Accusations when well-founded are the cornerstone to enacting positive change. They should always be taken seriously. False accusations are like crying wolf, makes it harder for anyone to believe the next time. Even true accusations, without hard evidence, can be dismissed as false ( for example, that's why videos of police misuse are so important).
I'm sorry you felt I and others had motives to support a vendor because they were somehow a DIYSolar vendor. Hopefully, you see now that different people have different experiences and therefore say different things... generally everyone is just being honest (not that some won't troll the flames to increase entertainment). People that have a long and helpful history on the forums are most likely the ones just trying to speak their truth as they see it and
everyone is entitled to an opinion no matter how different from others. As you've personally seen, once name-calling starts, it's not a discussion anymore, the topic becomes secondary to striking back. It's why participants in that thread requested moderator help.
Not that we don't get shills disguising themselves as members, we
do all the time. Fortunately, they're new members and they're crap at it which makes them easy to identify and they get banned pretty quickly. I wish I could say the moderators were the experts at identifying them, but it's the reports from the eagle-eyed members that get the investigation rolling (in fact it's member reports that generally initiate all moderator action).
In regards to me, the edits and the deletes were aimed exclusively at removing attacks on members. Anyone can verify that by reading through the entire thread. All the heat about the vendor is still there, all the vendor defense is still there. Only attacks on members from both sides are gone and it's gone because attacks on members violate the T&Cs. Both sides made reports, both sides were edited, both sides got points. The thread was closed for the reason stated in the final post. The final post also requests that if I did accidentally miss anything hurtful to please report it. As an ex-moderator, I'd say it was a job well done and have zero regrets.
I know Will said he wouldn't have closed the thread, but given how much time cleaning the thread took only to have it start up the next day? As an unpaid mod I wasn't going to waste more time on members in such clear violation. As Will said, he gives moderators a great deal of leeway in dealing with such issues and threads spun out of control are very commonly locked.
Nah, less work for me and no one is irreplaceable. But if you're open to well-meaning advice from a gnarly old care-bear, check for the
YOU word in posts. The YOU word is the most dangerous word in any post as it shifts the dialog from the
topic to the
person. If it's in there, check if the intent in any possible metamessages is really what you want to convey. If someone has used the YOU word on you, call them on it.
Please don't concern yourself with that, your hand in it is more indirect, more like sparking a much-needed secondary conversation. It's all about the reasons I stated earlier. I also apologize for not making it more crystal clear that it's not about you or this thread. I'm just a lunkhead and didn't think about it. No one should blame you for it. So please don't feel guilty about it and please no one blame him in any way.
As I said in my one response, I added in others and then "left" that conversation after my initial response to recuse myself.
I've no idea what was said in it beyond that and don't care to.