geekyspeaky message boards
As you may know, this site has message boards, and we’ve welcomed bloggers there to discuss paid blogging. We have a forum for each of the major paid blogging topics where we regularly discuss opportunities, payments, and issues with each. We’ve always welcome the staff from those companies at our boards, but recently, I heard something a bit disturbing.
One more than one occasion, a member of our board was contacted by a rep from a paid blogging company about something that was posted. The items in question weren’t rude, slanderous, or out of line. I was even contacted asking to delete a thread that was simply talking about a company in a very general way.
I posted a note in each of the paid blogging forums today saying:
I’m posting this in each of the paid blogging forums so that the people who work for those places will see it.
If you have an issue with anything posted here, please:
Do not email the member who posted asking them to remove what was said.
Do not email the member who posted to discuss it further. If that person wished to discuss it with you privately, they would have emailed you privately.
Do not email me to have it removed. I read every post here and if something was truly out of line, it would have been removed long before you saw it.
DO use it as an opportunity to receive free advice about your site / business from the people using it.
DO respond here (nicely) so that our members can see you are concerned about problems / issues
I don’t want to make our paid blogging forums private, but I will do that if our members continue to tell me they’ve been contacted by reps of paid blogging companies about things they posted here. Regardless of your intention, it’s very unsettling for our members and it’s not the best business practice to micro manage the people who do work for you. Many people post things on MANY public forums about your company, ranging from horrible reviews and slander to constructive criticism. It’s the nature of the internet! Please don’t abuse your invitation to be here when our members post helpful advice or light hearted venting about your company / business. Don’t take it personally! It will only prompt me to ban you from this forum if you continue to use it to berate / correct / hassle members who post things here in a public forum.
I agree that we should feel free to post anything we want on a public message board. It’s an opportunity for companies to improve their methods and develop better practices and relationships with their bloggers.
Wow, I haven’t been in the forums for while, and I’m missing all the action. LOL!
On a more serious note, I agree with you. It is the internet and people are going to say whatever they want about certain companies and the experience they have had good or bad. It’s not right for someone to ask to remove what was said if that’s what they felt about the situation.
The media basically do what they want. There are very few left with integrity anymore