As you may know, I was recently banned from the Cake Central forums, where I have been an active participant for several years. A lot of people have sent me inquiries asking why this happened. I’m still not clear on the specific reasons, but I will do my best to outline the facts of what happened here.
Jan 16, 2014: An active thread is ongoing involving people complaining about CakeCentral Magazine (the usual complaints about lack of communication and slow refunds). A moderator (SystemMod1) locks the thread after posting that criticism of CakeCentral on the forums will not be tolerated.
Jan 17, 2014: A member posts in another thread complaining about CakeCentral Magazine. I replied by posting a direct link to contact the magazine, and added that the user should be careful because posts critical of CakeCentral are not allowed (previous posts in the thread were full of criticism). Another user replied expressing disbelief at this policy, so I linked to SystemMod1’s post.
Shortly after this post, the thread was deleted anyway and a moderator (SystemMod1) sent me the following private message: “You purposefully attempted to scare off a new member by twisting a completely unrelated matter. Completely unacceptable and shameful even for you.”
After receiving this message, I was unable to access PMs or reply to threads on CakeCentral, and I realized I was banned. I was still able to check my profile, and I had received an “infraction” for being “Argumentative/Hostile/Rude”. The “infraction” expired after 10 days.
Since I was unable to reply to my private messages, I sent the moderator an email directly at her business email address to figure out why I was banned and how I could avoid it in the future. Her email address was published on her web site, and I knew the identity of the moderator because she publicly announced she was a moderator when she got the job; CC has since made separate moderator accounts.
The moderator replied but did not give me any specific information as to why I was banned. In fact, she said that my email to her was “even more inappropriate then what you did to get the temporary ban”. I’ve contacted CC members directly before, I didn’t think it was that much of an issue.
Jan 24, 2014: I received a message from Heath (a co-founder of CakeCentral), saying that because I contacted the moderator at her personal email address (it was her business email address), because I revealed the identity of SystemMod1 (I had not done so on CC and will not do so here), and due to the “history of reported posts on my account” (I have no idea what this refers to) I have been permanently banned. Again, no specifics were given.
Jan 26, 2014: I was informed that this same moderator publicly blamed me for a malware attack on CakeCentral. When I found out about this, I contacted another CC member to relay the message that I was not responsible for this attack, and I have too much respect for the CC community to target innocent users. I was told that the moderator immediately deleted my relayed message and locked the thread. EDIT: I’ve been informed that the moderator backed away from her statement and indicated that I was in fact not involved before the thread was locked.
I can’t really make much sense out of what happened…but it happened and I am moving on. It’s been a lot of fun participating in the CakeCentral forums for the past few years, and I learned quite a bit. It is a testament to the strength of the CC community that it continues to flourish despite the inconsistent policies and actions of the administration. Best of luck to everyone in the community, and thanks to everyone who sent me messages of support.
One final note: when I was banned they also removed the links to my blog in my signature. If you are replying to questions about pricing, starting a new business, or copyright law feel free to include a link to this blog (https://bakerybusiness.wordpress.com/). And if you have a question, you can either leave a comment on my blog, or contact me by email (jason.kraft@gmail.com) or on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/jason.l.kraft).
The Bakery Business Perspective 
Hi, Jason,
If you contacted other members off of the site itself then you violated the terms of use, which are pretty much the same for every forum to prevent spam. Forum owners can get in trouble for allowing members to mine their member lists for emails and names to either sell to or email without consent, and there is a policy on cake central, i checked before responding here. I know that you did also contact a few people who i know who have nothing to do with the moderation or anything else on cake central, so that’s probably why you were banned. Unsolicited emails using their system to find people can be considered spam.
I also know of one member who was recently banned for continuously using the Cake Central platform to sell to other members, which amounts to a similar violation.
I do see the section in the terms of service that it is a violation to “use any information obtained from the CakeCentral Services in order to contact, advertise to, solicit, or sell to any Member without their prior explicit consent.”. The 10-day ban was a result of the post I described above, I had not contacted CC members directly for quite some time before that, and when I did contact CC members in the past it was through a published link in their signature (e.g. to comment on a blog post). When I contacted the moderator through her business, I found her email address on her business’s web site using Google. I suppose one could argue that I wouldn’t have known her business name if she hadn’t discussed it on CC, but that seems tenuous at best, considering the purpose of the TOS clause is to prevent spam.
Based on that clause, anyone who follows a link to someone’s blog or business in their CC signature and makes a comment or places an order would be violating the TOS. In fact, one can argue that sending someone an unsolicited CC private message or even an unsolicited reply to their CC post would be a violation, since the clause does not make a distinction between communication on or off CC.
Later in that paragraph, it states “CakeCentral.com reserves the right to restrict the number of emails which a Member may send to other Members in any 24-hour period to a number which CakeCentral.com deems appropriate in its sole discretion”, with the implication that a limited number of emails is OK.
Most forums don’t encourage people contacting members off site, you probably know that. Arguing that sending an unsolicited pm or post response constitutes spam is just silly, and a little disingenuous. Those are the systems that every forum has in order for members to contact each other, and they try to prevent people from going off site in order to prevent harassment, which i appreciate. When you start arguing with a decision made by an agent of a private business by emailing them you’ve crossed a boundary IMO, so i’m just assuming that’s why you were banned. I also assume that if you hadn’t emailed people the ten day ban would have been lifted after the ten days. Since I’m not a moderator on the and i have no actual knowledge of their decision making process this is all speculation on my part, but encouraging people to post on your behalf doesn’t make your part in it look any better.
I, too was banned from cake central. After sending 12 emails I have finally given up. I am just a hobby baker and I have never said a harsh word to anyone but tried to encourage everyone. I have no idea why they had this vendetta against me and I have no idea what in the world I did to make them angry at me. My user name was remnant3333. I was very sad to say the least because I enjoyed being able to talk with people all over the world. They went so far as to take any picture of my cakes from their site. I just don’t understand why they have this hatred towards me when I have done nothing to them. Okay just wanted to say my two cents worth. I remember you Jason Kraft and wondered what happened to you.
I see where you’re coming from, and you’re probably right that the ten day ban would have been lifted if I hadn’t emailed the moderator (to request more information, not to argue), at least until the moderator found some other excuse to ban me again. I’m also not sure how you can say that I was banned because I emailed the moderator, since that happened after I was banned.
The only reason I requested to relay a message was because I was informed that I was being blamed for an attack on CC. Since the person in question backed away from their post and others stepped in to defend me it probably wasn’t necessary for me to do that, so that one was my bad.
Re the TOS clause, my argument was not that sending a PM or replying to a message on CC should be considered spam…it’s that sending an unsolicited message on CC itself could be considered a TOS violation due to the overly broad wording.
This is my last response…The TOS on there is as broad as any other forum’s TOS are. There’s enough harassment that goes on in forums normally that they don’t want to get sued when someone takes it offline, so i don’t see anything overly unusual about the TOS on Cake Central vs other sites. If you think the moderators on CC are harsh you should go on other forums I’m on, they’ll ban you in the blink of an eye for nothing.
I’m also not saying that I know for sure that’s why you were banned. As I said before I’m not a moderator, I have no part in the decision-making process on Cake Central, and I wasn’t invited to weigh in on the topic. Your statement that you contacted the mod off-site after your ten day ban was put in place, plus the fact that you did email at least several other people who I know who also have nothing to do with it do point to that. If you started with a ten day ban then started emailing people unsolicited after that, a permanent ban would be the next step, which is why I’m ASSUMING that’s how it went.
Finally, Mod1 didn’t say that you started the spam attack on Cake Central. A different member jokingly suggested it, then mod1 commented that other people had also suggested that, but that she didn’t think you had. Before accusing her it would be good to actually read the thread and not rely on the reports of people who are misreading it themselves.
“plus the fact that you did email at least several other people who I know who also have nothing to do with it”
That’s news to me…which several other people did I email?
I think that the emailing a person on a private account that isn’t private isn’t the reason, I think they just thought you were being argumentative, and they think they are God of CC, rather than just moderators and founders. They could, so they did. (EDIT: name removed), AKA Mod1, has lost her ever-loving mind. She is hostile, rude, incoherent, and an embarrassment to her silly little position. She is also an imbecile to hitch her wagon to Heath and Jackie’s horse, (to do the classes) because they are the worst business people I have ever heard of, and downright thieves.
And I do understand the need for further clarification when you believe an injustice has been done, and I know that small minds don’t “get it”. They think the are the law, or rule, so they take it very personally when they are questioned, like it is an insult to them and all they hold dear. I think has more to do with that, than any real infraction.
And I don’t even like you 😉
ABC said it best
“AKA Mod1, has lost her ever-loving mind. She is hostile, rude, incoherent, and an embarrassment to her silly little position. She is also an imbecile to hitch her wagon to Heath and Jackie’s horse, (to do the classes) because they are the worst business people I have ever heard of, and downright thieves.”
Except i do like Jason.
I just want to say that I think it is Cake Central’s loss. I am a relatively new member and I usually just lurk, but I find that when you reply to a thread, I usually learn something I didn’t know before. Thanks for being willing to share your expertise.
I’ve been a member on CC from it’s early days, I joined about 7 years ago . But for the last few I have mostly lurked.
It has always been like this … CC runs the site like an autocracy, they have their band of faithful followers who take tough aggressive stances and bully others into submission or lurkdom or they just stop visiting completely. Which is a pity because there is a lot of good information available.
CC sanitises threads especially the controversial ones so that even if there have been posts showing CC is at fault, all that’s left is a squeaky clean CC thread which shows only CCs point of view. All negative posts are quickly deleted. And sooner or later the thread itself disappears.
That’s what happened with the Magazine threads last week. Instead of addressing the issues they just shut down the thread and banned you.
Jason, You have my support.
And to the wonderful Mod1 who changes her opinion quickly within threads, sometimes within posts … You are a joke!
Please please can someone reveal who this mysterious Mod1 is, not that it matters, but it makes the soap opera easier to follow.
Thank you
Sorry, but I won’t allow the identity of Mod1 to be revealed publicly here. If you want to find out, you’ll have to do your own search for the identity of the moderator at CakeCentral.com.
HI Jason,
I don’t know you personally but always followed you on CC & am very upset about your undeserving ban. You will be missed as your informative posts were invaluable.
Many thanks for all,
Claire
“Please please can someone reveal who this mysterious Mod1 is, not that it matters, but it makes the soap opera easier to follow.” Here’s a hint, she’s changed her business name and it’s no longer the same name as her CC name.
She really is a horrible choice for a moderator because she looses her cool in threads when she’s working as a moderator and is clearly not impartial EVER!
jason, i wonder why kara buntin spent so much time over here explaining why you got banned if by her own words she really doesn’t know why and in the process chide you and further accuse you of being disengenous, argumentative and stating,”… Before accusing her it would be good to actually read the thread and not rely on the reports of people who are misreading it themselves.” and even if she says she doesn’t know why she revealed information about emails you supposedly sent–what a crock of baloney–
what was the point?
Kara is certainly free to express her opinion here, I don’t mind the discussion. Although I am confused about how I supposedly emailed several other people. I was made aware that the mod was asking others on CC if I sent them emails, it’s possible that a few CC members who don’t like me very much made up stories about fake emails to get me in trouble.
The point is that when you receive a permanenet ban from a forum they tell you why, and as Jason himself said in his post, he was banned by the owner of the forum., not by the moderator. But he’s choosing to blame someone else and ignoring the fact that he wsa banned by Heath. Kate, If you have a question for me feel free to ask me directly. (edited) I think you know how to find me on cake central, send me a message there if you’d like to chat. Otherwise, it is not okay to talk about me this way.
I’m not ignoring the fact that I was banned by Heath, I stated it outright in my initial post. My issues are with the reasons for Heath permanently banning me (I can see contacting the mod being an issue, but he seems to be under the impression that I unmasked her identity and have a long history of infractions) and primarily the reasons for the 10-day ban. Without that 10-day ban I would not have had a permanent ban.
no, thank you, kara– (edited)
since the banning moderator is not one to explain things it’s all just so curious– and then i have another conundrum about kara’s postings here –nice of you to welcome her back all things considered–but this time in a different vein–there is now a moderator on cc proposing to sell her cake recipe (that btw she got from betty crocker) from her, the mod’s, business website–and she is not being censored nor corrected nor impounded–she is not currently selling it she is just using the cc forum to advertise that she will be– hokay — so there’s a member who got banned for promoting sales kara says — and it’s a theory that you got banned for contacting a mod at their business–but then a mod can promote thier website business sales from the forums–do i have that straight?
lol hehehehehe
I agree that if the moderator had simply explained the reasons for the ban there wouldn’t have been an issue.
Anyone is welcome to comment here…I have no problem with people being argumentative, it would be a pretty boring discussion if everyone had the same views. Even SystemMod1 is welcome to present her side of the story.
BTW I was not banned for contacting the moderator at her business email address, that happened after I was banned. I’m not surprised at the double standard you mentioned, but it’s possible the mod cleared selling the recipe with CC staff before she posted.
yes you got 10 day banned for some strange reason–then the ‘theory’ is you got permanently banned because you contacted her? idk — idk why you the 10 day–just doesn’t make sense
it’s possible that the mod asked the administration of cc but if/since permission was apparently granted that simply compounds the hypocrisy since they ban others for the same thing —
by the way–the mod is asking for all the thousands of businesses she’s helped launch (?) to send her money for betty crocker’s recipe retroactively—
lol hahahahhahaheheheheheh
K8memphis can you provide a link to the moderator where she is selling her cake recipe? She can own the Betty Crocker recipe because she did change the directions. The directions in a recipe is the only copyrightable part of a recipe. I wonder if she has a copyright on that recipe?
The first thing a GOOD moderator does is explain to the offender what they did wrong, so they understand completely and don’t repeat the offense. If you educate, that works better than policing. The second thing a GOOD moderator does is always keep their cool. The third thing is remain impartial. Three things moderator1 has never been able to do.
I think this thread should become a campaign to the CC owners to replace moderator1 and find a different moderator who works for the better good of CC instead of their own interests.
I applied to be a moderator when they were asking for volunteers a few years ago, but I have a feeling Jackie and Heath don’t like me very much. For example, I contributed an article to CC Magazine a while ago…I was working with Justine, one of the magazine editors. We went through a round of edits, and she was excited about the article. After we finished with the edits and the article was ready to go, I suddenly got an email from the editor saying that after talking to the editor-in-chief (Jackie) the article did not fit into the current production schedule. When I asked when it would fit into the schedule, I was informed that it would not be published in the magazine, period. (Justine was very professional and polite throughout the entire process.) But I probably dodged a bullet there considering the problems I’ve heard from others who have had their work published in the magazine.
if it’s ok with jason to post a link i will link to where the recipe used to be–it’s just her asking for money now, retroactively!
a reference to it is on cc’s first page of new posts, “vanilla cake recipe”
fwiw–a few months ago maybe longer there was a coup of some kind amongst the mods –not sure what happened but there was a power struggle and some bad blood–so who knows…
It’s fine with me if you post the link. If someone is violating the rules on CC it’s important to flag them, if a moderator doesn’t do anything about it the next step would be using the contact form: http://cakecentral.com/feedback
Actually I just found the thread and it’s best if you don’t post the link since it would unmask the identity of a moderator based on the context of this conversation.
Jean is correct that the recipe cannot be copyrighted. She is free to try to sell it, but it used to be posted on her blog and is still available in the cached version of her blog post so i was able to easily grab a copy of it. It’s too bad I was banned from CC and told never to email her again, otherwise I would have let her know that she should have the cache for her blog removed.
(links removed)
i’m not saying that (name removed) didn’t do a lot of work on the recipe and yes of course only the directions of a recipe are copyright protected but if you’re not supposed to sell via the cc forums and mods bust peeps for it but mods themselves are doing it–is that hypocrisy?
so maybe that’s why they don’t/can’t explain it when someone gets banned?
wow the thread i mentioned just disappeared–so surprising–not!
lol hehehehe
First, I really enjoyed Jason’s posts and perspective, and Cake Central is much more interesting with a vigorous debate going on. His advice to new members was really invaluable.
In response to the post above, regarding the “sanitizing” of posts, yep, just happened again now! The person whose vanilla cake recipe “launched a thousand baking careers” (talk about high self esteem) has been called out for advertising/selling, and the thread in question was locked, and all reference to selling has been removed. Because re-writing history is much better than just thinking before you post, right?
Jason,
What the hell are you doing, man? This is just wrong on so many levels. For someone who has quoted CC rules & regulations for years to members (including myself), you know very well why you were banned – both times, so drop the innocent confusion line. The fact that you left enough information for other people to go find and harass someone is a really creepy and inappropriate thing to do. Time to really move on, as you stated in your first post.
I’m not sure how telling my side of the story is wrong on any level. Can you elaborate?
And as I explained above, I have a pretty good idea why I was permanently banned, but I still have no idea why the initial 10-day ban was put in place.
I’m also not sure what you mean by “leaving enough information for other people to go find and harass someone”.
jason, you were responsible for someone else posting a sales ad on the forums?
jeanne, who is being harassed? the ‘h’ word is a very strong legal term so please use it carefully.
Oh Please – get over it.
lotta hot air–not a lotta substance
Let’s try to keep this conversation civil, I don’t want to start handing out bans. 😉
I don’t understand Jeanne Winslow and Kara Buntins remarks because they seem to contain knowledge of what exactly did happened. Implying Jason is not telling the truth of why he was banned or that he was informed why he was being banned before it happened. Can either women elaborate or share where they learned that information? I’d like to read what happened myself. I read at CC regularly and I never saw what this is all about so I don’t believe this information is common knowledge at CC. Please show us how Jason is mis-leading or has posted incorrect information?
Jason, you have my info. I will not address things further here – It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out why.
This is a common m.o. at CC among a vocal minority…throw out a bunch of nebulous and inflammatory statements, then refuse to clarify when asked for specifics.
And I don’t have your info.
So you got kicked off of a website that talks about cakes? And you’re blogging about it, and emailing people about it? And you’re a guy? Get a hobby dude. I’d be embarrassed if I were you.
Correct, I’m blogging about it because a lot of people were asking what happened, and the CC administration was less than forthcoming. I’m not emailing people about it, that’s what the blog is for.
And I’m not sure what me being a guy has to do with it…I’m not embarrassed to say that I ran a bakery with my wife for several years and I’m interested in the business side of making cakes, that’s why I joined CakeCentral.
There are many cake dudes out there, and I have a lot of respect for them, sexism has no place in baking. Not that Jason has ever baked a cake, or decorated it, but it is a noble profession to help your wife out, no matter what she is doing.
http://cakecentral.com/t/117741/addressing-the-moderating-policies-at-cc#post_7480725
Thanks for posting that link, Kara. If it had been made clear earlier that emailing a moderator was so unacceptable, I wouldn’t have done it.
The big outstanding issue for me is still the assignment of infractions, which is the role of the moderator based on policies from the administration. I still have not received a clear answer as to which policy I violated with the post that earned me the temp ban.
You violated the invisible policy that says you are not allowed to make cake central or her owners or moderators look bad, no matter if they are (edited for language) horrible business people and downright thieves. You are not allowed to bring up what they said, or do, you are supposed to bow at the temple of CC and don’t bring up what they said in one place, in a different area, because rules and fairness clearly don’t apply. While I never liked you, or your style, I am with you on this one, because I believe you at least have a code of honor that wouldn’t allow you to abuse power, keep money that you did not earn, farm information from other people and try to make a buck off of it, and you are protecting the anonymity of a LOON, that seriously wronged you. I have a respect for you that I didn’t want.
Jeanne Winslow posted: The fact that you left enough information for other people to go find and harass someone is a really creepy and inappropriate thing to do
I don’t understand what information Jason is supposed to have left for us to find! ( makes me think of childhood treasure-hunts … Yay! Clues! and a big surprise at the end! BUT we are NOT children!)
People posting on the website are savvy enough to find the thread, find the link, find the blog, make the connection.
People are savvy enough to find the cached versions of deleted threads/posts/old recipes … which I did, just to prove a point.
People are savvy enough to know that people change usernames frequently, and make connections.
NOT Rocket Science!
A note from Heath telling Jason exactly what the issue was, for the initial ten-day ban and then for the permanent ban, would clear a lot of speculation and accusations.
IMO, they don’t have a solid reason, they just took the opportunity to get rid of you, because CC does not like people with strong opinions different from their own (owners, admins, mods and a few aggressive members)
(post removed – please refrain from personal attacks)
i ♥ abc
if others do not wish to clarify/substantiate their statements so be it–but i will footnote mine–after a two year ‘leave of absence’ from cc in dec of 2012–on the ‘what not to say to bakers’ thread i was called out in huge size lettering — then in a pm i was told:
“If you are guilty of or have been provoked into getting into a public nip pick fest with the biggest nit picker in the community (Jason), then look to your own actions first, do not blame the moderator. In fact, I highly suggest you do not answer any posts by that particular member in the future”.
i’m not saying jason is not a right fighter i just do not think that should be the mindset of a volunteer moderator or paid one–so he never needed to “let out enough information so others could figure out…” i always knew who had it in for him because this was before mods were ‘cloaked’.
fwiw–that is a direct quote–
and this all just so happened to coincide with the sale of the recipe–the same infraction that others have been banned for*–there’s no one here responsible for that except the person selling it–and as it was mentioned by someone here upthread it became germaine–
and let me also say this–in order to bring some resolution–a leader in this type of position does not do more or less for anyone of their membership than they are willing to do for each team member–there should be a benevolent balance–that’s the type of moderator that is needed–not a perfect one–a fair one–
if one might wonder why i did not take this to the owner’s attention it’s because of the unresponsiveness of the owners documented by an f score with the bbb–this erodes trust of course–why would anyone take a complaint to them– just now there is a thread for suggestions on how to up a fence around newbies so they don’t get attacked right away–not how to stop the attackers–srsly?
I’ve never understood the “nit picking” criticism (another common one is that I’m an “instigator”). I enjoy participating in a healthy debate, and if someone else in the debate posts something that doesn’t make sense or that I don’t understand, I will address that point with a rebuttal or a request for clarification. I have done this my entire life in online discussion boards, face-to-face personal discussions, business meetings, etc. and I’ve never had an issue until CC.
As for the issue of newbies not feeling comfortable, the answer is very simple…timely, competent, and unbiased moderation.
This whole thing is just so ridiculous to me. I can’t believe someone would conduct a business this way- it’s like high school all over again!
Jason, I too am sad to see that you have been “banned”, I always felt that you presented yourself and your arguments in a very fair and objective way. I have seen MUCH more inflammatory behavior by many CC members who have not been “banned”. And I feel you still have much to offer in the way of business advice, especially to all of those newbies who come on CC with little to no clue on how to run a business. Frankly, it’s nice to have a male perspective on things- we women tend to attach too much emotion to things, and we can’t see the forest for the trees sometimes.
Of course, I don’t know all of the particulars since I was not privy to whatever PM’s or emails were exchanged, but the whole thing just sounds like it was handled very badly, someone got offended, stomped their feet and cried, and got someone banned.
http://cakecentral.com/t/767658/soliciting-feeback-new-member-experience/45#post_7480972
It’s strange to hear Heath saying that it’s so difficult to find moderators when at least one application to become a moderator was ignored. Despite all that’s happened, I am still willing to volunteer my services as a CC moderator since I believe the community deserves a larger staff to help keep the forums civil.
It’s also worrying to hear him say that a discussion about moderating has no place in a thread about improving the new member experience. Without more coverage from moderators and consistent implementation of policies I doubt there will be much improvement on this front.
I am happy to see him getting more involved with the community though, hopefully this is the beginning of a trend towards greater transparency in the administration.
It appears that CC is no longer allowing anyone to mention me by name, since someone mentioned me and the post was removed by a moderator. As stated by both the moderator and Heath, the rules allow former members to be mentioned, but apparently I am a special case since an entire thread was created just for me. I hope they aren’t talking about this thread: http://cakecentral.com/t/767522/ummm-i-almost-hate-to-ask
Given Heath’s wording (“There are the things that members say in public and then there are the things that people say in emails, PMs, on other websites etc.”) I’m curious what the moderator said I wrote in my email to her, and if Heath ever verified that the moderator’s statement was truthful.
Early last week I also sent Heath a message through the CC support email address expressing my apologies for sending a moderator an email directly, since as I mentioned above I didn’t know this was such a problem before he posted about it. (In addition, if the moderator I emailed had indicated right away that my email to her was inappropriate, I would have immediately cut off communication. She did not do so in her initial reply.) To date I have not received a response.
It is apparent that both the moderator and Heath are aware of the existence of this blog, I would welcome any comment from either or both of them here regarding what happened and if there are any inaccuracies in my posts.
By the way, if you are interested in a community focused on business (although not specific to bakeries), I recommend the FatWallet Finance forum. I had been a regular member of the forum before I started my bakery business, and I will be posting there more frequently in the future.
The main focus of FatWallet is posting deals, but the Finance forum is well moderated and is very active with many business-savvy people. Users are also able to rate threads and posts positively or negatively, which works pretty well as a form of self-moderation.
http://www.fatwallet.com/?referral=jayK
After signing up, click Forums, then Finance on the left side. Note that the link above is a referral link, and I am compensated if you sign up and then click through to purchase one of the deals listed on the site. If you would prefer to click a non-referral link, you can use this one: http://www.fatwallet.com/
Interesting note: if you do a google search for “cakecentral ban”, this blog post is the second result. The first result is a CC thread about the FDA banning trans fats, created by me. 🙂
Hi Jason, Haven’t been on Cake Central or on here in quite awhile and when i logged on here i the post about you being banned. I am just appalled at the injustice here. you were unjustly banned for no good reason. To Me the whole thing Is Cake Central’s Fault. It got out of hand but It seems to me that when a website Creates a forum negative comments come with the territory. They cant just expect Positive comments. Someone will be Upset about something. As far as People Complaining about the magazine on the forum i would say that was due to them being non responsive through other contact methods. Now since there was a thread expressing distaste then instead of being hostile back about it and saying negative comments will not be tolerated, they should have said that they were sorry people are unhappy and do what they can to rectify the situation. To me it shows a lack of caring and bad business on the part of the people running the show to delete the thread or lock members out so they cant reply or send threads. As far as you sending an email trying to get answers to someone’s email that may or may not have been allowed is ridiculous. If a business’s doesnt want to be sent email then it shouldn’t have been made public. It shouldn’t have been searchable. I personally don’t think you did anything wrong. I also applaud you for allowing speculation about what you may have done wrong from a poster that doesnt know anything for sure at all.
Thanks! I agree that the CC staff often gives the impression that they just don’t care about the community…I don’t follow CC any more but from time to time I get a heads up from current members about what’s going on. Apparently there was a lot of activity from the staff just after I was banned about how to improve the forum but it seems to have been just lip service.
On the plus side I’m told that my posts live on in the words of other CC members and I’m still getting quite a few hits on this blog, so it’s good to know people are still benefiting from my experience. 🙂
yeah, your comments are still on old posts. I haven’t been on cake central, haven’t posted any new threads but i have gotten notifications if someone posts to an old thread which is how i saw that your comments were there. It was pointless to ban you in the first place, all they did was take away your ability to post on their forum but they cant take away free speech so if you or anyone really wanted to bash them then you could do so anywhere else. In my opinion though i dont need to follow cake central anymore, as long as you have this blog i’ll just ask you directly if i have any questions.
I took a few months away from Cake Central for various reasons, came back this week and noticed a bunch of pricing threads with no responses from you! This seemed unusual so I started searching and saw you were banned. Glad I found your blog again, because I think you do have a lot of useful things to say regardless of people wanting to hear it or not. I’m pretty appalled at how everything went down! If someone is going to start a forum, especially one as large as CakeCentral, then they should expect that there are going to be some negative comments as well. Comes with the territory.
I may not have always agreed with the things you’ve posted on that site, but I respected your right to say them and the fact that you were one of the few people who were welcoming and kind to those who were new to the site and asked innocent questions that the “oldies” found irritating. That is seriously lacking in the forums now, it’s a shame they banned you.
Well this is all disappointing. I valued your business knowledge on CC Jason. I even messaged you many times and got excellent business advice. Sad to see you go although I am not surprised at all of this. I saw the personal attacks against you in many threads which turned me off from CC for a very long time. I was a daily active user now I am a silent user. All the best with this blog. I will be checking in here to get your business advice. You were a gem on CC Jason! Hopefully new users to CC will be able to find all your old answers to the most commonly asked questions on pricing,etc. It really helped a lot of us.
Did they let you back in with the new format or is someone using your old account?
I saw some posts from you and either they are resurecting alot of old posts (with incorrect date stamps – which did happen when they first re-booted a bit) or you are back!
After they moved to the new format I started receiving email notifications from CC, so I checked out the site and started posting again here and there. I’m not a huge fan of the new forum design so I don’t visit very often.