hmmm , i wasnt to impressed with headsurfer closing that thread about RS . I dont think its fair , and i think everyone here knows that. Had this been some other company people were ranting about , the thread could have gone on for days . I think just because you dont agree with someone , doesnt give you the right to shut them up. I may or may not agree with the person , but this just isnt something im used to seeing on THIS forum , very BIASED on your part ..... then again , this is probably why you bought WHT , for that exact reason

when you use their board you play by their rules :P

This is the first time I have seen Robert close a thread and, if any thread ever deserved being closed, this one did. If I had been a moderator, I would have closed it much sooner and suspended the starter.

I worried about the influence Robert's ownership would have on the board and have been quite impressed by the lack of bias. He has allowed hundreds of posts negative to Rackshack, some justified, some without basis. However, this thread was completely inappropriate in its tone and words.

And before you accuse me of bias, I do no business with Rackshack. In fact, I sometimes compete with them. If one wants to criticize their service or offer other criticism in a professional, dignified manner, then that is fine. But, accusations of criminality are libelous and slanderous.

I have closed accounts before with providers and been billed subsequent to that time. In fact, most providers have made a billing mistake on billings to me at one time or another. I have never accused one of "robbery."

A flame war deserves to be closed.

I completely agree with Incognito...the poster's posts just seemed absurd. Apparently he wants us to believe that RackShack wants to sue them...out of the hundreds of people that have complained of RackShack's service on WHT, I haven't seen a single soul being threatened with a lawsuit. RackShack promptly offered him a refund when he called (BEFORE he posted on WHT) and didn't say anything like "oh and if you take this to WHT then we won't refund you" or something to that sort (which I have seen happen quite a lot around here with other companies.) I've been misbilled and I've misbilled others...people make mistakes. Sure there's reason to be angry, but when it gets promptly corrected, taking the situation as far as to making false statements is just wrong.

It should have been closed sooner--and by a mod. Headsurfer should not have picked on the thread starter since he wasn't the only one flaming. In fact, at least half or so of the flames seemed to be directed AT the thread starter, who was just trying to defend himself from the criticisms of several other WHTers.

Reading negative rackshack posts are like reading the tabloids. Or you could also compare it to calling Miss Cleo.

I think one point that people forget about is HUMAN NATURE, when someone feels they have been wronged in any way they lash out, normally in obviously wrong ways.
Many times I have to remind my staff that the reason someone is yelling at them on the phone is they feel they have been wronged and they demand satisfaction. However I myself am just as guilty as those people when I believe I've been wronged.
Just last night I called up Onstar as I saw two charges for 52.00 on my credit card statement, I asked them what the charges were all about, they told me they were now charging me monthly for my service, I asked how the charge could be 52.00 a month as last year I only paid 350.00 for the premium service for the whole year, I was told they have upped the price. well then I started ranting how can you up the price without notifying me, how can you charge my card without any kind of notice you #$%%$# I think you all get the point I was angry and I took it out on the only person I could at that time, it sure wasn't his fault.
Just as the original poster of the robbery thread was angry he couldn't get any immediate satisfaction to his problem. sure rackshack said they would refund the money ASAP but he didn't have it in his hand yet. the only problem I see with the closing of that thread is Robert did it himself, get a different mod to close the thread and there wouldn't be an issue, doing so yourself just isn't a wise move, you once said when you bought this board it would remain unbiased the only reason you had admin status was because you owned it. or should this be taken as a sign that the next time someone starts a flame war about someone else's company we can just shoot you a phone call and you will close that thread for us? I somehow doubt that's the case. should the thread have been closed? you bet. should Robert have done so? no way.

Just as a side note I have probably lost more business to RackShack than anyone else on this board (187 raq's to date) does this mean that Robert Marsh and rackshack are my enemies? no they are not I highly respect what they have accomplished in a relatively short period of time and I always welcome quality competition, ( I don't like cogent much but that's a different matter) all I'm saying is if someone feels wronged no matter whether its real or imagined you will get posts like that, if other people stop and think for just a moment about the content of the post, it would be over in a few posts instead of 6 pages of posts.

Steve

I am generally a fairly tolerant person and try to play by the rules established here. My track record of exercising "restraint" when it comes to negative RS posts is quite clear. This marks the first time ever that I have done this. No flame war is needed.

I could have chosen another path such as removing the thread and/or suspending the thread started but I did neither.

I could also have chosen to contact another mod and hide behind them doing what I requested. But I did not, I chose to put my name to what I did and accept whatever results.

There will probably never be a consensus on this issue and I do not expect one. That's the nature of an open forum...we don't have to agree.

The correct forum for this discussion I believe is WHT: Suggestions and Feedback.

That poster tried oh so hard to be confrontional for a ridiculous reason, he didn't even deserve that many replies, really.

I don't think it was out of line. The thread turned to crap and there was no longer any useful content in there.

Now if it was locked after just one post or even 3 or 4, and there was no flaming just a guy with a legit problem, that would be different. But the guy made his point and RS was quick to respond as best as they could to fix the issue, but it turned into a useless flame war debating the defintion of robbery.

If I were a mod (and I don't even work for RS) I would have closed it well before it was closed. If there is a legit complaint about a provider, thats fine, the thread is more than welcome, but if it goes south like that one did, it deserves a lock.

The thread needed to be closed... Thats very clear...

Maybe another mod should have done it since the thread was about RS.. Honestly, it looks bad on RS to close the thread, no mater the content... Even though Robert is the rightful owner here.. I think he should just take a back seat on moderating...

But I agree, Robert has been very restrained in the past so hey :D

I must say that despite my dislike for RS owning WHT, Robert has shown great restraint in the past 9 months (yes i think it's been that long). Though he's rarely posting on the forums, I'm sure he's browsed through countless RS threads that he'd want closed because they just end up with members ranting and flaming.

After reading through the first 2 pages (~40 posts as i have VB set to 20 posts/page), it is clear to me that the thread starter started the thread in an attempt to give RS a bad name for what was simply another accounting error. Impatient customers like this is why some companies have to give out refunds right away by check just so the customer shuts up.

Robert has the right to close any thread in violation of the set forum rules. He has properly executed this right. I think any other mod would have closed it also, and it should have been closed far before it Robert did.

Had I been a mod, I would have banned the user for a month and let him know that he's welcome back after he cools down.

Thanks Robert for making the wise decisions you've made and for closing that god awful flame war :beer:

like i said , i dont really care what the poster said , im sure he said lots of it in the heat of moment . The only thing that concerned me was him closing a thread on his own company . How may other members that own a business here would like to close threads regarding there company everytime something is blow out of context . Im sure alot .

Robert didn't close the thread because it was giving RS a bad name, he closed that thread because it turned into a small little flamewar and had rudeness all over the place(against the rules here)

If you or anyone else feels a thread needs to be closed click on the link that says,


Report this post to a moderator


Threads only get closed when they wander off topic, or break a rule, not because something gets blown out of context

Originally posted by headsurfer
. . . . . . .My track record of exercising "restraint" when it comes to negative RS posts is quite clear. . . . . . . . I agree Robert.
But, I also agree that, maybe this was a time you should have "hid behind another mod" while upholding WHT's reputation of being fair and unbiased and not allowing for "Flame War" type threads.
I agree with the closing. It just looks a little weird to newbies to have you do it.
It don't bother me that you closed it. As others have said, any other mod would have done the same.
It just would have looked better if another mod was the one that closed it. Or, if you had a reputation of closing other flame threads, I doubt that you closing this one would have been as noticed.

Wise words.

Originally posted by SoftWareRevue
I agree Robert.
But, I also agree that, maybe this was a time you should have "hid behind another mod" while upholding WHT's reputation of being fair and unbiased and not allowing for "Flame War" type threads.
I agree with the closing. It just looks a little weird to newbies to have you do it.
It don't bother me that you closed it. As others have said, any other mod would have done the same.
It just would have looked better if another mod was the one that closed it. Or, if you had a reputation of closing other flame threads, I doubt that you closing this one would have been as noticed.

Originally posted by akash
Threads only get closed when they wander off topic, or break a rule, not because something gets blown out of context

Bzzzzzt! Try again:

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=81446

Chicken in the closing post said:

I thought it was made clear that if you flame and troll, you'd be gone? User had whtsucks in their email adress so they really were just here for one thing. And another one banned.

They hate WHT so much we can't keep them away. Figures...

flaming -> thread lock -> ban

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=41035

teck in the closing post said:

I think we've heard enough about unlimited.

And oddly the thread was started about unlimited bandwidth. Seems the thread must have gotten out of hand.

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=68491

Kiwi said:

...The entire thread is just a flame against MCHost and its completely ridiculous...

and BC said:

The longer this thread goes on, the more it'll just go around in circles.........

Closed.

Looks like it was a flame war going on and on in circles going absoultly no where.

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=54274

MatF states:

This is getting out of hand now and going nowhere.

Thread closed. If you're going to take them to court then do so, you're not going to get any compensation on the forums.

It was getting out of hand (and for the most part pretty on topic, look at the three lasts posts, etc) so it was locked as it was yet another pointless flame war.

Useless flame wars serve no purpose. Debate in a soap box fora is one thing, but none of these could be called debate. Debate reequires presenting facts adn citing sources to back you up, term paper style. The arguments that go on here consist of an overuse of smilies, a lack of grammer, horrible spelling, and the writing style of a 5 year old throwing a temper tantrum.

It just would have looked better if another mod was the one that closed it.

I don't think so. To a newbie it would have looked like Robert hides behind other mods to close RS threads....Robert showed some honesty, which goes a long way in my books. I'm 99% sure that if it was closed by another mod, someone would have implied that RS threads get closed because they own the forums.