We’ve been banned…!
Without warning, Demolition News has been banned from demolitionforum.com
Forum: A public meeting place for open discussion; A medium for open discussion or voicing of ideas, such as a newspaper, a radio or television program, or a website.
I love America. I love its literature and its culture; its pride and patriotism. I love the fact that it can hold a World Series of Baseball and not invite the rest of the world. I love the fact that you can get a burger constructed almost entirely from cholesterol anytime, day or night, and that you can probably sue someone on the rare occasions that you can’t.
But most of all, I love the fact that Americans see freedom of speech and freedom of expression not so much as a constitutional right but as an item they have on temporary loan and must, therefore, use to its full potential each and every day. (This, after all, is a country where Charlie Sheen can demand a meeting with the President because he’s not entirely convinced by official explanations over the 9/11 attacks).
So I was saddened and more than a little disappointed when we received an email from the US-based demolitionforum.com to say that we have been effectively banned from their discussion area.
Rather than dwell upon the matter, I would like to take this opportunity merely to lay before you the email that we received and the one that we sent in response, purely to show our readers (and theirs) precisely why our comments have ceased without warning:
Hi Mark,
At this time, we have decided to discontinue our relationship with Demolition News as a member and contributor to Demolition Forum. Although this decision was not easy, we have come to this conclusion based on your site’s recent coverage of the US demolition market and your newest venture with Construction Equipment magazine, again cover [sic] the US market, we feel that Demolition News has become a competing site and that it is in our best interest that we sever ties. You will still have access to reading the forum, you just will not be able to post or relpy [sic].
We thank you for your insight and possibly look forward to working again in the future.
Thank you,
James Seligman
President
JMCA Media, Inc.
Hi James,
I am, of course, disappointed at your decision, and I do wonder if it is based purely upon my perceived competitiveness, or whether the nature of some of my recent posts have merely ruffled the wrong feathers.
Either way, I totally respect and understand your decision and wish you (and your members) well in the future.
Kind Regards
Mark
“Please accept my resignation. I don’t care to belong to any club that will have me as a member”.
Groucho Marx – 1959
It would be a terrible shame if someone posted a link to this article on demolitionforum, wouldn’t it…?
Posted: September 12th, 2009 under Audio, General.
Comments
Comment from admin
Time September 13, 2009 at 9:19 pm
Thanks for taking the time to comment Don. We’ll do our best to keep you on board here by being as scrupulously independent as possible; and if you ever get the impression that we’re headed the same way, please feel free to tell us!
Comment from Stig
Time September 14, 2009 at 5:02 pm
What do you do if you dont cut it in the field? You go into the office! and then if you dont cut it in the office? You start a internet forum! and if your forum doesnt cut it? You censure and manipulate it!!! Ya he is a piece of work. Always thought it was funny that in his up comeing bids section there are rarely any bids posted for Washington state, his home state. Figured he was spoon feeding those out the back door to his friends.
Comment from Oliver James
Time September 21, 2009 at 4:05 pm
I note that the level of comments over at demolitionforum seems to have fallen through the floor since you were kicked out. It’s now just a series if contractor ads and a few odds and ends of news culled from Google. I wonder if they’re now regretting their decision to ban the only site that seems to actually encourange discourse and reader engagement.
Their loss, I say!!
Comment from James Seligman
Time September 27, 2009 at 9:09 pm
Being #1 is hard; everyone wants to knock you off.
I would like to take the opportunity to clear up some misconceptions in your post, as well as your newsletter that was sent out the other day. I will also address some of your “member” comments.
DemolitionNews was not “banned” from DemolitionForum.com. You were moved to a Limited User group, which means you could still read the forum, but you could not make new threads or reply to them. If you were actually “banned”, you wouldn’t have been able to see the forum at all. Instead, you would have received a message that read “Move along little troll (or “spammer” or whatever, depending on the users action) there is nothing for you here”.
The reason for being changed to a Limited User was stated in what I thought would have been a confidential email between two adults and businesses. It was because you were beginning to cover US demolition projects that caused you to be in direct competition with us for our readers and members. I think any businessman would have done the same thing.
When you signed up, you agreed to the rules of our website which can be found at http://www.demolitionforum.com/faq.php, dated March 2007. I would suggest you review the rules again, particularly in the Advertising Section: “Advertising of websites in direct competition with Demolition Forum is not allowed.” You were in clear violation of this rule which is why we took the appropriate action.
Your newsletter stated the following: “We are not aligned to any trade association or federation so our readers are free to comment without fear of censure or condemnation, which is why our stories consistently attract a higher level of comment than our rivals.” If you were implying that DemolitionForum.com is part of a trade organization or federation, I can tell you that we are not and I believe people that know me know how I feel about certain associations, particularly the NDA.
Don, were the times that we protected some contractors when someone posted something negatively about a company all without cause? Yes, we would do it for anyone, including you. If you knew the stories behind the scenes, then you might be able to understand. Most were from members having multiple accounts, which are not allowed. These “duplicate” accounts were banned and the posts were removed. Also, anytime someone continuously and maliciously slammed another company without merit, same thing.
Stig, you implied that I have so-called “back door” deals for the Washington State jobs with my friends, which is false. Most, if not all of the projects came from the different branches of the US Government. If the government is not asking for bids here in Washington State, I can’t just make them up. There was a company that was posting tons of projects from all over the US, including Washington, but I guess you missed those.
Oliver, people comment freely as they so desire. If someone doesn’t want to comment, they don’t have to. That’s their choice. We don’t regret our decision to restrict the usage of one of our competitors on our site or any other decisions we have made. If you read the email, we stated that there was a possibility of working together again in the future, but since they took our personal business dealings with them public, which we feel was highly unprofessional, I doubt that would happen. In response to your comment about the use of Google news, Google news is one source of information, of which Demolition News also uses to gain information, but there are other sources, too.
I would like to thank Demolition News for all the free publicity, advertising, and attention they have brought to our site with this blog post, by posting it on Twitter, having Ron Sutton, Editor in Chief of Construction Equipment Magazine re-tweet it, and now all the mentions in your newsletter that was sent out recently.
Comment from admin
Time September 27, 2009 at 9:31 pm
I would like to personally thank James for his (belated) feedback but would also stand by both our comments and our actions. The very fact that James’ comments have been allowed here, I believe, further underlines our openness and impartiality.
Comment from Julian Athawes
Time January 15, 2010 at 9:40 pm
I read with interest your comments on demolitionforum.com . I had a similar encounter with Heavy Equipment Forums. Figuring that there was a gap in the UK market for an independent, impartial forum, where freedom of speech was paramount, I decided to establish the British Construction Equipment Forum http://www.ceforum.co.uk . In the three weeks it has been running, we have enjoyed meteoric growth and the lack of censorship really contributes to the content and feel of the site. I would welcome anyone who cared ot visit and contribute.
_______________
The Very Hungry Caterpillar.
Comment from Don
Time September 13, 2009 at 6:04 pm
I stopped visiting that site a while ago when it became readily apparent that who ever runs it is so heavily skewed toward certain contractors.
It’s amazing what a free T shirt can do.