Forum Guideline Implementation Inconsistencies Create Issues Amongst Bonanza Users

There has not been a time that we can remember that one of the threads which originated from us has ever been allowed to stay in the forums. For whatever reason, they have been sent to drama and deleted shortly after, just simply deleted and now with the new Bonanza management toy, threads that we have started have ended up in purgatory. Bonanza purgatory is where a thread does not get deleted or moved to drama but it is set in limbo where only those that have bookmarked it can find it again. You can still post to it if you can find it but it does not show up on the people page of the forums.

Well, one time we confronted Mark at Bonanza support and here is what he said as to why one thread went to purgatory:

I can understand how you may think that you are being targeted, as I know there have been a couple of posts from you that were taken off of the front page rotation. Let me explain why, that will help so that in the future you can continue to post such topics but word them differently so they do not wind up the same fate.

Using your title as a first example:

"Threatening OBO Message -Is it necessary & in sellers/sites best interest?"

It is a very strongly worded title that may invoke drama, which we try to steer clear of. Instead, try wording it something like this:

"I think we should word the OBO message differently, what do you think?

The second title is more inviting of constructive feedback and is less likely to be cast off of the home page.

If you have a quick look at the description of the OP, you will also see words that are inviting of drama:

"so Bay-like"

"so what!"

"why the threatening message?"

"nasty message."

Your posts are very strong and opinionated. They serve only to fire people up and invite dramatic responses. We are not unreasonable and have always responded to constructive feedback from all. But it needs to be constructive and not delivered so strongly so that it delivers the wrong message to us and also invites dramatic posts from others.

Hope this helps you understand the process. Just in case, here are some links to our guidelines that will also assist:

http://www.bonanzle.com/site_help/general/topic_tags?layout=&title=What+are+the+forum+topic+tags%3F

http://www.bonanzle.com/site_help/general/forum_rules?layout=&title=What+are+the+forum+rules+and+guidelines%3F

http://www.bonanzle.com/site_help/general/disemvowel?layout=&title=What+does+it+mean+to+become+%22disemvoweled%3F%22
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Funny how as adults, we are being told what to write and how to express it. After all, we are not smart enough to get our message across without censorship and or coaching.

We don't know when it happened or why but the thread eventually was completely removed:
http://www.bonanza.com/forums/1/topics/127219?page=1

Oh, and here is another thread that we started only to have it land in purgatory without an explanation:

http://www.bonanza.com/forums/1/topics/124288?page=1

When questioned, all Mark said was:

"The post is still live and can be seen by all. Thank you for your support of our community and for the helpful information you are providing.

Regards,
Mark
The Bonanzle Team"

That was so untrue! It was only able to be seen by those who saved the link.

And one time, I got a message from Mark, can't find it right now but I know I have it somewhere, where he stated that the message I was trying to convey in a post I had made is one similar to posts that they have seen posted by others that led to discord, or something like that, so he removed a post that I had made. (The post I had written was not causing any issues but because someone at some other time had posted a "similar" post that caused a stink, mine had to go!)

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Then when you look at the forum guidelines, they state in part:

•Other conduct unbecoming a good community member: expressing polictical or religious viewpoints, asking for donations, using foul language, engaging in threads of adult nature (drugs, drinking, etc.), threatening to talk to lawyers or file lawsuits, stalking, booth chat hijacking, starting topics about topics that have been reclassified, unnecessarily assuming the worst in others or Bonanza, spam.

http://www.bonanza.com/site_help/general/forum_rules?layout=&title=What+are+the+forum+rules+and+guidelines%3F

There have been posts on this blog where we have talked about how Bonanza management have favorite members on the site and that those members are treated differently than others. That's not saying anything bad about these particular members because management is making the choice to treat those members better than others.

Anyway, with all that I have said above, I can not for the life of me understand why this post is still on the forums! It was started in drama but threads get obliterated there also. So what gives?

Here is the thread: http://www.bonanza.com/forums/10/topics/146141

The thread is bringing up a topic that has been reclassified which is against forum policies;

And the thread is talking about religion which is agaist forum policies.

Besides that, people have been a bit snippy in that thread and yet it remains.

Why the favortism? Who knows but it is clearly obvious on Bonanza, no one can ever convince me otherwise.

What else is funny about this, since this drama thread has started, the prayer request threads have popped up quite a bit and no one is doing anything to enforce the forum policies. Funny how that works!

What I don't get is Bonanza is a selling venue. These kinds of threads offering support or whatever can be done on any of tons of sites that are available on the internet for that sole purpose. There are private emails, Bonz emails (Bmail,) there is a chatbox in each sellers booth and there are QT's. So why does this kind of thing show up in a selling venues forums?

Some say get rid of Christmas, Easter and etc if they enforce the religious policy. That would be silly because while many people associate those holidays with religion, many others do not. In all honesty, those titles are so commercial that the true name of the holidays and meanings of them have been lost for the most part.

But back to the message of this post, it does matter who you are on Bonanza when it comes to posting in the forums.