Overmoderation of the Hardware forum

[sidehack]

Admittedly I don't get around much. I'm a hardware guy, have always been a hardware guy, got started with bitcoin mining and this forum in 2013 because the hardware was interesting. So I spend most of my time between Hardware and Mining Speculation.

I've noticed lately there's been a lot of "cleanup" on the Hardware forum. Some things are handy, like tidying of massive inline images or dozen-deep nested quotes. That's quite useful.

But then there's a whole lot of removing posts or entire threads going on, much more than I'd seen in the previous five years. Someone mentions a new piece of gear, folks wonder about it, and the next day all traces of discussion are gone. Or within a thread, many posts following the flow of conversation still peripherally related to the subject, or any post even mentioning the existence of altcoins, disappears. Many can attest to removal of posts calling particular un-verified manufacturers into question during discussion of new hardware, but that I believe was mostly in Speculation (though the moderator may have been the same).

I've witnessed several times someone new will ask a hardware question, and a knowledgeable member will provide an answer, and within hours both question and answer will have been deleted without good reason. This discourages active participation and reduces the forum's reputation as a resource for information.

The recent most obvious instance of thread deletion is discussion regarding Bitmain's new water-cooled S9. In the last six days I have seen four threads discussing this machine started and promptly removed. Apparently whoever's in charge there insists that all discussion of the water-cooled S9 be limited to the main S9 thread, already heavy laden with over two years of clutter. This ignores the fact that the watercooled S9 is a completely different machine than a stock S9 - in addition to waterblocks, the physical hashboards appear different and there's more of them. These differences, and a plethora of other facts unique to that machine, were being actively discussed in every deleted thread. The T9 is closer kin to a stock S9 than the watercooled unit, and it gets its own thread, apparently simply by merit of having a different name.

Why is this overmoderation, bordering on censorship, acceptable and allowed to continue?

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[Steamtyme]

There could be a few things at play.

1 it could be that there are some people who are out there reporting posts that "technically" count as a duplicate thread or speculation. These usually don't get outright deleted and are just moved.

If the thread is deleted it should show who deleted it or moved it on the board, iirc.

2 it may be that these reports when seen from a MOD outside the section sees the report and doesn't know any better, if they aren't a hardware guy. I recall something like that in the kano pool thread.

3 it could be a MOD from that section who feels it falls within the scope of what they would trash.

In this instance I would reach out to the MODS of the section  frodocooper has always responded to me with a well reasoned arguement or reasoning behind any decision. I have also found them open to suggestions in the past. Not much experience with CK but I find they generally will shed light on a situation if you approach them.

[sidehack]

Last time I had words with frodocooper about unnecessary edits and deletions (in that case, worthwhile newb questions and pertinent answers) he advised me to take it here if I had a problem with how he did business.

The watercooled S9 threads were not repeat topics. A new one appeared only after the last one was deleted. The third thread even started with "I'm surprised this is the last place to have this info" because, while it had already been presented two or three days earlier, it kept getting removed.

I looked but could find no record of the thread having been moved to trashcan. I checked my recent posts and all from missing threads were removed from the list. The discussion simply vanished from history. This has been happening a lot, and the level of censorship is ruining the environment. Discussion on the Hardware board has dwindled to a fraction in recent months, likely in part because about every third post gets deleted.

[OgNasty]

The watercooled S9 threads were not repeat topics. A new one appeared only after the last one was deleted. The third thread even started with "I'm surprised this is the last place to have this info" because, while it had already been presented two or three days earlier, it kept getting removed.

I looked but could find no record of the thread having been moved to trashcan. I checked my recent posts and all from missing threads were removed from the list. The discussion simply vanished from history. This has been happening a lot, and the level of censorship is ruining the environment. Discussion on the Hardware board has dwindled to a fraction in recent months, likely in part because about every third post gets deleted.

I also noticed this and agree with you completely.

[Steamtyme]

I was searching to see what I could find and the only mentions where in alt coin.

If 3 threads have disappeared its seems heavy handed for sure. I remember there being aftermarket mods tk serp up liquid cooling and they were discussed in the S9 thread. This is a different beast though considering it is designed and manufactured for that purpose.

Hopefully moving forward the discussion can flow freely.

[sidehack]

At least four liquid-S9 threads have disappeared, including one this afternoon.

I don't recall whether Hardware or Speculation, but I've seen several other threads vanish (or moved without leaving a record, not sure) in the last few days about other potential-scam new gear. Those kinds of threads, with established members discussing whether or not they're untrustworthy vendors, is one of the things making this forum a valuable resource since the first days of ASIC miners. Now they're getting removed pretty much daily.

I wasn't around for all of it, but before Halong started shipping there was a lot of discussion about whether or not they were legit and probably around a third of the posts in that thread ended up deleted before everything was settled and it got moved out of Speculation. Ask around. A lot of reputable folks got hit with the cleaner. That kind of crap can't keep happening.

[theymos]

I restored the four deleted topics, but since they were all very similar, I locked all but one of them.

Except for a few special cases, it should not be policy for subjects to be confined to megathreads. It's OK for there to be overlap between multiple active threads. If a board seems to become monopolized by similar-looking topics, then some lockings or perhaps deletions might be warranted, but Hardware is low-volume.