Harrisburg Happening

Tuesday, February 28, 2006

PennLive Censors

I posted a question about verboten postings last evening, and it is, of course, gone. What shall we do next? I'm going to try an As I See It article (they published one I wrote on med mal a year ago) and see if they take it.

Saturday, February 25, 2006

Posting on PennLive

I was able to post again, but am waiting to see if it is removed. I posted an entirely legitimate comment on development on Verbeke and Front. We will see. The editor has not yet returned my email.

Friday, February 24, 2006

PennLive editor contact information

sibanez@pennlive.com.
Steve Ibanez

He posted saying that they will be putting some of the PennLive postings on the main page:


418. PennLive.com homepage by sibanez, 2/24/06 17:50 ET
FYI, you will not receive a free box of Girl Scout cookies if your forum post is picked to be highlighted on the homepage of PennLive.com. : )
We are hoping to highlight some of the more compelling and relevant posts in our forums to generate new discussions. If you would like to nominate a post for use on the homepage, please e-mail me at sibanez@pennlive.com.
Thanks,
Steven Ibanez - Editor, PennLive.com

How to get the word out

I think it is time to figure out how to get the word out that there is another game in town. Any suggestions, beyond our attempts yesterday, which seem to have worked for the four of us who are now here.

Testing the Forum

I have sent two tests to the forum administrators, using the box that says "Alert us." Each time, I used my real name and email address. First, I asked about gaston street's post this morning about deletions - I said that I had no problem with the post, but wanted to know why the other posts had disappeared. Then I sent one alerting them to the next posting - from the reputed stevereed. Again, I said in my message that I was just testing to see if sending the alert meant the posting were automatically deleted. It was not deleted.

Conclusion - deletions are not automatic, but occur with the intervention of someone at PennLive, for reasons unstated and unknowable except to him or her.

Extent of deletions

I have now checked to see what has been deleted. It appears that the administrators took it upon themselves to delete every posting of mine on any topic going back to early January. I guess I am persona non grata.

Got a response from a Patriot News spokesperson

The Patriot News position is that PennLive and the Patriot are separate companies and the Patriot has nothing to do with PennLive forums. They referred me to someone at PennLive. I will follow up with them.

Thursday, February 23, 2006

Patriot News

Interestingly, over the last few hours, the PennLive forum has deleted every one of my posts from today. There is to be no comments on any censorship at the Patriot, apparently. Seems to me that censorship is a legitimate issue for discussion, but not in Harrisburg

Censorship at the Patriot News

For several weeks now, posts on the forums at the Patriot News PennLive site have been mysteriously deleted. Well, maybe not so mysteriously since the terms of use allow the staff to "delete any material in its Forums, in its sole discretion, without notice."

But the threads that have been deleted, Kafka-like, are all about deleted posts. Yes, that's right, when someone asks why posts are deleted, the posts are deleted. I kid you not. How about it, PennLive? Care to comment? Or do you stand in solidarity with the Chinese government on censorship?

Post your comments here as alternative to PennLive

Post away - I haven't figured out how to open new threads to anyone yet - but will soon