Let me chime in here.
As the person who founded and setup this site, pays for it monthly (advertising and supporters only pay a fraction of the cost of running this site) and ultimately set the rules I wanted to make a few things clear.
The rules are laid out clearly when you joined the forum. They are always available to you in the FAQ (
DeeperBlue Forums - FAQ: DeeperBlue.net Forum FAQ) and form part of the contract between the site and yourself. In addition the privacy policy (
FreeDiving, Scuba Diving, Spearfishing & Technical Diving Articles and News - DeeperBlue.com) and user agreement (
FreeDiving, Scuba Diving, Spearfishing & Technical Diving Articles and News - DeeperBlue.com) help spell out the legal basis we operate on.
In case it isn't clear but this is a private membership site.
Your membership is conditional on you obeying the rules. The volunteer moderators (they are volunteers and get no financial compensation for helping out) are representatives of the site and have total authority to enforce the rules. There are different levels of staff here based on experience with the ultimate authority resting with me. Things get reported by members all the time (if you click on the report post/thread option) and the staff review, discuss and then decide to act on the report or not. It is not done on a whim and the group are very good at being fair across the board and enforcing the rules whilst encouraging discussion on the forums.
To the topic of why this post was deleted.
There is a very good reason and that is the poster openly stated that the activity they are doing is illegal. That is not an acceptable post and is in breach of the forum rules which were then enforced by the moderators.
Equally swearing is not permitted and the rule is that this is a PG-13 forum - even if the vast majority of
posters are not 13, there are a large number of
non-posters who just read the forums who are. That is the basis we choose to operate this forum on and how I expect members to behave.
There is a good reason why I implemented these rules over the history of this site, and that is we have been subject to several legal arguments and a lawsuit over the years. Luckily we've never had anything too serious happen but it is my duty to lay out the rules for the membership base to protect not only DeeperBlue.com but also the members (as there is legal precedent set that admitting to illegal activities online can result in prosecution). Equally as this is a moderated site DeeperBlue.com has a legal obligation to monitor posts/threads for illegal activity. If we do not remove the post we are liable and could be subject to prosecution as well.
One of our partner sites ScubaBoard is currently the subject of a serious lawsuit that threatens it's existence due to posts are illegal activity so this is a very real threat to the future of any site.
Ultimately this place is the extension of my home - and because of that I get to set the rules. If you choose to help contribute by being a supporter and helping reduce my outlay for this place then I always appreciate it but that does not give you any additional rights (as it is stated in the supporter details). Consider it like you've come to a party at my house and bring some food or drink to help reduce the costs for the host. You still need to obey the rules of that house.
I've moved this thread to the Suggestions and Feedback forum where it belongs rather in a sub-forum.
Finally - I am happy to discuss this with anyone, either publicly here, in private via a PM or you can email me on
stephan.whelan@deeperblue.com.
Many thanks!