I think I’ve discovered why my forum post asking if people were participating in or attending Fantasy Faire 2011 was nuked, leading to a moderator warning for me, it seems that the guidelines on community participation forbid references to websites if they promote specific merchants or services and the Fantasy Faire 2011 website does have merchants who are attending the event there, I still don’t see how that really falls foul of the spamming reference, or why it’s forbidden in the Roleplaying forum as it’s a Roleplaying event, but there you go.
Others have found that referencing other wesbites that have the answer to a question in the answers section, also ends up with your post being deleted. The thing lacking here is of course common sense, and it’s all the more galling when you consider that Linden Lab are happy to push people towards Facebook and Twitter to find information about what’s going on in Second Life.
Linden Lab are of course free to run their forum how they best see fit, and I’m free to not use that service, and as I passionately disagree with what’s happening here and the lack of common sense being applied, I will refrain from using the service, I certainly won’t be casually posting on any posts whilst this nonsense exists, potentially losing posting rights when I may find them advantageous at some point is not worth the risk, if this how Linden Lab want to build their official community platform, then so be it.
I was annoyed enough when Brooke deleted my Jira answer to someone who was using Master and Slave in a PG sense in their listing, my post was censored because I told someone exactly what the problem was, allowing them to fix it, but again common sense was lacking and a solution is removed from view because it involved specific keywords, how on earth is this helpful?
If Linden Lab want a sterile community platform that lacks differing viewpoints then they’re going the right way about it, personally, I remain disappointed that the community platform is going that way.
However, I’m more disappointed that some self appointed ninny decided that my post breached the community standards and reported it, I hope they’re proud of themselves for their part in getting a link removed to a website whose aim is to raise USD$20,000 for Relay For Life in Second Life. These ninnies are the sort of people whom will be the cornerstone of the new Second Life Community, nice thought there hey.
I could of course go back and post without the link, to be honest, I don’t want to play that game and at some point I may want my posting priveleges on the forum, I’m not going to risk losing them.