Does the FAQ need updating?

[AMBER HOUSE - at the centre]

About 2 hours ago I posted what I hoped was useful information for people who were having difficulty keeping their room inventory up-to-date on various channels:
https://www.innspiring.com/node/8503#comment-96425
This was in reply to a comment from a British forum user having difficulties with Laterooms.com
Before I posted in these fora I read this in our FAQ's:
"What about self promotion?
As long as your self-promotion is appropriate and innkeeper related,
it's no problem. If you sell something we innkeepers can use
(embroidery, soaps, mugs, website design, etc.) then we want to know
about it. If you're a regular, active member of the forum, we
particularly want to help promote you. If, on the other hand, you are
only here to promote a non-innkeeping product (drugs, porn, spam)
expect to be deleted, blocked, and ridiculed in very short order.
FAIR WARNING: You had better be brave if you're not legit (especially
for website seo and design services). If you're not legit, we'll tear
you to pieces and expose you for the foul fraud you are. Everyone
else is welcomed with open arms."
Now I realise that this answer is not strictly applicable to my own (censored?) post, since I was not engaged in "self promotion" but rather trying to highlight a solution (that our family have used successfully for many years) to a problem raised, but why has my post disappeared, please?
I'm not complaining but rather trying to understand the workings of things so that my time (and, presumably, that of a moderator) is not wasted in future...

 

[Alibi Ike]

Not sure what post you mean as I only saw one post from you about the reservation software. Did you have another post concerning the same rez software? If yes, it's possible the second post got flagged as maybe someone thought it was spam. That will happen if the only comments you make are on the same topic and posting about the same thing, especially if it is concerning the 'selling' of something even if you are not the owner of that something. (See, we can't tell if you're the owner or not and if you comment more than once about it without any other info about yourself, it LOOKS suspicious.)
So, if you don't own the software and are not involved in it in any way, maybe it would help to do a little intro...'Hi! I'm George and this is my inn...' then you might have fewer problems.
If you do own the software or are involved in it in any way, the same applies...'Hi! I'm George and this is my company (my brother's company, I'm a stockholder, whatever)...'
Otherwise...welcome aboard...

 

[AMBER HOUSE - at the centre]

Not sure what post you mean as I only saw one post from you about the reservation software. Did you have another post concerning the same rez software? If yes, it's possible the second post got flagged as maybe someone thought it was spam. That will happen if the only comments you make are on the same topic and posting about the same thing, especially if it is concerning the 'selling' of something even if you are not the owner of that something. (See, we can't tell if you're the owner or not and if you comment more than once about it without any other info about yourself, it LOOKS suspicious.)
So, if you don't own the software and are not involved in it in any way, maybe it would help to do a little intro...'Hi! I'm George and this is my inn...' then you might have fewer problems.
If you do own the software or are involved in it in any way, the same applies...'Hi! I'm George and this is my company (my brother's company, I'm a stockholder, whatever)...'
Otherwise...welcome aboard....

Thank you for your helpful insights, Alibi Ike.
For anybody that reads out loud or with care (as opposed to skimming), it would have been abundantly obvious (since I stated in my deleted post that we had used our PMS for some years) that I was a satisfied user rather than proprietor, shareholder or relative of the owner of that PMS. But even if I had been in this special class, it still would not have been spam according the current faq!
A moment's research (just click the picture in my (now censored signature) would have made it evident that our family has been in the hospitality business for nearly a century and that I am not promoting a non-innkeeping product (drugs, porn, chopped luncheon meat). So what happened to "Everyone else is welcomed with open arms" ?
Perhaps the anonymous person that deleted it would re-post my censored post here and critique it so that I (and others) can learn what exactly was offensive about it?
Here in New Zealand we come from the same common law tradition as those in at the Northern end of the Americas so I am a little surprised that mere suspicion is enough to scrub something that was patently on-topic - especailly bearing in mind the way that FAQ is currently worded.
My personal feeling is that if moderators can not abide by the letter and spirit of our FAQ's then these fora are going to be less useful to accommodation hosts and I will read and write here less frequently.
[The other board I write on frequently is a Yuku board and that board does have an easy and quick search facility to check on what posts a member has made and when and how often they visit to read (but not post) - many are lurkers you know and I respect the adage that if you have nothing pertinent to say, then keep quiet...]
For the avoidance of doubt: Neither I, my family nor the shareholders, officers or employees of Amber House Limited trading as AMBER HOUSE - at the centre!™ have any financial interest or incentive, or proprietorial interest in, Beds24.com - we have merely been satisfied customers and users of this PMS for many years...

 

[gillumhouse]

Not sure what post you mean as I only saw one post from you about the reservation software. Did you have another post concerning the same rez software? If yes, it's possible the second post got flagged as maybe someone thought it was spam. That will happen if the only comments you make are on the same topic and posting about the same thing, especially if it is concerning the 'selling' of something even if you are not the owner of that something. (See, we can't tell if you're the owner or not and if you comment more than once about it without any other info about yourself, it LOOKS suspicious.)
So, if you don't own the software and are not involved in it in any way, maybe it would help to do a little intro...'Hi! I'm George and this is my inn...' then you might have fewer problems.
If you do own the software or are involved in it in any way, the same applies...'Hi! I'm George and this is my company (my brother's company, I'm a stockholder, whatever)...'
Otherwise...welcome aboard....

Thank you for your helpful insights, Alibi Ike.
For anybody that reads out loud or with care (as opposed to skimming), it would have been abundantly obvious (since I stated in my deleted post that we had used our PMS for some years) that I was a satisfied user rather than proprietor, shareholder or relative of the owner of that PMS. But even if I had been in this special class, it still would not have been spam according the current faq!
A moment's research (just click the picture in my (now censored signature) would have made it evident that our family has been in the hospitality business for nearly a century and that I am not promoting a non-innkeeping product (drugs, porn, chopped luncheon meat). So what happened to "Everyone else is welcomed with open arms" ?
Perhaps the anonymous person that deleted it would re-post my censored post here and critique it so that I (and others) can learn what exactly was offensive about it?
Here in New Zealand we come from the same common law tradition as those in at the Northern end of the Americas so I am a little surprised that mere suspicion is enough to scrub something that was patently on-topic - especailly bearing in mind the way that FAQ is currently worded.
My personal feeling is that if moderators can not abide by the letter and spirit of our FAQ's then these fora are going to be less useful to accommodation hosts and I will read and write here less frequently.
[The other board I write on frequently is a Yuku board and that board does have an easy and quick search facility to check on what posts a member has made and when and how often they visit to read (but not post) - many are lurkers you know and I respect the adage that if you have nothing pertinent to say, then keep quiet...]
For the avoidance of doubt: Neither I, my family nor the shareholders, officers or employees of Amber House Limited trading as AMBER HOUSE - at the centre!™ have any financial interest or incentive, or proprietorial interest in, Beds24.com - we have merely been satisfied customers and users of this PMS for many years...
.

We do welcome you. It is just that we get hit by spammers touting something here, there, and everywhere and then disappear. We would like to welcome you as a "normal" (well as normal as some of us are anyway as I for one am certifiable) innkeeper. As Ike said, we usually introduce ourselves. It makes it easier to identify where we are coming from with our responses - large inn/small, city/country, etc.

 

[AMBER HOUSE - at the centre]

Not sure what post you mean as I only saw one post from you about the reservation software. Did you have another post concerning the same rez software? If yes, it's possible the second post got flagged as maybe someone thought it was spam. That will happen if the only comments you make are on the same topic and posting about the same thing, especially if it is concerning the 'selling' of something even if you are not the owner of that something. (See, we can't tell if you're the owner or not and if you comment more than once about it without any other info about yourself, it LOOKS suspicious.)
So, if you don't own the software and are not involved in it in any way, maybe it would help to do a little intro...'Hi! I'm George and this is my inn...' then you might have fewer problems.
If you do own the software or are involved in it in any way, the same applies...'Hi! I'm George and this is my company (my brother's company, I'm a stockholder, whatever)...'
Otherwise...welcome aboard....

Thank you for your helpful insights, Alibi Ike.
For anybody that reads out loud or with care (as opposed to skimming), it would have been abundantly obvious (since I stated in my deleted post that we had used our PMS for some years) that I was a satisfied user rather than proprietor, shareholder or relative of the owner of that PMS. But even if I had been in this special class, it still would not have been spam according the current faq!
A moment's research (just click the picture in my (now censored signature) would have made it evident that our family has been in the hospitality business for nearly a century and that I am not promoting a non-innkeeping product (drugs, porn, chopped luncheon meat). So what happened to "Everyone else is welcomed with open arms" ?
Perhaps the anonymous person that deleted it would re-post my censored post here and critique it so that I (and others) can learn what exactly was offensive about it?
Here in New Zealand we come from the same common law tradition as those in at the Northern end of the Americas so I am a little surprised that mere suspicion is enough to scrub something that was patently on-topic - especailly bearing in mind the way that FAQ is currently worded.
My personal feeling is that if moderators can not abide by the letter and spirit of our FAQ's then these fora are going to be less useful to accommodation hosts and I will read and write here less frequently.
[The other board I write on frequently is a Yuku board and that board does have an easy and quick search facility to check on what posts a member has made and when and how often they visit to read (but not post) - many are lurkers you know and I respect the adage that if you have nothing pertinent to say, then keep quiet...]
For the avoidance of doubt: Neither I, my family nor the shareholders, officers or employees of Amber House Limited trading as AMBER HOUSE - at the centre!™ have any financial interest or incentive, or proprietorial interest in, Beds24.com - we have merely been satisfied customers and users of this PMS for many years...
.

We do welcome you. It is just that we get hit by spammers touting something here, there, and everywhere and then disappear. We would like to welcome you as a "normal" (well as normal as some of us are anyway as I for one am certifiable) innkeeper. As Ike said, we usually introduce ourselves. It makes it easier to identify where we are coming from with our responses - large inn/small, city/country, etc.
.

We would like to welcome you as a "normal" (well as normal as some of us are anyway as I for one am certifiable) innkeeper. As Ike said, we usually introduce ourselves. It makes it easier to identify where we are coming from with our responses - large inn/small, city/country, etc.

That makes sense, gillumhouse.
As you could have told from my signature (before somebody/thing started monkeying around with it), our Amber family runs Amber House at the top of the South Island of New Zealand.
I'm in the final year of my seventh decade and I code our website and handle computer related matters.
Our family home has seven bedrooms and we love to let 4 of them (all en-suite) to paying guests.
If folks are interested, they can read our website and discover that the City of Nelson (in Commonwealth useage a conurbation only becomes a city when it becomes the seat of a bishop) grew up around our house. Nelson only has about 43,000 residents but we were the first city in the South Island and we are probably one of the smallest places in the world to have our own Symphony Orchestra. We have the best weather in New Zealand and the most Japanese, Irish, Italians, British, Eritreans, Pilipinos, Dutch, Swiss and Chin (fleeing the Burmese dictators) as a percentage of our population of any NZ town. We have the most rapidly growing Maori community (my wife has all 32 of the 32 Maori marker genes and our children attended the Whanau class) in NZ here in Nelson.
I (and my children, despite being born in Nelson) retain Irish citizenship (New Zealand, like most Commonwealth countries has always allowed dual and multiple citizenship).
I am 6ft tall and (as you can see from my picture) weigh more than is healthy.
If any of you are in Nelson, please drop by and introduce yourselves...

 

[gillumhouse]

Not sure what post you mean as I only saw one post from you about the reservation software. Did you have another post concerning the same rez software? If yes, it's possible the second post got flagged as maybe someone thought it was spam. That will happen if the only comments you make are on the same topic and posting about the same thing, especially if it is concerning the 'selling' of something even if you are not the owner of that something. (See, we can't tell if you're the owner or not and if you comment more than once about it without any other info about yourself, it LOOKS suspicious.)
So, if you don't own the software and are not involved in it in any way, maybe it would help to do a little intro...'Hi! I'm George and this is my inn...' then you might have fewer problems.
If you do own the software or are involved in it in any way, the same applies...'Hi! I'm George and this is my company (my brother's company, I'm a stockholder, whatever)...'
Otherwise...welcome aboard....

Thank you for your helpful insights, Alibi Ike.
For anybody that reads out loud or with care (as opposed to skimming), it would have been abundantly obvious (since I stated in my deleted post that we had used our PMS for some years) that I was a satisfied user rather than proprietor, shareholder or relative of the owner of that PMS. But even if I had been in this special class, it still would not have been spam according the current faq!
A moment's research (just click the picture in my (now censored signature) would have made it evident that our family has been in the hospitality business for nearly a century and that I am not promoting a non-innkeeping product (drugs, porn, chopped luncheon meat). So what happened to "Everyone else is welcomed with open arms" ?
Perhaps the anonymous person that deleted it would re-post my censored post here and critique it so that I (and others) can learn what exactly was offensive about it?
Here in New Zealand we come from the same common law tradition as those in at the Northern end of the Americas so I am a little surprised that mere suspicion is enough to scrub something that was patently on-topic - especailly bearing in mind the way that FAQ is currently worded.
My personal feeling is that if moderators can not abide by the letter and spirit of our FAQ's then these fora are going to be less useful to accommodation hosts and I will read and write here less frequently.
[The other board I write on frequently is a Yuku board and that board does have an easy and quick search facility to check on what posts a member has made and when and how often they visit to read (but not post) - many are lurkers you know and I respect the adage that if you have nothing pertinent to say, then keep quiet...]
For the avoidance of doubt: Neither I, my family nor the shareholders, officers or employees of Amber House Limited trading as AMBER HOUSE - at the centre!™ have any financial interest or incentive, or proprietorial interest in, Beds24.com - we have merely been satisfied customers and users of this PMS for many years...
.

We do welcome you. It is just that we get hit by spammers touting something here, there, and everywhere and then disappear. We would like to welcome you as a "normal" (well as normal as some of us are anyway as I for one am certifiable) innkeeper. As Ike said, we usually introduce ourselves. It makes it easier to identify where we are coming from with our responses - large inn/small, city/country, etc.
.

We would like to welcome you as a "normal" (well as normal as some of us are anyway as I for one am certifiable) innkeeper. As Ike said, we usually introduce ourselves. It makes it easier to identify where we are coming from with our responses - large inn/small, city/country, etc.

That makes sense, gillumhouse.
As you could have told from my signature (before somebody/thing started monkeying around with it), our Amber family runs Amber House at the top of the South Island of New Zealand.
I'm in the final year of my seventh decade and I code our website and handle computer related matters.
Our family home has seven bedrooms and we love to let 4 of them (all en-suite) to paying guests.
If folks are interested, they can read our website and discover that the City of Nelson (in Commonwealth useage a conurbation only becomes a city when it becomes the seat of a bishop) grew up around our house. Nelson only has about 43,000 residents but we were the first city in the South Island and we are probably one of the smallest places in the world to have our own Symphony Orchestra. We have the best weather in New Zealand and the most Japanese, Irish, Italians, British, Eritreans, Pilipinos, Dutch, Swiss and Chin (fleeing the Burmese dictators) as a percentage of our population of any NZ town. We have the most rapidly growing Maori community (my wife has all 32 of the 32 Maori marker genes and our children attended the Whanau class) in NZ here in Nelson.
I (and my children, despite being born in Nelson) retain Irish citizenship (New Zealand, like most Commonwealth countries has always allowed dual and multiple citizenship).
I am 6ft tall and (as you can see from my picture) weigh more than is healthy.
If any of you are in Nelson, please drop by and introduce yourselves...
.

Please do not take it personally.Tis best to start over. We tick each other off every now and then - we are blunt and to the point here. When that happens, we flip the bird (US slang for the one-finger-salute) to the monitor and go pout for a while before coming back .At least that is what I do. This forum is adictive - at least it is for me.

 

[swirt]

Hello George, Perhaps a bit of a refresher info on how the site works is in order. This had been done long ago and the post is eitehr burried or got removed as some of the spring cleaning of much older threads has removed it.
FIrst. Nobody has monkeyed with or otherwise edited your signature. Signatures on this forum only appear once per thread. If you scroll up to the top of this thread you will see that yours is fully in tact in your first post. It is not used on subsequent posts within the same thread. This is designed intenitionally so people can read a thread without it being cluttered up with repeated signatures.
Your orginal reply was not deleted. It was put into holding, however. If enough members flag a post or comment as spam, it goes into holding where it becomes invisible until such time that I have a chance to look at it and decide whether it should stay or go. The site is set up this way so that potential spam does not sit in front of member's faces for too long. I am the only one on this site who deals with any posts that go into holding so sometimes it may take the better part of day for me to "pass judgment" on it. Running the forum takes a back seat to several day jobs. I will go review your post that was sent to holding and make it appear again.
So now back to your original question. Do the FAQs need updating? No. In several places on this site it cautions that if your first post on this site is to promote a product, it will be looked at skeptically. Your first two posts were related to the same product. Certainly enough to trigger suspicion from enough members to accumulate enough flags to have the post sent to holding. Yes you declaired yourself as an innkeeper, but so do half of the people spamming this forum. So please do not take offense at having one of your posts flagged as spam. It happens from time to time. I've even had new members to the forum flag my posts because they think my signature is spammy. These things happen. It is the price that we pay for having an open forum.

 

[AMBER HOUSE - at the centre]

Hello George, Perhaps a bit of a refresher info on how the site works is in order. This had been done long ago and the post is eitehr burried or got removed as some of the spring cleaning of much older threads has removed it.
FIrst. Nobody has monkeyed with or otherwise edited your signature. Signatures on this forum only appear once per thread. If you scroll up to the top of this thread you will see that yours is fully in tact in your first post. It is not used on subsequent posts within the same thread. This is designed intenitionally so people can read a thread without it being cluttered up with repeated signatures.
Your orginal reply was not deleted. It was put into holding, however. If enough members flag a post or comment as spam, it goes into holding where it becomes invisible until such time that I have a chance to look at it and decide whether it should stay or go. The site is set up this way so that potential spam does not sit in front of member's faces for too long. I am the only one on this site who deals with any posts that go into holding so sometimes it may take the better part of day for me to "pass judgment" on it. Running the forum takes a back seat to several day jobs. I will go review your post that was sent to holding and make it appear again.
So now back to your original question. Do the FAQs need updating? No. In several places on this site it cautions that if your first post on this site is to promote a product, it will be looked at skeptically. Your first two posts were related to the same product. Certainly enough to trigger suspicion from enough members to accumulate enough flags to have the post sent to holding. Yes you declaired yourself as an innkeeper, but so do half of the people spamming this forum. So please do not take offense at having one of your posts flagged as spam. It happens from time to time. I've even had new members to the forum flag my posts because they think my signature is spammy. These things happen. It is the price that we pay for having an open forum..

Nobody has monkeyed with or otherwise edited your signature. Signatures on this forum only appear once per thread. If you scroll up to the top of this thread you will see that yours is fully in tact in your first post. It is not used on subsequent posts within the same thread. This is designed intenitionally so people can read a thread without it being cluttered up with repeated signatures.

Apologies for jumping to conclusions, swirt!
And that seems to be an eminently sensible signature policy now I know what is happening.
I suppose that I have been overly sensitive because of my stupidity in not realising that
i) there were not tools available on this board to recognise regular lurkers
ii) not everyone knew me. Small town disease I know, but you fall into the trap of thinking that just because everyone in Nelson knows who you are (I still do a patrol with the Police on Friday and Saturday nights) everyone else worldwide can check your bona fides. How stupid!

Your orginal reply was not deleted. It was put into holding, however.

Again, eminently sensible.
Might there be a way of automatically sending a robotic email to the poster (explaining what happened and asking them to be patient) when that happens so they don't go off half-cock as I seem to have done?

I am the only one on this site who deals with any posts that go into holding so sometimes it may take the better part of day for me to "pass judgment" on it. Running the forum takes a back seat to several day jobs. I will go review your post that was sent to holding and make it appear again.

Thank you!
And I'm sorry to cause you extra work.

 

[Alibi Ike]

Not sure what post you mean as I only saw one post from you about the reservation software. Did you have another post concerning the same rez software? If yes, it's possible the second post got flagged as maybe someone thought it was spam. That will happen if the only comments you make are on the same topic and posting about the same thing, especially if it is concerning the 'selling' of something even if you are not the owner of that something. (See, we can't tell if you're the owner or not and if you comment more than once about it without any other info about yourself, it LOOKS suspicious.)
So, if you don't own the software and are not involved in it in any way, maybe it would help to do a little intro...'Hi! I'm George and this is my inn...' then you might have fewer problems.
If you do own the software or are involved in it in any way, the same applies...'Hi! I'm George and this is my company (my brother's company, I'm a stockholder, whatever)...'
Otherwise...welcome aboard....

Thank you for your helpful insights, Alibi Ike.
For anybody that reads out loud or with care (as opposed to skimming), it would have been abundantly obvious (since I stated in my deleted post that we had used our PMS for some years) that I was a satisfied user rather than proprietor, shareholder or relative of the owner of that PMS. But even if I had been in this special class, it still would not have been spam according the current faq!
A moment's research (just click the picture in my (now censored signature) would have made it evident that our family has been in the hospitality business for nearly a century and that I am not promoting a non-innkeeping product (drugs, porn, chopped luncheon meat). So what happened to "Everyone else is welcomed with open arms" ?
Perhaps the anonymous person that deleted it would re-post my censored post here and critique it so that I (and others) can learn what exactly was offensive about it?
Here in New Zealand we come from the same common law tradition as those in at the Northern end of the Americas so I am a little surprised that mere suspicion is enough to scrub something that was patently on-topic - especailly bearing in mind the way that FAQ is currently worded.
My personal feeling is that if moderators can not abide by the letter and spirit of our FAQ's then these fora are going to be less useful to accommodation hosts and I will read and write here less frequently.
[The other board I write on frequently is a Yuku board and that board does have an easy and quick search facility to check on what posts a member has made and when and how often they visit to read (but not post) - many are lurkers you know and I respect the adage that if you have nothing pertinent to say, then keep quiet...]
For the avoidance of doubt: Neither I, my family nor the shareholders, officers or employees of Amber House Limited trading as AMBER HOUSE - at the centre!™ have any financial interest or incentive, or proprietorial interest in, Beds24.com - we have merely been satisfied customers and users of this PMS for many years...
.

Thank you for your helpful insights, Alibi Ike.
For anybody that reads out loud or with care (as opposed to skimming), it would have been abundantly obvious (since I stated in my deleted post that we had used our PMS for some years) that I was a satisfied user rather than proprietor, shareholder or relative of the owner of that PMS. But even if I had been in this special class, it still would not have been spam according the current faq!
A moment's research (just click the picture in my (now censored signature) would have made it evident that our family has been in the hospitality business for nearly a century and that I am not promoting a non-innkeeping product (drugs, porn, chopped luncheon meat). So what happened to "Everyone else is welcomed with open arms" ?
Perhaps the anonymous person that deleted it would re-post my censored post here and critique it so that I (and others) can learn what exactly was offensive about it?
Here in New Zealand we come from the same common law tradition as those in at the Northern end of the Americas so I am a little surprised that mere suspicion is enough to scrub something that was patently on-topic - especailly bearing in mind the way that FAQ is currently worded.
My personal feeling is that if moderators can not abide by the letter and spirit of our FAQ's then these fora are going to be less useful to accommodation hosts and I will read and write here less frequently.
[The other board I write on frequently is a Yuku board and that board does have an easy and quick search facility to check on what posts a member has made and when and how often they visit to read (but not post) - many are lurkers you know and I respect the adage that if you have nothing pertinent to say, then keep quiet...]
For the avoidance of doubt: Neither I, my family nor the shareholders, officers or employees of Amber House Limited trading as AMBER HOUSE - at the centre!™ have any financial interest or incentive, or proprietorial interest in, Beds24.com - we have merely been satisfied customers and users of this PMS for many years...

Ah. For the love of Mike, take the chip off your shoulder. I personally prefer to NOT read up on my fellow posters. I don't care where they live, what inns they run, how long they've been in business or any of the rest of it. Once upon a time I used to care. But, unfortunately, that caring resulted in being sideswiped by a lunatic pretending to be an innkeeper when I asked a simple question about that innkeeper's property.
So, I hold all my fellow innkeeper's at arm's length now.
As for the abilities of the forum to do all kinds of searches- this particular forum is run out of the goodness of Swirt's heart and the few measly dollars that dribble in from the ads. All of the extra search features and accounting features cost money.

 

[swirt]

Hello George, Perhaps a bit of a refresher info on how the site works is in order. This had been done long ago and the post is eitehr burried or got removed as some of the spring cleaning of much older threads has removed it.
FIrst. Nobody has monkeyed with or otherwise edited your signature. Signatures on this forum only appear once per thread. If you scroll up to the top of this thread you will see that yours is fully in tact in your first post. It is not used on subsequent posts within the same thread. This is designed intenitionally so people can read a thread without it being cluttered up with repeated signatures.
Your orginal reply was not deleted. It was put into holding, however. If enough members flag a post or comment as spam, it goes into holding where it becomes invisible until such time that I have a chance to look at it and decide whether it should stay or go. The site is set up this way so that potential spam does not sit in front of member's faces for too long. I am the only one on this site who deals with any posts that go into holding so sometimes it may take the better part of day for me to "pass judgment" on it. Running the forum takes a back seat to several day jobs. I will go review your post that was sent to holding and make it appear again.
So now back to your original question. Do the FAQs need updating? No. In several places on this site it cautions that if your first post on this site is to promote a product, it will be looked at skeptically. Your first two posts were related to the same product. Certainly enough to trigger suspicion from enough members to accumulate enough flags to have the post sent to holding. Yes you declaired yourself as an innkeeper, but so do half of the people spamming this forum. So please do not take offense at having one of your posts flagged as spam. It happens from time to time. I've even had new members to the forum flag my posts because they think my signature is spammy. These things happen. It is the price that we pay for having an open forum..

Nobody has monkeyed with or otherwise edited your signature. Signatures on this forum only appear once per thread. If you scroll up to the top of this thread you will see that yours is fully in tact in your first post. It is not used on subsequent posts within the same thread. This is designed intenitionally so people can read a thread without it being cluttered up with repeated signatures.

Apologies for jumping to conclusions, swirt!
And that seems to be an eminently sensible signature policy now I know what is happening.
I suppose that I have been overly sensitive because of my stupidity in not realising that
i) there were not tools available on this board to recognise regular lurkers
ii) not everyone knew me. Small town disease I know, but you fall into the trap of thinking that just because everyone in Nelson knows who you are (I still do a patrol with the Police on Friday and Saturday nights) everyone else worldwide can check your bona fides. How stupid!

Your orginal reply was not deleted. It was put into holding, however.

Again, eminently sensible.
Might there be a way of automatically sending a robotic email to the poster (explaining what happened and asking them to be patient) when that happens so they don't go off half-cock as I seem to have done?

I am the only one on this site who deals with any posts that go into holding so sometimes it may take the better part of day for me to "pass judgment" on it. Running the forum takes a back seat to several day jobs. I will go review your post that was sent to holding and make it appear again.

Thank you!
And I'm sorry to cause you extra work.
.

Might there be a way of automatically sending a robotic email to the poster (explaining what happened and asking them to be patient) when that happens so they don't go off half-cock as I seem to have done?
Yes, there is a way. I turned it off early on because the email replies come back to me and just served to get spammers emailing me more spam. Again it comes down to numbers. 1 legitimate post creating a false alarm for every 499 spams, is not worth me getting 5000 spams back in my email and several bits of hate mail.

 

[AMBER HOUSE - at the centre]

Hello George, Perhaps a bit of a refresher info on how the site works is in order. This had been done long ago and the post is eitehr burried or got removed as some of the spring cleaning of much older threads has removed it.
FIrst. Nobody has monkeyed with or otherwise edited your signature. Signatures on this forum only appear once per thread. If you scroll up to the top of this thread you will see that yours is fully in tact in your first post. It is not used on subsequent posts within the same thread. This is designed intenitionally so people can read a thread without it being cluttered up with repeated signatures.
Your orginal reply was not deleted. It was put into holding, however. If enough members flag a post or comment as spam, it goes into holding where it becomes invisible until such time that I have a chance to look at it and decide whether it should stay or go. The site is set up this way so that potential spam does not sit in front of member's faces for too long. I am the only one on this site who deals with any posts that go into holding so sometimes it may take the better part of day for me to "pass judgment" on it. Running the forum takes a back seat to several day jobs. I will go review your post that was sent to holding and make it appear again.
So now back to your original question. Do the FAQs need updating? No. In several places on this site it cautions that if your first post on this site is to promote a product, it will be looked at skeptically. Your first two posts were related to the same product. Certainly enough to trigger suspicion from enough members to accumulate enough flags to have the post sent to holding. Yes you declaired yourself as an innkeeper, but so do half of the people spamming this forum. So please do not take offense at having one of your posts flagged as spam. It happens from time to time. I've even had new members to the forum flag my posts because they think my signature is spammy. These things happen. It is the price that we pay for having an open forum..

Nobody has monkeyed with or otherwise edited your signature. Signatures on this forum only appear once per thread. If you scroll up to the top of this thread you will see that yours is fully in tact in your first post. It is not used on subsequent posts within the same thread. This is designed intenitionally so people can read a thread without it being cluttered up with repeated signatures.

Apologies for jumping to conclusions, swirt!
And that seems to be an eminently sensible signature policy now I know what is happening.
I suppose that I have been overly sensitive because of my stupidity in not realising that
i) there were not tools available on this board to recognise regular lurkers
ii) not everyone knew me. Small town disease I know, but you fall into the trap of thinking that just because everyone in Nelson knows who you are (I still do a patrol with the Police on Friday and Saturday nights) everyone else worldwide can check your bona fides. How stupid!

Your orginal reply was not deleted. It was put into holding, however.

Again, eminently sensible.
Might there be a way of automatically sending a robotic email to the poster (explaining what happened and asking them to be patient) when that happens so they don't go off half-cock as I seem to have done?

I am the only one on this site who deals with any posts that go into holding so sometimes it may take the better part of day for me to "pass judgment" on it. Running the forum takes a back seat to several day jobs. I will go review your post that was sent to holding and make it appear again.

Thank you!
And I'm sorry to cause you extra work.
.

Might there be a way of automatically sending a robotic email to the poster (explaining what happened and asking them to be patient) when that happens so they don't go off half-cock as I seem to have done?
Yes, there is a way. I turned it off early on because the email replies come back to me and just served to get spammers emailing me more spam. Again it comes down to numbers. 1 legitimate post creating a false alarm for every 499 spams, is not worth me getting 5000 spams back in my email and several bits of hate mail.
.

Might there be a way of automatically sending a robotic email to the poster (explaining what happened and asking them to be patient) when that happens so they don't go off half-cock as I seem to have done?
Yes, there is a way. I turned it off early on because the email replies come back to me and just served to get spammers emailing me more spam. Again it comes down to numbers. 1 legitimate post creating a false alarm for every 499 spams, is not worth me getting 5000 spams back in my email and several bits of hate mail.

I can completely understand and sympathise with that point of view, swirt.
However, I am not suggesting that you use your normal email address to send those robotic "your posting is in moderation, please be patient" emails.
My suggestion is to use a "send only" email address that makes it clear that a reply is neither necessary nor effective.
That way you have no extra reading workload.
As for false alarms, might I suggest that you place in a prominent position the "extra" guidelines that you and others have made very clear might have prevented this situation?
ie that relatively new contributors should first "pass the time of day" with pleasantries and trivia (and introduce themselves) before posting hard, factual information that they consider helpful for accommodation hosts?

 

[Samster]

Hello George, Perhaps a bit of a refresher info on how the site works is in order. This had been done long ago and the post is eitehr burried or got removed as some of the spring cleaning of much older threads has removed it.
FIrst. Nobody has monkeyed with or otherwise edited your signature. Signatures on this forum only appear once per thread. If you scroll up to the top of this thread you will see that yours is fully in tact in your first post. It is not used on subsequent posts within the same thread. This is designed intenitionally so people can read a thread without it being cluttered up with repeated signatures.
Your orginal reply was not deleted. It was put into holding, however. If enough members flag a post or comment as spam, it goes into holding where it becomes invisible until such time that I have a chance to look at it and decide whether it should stay or go. The site is set up this way so that potential spam does not sit in front of member's faces for too long. I am the only one on this site who deals with any posts that go into holding so sometimes it may take the better part of day for me to "pass judgment" on it. Running the forum takes a back seat to several day jobs. I will go review your post that was sent to holding and make it appear again.
So now back to your original question. Do the FAQs need updating? No. In several places on this site it cautions that if your first post on this site is to promote a product, it will be looked at skeptically. Your first two posts were related to the same product. Certainly enough to trigger suspicion from enough members to accumulate enough flags to have the post sent to holding. Yes you declaired yourself as an innkeeper, but so do half of the people spamming this forum. So please do not take offense at having one of your posts flagged as spam. It happens from time to time. I've even had new members to the forum flag my posts because they think my signature is spammy. These things happen. It is the price that we pay for having an open forum..

Nobody has monkeyed with or otherwise edited your signature. Signatures on this forum only appear once per thread. If you scroll up to the top of this thread you will see that yours is fully in tact in your first post. It is not used on subsequent posts within the same thread. This is designed intenitionally so people can read a thread without it being cluttered up with repeated signatures.

Apologies for jumping to conclusions, swirt!
And that seems to be an eminently sensible signature policy now I know what is happening.
I suppose that I have been overly sensitive because of my stupidity in not realising that
i) there were not tools available on this board to recognise regular lurkers
ii) not everyone knew me. Small town disease I know, but you fall into the trap of thinking that just because everyone in Nelson knows who you are (I still do a patrol with the Police on Friday and Saturday nights) everyone else worldwide can check your bona fides. How stupid!

Your orginal reply was not deleted. It was put into holding, however.

Again, eminently sensible.
Might there be a way of automatically sending a robotic email to the poster (explaining what happened and asking them to be patient) when that happens so they don't go off half-cock as I seem to have done?

I am the only one on this site who deals with any posts that go into holding so sometimes it may take the better part of day for me to "pass judgment" on it. Running the forum takes a back seat to several day jobs. I will go review your post that was sent to holding and make it appear again.

Thank you!
And I'm sorry to cause you extra work.
.

Might there be a way of automatically sending a robotic email to the poster (explaining what happened and asking them to be patient) when that happens so they don't go off half-cock as I seem to have done?
Yes, there is a way. I turned it off early on because the email replies come back to me and just served to get spammers emailing me more spam. Again it comes down to numbers. 1 legitimate post creating a false alarm for every 499 spams, is not worth me getting 5000 spams back in my email and several bits of hate mail.
.

Might there be a way of automatically sending a robotic email to the poster (explaining what happened and asking them to be patient) when that happens so they don't go off half-cock as I seem to have done?
Yes, there is a way. I turned it off early on because the email replies come back to me and just served to get spammers emailing me more spam. Again it comes down to numbers. 1 legitimate post creating a false alarm for every 499 spams, is not worth me getting 5000 spams back in my email and several bits of hate mail.

I can completely understand and sympathise with that point of view, swirt.
However, I am not suggesting that you use your normal email address to send those robotic "your posting is in moderation, please be patient" emails.
My suggestion is to use a "send only" email address that makes it clear that a reply is neither necessary nor effective.
That way you have no extra reading workload.
As for false alarms, might I suggest that you place in a prominent position the "extra" guidelines that you and others have made very clear might have prevented this situation?
ie that relatively new contributors should first "pass the time of day" with pleasantries and trivia (and introduce themselves) before posting hard, factual information that they consider helpful for accommodation hosts?
.

Please - at the centre, you need to give this a rest!! All you're doing is complaining and not contributing to the forum. It is getting pretty repetitive and old for me personally. Can't you just get on with life? Yeesch...

 

[egoodell]

Hello George, Perhaps a bit of a refresher info on how the site works is in order. This had been done long ago and the post is eitehr burried or got removed as some of the spring cleaning of much older threads has removed it.
FIrst. Nobody has monkeyed with or otherwise edited your signature. Signatures on this forum only appear once per thread. If you scroll up to the top of this thread you will see that yours is fully in tact in your first post. It is not used on subsequent posts within the same thread. This is designed intenitionally so people can read a thread without it being cluttered up with repeated signatures.
Your orginal reply was not deleted. It was put into holding, however. If enough members flag a post or comment as spam, it goes into holding where it becomes invisible until such time that I have a chance to look at it and decide whether it should stay or go. The site is set up this way so that potential spam does not sit in front of member's faces for too long. I am the only one on this site who deals with any posts that go into holding so sometimes it may take the better part of day for me to "pass judgment" on it. Running the forum takes a back seat to several day jobs. I will go review your post that was sent to holding and make it appear again.
So now back to your original question. Do the FAQs need updating? No. In several places on this site it cautions that if your first post on this site is to promote a product, it will be looked at skeptically. Your first two posts were related to the same product. Certainly enough to trigger suspicion from enough members to accumulate enough flags to have the post sent to holding. Yes you declaired yourself as an innkeeper, but so do half of the people spamming this forum. So please do not take offense at having one of your posts flagged as spam. It happens from time to time. I've even had new members to the forum flag my posts because they think my signature is spammy. These things happen. It is the price that we pay for having an open forum..

Nobody has monkeyed with or otherwise edited your signature. Signatures on this forum only appear once per thread. If you scroll up to the top of this thread you will see that yours is fully in tact in your first post. It is not used on subsequent posts within the same thread. This is designed intenitionally so people can read a thread without it being cluttered up with repeated signatures.

Apologies for jumping to conclusions, swirt!
And that seems to be an eminently sensible signature policy now I know what is happening.
I suppose that I have been overly sensitive because of my stupidity in not realising that
i) there were not tools available on this board to recognise regular lurkers
ii) not everyone knew me. Small town disease I know, but you fall into the trap of thinking that just because everyone in Nelson knows who you are (I still do a patrol with the Police on Friday and Saturday nights) everyone else worldwide can check your bona fides. How stupid!

Your orginal reply was not deleted. It was put into holding, however.

Again, eminently sensible.
Might there be a way of automatically sending a robotic email to the poster (explaining what happened and asking them to be patient) when that happens so they don't go off half-cock as I seem to have done?

I am the only one on this site who deals with any posts that go into holding so sometimes it may take the better part of day for me to "pass judgment" on it. Running the forum takes a back seat to several day jobs. I will go review your post that was sent to holding and make it appear again.

Thank you!
And I'm sorry to cause you extra work.
.

Might there be a way of automatically sending a robotic email to the poster (explaining what happened and asking them to be patient) when that happens so they don't go off half-cock as I seem to have done?
Yes, there is a way. I turned it off early on because the email replies come back to me and just served to get spammers emailing me more spam. Again it comes down to numbers. 1 legitimate post creating a false alarm for every 499 spams, is not worth me getting 5000 spams back in my email and several bits of hate mail.
.

Might there be a way of automatically sending a robotic email to the poster (explaining what happened and asking them to be patient) when that happens so they don't go off half-cock as I seem to have done?
Yes, there is a way. I turned it off early on because the email replies come back to me and just served to get spammers emailing me more spam. Again it comes down to numbers. 1 legitimate post creating a false alarm for every 499 spams, is not worth me getting 5000 spams back in my email and several bits of hate mail.

I can completely understand and sympathise with that point of view, swirt.
However, I am not suggesting that you use your normal email address to send those robotic "your posting is in moderation, please be patient" emails.
My suggestion is to use a "send only" email address that makes it clear that a reply is neither necessary nor effective.
That way you have no extra reading workload.
As for false alarms, might I suggest that you place in a prominent position the "extra" guidelines that you and others have made very clear might have prevented this situation?
ie that relatively new contributors should first "pass the time of day" with pleasantries and trivia (and introduce themselves) before posting hard, factual information that they consider helpful for accommodation hosts?
.

Might there be a way of automatically sending a robotic email to the poster (explaining what happened and asking them to be patient) when that happens so they don't go off half-cock as I seem to have done?
Yes, there is a way. I turned it off early on because the email replies come back to me and just served to get spammers emailing me more spam. Again it comes down to numbers. 1 legitimate post creating a false alarm for every 499 spams, is not worth me getting 5000 spams back in my email and several bits of hate mail.

I can completely understand and sympathise with that point of view, swirt.
However, I am not suggesting that you use your normal email address to send those robotic "your posting is in moderation, please be patient" emails.
My suggestion is to use a "send only" email address that makes it clear that a reply is neither necessary nor effective.
That way you have no extra reading workload.
As for false alarms, might I suggest that you place in a prominent position the "extra" guidelines that you and others have made very clear might have prevented this situation?
ie that relatively new contributors should first "pass the time of day" with pleasantries and trivia (and introduce themselves) before posting hard, factual information that they consider helpful for accommodation hosts?

Might we point out to you that Swirt is a busy innkeeper with a young family, and handles our chat site here donating his time. If you think it needs to be better run, why don't you put one up and run it "properly". You're talking to him as if he gets paid for his time here. Let it GO please.
Riki

 

[swirt]

Hello George, Perhaps a bit of a refresher info on how the site works is in order. This had been done long ago and the post is eitehr burried or got removed as some of the spring cleaning of much older threads has removed it.
FIrst. Nobody has monkeyed with or otherwise edited your signature. Signatures on this forum only appear once per thread. If you scroll up to the top of this thread you will see that yours is fully in tact in your first post. It is not used on subsequent posts within the same thread. This is designed intenitionally so people can read a thread without it being cluttered up with repeated signatures.
Your orginal reply was not deleted. It was put into holding, however. If enough members flag a post or comment as spam, it goes into holding where it becomes invisible until such time that I have a chance to look at it and decide whether it should stay or go. The site is set up this way so that potential spam does not sit in front of member's faces for too long. I am the only one on this site who deals with any posts that go into holding so sometimes it may take the better part of day for me to "pass judgment" on it. Running the forum takes a back seat to several day jobs. I will go review your post that was sent to holding and make it appear again.
So now back to your original question. Do the FAQs need updating? No. In several places on this site it cautions that if your first post on this site is to promote a product, it will be looked at skeptically. Your first two posts were related to the same product. Certainly enough to trigger suspicion from enough members to accumulate enough flags to have the post sent to holding. Yes you declaired yourself as an innkeeper, but so do half of the people spamming this forum. So please do not take offense at having one of your posts flagged as spam. It happens from time to time. I've even had new members to the forum flag my posts because they think my signature is spammy. These things happen. It is the price that we pay for having an open forum..

Nobody has monkeyed with or otherwise edited your signature. Signatures on this forum only appear once per thread. If you scroll up to the top of this thread you will see that yours is fully in tact in your first post. It is not used on subsequent posts within the same thread. This is designed intenitionally so people can read a thread without it being cluttered up with repeated signatures.

Apologies for jumping to conclusions, swirt!
And that seems to be an eminently sensible signature policy now I know what is happening.
I suppose that I have been overly sensitive because of my stupidity in not realising that
i) there were not tools available on this board to recognise regular lurkers
ii) not everyone knew me. Small town disease I know, but you fall into the trap of thinking that just because everyone in Nelson knows who you are (I still do a patrol with the Police on Friday and Saturday nights) everyone else worldwide can check your bona fides. How stupid!

Your orginal reply was not deleted. It was put into holding, however.

Again, eminently sensible.
Might there be a way of automatically sending a robotic email to the poster (explaining what happened and asking them to be patient) when that happens so they don't go off half-cock as I seem to have done?

I am the only one on this site who deals with any posts that go into holding so sometimes it may take the better part of day for me to "pass judgment" on it. Running the forum takes a back seat to several day jobs. I will go review your post that was sent to holding and make it appear again.

Thank you!
And I'm sorry to cause you extra work.
.

Might there be a way of automatically sending a robotic email to the poster (explaining what happened and asking them to be patient) when that happens so they don't go off half-cock as I seem to have done?
Yes, there is a way. I turned it off early on because the email replies come back to me and just served to get spammers emailing me more spam. Again it comes down to numbers. 1 legitimate post creating a false alarm for every 499 spams, is not worth me getting 5000 spams back in my email and several bits of hate mail.
.

Might there be a way of automatically sending a robotic email to the poster (explaining what happened and asking them to be patient) when that happens so they don't go off half-cock as I seem to have done?
Yes, there is a way. I turned it off early on because the email replies come back to me and just served to get spammers emailing me more spam. Again it comes down to numbers. 1 legitimate post creating a false alarm for every 499 spams, is not worth me getting 5000 spams back in my email and several bits of hate mail.

I can completely understand and sympathise with that point of view, swirt.
However, I am not suggesting that you use your normal email address to send those robotic "your posting is in moderation, please be patient" emails.
My suggestion is to use a "send only" email address that makes it clear that a reply is neither necessary nor effective.
That way you have no extra reading workload.
As for false alarms, might I suggest that you place in a prominent position the "extra" guidelines that you and others have made very clear might have prevented this situation?
ie that relatively new contributors should first "pass the time of day" with pleasantries and trivia (and introduce themselves) before posting hard, factual information that they consider helpful for accommodation hosts?
.

I appreciate the suggestion of the send-only email. I elect not to use it because it exposes members to abuse. Example: If I just received a notice that one of my posts was flagged, all I need to do is look in the list of members currently online and I could see a small list of who might be to blame for this "attack" on my post. Things could get ugly.... they have in the past, and I try to avoid that becasue it just irritates people and wastes large portions of my time and energy. Again, for the 1 in 500 times this may happen, it is not worth the side-effects.
I have added the following in an attempt to more prominently communicate what could be happening:
On the Terms of Use page I added this
[h3]Participation[/h3]Innkeepers, aspiring innkeepers, vendors (see above), and the curious are welcome to participate in this website. However, if your early posts contain links, they will likely be flagged as spam by other members and disappear at least temporarily. The site is moderated by its members, but judgement and final decisions are made by Swirt. There are some important principles to keep in mind:

1. Entering the pool slowly goes over better than arriving with a splash.
2. Discussions are preferable to lectures. (fountains of knowledge tend to splash)
3. Ankle biting the regular members of the forum early on will result in lots of splashing.

And on the FAQs I modified it to read:
Is this site moderated?
Yes. The site and its members collectively moderate the community of Innspiring.com. The "Flag as Offensive" can, if enough members agree, cause a comment or post to disappear and go into a holding area unitil such time that it can be evaluated by Swirt and either returned to visible for people to see, edited to bring it in line with the terms of use of the site, or deleted. Any decision for editing or deleting will be brought to the author's attention by email provided that the author is not simply here for the purpose of off topic spam, deceitful representation, or bad will in general. Such people will be abolished to the Happiest Place on Earth.
Really? Are there things I can't post?
Just like any other forum... Be respectful and polite. Avoid the nastier swear words, politics, and religeon. Don't give away the identity of members who have chosen to be anonymous. For the specifics please see the Terms of Use for using this site.
Dropping links in your first posts to the site may well get your posts flagged as spam and cause them to disappear until they are reviewed.
I'd like to think this would prevent similar events from happening in the future, but I doubt it.
ie that relatively new contributors should first "pass the time of day" with pleasantries and trivia (and introduce themselves) before posting hard, factual information that they consider helpful for accommodation hosts?
I appreciate the suggestion on the wording, but this is a bit too sarcastic for me. I wouldn't want to encourage any delusions that any post was flagged for passing hard factual information when it was flagged for dropping a link and recommending a specific bed managment system in the first three posts.