Good day Goldtender and thank you for taking the time to share your insights on these matters.

To begin I should inform you that the posts by Growler you speak about where rightfully removed and in my humble opinion, the ban can be justified. While we appreciate your investigative nature, in an effort to keep our forums aligned on objective and factual lines, any messages that are inflammatory, trolling, or strictly of a personal nature to specific posters or unspecified groups are always deleted.

Please continue to report such behavior to us. That's always the best practice as it helps us erradicate a problem or troublemaker before things get out of hand. I believe you would agree that by responding to an inflammatory remark in equal manner serves no purpose but to detract from thoughtful examinations.

I would like to reassure you once again that our staff is watching our forums, and with your assistance, any messages geared towards the demerit of other posters, or group of posters, or are seeding an argument with said groups will be removed - 100% of the time.

We appreciate a vibrant and broad perspective on your investments, and I would once again wish to assure you that no posts containing material evidence will be deleted. If you feel we've made a wrong decision, or have not acted properly, you are welcome to discuss this with George, Paul or myself. Our staff would love to discuss these predicaments or concerns you have about anyones conduct within AGORACOM.

On a final note, the fact that AGORACOM generated over 7.5 million page views last November alone (see http://blog.agoracom.com/2009/11/12/agoracom-generates-7-9-million-pages-from-131500-visitors-over-last-30-days/) is a sign that we are a popular brand.

This does not mean that everything is perfect; but that's merely because nothing can really reach consensus on all sides.

Thanks again for taking the time to raise these issues with us and for sharing your insights. I look forward to hearing from you again in the future.

Kind Regards,
Andreas Marouchos

Community Director