I didn't call the exclusion of front page/news article comments censorship. I said it was a step in that direction. Unless there is a very good reason to treat a topic differently than others, I personally discourage such steps. (I do understand the justifications for such steps in the other subject areas as mentioned previously, so I won't go there.)
Here's the problem as I understand it from the very first post. Correct me if I am wrong:
* KOs get reported in a fashion that the author of this thread doesn't approve of. Here's the argument:
* Threads appear to be created to advertise/promote KOs
* KOs are bad.
*Therefore these sorts of KO threads need to end/change drastically on how they are handled.
The second premise is fine. However, I challenge the first premise. Here's a quick breakdown of the KO threads on the first page of the KO and Third Party forum:
KO MP15&16: Looks to be factory rejects, not really KOs. Not front paged.
KO MP16: diamchoc posted the initial pic and link to eBay auction, Mindmaster front paged. No disclaimer, but tone of news article is obviously a warning.
KO MP12-T Tigertrack: Link, couple of pics, not front paged.
KO MP14 Red Alert: Link, some pics, not front paged.
And that brings us to the most recent comment being 20 Sept, 2013. Just for giggles, I went back to find the Sideswipe KO thread. On the way I found:
Buyer Beware: Counterfeit Scorponok: Initial post front paged. Link and picture included. Obviously a warning post, not promotion. (Personal note: I do like the use of the word "counterfeit" here.)
KO Reverse Megatron: Pics, a review, not front paged
KO G1 Optimus Prime: Pics, a review, not front paged
KO MP10 Optimus Prime: Pics of a project. I don't know that it has even gone anywhere. Not front paged.
Buyer Beware: KO Human Alliance Barricade: Links to Ebay, a few comments, then the Front Page story. Front paged, but again, with the obvious warning tone.
KO City Commander: Since KO of a 3rd Party, not front paged, and I assume no problem by this thread's author.
KO MP12 Sideswipe: Pics, links, comments. Not front paged.
There are three threads gathering KO stuff, like a toy haul and eBay listing, but those are never front paged.
That's the end of page 2, with comments going all the way back to June. Now, some of the news stories go even further back as the forums sort by the most recent comment. But I can say that in the last 4 and a half months there have been 3 news stories about KOs that lead to threads in the 3P KO forum. Just in case I missed the front page news on KOs, I went through the news list too.
It doesn't appear that I missed anything here.
So, I finally went back and looked at the first paragraph of this thread:
Yotsuyasan wrote:I'm getting a bit bothered by the Knock Off threads that have been appearing as of late. Specifically ones created under the pretense of reporting the existence of them, and which sometimes thus end up appearing as news on the website's front page.
This has me asking the question. Did you truly intend to complain about the news reporting of KOs, or are you bothered by how they are presented in the 3P and KO forum? The discussion devolved into several tangents, but ultimately settled on the news reporting bit.
My gut told me that the complaints were out of line with the work the News Crew has done. (My research backed up my gut.) They can defend themselves (and have done so very well.) What I am concerned about is talk of doing things (and expending energy) that are headed in a direction I don't like. Is it really worth it? So I have to ask:
What really has you bothered that had you create this thread in the first place? Was it based on 3 KO warning news items in just over 4 months, or on discussions in the KO forum? If it is the first one, I think looking at those news items would dispute your initial claim that they promote KOs. If it is the latter, why read KO threads at all if it bothers you?
Either way, I don't think there is evidence to back up a request for one or more policy changes for this site.
(This was fun. I hope my comments were not taken as terse. I tried hard to be unbiased and keep emotion out of it and just stick to the facts and logical arguing.)
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