Censored at APFN
Deleted Forum Postings of
Patricia Johnson-Holm and her Webmaster.
Censorship only stifles free exchange of ideas and dialogue. Ideas and dialogue help find solutions.
I do realize that websites, forums, etc. have the option of removing flames, spam, and other questionable posts.
When the message is benign and on topic, though, why censor?
Heaven knows our country needs solutions right now.
How Events Unfolded
October 20, 2005
This is the tale of the Webmaster of this website (me) and my adventures today at the American Patriot Friends Network. The site has an active, popular online forum that I have enjoyed for a long time.
I decided to visit the APFN message board, where I was glad to find a post by Patricia Johnson-Holm, owner of this website.
After reading Patricia's post and the responses, I decided to add a response.
[NOTE: Images may be wider than your screen will display. Click on the images to have them open full-size in a new window.]
Backup #1: screen shot.
Due to the nature of the posting, it occurred to me that it would be ironic if this particular message disappeared. So, I decided it would be a good idea to take a screen shot.
Backup #2: mirror posting.
As another backup measure, I decided to simultaneously post it to the Tell America Forum, at http://pub18.bravenet.com/forum/1501039859. A portion of my posting reads:
"Additionally, I have seen cases where my posts have actually been posted online, but within an hour the posts are no longer on the message board. If anybody saw it within the first 30 minutes of me hitting "Submit Response" then it got read. Otherwise, you'd never know it existed.
"Thank you, Patricia Johnson-Holm, for showing me, on your PC, that this has also happened to you. Repeatedly. Actually, it seems now to be more or less on a regular basis.
"This message is being reposted, in its entirety, on the Tell America Forum at --
http://pub18.bravenet.com/forum/1501039859"
My post deleted within 24 minutes.
The above image shows my message posted at 22:01.
By 6:25 my time, which would be 22:25 APFN time, this is what remained of that thread:
I thought, "Wait! This can't be right!" I hit the Refresh key and this post was also on the list, separately.
I scrolled to the top of the Message Board, to see the timestamp of the latest post. As it turns out, the owner of the website posted a message.
I read his post and thought that he must be having problems with messages, too, in order to be willing to post his telephone number.
Posts by others still online.
The disappearance of an entire thread - then repositioning two of the posts in with all the others - made me curious. Then I noticed another similarity.
The DNS number on Ken Vardon's post was 64.140.158.90. One of the postings remaining from Patricia's thread is this one (notice the DNS number):
Let me point out...
Point #1: I do not know if the similar DNS numbers mean that the author of this message was in the same house, or just using the same ISP network, as the APFN site owner. With Patricia and I, we share a DSL connection to the internet, giving us identical DNS numbers.
Point #2: The subject of this message is also the point of this web page - to point out an example of "information warfare."
At the end of my posting, I wrote:
"I am curious to know if anyone else has had the experience of --
1) posting messages on APFN, and within a short time they have disappeared --
or
2) being notified of a response to your message, but when you follow the link to see it, there's nothing there."
The next to be censored...
The deleted/censored/disappeared messages of that thread were made by myself and Patricia Johnson-Holm. The other messages were allowed to stay.
...may be YOU.
I am a bit surprised that the next example I would encounter of the very point I was trying to make would be our own posts!
