The story of The Huffington Post’s war on its own website has to be the most bizarre thing I have seen all year. It’s like they were following a rulebook on how to tank a major website. They hit all the high points and then some. But just when I thought The Huffingtons could not possibly do worse harm to their reputation, they prove me wrong. They come out with an article entitled “11 Reasons You Should Quit Facebook in 2014”.
I shit you not. Exactly 3 weeks after forcing all commenting members to join Facebook, they publish an article advising you to quit Facebook. This was such an outrageous move, it even made the headlines on other news blogs! This was the natural culmination of a year‘s worth of articles on HP, all telling you how bad Facebook is. Apparently, the irony of telling their users to quit Facebook, while demanding they join Facebook to comment, eluded them. It did not, however, elude their members. Many of whom posted their opinions of how ironic this article was. However…. something even more sinister was afoot. Those opinions never showed up, “mysteriously”. I know that, because I had read complaints of HPers elsewhere, saying their criticism on HP’s Facebook thread was deleted. Indeed, so were my attempts to point out the irony.
Once again, there was nothing in the guidelines forbidding you from making HP look stupid, by pointing out how they are contradicting themselves with this article. In fact, Tim McDonald, community director, in an interview with The Epoch Times, said members had “wide latitude” to air their criticisms of HP on the site. But this was a clear case of HP censoring opinions. Which they said they do not do. All you saw on the thread was opinions about Facebook. Not about HP forcing Facebook accounts on its users, then telling them 11 ways they’re stupid to have Facebook accounts.
So without further ado, this was what I posted on that thread, which they would not allow:
Are you kidding me HP? Now I am really becoming convinced of the “corporate suicide theory” currently making the rounds. Hey, I’ll do you one better….I can think of 11 good reasons to quit The Huffington Post in 2014:1. Forcing all members to own and give up cell phone numbers.
2. Forcing all members to join Facebook.
3. Ignoring the backlash and million member exodus due to 1 & 2.
4 Treating members like ad-consuming slaves.
5. Imposing north korean style commenting standards. And not telling members what they are.
6. Refusing the announced anonymity exemption, even for the most at-risk members.
7. Ignoring the many complaints about the many glitches to the commenting system.
8. Saying this was all to remove anonymous names… then allowing fake names anyway.
9. Exposing members to great personal risk from stalkers or employers by tying their present and even past anonymous comments to their real identities.
10. Telling us you would allow anonymity for older members, and then oops changing your mind, for no good reason. Then allowing anonymity for a small handful of members regardless.
11. Telling us to quit Facebook in 2014, but not to quit The Huffington Post in 2014. Which demands you have a Facebook account!Will this be the final insult to HP membership?
I tried something tamer, next. The moderators jumped all over that one as well, and censored it out…..
Related articles
- Huffington Post Draws Ire After Posting ’11 Reasons You Should Quit Facebook’ Following New Comment Policy (theepochtimes.com)
- Why Anonymity? (thehuffingtonposter.wordpress.com)
- New Comment Requirements on Huffington Post Riling Users; Many Are Leaving (theepochtimes.com)
- Huffington Post Censors Commentary (durandusvonmeissen.wordpress.com)
- Huffington Post’s Own Editors Make It Look Like a Car Wreck (journeyamerica.wordpress.com)
- HuffPost Comment System: Q&A With Tim McDonald, Director of Community (theepochtimes.com)
The Huffington Poster 
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