Missing Thread re Beautiful Taiwan Tea
There was a recent thread started by Beautiful Taiwan Tea designed to promote their product. There was a subsequent discussion between me and them in that thread about some statements on their website.
That discussion seems to have disappeared, and a new thread from the same company has appeared, without my comments.
Does anyone know what happened to the previous thread? Have I just missed it?
Thanks.
Best wishes,
sherubtse
i don’t know for sure but similar threads discussing the appropriateness of self promotion in various parts of the boards were scrubbed a few days ago too.
Likely deleted by either the person who started the thread or the Steepster overlords.
I don’t know if this is what you are looking for. http://steepster.com/discuss/6422-beautiful-taiwan-25-percent-off-slash-free-shipping-til-dec-6th
I noticed it this morning. There is only one comment but it looks like the previous comments were deleted. The current comment doesn’t really make sense as a stand alone. I did see your conversation yesterday.
Since there is a new thread started by the same company, without my comments, I assume that the original topic was deleted by the original poster.
Sad that this can happen. If there were no comments to the thread, then a deletion is OK. But when there are comments by others (especially when they are contrary to your own views, as is the case here), then deletion of the whole thread borders on censorship.
When this happens, it gives both the original poster (Beautiful Taiwan Tea, in this case) and Steepster a bad name.
Best wishes,
sherubtse
I agree. Maybe the Steepster overlords can make it so that threads can only be deleted if there are no comments?
sherubtse, I’m now terribly curious as to the content of the initial thread. I don’t want to make you repeat the whole thing, but would you mind sharing what your issue was?
I think making deletion only possible if there aren’t any comments would be a bad idea. People regularly post replies to spam, so you would just end up making those undeletable. Sometimes spammers even make a post with an equally spammy reply on it, probably trying to make it look more like a real post.
I don’t see how it reflects badly on Steepster unless they were the ones who actually removed the thread and I have never known them to do that unless we were talking about spam. They have occasionally locked a thread for further replies, but that’s it as far as I can recall. I am therefore certain that it was deleted by the original poster.
Kaylee – I saw the thread before it was deleted. The company claims that if you find the same teas they are selling for cheaper, then they are not high-quality or purchased directly from the source. Sherubtse questioned the validity of this remark and the company replied that their statement stands. (hope you don’t mind me summarizing on your behalf Sherubtse)
I think that allowing a contributor (rather than a mod) the option of deleting a post he/she started reflects badly on Steepster, as it allows contributors to remove whole discussions at whim. If a mod wishes to delete a whole thread, that (in general) is OK with me. But contributors should not be able to do this. As mentioned, this would allow contributors to censor discussions at will.
Shelley_Lorraine has given a good summary. Thanks! I also suggested that the tone of some claims in the “About Us” section of the vendor’s site, as well as the comments he/she made to me in the deleted thread, were rather arrogant and smug.
Best wishes,
sherubtse
I don’t know if I saw all of the comments or not before it was deleted. Anyway I dunno about the best way to handle deleting threads and posts. Sometimes I’ve posted in forums things that I later realized were not relevant or appropriate or maybe something silly that I’m later embarrassed about and I want to get rid of it sooner rather than later (later meaning waiting for mod approval to delete a post) Of course I suppose you could say that’s what I get for saying anything before thinking it through! Haha.
Oh, but I don’t think that deleting my own comment should delete others a responses. A thread topic could leave responses with a place holder for the original saying “deleted by user” then no one would be ‘censored’
I have no problem with being able to delete or edit one’s own comments. But I object to the fact that someone else (other than a moderator) can delete my comments.
Frankly, I am quite surprised that Steepster allows this to happen, as it easily allows for abuse (as in this case).
Best wishes,
sherubtse
This was posted: Interesting site … and teas (though a tad expensive, perhaps).
In your “About Us” section, you state:
“Also, we work to make sure our prices are good for you. If you find another tea with the same name that is cheaper on the internet, it probably is lesser quality. OR, it’s not from Taiwan. "
You are rather overstating your case here, I think. I deal with several Taiwanese-based companies that do not fit this description.
Best wishes,
sherubtse
In reply this: Sorry, I’ve done my research and my statement stands :) If you can find — take, for example a Four Seasons Oolong from a family farmer cheaper than $9 per 2 oz. with FREE SHIPPING in North America I would be interested to know. Now, add a 25% discount with free shipping and.. Come on!
To this I replied something along these lines:
“Ah well … if you have done your research, who am I to argue? Frankly, though, I find both the statements in your “About Us” section, and your comments above, to be a bit arrogant and smug. This is not a good way to win customers."
Not my exact words, perhaps, but pretty close.
Best wishes,
sherubtse
And I added a comment also, which I more or less recall but have no copy to post. I said that much Vietnamese-grown tea is sold in Taiwan as “Taiwanese” because they use a plant or a “method” from Taiwan, or they just mix. And that those teas that are competition-grade have actually gone up in prices over the last few years, as demand from China went up.
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