Looking for PHIL JEFFERS

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by David Eggleton on March 20, 2012 at 4:25pm

Ed,

If you don't know how to reach Phil, use google or contact me.

Permalink Reply by Ed Ballard on March 20, 2012 at 4:54pm

David-------------My concern is that Phil has been erased from this site for his opinions. If this is the case we should all be concerned. .

Permalink Reply by randy tolowski on March 21, 2012 at 6:31am

We should be concerned. If we have to "watch what we say"then there is a freedom of speech problem with this site. While allowing free advertisement for "training" (for jobs that are not there) but not free speech this site is beginning to lose credibility in my eyes. Put Phil Jeffers opinions back up. Silencing those who have different opinions is not the way to run a site. Even if I don't agree with someones opinion I will hear them out. Is censorship what Americans want? I do not

Permalink Reply by Bud Poll on March 21, 2012 at 9:25am

Ed, Randy,

I'm not concerned.  I moderate on another forums where there is a level of communications that goes on out of view of the general membership and I get to see the behind the scene efforts that take place when some action is needed.  What happened here I can only guess, but if Phil did get removed I trust it was for just cause or his own request and most likely it wouldn't be discussed on the forum.  Send Diane Chojnowski a message and simply ask.  If she has any information she can share I'm sure she will.  But rest easy, I'm sure our rights to non-offensive free speech are still intact.  For totally free speech, we would have to open our own forum :).

Bud

Permalink Reply by Ed Ballard on March 21, 2012 at 9:53am

As Bud says----------how about it Diane

Permalink Reply by Diane Chojnowski on March 21, 2012 at 12:49pm

Ed & Randy,

Bud is right, a lot goes on behind the scenes when moderating a forum. Here are some of our moderation principles:

The purpose of Home Energy Pros is to provide a space for home performance pros to share resources, ideas and knowledge related to home energy efficiency. When a member joins the community, they agree to the Terms of Service and to the Guidelines for posting in order to keep the conversation relevant, civil and on a professional level.

Moderation of a community like this is usually pretty straightforward. We have Guidelines posted and every now and then someone strays outside them. Usually this is caused by a simple misunderstanding of the Guidelines. A moderator will then contact the member to help them understand the rules. In almost every case, members are very understanding and accommodate our request to remove a commercial solicitation or a post that didn’t fit the Guidelines. Our members are almost always cooperative and quite congenial.

HEP members occasionally ask that we play more of a moderation role in the discussions in our community. The suggestions are made in reference to statements they perceive as technically inaccurate, misleading or disrespectful to other members. We review each such request in context with the Guidelines.

Moderators don’t remove posts that conform to the Guidelines. However, if a specific post is removed for not conforming to the Guidelines, the associated comments will no longer appear. Very rarely, a member will disregard the Guidelines and the moderator's requests and re-post content that has been removed. When this happens, the member will be suspended. We do not remove their other posts, but they are given the option to remove their content from the site and sometimes they will.

We invite members to review the Guidelines and suggest ways to enhance them to make this forum a valuable resource for home energy professionals.

Diane

Permalink Reply by randy tolowski on March 21, 2012 at 1:08pm

hi Diane i thank you for the explanation. This site could be a valuable tool for our industry but it seems more like one big training advertisement. there is a section for training. why is it all the "events" listed are actually advertisements for promoting peoples businesses (training). It would be refreshing to see an event listed like Bar-B-Que, bring a side dish or meeting to discuss ........anything without a fee. A simple observation

Randy

Permalink Reply by Diane Chojnowski on March 21, 2012 at 1:15pm

Randy,

We'd be very happy to see more webinars, conferences, regional meetings and other events posted in the Events section. Every now and then we nudge people to post their events and I'll put a reminder in an upcoming email. If you know of any you'd like to see promoted here, please feel free to add them.

Thanks,

Diane

Permalink Reply by randy tolowski on March 21, 2012 at 1:29pm

My question is why is this considered an "event" when it is a solicitation to purchase their services? If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, sounds like a duck it is a duck. These are advertisements for training. Plain and simple

Randy

Permalink Reply by David Meiland on March 21, 2012 at 9:06pm

Gimme a break. Phil posted a mostly-irrelevant political rant, it was removed, then he reposted it. IMO he did a poor job of presenting his views and a great job of coming across as abrasive and obnoxious. Too bad, because someone with taste and restraint could easily have presented the same ideas in a non-offensive manner that could have engaged others in discussion without degrading the forum and alienating current and potential members. Kudos to the moderators for recognizing this and acting. I seriously doubt they were censoring his ideas, just objecting to his poor manners.