CN is what it is. It’s the long arm of Astronomics with all that implies. I gave up on any positive expectations there long ago. Maybe you need to step back and realize that you do have a life outside of CN that deserves your attention far more than we do.

It is time to send a message to CloudyNights.? To do so, I encourage everyone to boycott CloudyNights for at least the next week (i.e., until 5/21).? While CN has been better since the new format disaster, the bad times have returned.? The site has once again been completely taken over by imperious moderators and admins and unfettered trolls.? In recent days one well-respected poster was threatened with being permanently banned because he simply suggested that "a month doesn't really qualify as fast" in regards to the replacement of an OTA that was defective out of the box when fanboys were suggesting that this was a reasonably good reaction time by the manufacturer.? He was told by a moderator who is outside of the US that, based on this commend, he had had enough "freedom of speech on the subject."

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I have been temporarily banned for posting the following on a thread where someone asked about affordable push-to computers:

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????"If you don't want to try to build your own, then the Sky Commander is one of the least expensive but very good options."

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I do not sell any Sky Engineering products directly on my website and only have the Sky Commander available as an option to the T-REX mount about which there had been no discussion.? Regardless, I apologized and did not argue with moderator "editing" (i.e. the politically correct term for deleting everything but the period at the end of the sentence) of my post (as opposed to allowing me to edit or delete it which is the proper way to do things and something that I have made clear that I am more than happy to do if someone feels I made a mistake).? For this cooperative attitude, my reward was to be temporarily banned.? I did inform the mod that I am not a dealer for Sky Engineering and none of their products can be found separately on my website.? Thus, I could not profit from anything I said in that sentence, but I did not argue that my post should not have been deleted.

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These of course are just a couple of examples and many of you are familiar with the problems due to be treated poorly yourself or seeing friends and vendors being treated poorly.

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CloudyNights has become a place where the reasonable exercise of commenting on the threads (not to mention freedom of speech which and be properly limited on forums) is no longer allowed and vendors who seek to help people are persecuted for product pushing even when they make a conscious effort to avoid product pushing.? Vendors can be some of the most knowledgeable and helpful people out there and are not all there to push their products, but only a few of us continue to put up with the load of garbage the mods and admins throw at us because of our desire to help people and enjoy the conversations that go on just like anybody else does.

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So, I encourage everyone to boycott CloudyNights temporarily or permanently and not post.? Another option would be to simply post the word "BOYCOTT" whenever there is a thread that you would otherwise comment on.? It is time to send a message to CN from all the people who have been mistreated on CN.? I continue to hope for the day when a new forum is available where trolls and little kings no longer rule the day and vendors and manufacturers are allowed to reasonably talk about things and help people without the constant fear of running afoul of arbitrary rules and being banned as a result.

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Thanks for your time and continued support,

Ed Thomas

Deep Space Products

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