I had three OPs closed in succession, one Wednesday night and two yesterday morning, and am looking for clarification on the authoring guidelines.
The closed OPs are here:
- https://breakingnewsandreligion.online/2022/08/30/joe-biden-flirts-with-9-year-old-calling-her-baby/
- https://breakingnewsandreligion.online/2022/08/31/democrat-john-fetterman-says-black-people-are-too-stupid-to-remember-to-bring-id-to-vote/
- https://breakingnewsandreligion.online/2022/08/31/just-get-used-to-it-you-little-semi-fascists-pigs/
First (1.) one closed had no explanation for the closure. Second (2.) one had a reason given. That was:
“Defconnews is not a valid source for BNR. This is a competitive Disqus website with no listed authors. I am shutting this OP down.“.
Since the first and second OPs are from the same source, I’ll assume the reason given for closure of the second one is applicable to the first one as well.
The third (3.) one has the reason stated as well. It said:
“I am shutting this shit down. This source doesn’t even register on MBFC, the source does not even pull up when trying to open it. You need to better verify your potential sources you use as OPs or your author privileges will be going Bye-Bye. You have skirted the boundaries way too much as of late.“
Firstly, I’d like to point out that the site used for 1. And 2. does in fact list the authors, despite what the moderator said. They can be seen as listed on the site’s homepage for each individual article but are not present once the individual articles are opened. I have to assume the moderator did not do a thorough review of the source site and missed this.
It is also interesting to note that my quick review of the authoring guidelines does not specify that OP sites have to list authors, and after some reflection I recalled an old Den post that touched on this issue. I was able to locate that old Den post and that link is here for reference:
https://theden.breakingnewsandreligion.online/2022/06/28/another-day-another-problem-article/
From that Den post it can be seen that the rule that stated:
“Anonymous blogs that do not cite verifiable article sources and/or do not list who owns the blog will no longer be permitted.”
was removed.
Therefore it would appear this removed rule is why the moderator shut down the two OPs referenced as 1. And 2.. So, I find the closure of these two OPs confusing given that the OP source site does in fact list the authors, as described above, and given that this requirement was removed from authoring guidelines just over two months ago the reason given for removal is not valid to begin with! So, I’m looking for clarification on whether an OP source needs to list the author.
Secondly, this OP source was also deemed unsuitable due to it being a “competitive Disqus website”. Again a quick review of the authoring guidelines does not specify anything about this being a requirement. So, I’m looking for clarification on whether an OP source can have a Disqus comment section.
Now, I suspect on this second point that the esteemed moderator expressed themselves poorly and that they actually view the site used as the OP source as being similar to BNR and kind of like some of the old Disqus channels, and therefore “competition” to BNR. I could understand not permitting use of a site like that where anyone has the ability to put up an article for discussion; however the site used as the OP source simply appears to be a blog that has two guys writing provocative and blistering opinion pieces. (A perfect starting point for a robust discussion on BNR in my view!) And after another check of the authoring guidelines it would appear that blogs are only disqualified as OP sources if they are the OP creator’s personal blog. I can assure you that I have not been hanging around here for over a year creating OPs and lying in wait to spring my personal blog on the BNR community, as Disqus is the only online presence that I have! So please clarify this point.
Thirdly, is the requirement that an OP source can be verified on MBFC an actual requirement? Again this requirement is not listed in the authoring guidelines and I am looking for clarification if this is an actual requirement. I certainly hope not, as I find that site is not up to date at all and given the size of the internet and the speed at which it changes there is simply no way that something like that can be kept up to date!
Lastly, I would appreciate receiving clarification on the closure of these OPs as the reasons given for the closures by the moderators do not appear to be present in the current Authoring Guidelines.
Thank You,
Demented Old White Guy (But you can just call me DOWG!)