An open letter to Mr. Anderton

I agree an explanation was not needed. However too late now the second thread has taken its course and I don't see anything wrong with the discussion right now, by deleting another thread you risk having to justify doing this a second time. In fact the very act of creating this thread has now extended the conversation even further, so should this be deleted as well? So now we have two threads on the same issue... I would merge them.
 
Personally I think threads should generally be frozen not deleted. Moved to coffeehouse or something if they get really bad quickly before it gets out of hand and ends up as law of the jungle...

CakeAlexS
Moved to coffeehouse or something if they get really bad quickly before it gets out of hand and ends up as law of the jungle...

And then it's the law of the coffeehouse?
 
WE ARE NOT ANIMALS IN THE CH
(in my best John Merrick voice)

backwoods
I think Anderton did the right thing. he made one crucial error. He should have locked his new thread after the first post. or send it to the CH :) Just joking bapu.

:) Sorry quite right I should have said banished to the coffeehouse!

One thing I've learned from deleting threads in forums is there will inevitably be "Where did the thread go"? threads that expect an answer. If they're not answered, and if you delete THOSE threads, then there are more "Where did the threads go?" threads that also expect answers. I've been doing forums since 1995 and found there is no ideal solution, only a variety of less-than-desirable solutions. What I usually do is give a pre-emptive answer, which is what I did here.
 
The other thread will wear itself out soon, as will this one, and the discussion will have illustrated where some of the boundaries lie so it would not have been totally without value.
 

One thing I am extremely grateful for is Mr. Anderton being here on weekends and us not having to deal with an obnoxious thread that won't get the attention of CW until Monday.
 
One big reason I have thanked him.  

Vastman
we are very lucky to have his essence... ooodles of wisdom and true interest in our joint endevours here!

Very lucky to have his essence? Sounds like witchcraft to me..

It's amusing to see how "politically correct" people jump immediately to defend censorship.

... Not to mention a great way to boost post count. 

since ive been here only 2 threads have ever made me feel like they don't serve a purpose, I don't think that's too much.
even political threads I just walk a way from.
 
I am very happy to see Mr. Anderton here. he's a good guy.
he's got great ideas too. it's good to have an admin here (who keeps the peace)
but one who knows sonar as well.
when he is wrong, (which is not often), he's not afraid to admit it either (something im not so great at..lol)
 
ive been to many forums in my life but I must say, there is something about this one that will always keep me coming back, this forum didn't attract me to sonar, it was the other way around, but if I was in the search for a daw and support was a main thing, how could you deny the support this forum gives.
 
with that comes personality's though, good and bad, not necessarily bad, bad.
but more like "I just don't agree"
 
but it is just that thing itself which makes this forum shine, with out that, this forum isn't what it is.
its the sun without the moon, the hate without the love, pain without pleasure.
 
the good and the bad.
 
 
 

Anderton
 
 
But it's important to recognize the difference between EDITING, which is designed to improve the quality of communication, and CENSORSHIP, which is designed to be a tool to control communications and by extension, control the people reading it.

Deleting a thread is certainly not editing; it's censorship, pure and simple.

PapaBear

Anderton
 
 
But it's important to recognize the difference between EDITING, which is designed to improve the quality of communication, and CENSORSHIP, which is designed to be a tool to control communications and by extension, control the people reading it.

Deleting a thread is certainly not editing; it's censorship, pure and simple.

Referring to the first part of my post which you chose not to quote in your response, I really don't think deleting a stupid thread equates with suppressing ideas under the guise of protecting the family, the church, or the state. In a recent Craig's List submission to Electronic Musician, I was asked to change one of the five topics because the humor could be misinterpreted. I made the change, because I'm not so politically correct as to consider that "censorship." Just as I edit, I allow myself to be edited as appropriate. However, I do not allow myself to be censored. I recognize the difference.
 
To take it further, if you investigate the rationale for censorship of various types of information, they are generally recognized as including moral censorship (like obscene materials), military censorship to avoid dissemination of secrets, political censorship that withholds information from citizens or is designed to discourage dissent, religious censorship to avoid disseminating material objectionable to one faith or another, and corporate censorship that tries to influence the media not to present facts that companies would rather not have disseminated (e.g., TEPCO). I can assure you that my deletion of the thread was not motivated by any of those considerations.
 
If you want to draw a personal line in the sand about censorship, I would recommend setting the bar a little bit higher than a dumb thread in an internet forum that's devoted primarily to digital audio and recording.

CakeAlexS
> Deleting a thread is certainly not editing; it's censorship, pure and simple.
That's why freezing a thread (with a final post by the administrator explaining why at the bottom) is generally standard practice in most well moderated forums.

That is normally what I would do; I have closed/locked far more threads than deleted over my years in forums. However, a frozen thread still shows up in search engines. I prefer that searches on some specific terms not lead people here. (Which is why the other thread about the deleted thread will be deleted, not locked, when it falls off the page and no one cares any more.)
 
In a politically oriented forum where I was moderator, I deleted any posts or in worst cases, threads with mentions of a particular organization for the same reason. I didn't want people to search on it, find the forum, then start inundating it with agenda-driven posts (as they had with other forums, making for a very unpleasant user experience). Censorship? You decide. I call it being a moderator and making judgement calls about what is, or is not, an asset to the forum experience. If anything, I've been accused more often than not of being too tolerant.

PapaBear

Anderton
 
 
But it's important to recognize the difference between EDITING, which is designed to improve the quality of communication, and CENSORSHIP, which is designed to be a tool to control communications and by extension, control the people reading it.

Deleting a thread is certainly not editing; it's censorship, pure and simple.

someone deleting a thread on your website is censorship,
cakewalk deleting a thread here on their website is called: "we have an image to uphold".
 
a lot of people seem to forget this but remember,
this is cakewalks website, not ours.
 
we are not on public property in front of buildings holding up picket signs.
we are have been given the privilege to post on a forum paid for by cakewalk.
 
so what has given us the right to complain when a post is removed?
personally speaking (only for myself) .... nothing does.