Censorship enforced by mods

[thejadedmonkey]

Are news stories really advertising in disguise?

No. We always identify our promotional arrangements, and we don't post undisclosed paid stories. If we think you'll be interested in a particular story about a Mac or iOS app, or a commercial ...

macrumors.zendesk.com

Here is a FAQ that might help.

I'm aware of the editorial policies, and think they're generally great to be honest. There's one of the main reasons I've been around since 2005!

But then there's stuff like this: https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...oat-anti-reflective-screen-protector.2480741/

It's basically 6 screens worth of marketing material for Astropad. What does "Teamed up" mean? Does Macrumors endorse the product, or just receive money for the ad? Or because it's "teamed up", not "sponsored" or similar, does this mean that no money exchanged hands except for purchases made via affiliate links? I don't know, so I assume it's a paid ad, with a lighter disclaimer because "partner" sounds better than "paid product placement".

I'm not asking for an accounting or anything like that, more like pointing out that there's purposeful ambiguity in how the financials of a post can be interpreted. Maybe more importantly I'm just cynical about everything anymore, so the perceived ambiguity makes me cranky.

I'm gonna go back to complaining about how the Apple TV and Homepod Mini have been "almost ready" for the second year in a row now (aka the real reason I'm on this site). Take care!

 

[Weaselboy]

MacRumors posted an article today that gets to the heart of my issues with this site. The article was about Apple TV and Homepod launching soon, and it's on the front page as we speak. If we as users are told to follow the rules, shouldn't MacRumors be held to the same standard? When does repeated news articles start bordering on spam, and this specific one has been repeated a lot in the last year?

I get this is a news site and you need clicks. Still, when you post the same articles every 2 weeks, when does that stop becoming posting the news and just posting spam instead? Also, I think we need a moratorium of Mark Gurman articles because he seems to be wrong more than he's right. Also, I've started calling it the boy who cried wolf effect, meaning you post the same thing over and over and people will stop believing you.

Any warnings sent regarding off-topic comments in news threads contain the below text.

So like the warning text says, if you want to see more or less of a particular type of article, leave feedback in this forum section. The editors read all feedback and will often respond.

If you would like to leave feedback on the editorial decisions at MacRumors, please use the Site and Forum Feedback section.

 

[ClaraStahlbaum]

There are a few times where I felt like I was "censored", but I don't think it is that big of a deal. I won't make it something to where I feel the need to "fight back", so instead if I am warned about something I will back off and just accept it.

 

[Weaselboy]

I'm aware of the editorial policies, and think they're generally great to be honest. There's one of the main reasons I've been around since 2005!

But then there's stuff like this: https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...oat-anti-reflective-screen-protector.2480741/

Let me ask @jclo or @WildCowboy to respond. The mods aren't involved in how those contests are setup, so I don't know all the details.

 

[The Clark]

I get moderated from time to time by my homie @Weaselboy, and most of the time it’s just him reminding me to tone down the sarcasm a bit.

As others have mentioned in this thread, they feel some moderation decisions were unfair. I personally disagree. Sometimes a reminder is all that’s needed, and it’s not necessarily a personal attack. Every forum and subreddit requires moderation to keep things running smoothly. It’s really not the end of the world. Take the feedback, learn from it, and move on.

As for identifying news versus paid reviews or sponsored content, I’ve never really had an issue with it. It’s usually disclosed pretty clearly; you just have to take a moment to read the details.

What I have noticed on MR is that the number of posters is going down; there are fewer and fewer. You see all the same names in a lot of threads across the forums...

I noticed this too and it saddens me. This is a fantastic forum, and I think one they MR can improve upon is thread discoverability.. I find that you really have to dig for threads and posts that you want to be apart of, and it shouldn't be like that. Newer members won't want to do that.

It's basically 6 screens worth of marketing material for Astropad. What does "Teamed up" mean? Does Macrumors endorse the product, or just receive money for the ad? Or because it's "teamed up", not "sponsored" or similar, does this mean that no money exchanged hands except for purchases made via affiliate links? I don't know, so I assume it's a paid ad, with a lighter disclaimer because "partner" sounds better than "paid product placement".

Teamed up to me has always meant received money for the ad. There is nothing inherently negative about paid product placement though, I mean, this site isn't hosted on a smart fridge. It requires money to keep the proverbial lights on, and that money has to come from somewhere.

 

[WildCowboy]

We aren't paid for giveaway articles. We do them purely for the benefit of our readers...the sponsoring company gets some exposure, and somebody wins some stuff. We just facilitate running the giveaway and connect the winner(s) with the sponsoring company.

 

[jclo]

We aren't paid for giveaway articles. We do them purely for the benefit of our readers...the sponsoring company gets some exposure, and somebody wins some stuff. We just facilitate running the giveaway and connect the winner(s) with the sponsoring company.

Just to clarify further, we don’t do any paid articles at all. I do giveaways solely to give readers a chance to win something good. They’re kind of a hassle and we’ve talked about ending them, but I’ve stuck with them on a more limited basis with better prizes.

We have some affiliate links in them sometimes that auto redirects, but not anything I put in manually.

 

[theluggage]

What does "Teamed up" mean?

It's exactly what you seem to be asking for - fair warning that what follows is written in collaboration with the company that is promoting the product and isn't an independent review.

You also missed "For this week's giveaway" right at the start of the first sentence and "MacRumors Giveaway" in large friendly letters in the title. It's clearly not a review. Companies provide "free" goodies in return for publicity, not criticism.

MR staff have posted that they don't get paid for this sort of thing - but, honestly, I don't see why they shouldn't provided they are transparent about it don't pass the result off as a review. I've never paid a penny to use MacRumors - they've got to make money somehow - and I'd rather see more (clearly marked) "advertorials" about interesting products than ever-more-intrusive ads for fake air conditioners.

Many of the "news" stories are just reporting what manufacturers have put on their press release - which is also fine as long as they're not presented as reviews. The alternative can easily turn into "bias by balance" where the publication feels obliged to dig up some fringe counter-point to everything they publish. Anyway, its not unusual for some products (including giveaways) to get eviscerated in the comments...

 

[KaliYoni]

What does "Teamed up" mean?

fair warning that what follows is written in collaboration with the company that is promoting the product and isn't an independent review.

I'd say that term is part of a stylistic pattern at MR, where influencer jargon, including "shared", "curate", and "teamed up with" is preferred to straightforward words such as "announced", "choose", and "sponsored by".

 

[retta283]

I wonder how much of the criticism levied against Weaselboy in those reviews comes down to the fact that he just happened to be the most active mod at the time and so made up a disproportionate amount of moderations, not indicative of any 'abuse' or overmoderation on his part. He has indeed made up the majority of the mod notes I've received but, looking through them, I find the overwhelming majority justified.

I actually find this to be a still fairly civilized place to be. The news threads are a little less even-tempered, but it's not as vitriolic as some of the other forums I go to... Some of those have become nasty, really quite hostile even from the mods themselves who hold outright vendettas against users for the contents of their posts and not their inability to follow rules. I do not see the same thing here. May be there is an argument that MR is more heavily moderated than other forum sites, but perhaps it is for the better; even if they have cases where they go a little too far here or there. It happens sometimes no matter how good the intentions.

 

[Nermal]

I wonder how much of the criticism levied against Weaselboy in those reviews comes down to the fact that he just happened to be the most active mod at the time and so made up a disproportionate amount of moderations, not indicative of any 'abuse' or overmoderation on his part. He has indeed made up the majority of the mod notes I've received but, looking through them, I find the overwhelming majority justified.

Speaking for myself, I find that - presumably due to my timezone - most of my moderation is against actual spammers rather than violations of other rules. Of course, the US-based mods are much more likely to be around when US-based members are posting.

 

[mwhite]

Just wait until AI bots start doing the moderating...or, is that already happening somewhere?