I've noticed recently that the comment section on several articles has disappeared. I've found the community discussion to be a great feature of ET and AusBT in the past and wonder why this change has been made?
This is a heavily moderated site. My guess is that they have articles they just don't want to have to moderate. Especially ones that may lead to political fighting, such as border restrictions.
I've made at least one comment on a credit card review that has disappeared.
Perhaps one of the moderators can enlighten us, but I assumed that my comment was rejected either because it had something to do with ET's licence as an "authorised credit representative of MGS Financial" (websites that review credit cards are regulated in what they can and cannot say), or because my comment violated the terms of one of the sponsorship arrangements that ET has with the credit provider, or because I had inadvertently written something that was factually incorrect.
None of my comments about flying/airlines/aviation have ever been moderated or deleted -- just credit cards.
Some articles don't have comments enabled if they are sponsored or we think they will lead to arguments and personal attacks such as the border restrictions articles.
We will generally remove comments if: - The article has been updated and the comment refers to something that is out of date (this often happens with credit cards as they are constantly changing) - The comment is off-topic or doesn't add value to the discussion
The moderators always feel free to edit your comments if they feel it's not in the best interest of their sponsors (aka could affect their $$$) or they think it's off topic to a post.. which is silly since since there is nothing wrong more interaction on the site (as long as it's not personal attacks).
Another post worth mentioning is the current "Compulsory Mask Wearing". A few days ago, the post count was 4 posts, all with zero likes. I added a post reply to the original post, which garnered 3 'Likes'. All of a sudden, the thread was reduced to the original post and my response only. What happened to the other replies in the thread? Two were from a poster named Jeremy - who interestingly has developed his own beta PPE products. There was also another post whose poster name escapes me.
I would not be at all happy if I were one of the other posters whose efforts had disappeared. After all, a good site depends on the involvement of it's readers. Further, my post still exists but the 'Likes' have disappeared. Not that the 'likes' worry me.
Moderation on a site is fine by me, provided it is fair and balanced. It is a necessary element of any successful website. Unbalanced moderation however, serves no-one and only degrades the site. When you have a moderator that happily edits posts at will - without even acknowledging that they have edited - then there is something seriously wanting. This is exactly the type of behaviour that alienates readers and destroys a site's credibility.
Another example is the 'Bug Reporting' forum, which ET seeks to solicit member feedback on various Technical aspects of the site. Members take their time to report issues / faults with the site. However, since the July 2019 redesign and rename to ET, it appears that too many reports have gone unaddressed. If these posts go unaddressed, then members / users really shouldn't bother lodging them.
Perhaps, it's time for a serious review of the moderation function on this site. Or are we about to experience another exodus of regular members just as we did after ET's failure to address the reader's complaints with the redesign of July 2019. That would be a shame for what is essentially a good site.
Hi kimshep, on the mask thread: comments that were promoting the user's products (and were seeking to gather market research on those products, which is not the purpose of the Community) were removed, as were replies to those specific comments to keep the conversation on-topic. As well, you had posted the same comment three times (some were initially flagged for attention by the system, for whatever reason), so the duplicates were also removed. That leaves what's there now.
Chris - I can understand that Jeffery's original post indicated that he had developed a beta PPE product, which he was offering a sample of. However, his second post was an answer to my post. Certainly, you may adjudge that his promotion of the beta product should have been cleared first by ET - but the post was up for multiple days.
Also, the reason for the three (3) posts by myself were because of a server outage at ET's end. You can check this by examining the Cloudflare log. I don't do multiple-posts without a reason. The Cloudflare notice indicates that the post request should be resubmitted. I know I am not the first person to encounter this issue.
The moderators always feel free to edit your comments if they feel it's not in the best interest of their sponsors (aka could affect their $$$) or they think it's off topic to a post.. which is silly since since there is nothing wrong more interaction on the site (as long as it's not personal attacks).
Hi Jubbing: while true that we will remove a comment if it's off-topic (for reasons Sid has mentioned above), we have never removed a comment for commercial reasons, or as you put it, "not in the best interests of sponsors". The reason we try to keep comments on-topic is that when readers come to Executive Traveller for an article and then read comments, those comments should relate to and add value to that article. The more that comments veer off-topic and into entirely their own realm, the less they contribute to the article as such.
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ILIKEPLANES101
ILIKEPLANES101
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
Member since 05 Jun 2014
Total posts 90
Hi ET community,
I've noticed recently that the comment section on several articles has disappeared. I've found the community discussion to be a great feature of ET and AusBT in the past and wonder why this change has been made?
Cheers
XWu
XWu
Member since 09 May 2020
Total posts 197
Noticed that too
And one of my comments on the credit card review appears ......to have disappeared
Grannular
Grannular
Member since 31 Mar 2014
Total posts 284
This is a heavily moderated site. My guess is that they have articles they just don't want to have to moderate. Especially ones that may lead to political fighting, such as border restrictions.
Sibelius
Sibelius
Virgin Australia - Velocity Rewards
Member since 06 Aug 2017
Total posts 181
I've made at least one comment on a credit card review that has disappeared.
Perhaps one of the moderators can enlighten us, but I assumed that my comment was rejected either because it had something to do with ET's licence as an "authorised credit representative of MGS Financial" (websites that review credit cards are regulated in what they can and cannot say), or because my comment violated the terms of one of the sponsorship arrangements that ET has with the credit provider, or because I had inadvertently written something that was factually incorrect.
None of my comments about flying/airlines/aviation have ever been moderated or deleted -- just credit cards.
sid
sid
Member since 07 Jan 2011
Total posts 209
Good question.
Some articles don't have comments enabled if they are sponsored or we think they will lead to arguments and personal attacks such as the border restrictions articles.
We will generally remove comments if:
- The article has been updated and the comment refers to something that is out of date (this often happens with credit cards as they are constantly changing)
- The comment is off-topic or doesn't add value to the discussion
You can read our comment policy here: https://www.executivetraveller.com/executive-traveller-comment-policy
jubbing
jubbing
American Airlines - AAdvantage
Member since 13 Jul 2015
Total posts 60
The moderators always feel free to edit your comments if they feel it's not in the best interest of their sponsors (aka could affect their $$$) or they think it's off topic to a post.. which is silly since since there is nothing wrong more interaction on the site (as long as it's not personal attacks).
kimshep
kimshep
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
Member since 11 Oct 2014
Total posts 412
Another post worth mentioning is the current "Compulsory Mask Wearing". A few days ago, the post count was 4 posts, all with zero likes. I added a post reply to the original post, which garnered 3 'Likes'. All of a sudden, the thread was reduced to the original post and my response only. What happened to the other replies in the thread? Two were from a poster named Jeremy - who interestingly has developed his own beta PPE products. There was also another post whose poster name escapes me.
I would not be at all happy if I were one of the other posters whose efforts had disappeared. After all, a good site depends on the involvement of it's readers. Further, my post still exists but the 'Likes' have disappeared. Not that the 'likes' worry me.
Moderation on a site is fine by me, provided it is fair and balanced. It is a necessary element of any successful website. Unbalanced moderation however, serves no-one and only degrades the site. When you have a moderator that happily edits posts at will - without even acknowledging that they have edited - then there is something seriously wanting. This is exactly the type of behaviour that alienates readers and destroys a site's credibility.
Another example is the 'Bug Reporting' forum, which ET seeks to solicit member feedback on various Technical aspects of the site. Members take their time to report issues / faults with the site. However, since the July 2019 redesign and rename to ET, it appears that too many reports have gone unaddressed. If these posts go unaddressed, then members / users really shouldn't bother lodging them.
Perhaps, it's time for a serious review of the moderation function on this site. Or are we about to experience another exodus of regular members just as we did after ET's failure to address the reader's complaints with the redesign of July 2019. That would be a shame for what is essentially a good site.
Chris C.
Chris C.
Member since 24 Apr 2012
Total posts 1,116
Hi kimshep, on the mask thread: comments that were promoting the user's products (and were seeking to gather market research on those products, which is not the purpose of the Community) were removed, as were replies to those specific comments to keep the conversation on-topic. As well, you had posted the same comment three times (some were initially flagged for attention by the system, for whatever reason), so the duplicates were also removed. That leaves what's there now.
kimshep
kimshep
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
Member since 11 Oct 2014
Total posts 412
Chris - I can understand that Jeffery's original post indicated that he had developed a beta PPE product, which he was offering a sample of. However, his second post was an answer to my post. Certainly, you may adjudge that his promotion of the beta product should have been cleared first by ET - but the post was up for multiple days.
Also, the reason for the three (3) posts by myself were because of a server outage at ET's end. You can check this by examining the Cloudflare log. I don't do multiple-posts without a reason. The Cloudflare notice indicates that the post request should be resubmitted. I know I am not the first person to encounter this issue.
David
David
Member since 24 Oct 2010
Total posts 1,021
Originally Posted by jubbing
The moderators always feel free to edit your comments if they feel it's not in the best interest of their sponsors (aka could affect their $$$) or they think it's off topic to a post.. which is silly since since there is nothing wrong more interaction on the site (as long as it's not personal attacks).