Censorship at Gizmo's

[Jeann]

Are you aware that Marc Darkin frequently censors the comments and opinions on specific review subjects, such as in the image viewer section ( http://www.techsupportalert.com/best...age-viewer.htm ) ?

While it's understandable that moderation is needed for inadequate posts, this is not what Marc Darkin does. He simply deletes any and all user comments which he doesn't agree with in regards to the subject.

A flagrant example was a recent post regarding the fact that the image viewers reviewed in that section can't perform smooth image scrolling when viewing pictures with the keyboard, which is a must for people who read comic books or browse large collections of big sized pictures like myself, and which is why that feature has been repeatedly requested from freeware picture viewers and still puts certain commercial products ahead of the pack.

Marc Darkin doesn't seem interested in facts or pertinent opinions about the software he reviews. He's just interested in showing the world how his superior opinions are the only ones that count, and how any and all opinions which differ in any way from his own are to be summarily censored and deleted.

Not what I expect from a reliable and impartial software review site.

Thank you for considering.
Jean

[Anupam]

Please do not accuse Marc Darkin falsely, just because comments containing ACDSee were deleted. I have personally seen Marc Darkin's lengthy and helpful responses to user comments. Here at TSA, none of the editors or the moderators delete any comments, which differ from their own opinion. In fact, we welcome any such comments, as long as its done in a proper manner. We would not allow disrespectful posts.

Regarding deletion of comments with ACDSee, some of these comment were deleted by me. Reason being, you should understand that this is a freeware site. We give preference to free softwares here. We do not discuss or promote shareware/commercial softwares unless its very essential. The way in which the comment was written, it seemed as if it was advertising the product. This is seen as spam by us. ACDSee is not free. So, such comments containing mention of such products will be deleted in future also. The same comment was repeated over and over again day after day. This is seen as spam by us.

If the comment was posted in this way... that ACDSee has this feature, and if such a feature is available in any free softwares, we would have let the comment stay... but not in such way which advertises the product.

[MidnightCowboy]

Editors are not the only contributors here responsible for moderating comments.
Decisions are taken on the basis of several criteria which the moderating team applies to all posts. One of those is reference to commercial software. This is a freeware site pure and simple. We appreciate that occasionally there are legitimate reasons for the comparison but we have to employ this policy to deter spammers and will continue to do so. One of the reasons why TSA now attracts over a million visitors a month is that even if you don't like or agree with our content at least we're credible. No one can ever accuse us of being "sponsored" or otherwise supported by links with commercial interests because they simply don't exist. Allow one commercial reference to remain and the spammers would descend like vultures. We waste enough of our volunteers creative time managing this stuff as it is, and have no wish to make it even harder.

I hope you can understand why this action is necessary.

[Ritho]

He's just interested in showing the world how his superior opinions are the only ones that count, and how any and all opinions which differ in any way from his own are to be summarily censored and deleted.

I just did a quick read over in Marc review and looked at the comments. I see comments that do disagree with his reviews and he has answered them and not deleted them.

I often delete comments by users myself that are not relevant or helpful to other users. Marc is a very good editor as MidnightCowboy has said, he often posts long answers in response to queries and remarks.

Marc has also contributed greatly to the Spanish version of this site and has spent many hours writing and translating reviews.