It's a sorry state of affairs.....

Robothell

I've got to be careful to be generic here or this could be a very short lived thread.......

I don't think I'm the only one disappointed at the removal of the "controversial" posts earlier this week. It's a sad day when a poor review of a restaurant (be that customer service or quality of product) is removed from an independant board due to external pressure. I may be being obtuse but I could not see anything in the thread that breached MSE forum rules. I had actually started to get a little bored of the thread and thought it would disappear, indeed it had dropped a few pages until some people with very few previous posts started adding posts that provoked a stimulating discussion. I have seen several bad reviews of restaurants, cafes, shops, banks etc in the national press in my time, I very rarely see the press retract those reviews except in the case of gross misinformation.

I wonder if the Tesco misprice board will disappear with pressure now from Mr T, or whether the brothers Lever will try to get the "1001 uses for white vinegar" thread removed as it harms their business interests. I personally thought that the mantra of MSE was "Consumer Revenge" - it is of mutual interest to the consumer to advise of good service and value just as much as it is important to advise of the bad. It is certainly cited in various places that the site does not bow to corporate pressure - are we now seeing the start of a worrying new precedent?

What do the other 200+ members of the NI board think of this? I wonder what Martin's slant on the whole thing would be?

IvanOpinion

While I deplore censorship I would guess there was something said on the thread that was not appropriate and therefore it got reported. The mods have made it clear on several occasions that they do not have time to selectively censor posts so (rightly or wrongly) the easy solution seems to be to delete the whole thread.

Ivan

Robothell

I certainly hope that is the case Ivan, but I can think of no post on that thread that could constitute abuse. Unless something was said directly attacking the proprietor or the business after I last looked....

(or maybe someone took offense at me saying that gratuitous self promotion, if that indeed was the case, was pathetic - oopsie and sorry if that was the case)

sleepymy

I think that the OP should be allowed to put up their original post again, it could then be locked and no libelous posts added to it. That way people could be warned about the shoddy behavior of the business without putting MSE at risk from libel action.

NAR

I think there was a post saying people should book and not turn up. That of course was a wrong thing to post and should have been removed by the poster or Mods. However the rest of the thread was valid, as far as I could see. I think the fact that the post was so high on a google search possibly made someone in the organisation do something to have it removed - how sad! :rolleyes:

ollywood68

I was the one who started the post and I am in the dark as to why the complete thread was deleted. I have lost some faith in the way this site is now run. It boasts about being advertisement free and standing up for the little people, but this contradicts the way this complete thread has been deleted without comment. If one or more posting was inappropriate, they could have been deleted, not the whole thread. Sometimes people may say the wrong thing, but this could be pointed out to them and I am sure any true MSE member would take that on board. I have emailed the email address kindly provided enquiring about the deletion ion of the thread and subsequent threads referring to it, and I await a reply. I do very much hope that the reply reflects the ethos that I throught this site stood for.

dmxdave

Robothell wrote: »

I've got to be careful to be generic here or this could be a very short lived thread.......

I don't think I'm the only one disappointed at the removal of the "controversial" posts earlier this week. It's a sad day when a poor review of a restaurant (be that customer service or quality of product) is removed from an independant board due to external pressure. I may be being obtuse but I could not see anything in the thread that breached MSE forum rules. I had actually started to get a little bored of the thread and thought it would disappear, indeed it had dropped a few pages until some people with very few previous posts started adding posts that provoked a stimulating discussion. I have seen several bad reviews of restaurants, cafes, shops, banks etc in the national press in my time, I very rarely see the press retract those reviews except in the case of gross misinformation.

I wonder if the Tesco misprice board will disappear with pressure now from Mr T, or whether the brothers Lever will try to get the "1001 uses for white vinegar" thread removed as it harms their business interests. I personally thought that the mantra of MSE was "Consumer Revenge" - it is of mutual interest to the consumer to advise of good service and value just as much as it is important to advise of the bad. It is certainly cited in various places that the site does not bow to corporate pressure - are we now seeing the start of a worrying new precedent?

What do the other 200+ members of the NI board think of this? I wonder what Martin's slant on the whole thing would be?

Well said! Just have a look at recent posts and Harvey's furniture, NCP, Lakeland Forum etc. etc. have been mentioned. Ant posting I did on the now removed thread were 100% accurate and not fabricated in any way.

If you can't stand the heat get out of the kitchen :rotfl:

globalds

This is only a question and not meant in any way to be insulting ...If the moderators are to busy to check all posts ...Couldn,t MSE just ask if any more folk would come forward to help ..
This may help to delete the Spammers ..Who seem to be atracted to this site like moths to a flame.

Robothell

NAR wrote: »

I think there was a post saying people should book and not turn up. That of course was a wrong thing to post and should have been removed by the poster or Mods. However the rest of the thread was valid, as far as I could see. I think the fact that the post was so high on a google search possibly made someone in the organisation do something to have it removed - how sad! :rolleyes:

If memory serves, I posted that we should all book and then not turn up......I also then clarified a little while later that I was actually joking!!! Sometimes it's difficult to imply humour through text alone. And that was back in May/June when the post went up in the first place. With regards to how high up Google the thread went, that was entirely due to the post being rekindled with our new members with the culinary nomenclaure.

alanclose

With the last few posts seemingly originating from the proprietor I would not be surprised if he had asked for it to be removed.

Maybe we could have a sticky, places to eat out and places to avoid at all costs. Its doing a disservice to readers of this forum not to warn them of rip offs

tomstickland

I remember the thread. It was about a restaurant charging even for missing members of a party.