More Complaints about censorship

I'll head this with a disclaimer:

This post is me blowing off steam over the AOL message boards, which means it's me spending more of my free time combating the forces of evil, only to have them remove my posts for no tangible reason other than that they put the AOL staff in a negative light.

None of this post is really anything new... it has all been said before... it is just the same old thing happening again... so if you didn't care the first time, don't bother reading it again.

AOL runs a message board system... They have an area dedicated to reptiles and amphibians, filled with great folders like "If Pets Could Talk" and "Those Whacky Pets" and loads of really bad and outright wrong advice from people who refuse to correct it. (Did any of you know that a forty gallon breeder tank is forty eight inches long and that silica gel might be an appropriate addition to a terrarium to lower the humidity?)

The constant cry from the HOSTs... breaking my line of thought for a moment, an AOL HOST is supposed to moderate, to moderate does not mean to fill the board with bad care information and anti-pet trade PETA nonsense while censoring anyone who disagrees with them or their agenda... it means they pull anything containing four letter words beginning with "Fu" and ending with "ck" and not too much else, all HOSTs are volunteer staff who have screennames seperate from their HOST titles that can be used when making posts, those in the reptile forums don't seem to understand that concept though... At any rate, the constant cries from the hosts are essentially "Reptiles are impossible to keep in captivity." "Biology has nothing to do with pets, even though it regulates every aspect of their existence." and "My tortoise loves me and understands spoken english."

Soooooo... in a discussion with that fountain of wisdom Henry Lizardlover, about why green iguanas will act aggressively when healthy and how environmental conditions can affect displayed instinct... the discussion wound around to that other source of ineffable knowledge Melissa Kaplan... and some of her more absurd suggestions for how to approach pet care.

I mentioned, very politely, that rumors abound about the conditions her animals subsist in (not good ones mind you) and very calmly suggested that people look at her motives before deciding anything about the quality of her information... Specifically that she wants the captive ownership of animals made illegal and that her main argument in support of this is that "reptiles are impossible to keep healthy"... Well, if you follow her care instructions, that's true. Your animals will not be healthy, end of story... I suggested that the bad care information might be connected to her anti-pet agenda...

And my post was removed for apparantly violating AOL's TOS agreement, although there was no specific explination as to why or which particular rule it broke... this is also nothing new, as the individuals acting as HOSTs over there apparantly feel deletion without explination is appropriate. Leaves fewer records of their abuse of power is my personal guess, but who knows.

Now... I saved this post by e-mailing it to myself, so I've got a copy of exactly what was written, there can be no contention that it was inappropriate or violated any rules, yet it was removed anyway, apparantly because it pointed out the lack of credibility displayed by someone giving out information... their status as a HOST shouldn't enter into it. But posts by that same individual that clearly violate AOL's TOS were sitting on that board up until yesterday, when a great number of the specific forums were deleted, along with the incriminating posts. I wonder why that is.

Ah well... just more censorship from nut-jobs adding on to my displeasure with the message board system they run over there. I pay for AOL too, why I will never really understand, but I send them money every month for their services... which includes those fool message boards and get nothing but crummy service and placed in a position where people who are the jokes and enemies of the industry are allowed to delete my posts and misinform the naive with no avaliable recourse. Ever try to get an AOL customer service rep on the phone to talk to about complaints?

I've already tied these people into KS and a number of the problems over there... I dropped even my casual perusal of the forums on that website because it was just getting too deep, but somehow I seem unable to just leave the AOL boards. maybe it's because I never sent KS any money, so it was easier to forget about. Either way, just wanted to complain someplace where it wouldn't be deleted.

AOL's attitude toward disent is summed up in this Schopenhaur quotation,

"Rudeness is better than any argument; it totally eclipses intellect."