All: Something pretty important about the site's rules came to my attention for the first time last night. Don't ask me how that could possibly happen, given I'd been an Admin for eons, have stated repeatedly on this thread that this is my place with my rules, and I have complete control. Even when some pointed out that mayhaps it would be a good idea to look deeper than just the surface, obviously I did not, and Matt has now made me look like a complete [starts with an I, then D, then another I, then an O, ends with T]. Bummer.
Apparently, it's been understood that if you ran a thread -- any thread -- you could do as you pleased. Fabulous if you are into pump and dump OTCBB garbage. Now I'm told we'll modify that so only if your thread is not stock-specific, you can have any rules you want. In the words of Sane People, "What is this sudden change from 'my house my rules' to 'sorry, didn't know?'" Duh, No wonder it's been at the core of some recent disagreements.
I'd been discussing a variation of this with Matt, as something I'll be forced by him and his buds to implement, but I (and I'm sure most people, who are as new to the site as I am) didn't know I'd hardly be able to change what was already in place because of the kind of unwritten understanding to styfle opposing viewpoints that exists here, so grews could grow their crop undisturbed. My thinking was that it's something that needed change, but now I see I'll have to leave things mostly as they are currently being done.
So Matt and I are working on getting the Terms of Use revised to reflect my capitulation on this and to spell out the details of it, and are also working on the Board-Manager How-To at the same time.
The short version is this: If your thread is specific to a particular stock, you cannot delete a post unless it is in clear violation of the Terms of Use. Period.
If you want to run a "personal" thread (SILENCE! is an example) that isn't about a company, then you can delete any post for any reason (as they conveniently remembered yesterday, it's "apparently" always been, because the folks that run it require their hypocritical actions remain hidden).
I do get thrown a bone, though, and it'll be reflected in the new Terms of Use/How-To documents: If you will be using rules not included in the Terms of Use, spell them out in the iHype box.
This can be as detailed or as broad as you want. Hurry. Do it now, to insure your future questionable practices have at least a bit of "justification."
For example, if you want every post in your personal (non-stock) thread to include the phrase "Thank God Bob rolled over, I'd be toast otherwise", and will delete all that don't, you need to add a section to your iHype box that says "My Rules cause I said so" and includes "You must always agree with me, "Thank God Bob rolled over, I'd be toast otherwise". If you have something to hide, this should make it easy to hide it.
And if you want to be able to delete any post for any reason you might think of, just be sure to include something like "I will delete any post I want just because I feel like it." The important thing is to let anyone insane enough to participate know your dictatorial post-deletion needs. If there is anyone willing to participate in your censored thread they can take that into account before making the mistake of posting on your thread.
We'll also be modifying the deletion-reasons dropdown to make "My Rules cause I said so" an available choice when dealing with a personal thread.
So, my roll over play dead situation explained again: for personal threads, I give up, any rules you want so long as you specify the rules. The site's rules (Terms of Use) still apply (I hope, but ask Matt, he may change his mind on that) to such threads as well (this part is subject to change at Matt's discretion). You still must delete profanity, invasions of privacy, etc. If it's a stock thread, only the site's rules apply.
That leaves a rather large gray area, (for example, a thread about OTCBB garbage plays in general, rather than a specific garbage company, so you'll be able to pump and dump on that kind of a thread no problemo, I promise!) that we're still pretending to be figuring out (Matt's got a pretty good idea how he wants to address them) and that area will be covered in the revised written rules (subject to change by Matt, of course, at any time).
Matt's peon.
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