I didn't see the joke that was taken down but the problem with jokes is that not everyone finds them tasteful or even funny although many others might enjoy and appreciate the same joke.
For that reason a public caravan forum which is strongly associated with the leading caravan magazine in the country might not be the best place to share the jokes however inoffensive they may seem at the time.
All mainstream family oriented magazines and publications operate in a politically correct environment, it's the world that we live in however much we may disagree with some of the boundaries that now exist.
This forum is meant to represent the online voice of caravanners and in particular readers of Practical Caravan magazine so a general rule of thumb is that if a comment, statememnt, joke or whatever wouldn't be printed in the magazine for all to read then the chances are that it couldn't be left on the forum.
Nobody enjoys seeing their posts taken down but please bear in mind that the removal of a post for whatever reason is not meant to be taken personally and does not reflect any opinion of the author, only the post or comment comes under scrutiny.
The same thing applies to the comments about supermarket or other service industry employees, even if we have been annoyed at times by someone who is supposed to help or provide a good level of customer service and post our thoughts onto this forum the moderators have to take into account the overall effect that these comments might have on the forum as a whole.
This is why sometimes it might be a better bet to get rid of entire topics, not because of one or two slightly contentious comments but because past experience has shown us where these things can lead to.
Does anybody remember the regular Sunday forum bloodbaths of not so long ago?
Some comment would cause a minor irritation and other members would retalliate (quite naturally) with their own views which would be opposed to the first comment. The thing would start off very quietly and slowly but the comments would become more heated as time went on. Add to the mix one or two 'mischief makers' who enjoyed stirring the pot and before anybody knew what had happened we'd have valued members 'leaving' swearing never to use the forum again, one or two suspensions which always cause ill feeling and the mods being shot at from all sides.
While the mayhem was going on the mods would also be receiving and trying to answer emails from irate members either complaining about untoward comments or complaining because their post had been deleted.
What a nightmare that was !!!
We now have effective tools with which to moderate the forum so those bad old days are gone for good. They were very entertaining for those not involved but the reputation of Practical Caravan forum plummeted and we would read derisive comments about how unfriendly and hostile this forum was on other caravan forums.
That can't happen again so if anyone is upset because their post was taken down we're happy to try to explain but please be assured that it's nothing personal.
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