Happy Ending

daugen · Mar 7, 2012

I tried to reply and finish the ongoing post regarding expectations of what a new plow should look like. I was just turned off by the administrator, after being advised I cannot name specific vendors in discussions. Huh? Ok.
Not my site, not my rules. And ETA is an advertiser. I am unable to access the post/thread in any manner. I have been given the hook... I wonder if any of you can. I could break the rules and post the reply here, but I sent it to the Administrator and he's got it. Hopefully he will post it for you, and perhaps comment/remind us ( I didn't know and I guess I should have...) that "commercial disputes" cannot be discussed in the forum. Everything is explained and I'm sorry I can't post it for you. Drew daugen@voicenet.com

rambler · Mar 7, 2012

I hope it turned out to your satisfaction.

This site is owned by someone, and we play here as their guests.

Issues of free speach vs buisness sponcerships and so forth become very thorny _Very_ quickly on the internet, it's the last free open frontier.... We get scammers, we get free expression, we get censorship.....

I'm not commenting on just this site, it is a a very, very difficult situation to come to a good, fair answer to how things should be run, what is legal, and what is right.

Is it fair to only have good stories of products, no bad one's allowed? Another old tractorsite does not allow us to mention businesses that compete against them. Do paying advertisers get held to a different standard than non-paying businesses? and so on. Very thorny issues that haven't been sorted out yet on the final wild frontier.

Anyhow, hope things went well for you, it seemed mostly you just wanted someone to care and I hope you got that much!

Thanks for updating as much as you felt you could. Was kind of a rough issue for you all around.

--->Paul

mjncad · Mar 7, 2012

Drew:

I've seen numerous commercial disputes discussed on TBN; but yes the site owners are more persnickety as to what they deem as allowable speech than other sites I belong to.

nickel plate · Mar 7, 2012

Drew,
By you labeling your new thread "Happy Ending" it sounds like some satisfaction recently came your way.

Bird · Mar 7, 2012

When a member complains about a business; whether dealership or manufacturer, we're only hearing one side of the story. Now we'd like to think all our members are honest and telling the absolute truth, but we actually have no way of knowing if it's a competitor who is trying to damage his competition. How would you like it if someone filed a lawsuit against you, and the court only heard that person's side of the story without hearing your side? I think most can understand why such things are not allowed on TBN.

GreatWhitehunter · Mar 7, 2012

It does seem that the mods pick and choice what threads they close with out an even hand. I read the op's thread and it seemed like it was much less blasfamous than many I've read here. But as they say don't bite the hand that feed you and I enjoy the forum so rules is rules.

Matt

Wnc3 · Mar 7, 2012

GreatWhitehunter said:
It does seem that the mods pick and choice what threads they close with out an even hand. I read the op's thread and it seemed like it was much less blasfamous than many I've read here. But as they say don't bite the hand that feed you and I enjoy the forum so rules is rules.

Matt

I agreee and

Maybe brand x will tighten up the QC.

ac2520 · Mar 7, 2012

At the top of the Attachments page is a Sticky post welcoming a vendor. In the very first post is the quote:
"Feel free to discuss your experiences with <vendor name deleted> in this thread."

daugen · Mar 7, 2012

Bird is absolutely right. Both my parents were corporate/civil lawyers(NOT personal injury...) and my older brother still is, and I grew up with an enormous respect for the law. There is an essence of fairness that can never be ignored, everyone has evidence to present...

But in this case there was no trial, and none meant in the court of public opinion. I genuinely did not know if I was being unreasonable and that's why I asked the original question. Now if I had taken a deep breath first, I would have called and this whole thing would never have seen the light of day.

Which of course is what any business wants. Like the gentleman from Texas noted, bad news carries. I believe the term is "go viral", assuming you do or say something seriously stupid. So thank you Bird. Maybe there was a "read first" section here that I overlooked, but there are rules, written or otherwise, governing who can say what about who. I had them recapped by the Admin and I don't disagree with them. This is a commercial forum that needs the revenues of the advertisers likely to survive. All of us chatting away online has to cost them some money. So you don't bite the hand that feeds you. Got it.

And more importantly, fair is fair, and because sadly too many people believe the last thing they heard, you can't spew lies or be offensive online without in some way harming the other party regardless of what the conclusion is. Spouses do it in divorce court, our buddy Rush sure has made an art form of it, and politicians in an election year continue to amaze me. No, we sure don't need it here.

Ok, I'm going to tread on thin ice here and resolve the Happy Ending post to report that both parties understand each other and both parties will likely do things differently and more productively in the future. And I will remain a good customer of their company. I think that's a Happy Ending.