A topic (thread) has been removed

[Dave Baker]

Dear users of the VEBA message board,

I am the BenefitsLink.com, Inc. employee who acts as the

"administrator" of these message boards. I want to keep

the boards running as a valuable, free tool for employee

benefits practitioners.

I have taken an administrative action that some of you will

not like, but which I believe to be in the best interests of every

user of the message boards.

I decided to remove a topic (a message thread) about a

particular, named VEBA service-provider whose business

practices were roundly criticized in messages in the thread.

The service-provider contacted me by email and by phone this

week and we discussed the message thread in some detail. Until

then I had not read the message thread.

The service-provider says that some of the statements posted in

the message thread are false, and that they are damaging his

reputation.

I do not know whether the statements are true or false.

If a statement is proven to be false and it harms the reputation of

an individual, the individual has a legal cause of action for defamation

against the person making the statement.

Per the ground rules that are displayed when a new user

registers, a message can be taken down if a person complains

that it is "objectionable" to him. (Also, users agree not to

post defamatory statements.) As the administrator of the message

boards it falls to me to determine in my discretion what's

"objectionable" when a party complains.

If you or some other user say to me as administrator that a

statement about you in a message is defamatory, I believe you've

pointed out a message that's objectionable to you, and that the

message should be taken down.

My reasoning is that you wouldn't want to have to defend

yourself by rebutting such statements via a public "point-counterpoint"

exchange in a thread on the message boards. Among other reasons,

it would be hard and time-consuming to put down into text all of

the things you would want to say in response, especially responses

to claims made by anonymous posters. Damage to your reputation

could be catastrophic and perhaps irreparable, because a Google search

on your name by a potential client might easily include a link to the

message thread.

Naturally, when one believes that people are being harmed by a

service-provider, he wants to be helpful by warning others. I can

appreciate how very strongly you could feel about

another service-provider's business practices, especially if

based on your first-hand experience or on other information that

you believe to be certainly and provably true. The question, though,

is whether these public message boards ought to be available to

do that. You would have other opportunities to share your opinion,

such as conversations in person, via private email, or via some

other medium that is not publicly viewable. You also could write

and publish an article on a web site that you own or operate,

if you wish to publish your opinion on the Web.

I would like to emphasize that BenefitsLink.com, Inc. has not

made any investigation into whether various statements that were

made in the message thread are true or false. That's not a role

the company has taken on. BenefitsLink.com, Inc. is not the

"publisher" of messages posted to this public message board,

pursuant to interpretations of defamation law made by several

courts, and we do not monitor messages to determine whether or

not they might be considered defamatory. But we have agreed to

take down messages that a party finds to be objectionable if the

party complains.

I know this action might offend you, especially if you put time

and thought into making one or more posts in the message thread.

I can see how you would feel offended and disappointed by this

action affecting your already-posted messages, and for that I

sincerely apologize.

I am not questioning the good faith of any of the folks who

posted messages in the thread. Also, I do not mean to imply

that posts made anonymously are unwelcome.

Thank you very much for all the great help you provide to

practitioners and plan participants through your posts on

these message boards. I hope you continue to find them

to be valuable in your practice.

Dave Baker

Email: davebaker at benefitslink.com

[Ron Snyder]

It is your bulletin board, and I appreciate your making it available to us. You are welcome to censor whatever you choose.

Apparently it was my post that offended the individual discussed. I have evidence of the truthfulness of my assertions, and would have welcomed an honest an open exchange with the individual's participation. He obviously was not interested in doing so.

When an offensive post is detected (usually upon complaint), it seems that you have 3 choices:

1. Edit the post to delete the offensive material.

2. Delete the offensive post in its entirety.

Along with these choices, you could choose to close the thread if additional discussion would be inappropriate.

3. Delete the entire thread.

It would never have occurred to me to delete the entire thread, especially when it had been up for several months and the now offended person had been posting on it.