A Good Question

I have posted a couple of articles about the mom site that has been deleting posts about the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act and the campaign to encourage people to write to their representatives to demand that immediate funding be put in place to make it operational as outlined in the petition that is located here.

A mom friend of mine asked me a question recently after reading one of the articles, and I'm really glad that she took the time to ask. Her question was: wouldn't it just be more effective to make one post and continue to bump it to the top than to make multiple posts that are all exactly the same?

It is a good question because I didn't clarify that this isn't a standard forum in the familiar sense of a "forum". Here is the answer that I gave to her:

The difference with the posts that are being deleted is a matter of set up. The set up of that site and what makes it different than a forum is that it really isn't a forum in the familiar sense. It is made up of "groups". When one joins, they can join various different groups based on particular interests. There are book club groups, groups for fans of different TV shows, nursing mothers groups, groups for different religious affiliations, and so on. It isn't just set up as a normal forum.

The posts that are being deleted are posted as "journals". These are set up as individual blogs. On the home page of each member, there is an option to post a journal. Once a member posts a journal, it shows up in a list of other journal posts. Any member can leave comments on a journal post, too. So, these aren't able to be bumped to the top like a forum post could. In essence, their posts are all individual blogs, and very different than forum posts.

The site is still remaining silent on this issue and there is currently a huge effort to get the word out to the financial sponsors of this site. People who have blogs are posting about this and MySpace bulletins have been posted, too. Many moms have been writing letters to their local media outlets, such as radio stations and newspapers, and news programs.

Thanks for asking about this! I didn't even think to clarify the difference in set up between the site doing this and a standard forum, so I am glad that you asked!
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Hopefully this clears up any confusion that I created when I didn't clarify the difference between the site in question and a standard forum.

Take care,
Cindi