Censorship - Posted by Shawn Sisco

Posted by mikbarlow on December 05, 2010 at 13:11:29:

With the censorship we lost sight of the fact that our friend Dave bought
20 MH Parks in 2010 and will be buying 30 in 2011. Now that’s someone
to pay attention to.

Mike

Censorship - Posted by Shawn Sisco

Posted by Shawn Sisco on December 03, 2010 at 10:28:20:

As much as I value the forum on this site and others, I have a concern about the policies regarding the mentioning of competitors websites.

I am sure that in the eyes of the owners of these sites that the primary function of this site is to provide a platform on which to market books and events. These are not benevolent organizations, I get that.

But given that this is such a small community of MHP investors, demanding no mention of competing sites or their owners is somewhat stifling of conversation.

I don’t enjoy some shill coming on and posting an ad on this forum, But I have seen this censorship reach the point of deletion of posts (on another forum) for the mere mention of content from another site as another source of info for a question asked. This seems petty.

The owners discretion of what is and is not acceptable is the final word on the matter, which is as it should be.

With that having been said,I do wonder sometimes if a truly neutral platform would be a better vehicle. Any thoughts?

Re: Censorship - Posted by Ryan B (KS)

Posted by Ryan B (KS) on December 05, 2010 at 12:55:18:

I had one of my recent posts deleted. I was selling a
package of books that I bought on this site, including
Dealmaker’s Guide, DOW, Investing in Mobile Homes with
Land, and others. I figured they’d take it down and they
did. Whatever, I listed them on Ebay.

Re: Censorship - Posted by Rolf

Posted by Rolf on December 04, 2010 at 09:09:01:

I have had posts deleted from here and they had nothing to do with
spam or me trying to sell something. What happened is that my
view differed form the view of the mods and such a thing is simply
not acceptable on this site. I’ve seen the same thing happen to the
posts of others. I’ll lurk here but no way am I going to post and I’d
bet the title to my community that many others feel the same way.

MHU has become pretty much irrelevant and this forum seems hell-
bent on following its lead. It’s a small community like Shawn said in
a declining industry and we can all help each other, no matter what
our views, or we can not be as successful as we could be. There is
still some really good operational advice to be found on CRE but
more and more it seems to be just the musings of people who see
things only their way and are unwilling to consider that others may
have different/better ways of operating the mh business.

Mods: Grow up. Mobilehomeparkstore.com and other websites
exist and their sites have different viewpoints than yours. Stop
treating this like a zero-sum game because it’s not. By all means
delete the blatant ads that crop up from time to time but stop
thinking yours is the only way to go. We all know each other and
freely sharing ALL viewpoints along with RESPECTFULLY disagreeing
helps everyone. Pretending you’re the only game in town does not.

I fully expect you to delete my post and that’s OK. Until you figure
out a way to block access to your site, I’ll still pick up the odd tidbit
of useful info here once in a while but there is no way I’m going to
join any other discussions on this site. Since I just achieved a
positive cash-flow in perhaps the toughest market outside of
Michigan, some of what I have to say could help others. I’d rather
post on sites that are far more welcoming places to share my
experiences and those of others.

Think about it.

Rolf
Wheat Hill

Re: Censorship - Posted by Ken R

Posted by Ken R on December 04, 2010 at 07:51:57:

Shawn, I share your concerns. The problem always seems to be one of
balance and perspective. There is another site that is often thought of
as face book for business that has a posting mechanism in interest
categories. The categories are managed by those that started the
group. Some groups are very well managed and others are so filled with
spam or semi spam they are almost unused and others are heavily
policed and useful.

The problem seems to lie in deciding what is spam. If you want to sell
your park and you announce it here where you have been posting for
some time, does that constitute spam? If someone asks Tony about
what he does, does his response constitute spam?

Many new age marketing experts are constantly telling business
owners to participate in boards like this one. That may contribute to
the problem. In the early days of BBs that preceded www spam was
judged by how “off topic” it was. If the BB was on MH, it would have
been considered spam for someone to start pitching their connection
for buying health products, but not for a post that talked about Gub
Mix’s meeting in Las Vegas at the Desert Inn.

Today however, everyone is less accepting of anyone might be using a
site to market at the same time people are telling business to use BBs
to market. Caught in that are people who have real information that
might be considered commercial to someone else.

You pose a very good question to which I can add little more that
additional things to consider rather than a real solution.

Re: Censorship - Posted by Tony Colella

Posted by Tony Colella on December 03, 2010 at 10:50:08:

Most sites start out saying they won’t delete posts but all (too my knoweldge) end up doing so at some point. Each get’s spam, crazy nuts, solicitations, scams, frauds etc. None of that drama helps anyone focus on improving themselves through investments in this business.

When other sites post here you may notice a pattern that I have seen. A post with an odd, leading question to divert attention to another site is made. Usually within a short time that site responds here to talk about their site under premise of answering the question.

You may notice that that site rep does not post any other time, just miraculous in timing. They don’t help anyone here by offering advice, especially not for free.

They are attempting to get something for nothing at best.

I don’t own or manage CRE but let’s think about what they offer from a business perspective. Many of us come here daily and have done so for years, paying nothing to learn and participate. We enjoy that ability to have our questions answered quickly by folks who are actively doing the type of deals we are attempting.

CRE sells advertising space, books and courses in order to provide this service free to us on the forums. These posters are well aware that they can pay to advertise but instead they bypass the 3 red letter rules.

Those who don’t violate those rules don’t get deleted. CRE takes no pleasure in the time spent deleting posts but it is fair that they not allow people to advertise for free when others are paying for the priviledge and again it is from those fees that we play free.

Tony

Re: Censorship - Posted by JeffB (MI)

Posted by JeffB (MI) on December 03, 2010 at 10:35:21:

I agree completely. The scarcity mentality that exists is a real shame. A neutral platform would be great, especially one that uses modern bulletin board software.

beg to differ - Posted by Steve-WA

Posted by Steve-WA on December 04, 2010 at 09:55:24:

I think your ire is misdirected to the “Mods” - I do not believe that Tony nor Lonnie delete any “differing viewpoint” posts. I do believe that commercial interests drive the site owners (not Moderators) to delete posts that may drive commercial traffic to competitors sites

well duh

This is a free forum, and the idea (from the owners’ side) is understandable in that if people frequent a free forum, they may purchase materials available at the host site.

I think you’re off the mark here Rolf

and BTW, good to hear that you’re still out there kicking

We bought 20 MH Parks in 2010 - Posted by mikbarlow

Posted by mikbarlow on December 03, 2010 at 11:06:07:

Are you talking about my post that is not on this site anymore?? I just
thought it was great that something positive was going on in the mhp
business and could of been encouragement to others. At least it
seemed positive. I just wanted to see if others thought Dave was crazy
or smart. I think my post was benign and should have stayed on this
site. Censorship sucks.

Mike

Wikicreoleaks - Posted by mikbarlow

Posted by mikbarlow on December 04, 2010 at 12:19:21:

Somebody named Jeanne pulled my post from Dave.

This is from the other dreaded site:

"I guess this was not covered in the welcome to the forum post.

I will never delete or edit a post that relates to the MHP & MH business.
Our goal is to operate an open forum that helps the individuals in our
industry learn and grow. The only exception to this would be a post
that insults or is overly negative.

I have deleted a few posts from the forum in the recent months. They
were posts that linked to a mortgage website or something of that
nature & didn’t actually relate to our industry or add any real value."

One side is staying above the fray and that’s a good thing.

Rolf, I loved your post and yours too Shawn.

Can’t we all just get along.

Merry Christmas (oops, maybe Jeanne will pull that, I’m not sure)

Re: beg to differ - Posted by Rolf

Posted by Rolf on December 04, 2010 at 12:09:00:

No, Steve-WA, I’m not off the mark at all. I have absolutely nothing to
sell nor do I participate in spam. I’ve posted here, more off than on,
over the years and I’ve had postings deleted plus I have seen this time
and time again. The only reason I can think of is that the mods/owners
of this site feel threatened in some way by the poster’s viewpoint or the
content of their message.

This entire industry is in serious trouble and the old ways of doing
things, in many (most?) cases, no longer work. Look at what SAFE is
doing to the entire LD model. To silence voices that do not agree with
your position, even if the mods/owners have every right to do so,
shows incredible insecurity on their part. If others, even competitors,
are having success with new models, wouldn’t we all benefit from such
knowledge? The people who own or run this site seem to think the
answer is 'no" and that is what draws my ire.

Rolf
Wheat Hill

Re: We bought 20 MH Parks in 2010 - Posted by Darrel F. Smith

Posted by Darrel F. Smith on December 03, 2010 at 20:45:42:

Mike
I think your post was just fine. Dave’s unsolicited approach would be the questionable. Did he actually buy that many parks or is it a sales pitch? Personally I would always question any approach that came unsolicited!
DinSD
Darrel

Re: We bought 20 MH Parks in 2010 - Posted by Rick Ewens

Posted by Rick Ewens on December 04, 2010 at 10:41:21:

These forum post are getting very funny in regards to Dave Reynolds
Dave is for real. I actually met him at an event put on by Steve and Corey. I have shaken his hand. I have talked to him on the phone. Maybe I should have gotten his autograph. In fact I bet anyone that wants to talk to him just needs to call his office and ask. I have. With that said I would love to have been smart enough to develope a business model like Dave has done. In regards to MHPS having first look and access to all the best listed mobile home communities I can say he is doing nothing different than M&M, CBRE and pretty much any other big real estate sales company. I know several commercial real estate agents that became very wealthy, because they acquired properties before listing them to the public. Also most of these companies keep listings in house for a week or 2 before putting them on the open market.
Rick Ewens