Messageboard Moderation

Messageboard Moderation

May 15th, 2006 @ 7:51 pm by Mrs. Bee
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I’ve been surfing The Knot’s messageboards and have found that certain posts with vendor rants have been deleted by the site’s moderators. This is something I often wonder about for weddingbee. On one hand we want brides to have as much information as possible available to them. On the other hand there is the possibility of lawsuits.

What do you think The Knot should do?

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7 Responses to “Messageboard Moderation”

Guest

Why would there be lawsuits? Aren’t people just sharing their experiences and expressing their opinions? Can a website be sued for that? I don’t get it???

5/15/06 @ 7:55 pm (reply)

Guest

dingbatkim

yes, they can be sued.

Defamatory speech distributed over the Internet can result in civil liability for the defamer and litigation against the WHP whose facilities were used to distribute the defamatory material.

i can understand why the knot would want to protect themselves. still, they should allow knotties to post vendor reviews. it’s consumer protection for unsuspecting brides.

5/15/06 @ 8:21 pm (reply)

Guest

stefanie

They are deleting the posts because of the paid advertisers are not happy that they are getting negative postings…
But on the flipside, you have vendors posing as brides to be which is deceptive.
Personally i think it should be treated like advertising and editorial in publishing - church and state. I’ve worked for music magazines where they have trashed cds that are advertised.

5/15/06 @ 9:16 pm (reply)

Guest

From what I know of defamation, it is only illegal if the information is untrue.

As for the Knot, under section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (safe harbor for ISPs and forum operators), they are not liable for comments posted by users of their site, even if the comments do end up being defamatory.
They might be more worried about loss in potential ad revenue/sponsorship by vendors rather than lawsuits.

As for weddingbee.com, I love this site and trust your judgment. If something bad happened to you, it is fully within your rights to say it as long as you are truthful. As to “comments” to your blog, no worries, most likely you too would be exempt under s. 230. But, for purposes of your reputation, you might want to check to make sure the comments are accurate and true.

This is not legal advice, of course. Keep up the great work! You girls are so cute!!

5/15/06 @ 9:29 pm (reply)

Guest

Miss Ant

I was worried about this as well. I don’t want to get in trouble for posting a negative review.. How do we research the specific legalities of what we can write and what we can’t?

5/16/06 @ 10:21 am (reply)

Guest

Andi

yeah - this is something that we should look into. because i might have something bad to say, and yet, i sugar-coat it just so that its all PC. i’d love to be completely honest about it all.

5/16/06 @ 10:30 am (reply)

Guest

Mrs. Ladybug

i think this is bs. if we went with a vendor and they totalled effed us over do we not have a right to write about it? bee! your cake? you gave them a photo. must you bake a mini replica to show them? i mean a photo is clear enough! my bridesmaid dresses! c’mon!
you already have the stresses of planning a wedding, parents who have opinions on how the wedding planning should be, finding out you have to pay how much for what else….these people in the wedding industry should know. they know that brides go into psycho anal mode because they already have a vivid picture of how they’re perfect wedding is going to be so these vendors SHOULD be catering to the bride. after all, we are dishing out a dishload of money for one day and out of hundreds of vendors we are choosing you so make sure we get our money’s worth!

5/16/06 @ 6:00 pm (reply)