Question about forum content moderation

[Apo Sci]

I'm having issues with the mods of another popular ME forum blatantly censoring posts by falsely calling things conspiracy theory and endorsing ineffective treatments. What are the rules here and did @Cort leave over these issues?

 

[jaminhealth]

I don't find any great big rules here and I appreciate Cort for permitting me to post some things that other groups believe are questionable and should not be discussed. With that said I post info that I believe need to be seen but am polite about it. I'm on other groups and it's amazing how closed many mods are to printing other than mainstream info.

Bottom line if members don't want to read "other" info, they should just ignore, that is how I handle everything out there.

Also, I have started some Games and Cort was fine there too, they took off a little but have kinda died down. Reminds me, I'll do a little posting in the Games.

 

[Carl#1]

Cort owns both of the big CFS forums including the one with the dodgy moderator who censors posts because she does not agree with the content. Especially if it is anything negative about viruses being responsible for CFS.....they are not! Say anything like that on the other forum and that twisted moderator will bend forum rules so that she can delete them. We have spoken about this before both on the forum and by PM.

A similar thing has happen on this forum which is why I rarely waste my time posting here any more. I would rather spend my time doing something more productive rather than having my effort wasted by a moderator.

BTW Cort has not left, he is ill with CFS as well so might not be up to posting regularly.

 

[jaminhealth]

I find so MUCH partisan moderation on ALL the forums I'm a member of. I find this one quite fair.

 

[Carl#1]

That figures. lol

 

[Remy]

Cort owns both of the big CFS forums including the one with the dodgy moderator who censors posts because she does not agree with the content. Especially if it is anything negative about viruses being responsible for CFS.....they are not! Say anything like that on the other forum and that twisted moderator will bend forum rules so that she can delete them. We have spoken about this before both on the forum and by PM.

A similar thing has happen on this forum which is why I rarely waste my time posting here any more. I would rather spend my time doing something more productive rather than having my effort wasted by a moderator.

BTW Cort has not left, he is ill with CFS as well so might not be up to posting regularly.

@Cort owns this forum, Health Rising. He started it when he left Phoenix Rising many years ago now. Phoenix Rising is a registered nonprofit and has a board of directors. No one "owns" it, per se.

The rules here are to be respectful of others and kind in replies and to avoid personal attacks. If someone posts something you don't agree with to the point where you can't follow that first rule, it's best to just not reply at all. Reporting posts is the best way to deal with problems.

 

[Apo Sci]

That's reassuring, I've been dealing with the old Phoenix Rising forum and their administrators have a strange philosophy of only encouraging nonprofit research and have taken a position that they are not interested in helping any for-profit research which is automatically suspect (although nonresearchers can discuss any treatment system they want no matter how questionable and moderators may attack criticism of methods as an attack on the member pushing their woo treatment system). If someone is trying to research a new for-profit ME treatment they shut them down by not allowing them to provide any information about the method they are researching. This is never done in research. Investigators disclose financial interests but are still allowed to speak. I quit participating in groups on their forum over this. Also they have non-health professionals making decisions about patient care recommendations and research topics. They have a sheet of lay suggestions they always link to for new members that includes many disproven treatments. It is a zoo.

They make up rules on the fly without posting them and then go after people for breaking them (such as if a researcher discusses the project they are working on they automatically condemn it as marketing and start censoring their posts).

PR is listed as the nonprofit "PHOENIX RISING AN NEID CORPORATION" and has sharp criticism from donors (including cort).

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They also censor political commentary if it imputes negative motives behind US national agencies against ME patients (i.e. NIH underfunding ME research to help insurance companies deny claims and to reduce entitlements which they ban as conspiracy theory.

They also won't allow any criticism of the Open Medicine Foundation so there is a lot of favoritism going on. While they allow a member called HIP to make treatment recommendations across numerous posts they attack others for doing the same thing. This violates one of their rules so they are enforcing selectively.

I totally understand Cort's comment that they want total control. That is exactly what I experienced. This is a case of the monkeys running the zoo while the zookeepers and veterinarians are locked in cages. It's a very toxic environment. They even have a rule against people talking about their mistreatment on the forum. So overall I think it is a negative for the ME community and this far outweighs anything it is doing for ME patients.