Website addresses being blocked
 

Whats going on?

It appears that some automotive parts websites are being blocked in post other than pelicanparts.com

for example:
warehouse 33 auto - ************************************************** ******************************

that is BOGUS!!!

Really? Can you go on the other vendor's forums and try posting links for people to buy parts at Pelican? See how long that stays up. ;)
You may want to create a shill user name in case they ban you for it.

I have to agree...this is a Pelican website, I think it's only fair they restrict some advertising for rival parts dealers.

Its not all, just some websites they block

It just started recently

Its really is bogus

Why is it bogus?

You won't go into Walmart and see a big sign advertising Target? Or a Burger King slogan in McDonald's?

Pelican has every right to protect themselves, as again, it's THEIR site. They own it, run it, administer it, they can do what they want.

This used to be site where Boxster owners could help other Boxster owners with repairs and finding low cost parts for those repairs. Pelican didn't always run it. Now we are censored, even though we have always provided the content and made it a great forum.

"Where did you get that part at such a low price?"

"Here's the link: *********************"


I'm siding with Jay. This isn't a store or other business. It is a discussion forum with user provided content.
Sure, they can do what they want. That doesn't make it right or not "bogus". :)

If I owned the site, and I have owned my own business for some time, I would greatly appreciate the forum not sending each other to my exact direct competition. Email or phone would be very polite and show respect to me and my efforts. Yes, there are other sites and parts sources, but pelican owns and pays and maintains this one.

Add a few links to a filter? Absolutely. Why not? At least they removed all those ads that started showing up in posts.

First of all when I joined several years ago, I didn't know Pelican owned this forum and I would venture to say most didn't when they joined and may still not know.

If this was the forum on Pelicans website, I might understand other companies being blocked, but this is not a forum on their website. It is completely separate

Even if it was, censorship is just plain wrong. On top of that, its no all websites that are blocked, just some.

Blocking another vendor from posting ads without being a sponsor is one thing. Blocking links in personal posts is another

And Tim, the ads are still there. You must have added an ad blocker

I can see both sides to this discussion.

On one hand, we share info to get our cars fixed and help out one another.

On the other, this is owned by Pelican (they bought it a few years ago, IIRC) and we don't pay to use it (it does say [Pelican Parts] at the bottom of the page). If RennList was blocking, then I'd be upset since I do pay for that.

Use a URL truncate (TinyURL, Bit.ly)?

I disagree. They (pelican) bought the website and pay for its maintenance, thereby making it a part of their business. They aren't paying for it out of the goodness of their hearts, but as a way to market their products. Therefore they have the right to control content (which is not cencership).

If you want a site where you can do what you want, then feel free to take that on, build (or buy) a site for yourself.

Its my opinion that we are contributing freely to the advancement of 986 vehicles with many folks putting lots of personal time and effort into DIY articles and advice to support the vehicles.

If this site become anything but completely open, I think the whole thing will go sour.

I'm sure Pelican is benefiting from the ideas and developments on this site as well, and that's fine as long as its open.

Honestly, I myself buy parts from Pelican at least 50% of the time to purposely support the vendor that has provided the forum.

I can't imagine that starting to filter certain vendors is even necessary or profitable in any way, so i question whether its even being done on purpose.

Honestly I think the filtering is probably inadvertent as websites occasionally end up on black lists accidentally as the automatic alogarithms that do the blocking are not advanced enough to account for every situation.

Once your site ends up on a black list it takes a human to contact the listing agency to get yourself removed.

Lets not assume its done purposely and get riled up until we get confirmation. Security is being beefed up everywhere as we have been subject to some particularly nasty stuff in the past year.

I wonder if those specific strings got into the profanity/blacklist filter?

I agree with Timco. Pelican owns and pays for it so.....If members want to stop posting and being helpful that would be to bad because I don't come here for links to products but for the very useful knowledge that members have. I guess if I want to know "where" a part comes from I can PM the member and ask. I really hope long time members stick around to help us noobs.

PS.....it appears that only links are blocked not the naming of names of other products.

Nope. They are blocking selective websites regardless of whether or not it has a product linked

Whats next, blocking ebay and amazon???

I'm sorry, its a BS policy. This has been and is supposed to be an open forum where people can freely share information with others. Getting their panties in a twist because some vendors offer better deals then them is BS.

I'm not sure where you are getting that it's supposed to be an open forum? Says who?

Pelican owns it, plain and simple. They can do what they want. You have the choice - stay and participate as best you can or take your business elsewhere.

If this site were really censored, which it is not, then this whole post would have been long deleted.

Nowhere when you sign up does it state this is owned by Pelican

nor anywhere in the rules does it state you can't link to other vendors websites or that they will block websites

Does another vendor link classify as "objectionable" content



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I see both sides, but [edit: in my opinion] the value of this forum is our content that was created by us, the forum members, over many thousands of hours (tens/hundreds of thousands?) of user participation. If we all stop posting DIYs and helping tips because it becomes a burden or even merely inconvenient to share the best places to get various parts, the value will greatly decline.

Here is a possible compromise - maybe pelican could add hyperlinks from embedded Porsche part numbers to their catalog, and leave the rest of the links alone?

And I would be cool with changing the top banner from 986forum.com to maybe something like "986forum.com sponsored by Pelican Parts" or something similar? I believe it to be expensive to host a forum and I am thankful to Pelican for hosting this, the best 986 Boxster forum!

They allow us users to post on pretty much any topic as long as it's not objectionable.
Discussions are allowed to take any course unless or until they are clearly in need of moderator attention.
They host uploaded pictures.
They do not block ALL links to competing vendors. They do choose some to block for any reason they want.

I have no idea of the costs and revenues related to hosting a forum web page, but I expect that for the volume of users on this site, it is not insignificant.

For my 2+ years of Boxster ownership, I would have been lost without the info FREELY available here.

I think that Pelican Parts is very reasonable in their management of the forum.

Works both ways, I'm pretty sure the other/sites/forums are doing the same to their competitors. Not a Pelican invention at all, seen it before. Their site:their rules.

I'd be much more worry about posting pics of the Porsche stickers and hood badges we install on our cars. Look who officially shoulder the badge and Police the internet on behalf of Porsche Studios these days.

http://986forum.com/forums/uploads02/Tom1486058669.jpg

And that's exactly what's happening. Pelican is going to kill this forum or, at the least, change it into something less than it was. A lot of us have migrated to another page (not rennlist) and will phase this site out completely.
Jake Raby doesn't post here anymore.
Remember Brad Roberts? Very knowledgeable guy.
Where'd they go?

Anyway, I spend more time there than here lately.


Their site to do with what they want, but it can be self-destructive. Some of us were here before Pelican and helped build this sites content and reputation. It sucks to see it getting worse (poor maintenance, censorship, ads disguised as posts).

That's all I have to say. Back to that other page. :)

well, personally i feel that ******************************************* unless of course you ************************* but it might be due to ******************** or trump. worst case scenario, you can ************************************* sense of ownership ******************* membership based ****************************** rules ***************** freedom ************************ god and country ****************************.

'nuff said.

:D :cheers:

Well… :D

http://986forum.com/forums/uploads02...1486065454.jpg

But where to go?

Somehow, I don't think editing out a few competing websites is going to kill this forum. It's funny how it's even riling so many people up - there is obviously still a lot of passion here, so that's a good thing.

And where is this other site you speak? There are many other Porsche and Boxster forums out there, including FB, right PW?

Me think some should try China for a year or two and experience the real deal. We don't have little **** here, we only have life in prison and occasional executions LOL

See it on the bright side ;)

Brad Roberts is keeping super busy traveling the country doing race car support and coaching. I see him at most of the events that I attend and then he tells me about the 2 or 4 or 8 events that he's supported since I last saw him. The man is BUSY!

Yep, good guy. :)
I'm referring to the Boxster Tech FB page. Yeah, I know. I said I'd never go back to FB, but there are lots of members in need of assistance there, which I like. Not super active, but not bad. Brad posts there regularly and has said that he doesn't post here anymore because of certain folks in charge, IIRC.

Anyway, I'm not all tore up about the censoring. I just don't like it.
986 forum is still my #1 girl. :p



Yes, Markus. I'm banned from rennlist and have been for a couple years. That's what happens when you argue with a moderator via pm. What can I say? I can be a jerk...and I'm ok with that. Their 986 sub-forum (macster's rumpus room) is pretty lame, anyway. :D

I'm member of a Machinists forum (savages.com LOLL), a rottweiler forum, a engineering one, and they ALL censored stuff. Hell, even have entire posts going missing, which NEVER happened here.

In ranks, I think the 986forum top #1 for me. Quality of ppl especially. DONT LEAVEEEEEE

You and Jay have changed the world :cheers:

http://986forum.com/forums/uploads02...1486089692.jpg

I really appreciate that Pelican hosts this website. I feel like I'm one of their biggest fans. I think half my car has come from them!

It doesn't bother me if they delete links to competitors (as owners of the site that's their right), but it does seem a bit petty (and I realize it might not seem petty to them!) There have been instances where I've posted links to competitor websites, but out of respect to Pelican I have only done that if Pelican doesn't sell something or their price is way out of line (I haven't seen that happen very often). In those rare instances when I've done that, they haven't deleted my posts or blocked my links.

Their parts prices are usually very competitive, they ship super fast, and they're a great resource when trying to locate hard to find parts. You can actually call them and get a human on the phone. They've helped me out a bunch of times.

I'd agree though that it would make sense to have Pelican put their name on the banner if competitor links are being blocked or deleted. At least that way it wouldn't be a big surprise when something like that happens. An analogy I'd make would be if this was the Starbucks Forums and people kept posting links to "Seattle's Best Coffee", no one would go nuts if those links were blocked or deleted, but if it was Coffee Lovers Forums and the same thing happened, people would probably go crazy.

Side note: I'd like to thank all the forum members who have helped me over the past 3.5 years. That's the real power of these forums, the fact that you can connect to some really knowledgeable people who have gone through what you are going through and can steer you in the right direction.

I have to echo Nine8Six on this - PLEASE DON'T LEAVE!

If you are reading this, Pelicanparts
 

OP is 100% correct when you think of it, nobody likes to be voice-cancelled.

To eliminate this negative effect my advice to you would be to replace those **** with your actual URL (pelicanparts.com) so when ppl post something out of a competitor website, they would be redirected to a 404 page on Pelicanparts.com

That 404 page could read, "Looking for something? choose vehicle model, or contact us". Many ways to make a 404 page look & feel fun!

That way:

1) the message is clear(er)
2) the negative censuring effect is gone
3) You make more money by keeping it all in-house

and done!

Sounds quasi reasonable but I'm sure there's a FTC violation or two in that plan. A la there have been cases where Company A will buy a web domain which sounds or whom others might think is Company B's. Then when attempting to reach said Company B site a user is redirected to Company A. I'm sure a couple attorneys could keep very bu$y arguing such a case here as it'll be more about who has the deeper pockets first before figuring out who may actually be 'right'...

Bottom line: This is Pelican's sandbox and they can run however they want. You're welcome to set up your own forum and run differently should you so choose. Otherwise we've learned how to creatively slip (bra-less errr ummm cars... and) profanity past the filters w/ misspelling. Or my personal favorite by adding a deliberate spaces between a letter or two... ;)

When rule of law goes as far as governing what "sounds or whom others might think" you start to realize the kinda shi_tty place this world can be sometimes. I'll take little **** all day long in that case.

Love to the roadster forever!

Meanwhile back at the ranch, all we hear is the crickets chirping. Is Pelican laying low or just not reading any of this or ??

They are reading, they have made some changes already like adding PelicanParts.com to the forum banner logo.

The ****** website urls are still there - I was reading Ben006's thread on ball bearing shifters yesterday and I clicked a link to a before/after picture of a short shifter on another site that sells parts and was unable because the URL had been replaced by ************.

I've had great experience with ********************************************

very funny Tim :cheers:

This can be a fun game.

First word. Another word for cars in general.

Second word. The city that lost the super bowl.

You mean Auto atlanta.com?

That's funny....it changed it when I typed it out.