Came across this post on W220 forum.

Subsequent posts suggest that the highly informative and well-used posting was pulled by administration because it conflicted with a sponsor's business.

That sounds a bit ominous and a diservice to subscribers, let alone a slap in the face to someone going to great effort to help other MB owners.

If true, it would be undermining the value of this site.

Check out below and then MBWorld W220 forum.


(Quote)
Skylaw
MBWorld Fanatic!




Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Tampa, FL
Vehicle I drive: 2005 S500 4-Matic
Posts: 1,189 Farewell

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I have been a member of this forum for a while now - usually participating here and in the Audio and Electronics forum.

Several weeks ago, someone decided to delete a sticky I had done, the "How-to Guide For Cell Phone Upgrades, Plug-in And Bluetooth" that was once posted in the Audio and Electronics forum. No reason was given.

The string had been up for about a year. It had been viewed over 15,000 times, and was still active.

It took months of work over a period of about 3 years to gain the knowledge to write it. The string itself took two days just to write and to error check. The followup answers to questions have (all together) taken weeks of research and analysis. Other forum members had made superb contributions. The number of people contacting me for follow questions on equipment and installation indicated continuing use and value.

But it is gone, and apparently there is no interest on the part of people who run this forum to respond as to why, or to make efforts to restore it.

I have twice tried to contact forum administrators - one, about 10 days ago, another about a week ago. No reply.

Therefore, I have decided to waste no more time or effort on this forum; obviously, the effort is not appreciated by the folks who run it. I will not return to the forum after today.

However, I do not blame the members of the forum for the attitudes of the administrators - so I will continue to do what I can regarding audio and telematics issues, and the W220, on BenzWorld. If you have specific questions I can help with, I will still accept e-mail and PM through that forum
__________________
2005 S500 4-Matic with
Gateway 500 iPod integration

Formerly: 2000 S500 with
Ice>Link Plus iPod integration,
MikBox, and Upgraded voice control (Unquote)

 

Yeah, we like to think of this place as a free, democratic society but it CERTAINLY isn't always the case...

weird.

 

I can see both sides of the story. This is a business afterall... somebody has to pay the bills to keep this forum running.

But you would think if a thread is as popular as this guy describes, the increased traffic to the site would outweigh the ad revenues for the one advertiser who probably complained.

Albert (aka socal carbon) was banned from this site because he was offering his services to do some killer body work for members on the forum. Apparently a sponsor complained and the admin's banned him from the site.

I would think the owners of this site would try to run this more like a newspaper. At least in the US, it's considered ethical journalism for writers to be completely independent from advertisers. In other words, if an advertiser threatens to pull their ads because they disagree with an editorial in the paper or some factual coverage that makes them look bad, they don't give a crap. They let the advertisers leave.

Newspapers do this because in their minds, it undermines their credibility which in the long run hurts their readership and therefore their bottom line. I think the same should go for this forum. Restricting guys like this or guys like Albert embitters the member base and makes us not want to come back here. In the end, the lower traffic numbers that result will cost the site advertising revenue.

okay, I'm done!!! But this is definitely unfortunate.

 

capitalism meets communism

 

isn't that like everywhere else? work, school, home(?).... power and money always wins at the end.

 

I can see Albert being banned if he is using the forum to solicit business revenue (sponsors are paying for that privilege).
However, in the case of supplying relevent info to DIYer's, as Skylaw did, I think that runs contrary to the site's implied purpose of sharing community information for the benefit of enthusiasts.