It is the free exchange of ideas that helps us arrive at truth. And certainly, TRUTH must be the goal in our discussion of the JFK assassination.

[Joe Bauer]

Self deletion.

 

 

 

Edited May 3, 2022 by Joe Bauer