I Don't Understand What Determines When A Thread Gets The Axe

allenf1963

We will just have to agree to disagree about the OP’s language in his thread. I thought he and the others that were familiar with these companies provided damning evidence ...

We don’t disagree there at all, @allenf1963. The problems were that it included accusations of felony fraud and then doxxed one of the accused. The OP was apparently both a dealer and a manufacturer. His fraud allegations included a claim that a non-authorized dealer was selling his product. I understand the OPs ire at that but selling gray market goods isn’t fraud.

The thread was also established to be a repository for future allegations of fraud. Those allegations of fraud create potential liability for A’gon, so the thread was properly deleted, imo.

A’gon is filled with claims of bad service, poor support, dicey web sites and the like. But when the leap is made to allege a felony, that’s not A’gon’s place. Users should alert proper authorities of those allegations.

@cleeds, you wrote:

The thread was also established to be a repository for future allegations of fraud. Those allegations of fraud create potential liability for A’gon, so the thread was properly deleted, imo.

Well, if that is the case, Audigon has a LOT OF WORK to do. Because when you do a Forum Discussion Search using the word "Fraud", you get 1,372 Thread Results going back to the year 2000. So much for Audiogon’s even-handed approach to enforcing its "Forum Discussion Rules".  I see actions like this all the time in ad revenue driven Forums -- somebody with skin in the game went to the Audiogon Moderators.  Considering the thread involved the possibility of losing several thousands of dollars to sham websites, the Mods decision stinks more than burning Caps that are overloaded.

Here are some older examples:

allenf1963

.... Considering the thread involved the possibility of losing several thousands of dollars to sham websites, the Mods decision stinks more than burning Caps that are overloaded ..

You’re being more than a bit over dramatic. If you think the moderators here are so dishonest, why are you here? Doesn’t your presence simply further their secret agenda?

The examples you cite are really aren't the equivalent of the deleted thread.

An official Audiogon forum moderator said, “If your Forum Post or Discussion was removed, it is because a user flagged it…”
To quote Ernest P. Worrell, “well, there’s yer problem right there.”

In lieu of behaving like a sniveling child that goes running to the teacher and/or principal when a classmate says something they don’t like, a person may just behave like an adult and either,
a) ignore the problematic comment (probably the most efficacious way to mitigate bad comments - don’t reinforce the undesirable behavior with attention),
or,
b) issue a civil, clear challenge/corrective to the bad comment.

It is unlikely, but there is a chance choosing option “b” may start a fruitful, edifying conversation for not only both parties involved, but other users.  
Again, that outcome is less likely to occur than a bunch of people being snarky to each other (sad but true - this is why I recommend option ‘a’) but both of these are options other than behaving like a sniveling child that goes running to the teacher and/or principal when a classmate says something they don’t like.

We can take responsibility for our own behavior and not act like it’s some oversimplified thing of, “Big Bad Admin erasing stuff we want to read.”

Everyone (including admin) just wants an informative and enjoyable forum.  
Stuff getting erased…well, that’s partly on us.

So…I checked today and the domestic site that was supposedly for a business in Kansas is already gone.  That was hosted on the Shopify platform and they aren’t going to support open fraud.  The only legacy they seem to have is an entry on malware.org saying to avoid them at all costs because they were straight up fraud. 
 

the other site is unclear who hosts it and who the CC processor is.  That is unfortunately who we need to deal with these sorts of bad actors.