In the comment section of my post about the horrible Boston (212) Cafe, the administrator of the Red Sox fan site Bornintoit.com admits deleting my negative review of this basement “cafe.”
Now, he is free to run his message boards any way he sees fit — but this is a pretty dishonest way to do so, in my opinion. People are going to read his thread on the cafe about how good the pizza is while never realizing they’re getting just one side of the story. And certainly, there’s no disclosure on the site that he’s removing negative reviews of this place.
[update 5/7: Just to be clear: I didn’t mean to imply that Ryan wrote the comment on his board about how good the pizza is … and I did discover there is a general disclosure notice that board administrators delete comments. Ryan responded to this post in the comment section here and here.]
(The owner claims he deleted my post because it was a “negative profane bashing,” and I didn’t leave my two cents in a “constructive manner.” Hmmm… how do you write, “I hate this place” in a “constructive” way?)
Bornintoit also provides web hosting for this site … I’m left to wonder, is this a paid advertisement? Something he’s doing for a friend? Or just out of the goodness of his heart? There’s no disclosure at all.
Meanwhile, on the RedSoxDieHard.com message board, Sox fan Trot2 calls this place “just an old function room. In fact, again I am told, they had to close last Friday because of a previous commitment for a wedding or whatever.”
That jives with what I said in my original post: “As my friend said, it looked like with an hour’s work, you could hold a wedding reception there.”
Trot2 also worries about the fire danger, writing it “looks like a Coconut [sic] Grove waiting to happen.” I am not an expert in these matters, but that’s a thought that absolutely crossed my mind myself: when I was there, I saw a crowded basement with just one narrow exit.
I thought much the same thing about Boston 212 when I first went there. When I first started hearing about this place on redsoxnation.net I too was a bit confused that there were such RAVE reviews everywhere. Luckily rsn.net does not censor it’s posts the way bornintoit does and the constructive criticism I offered the owners was taken in the way it should have been – as helpful hints to a new startup venue.
To be honest, now I am quite a big fan. But I go back for the people, not the place. The owners, Charlie and Dave, are incredibly friendly and are always behind the bar. They make an honest effort to create an open Sox atmosphere in there. They’re still getting their feet under them though. Personally I am willing to cut them some slack because they’re such good people. But I can see how others wouldn’t like it.
~Kim
Born into it is a fraud website anyway. The content, e.g. Red Sox history, and other sections were literally copied from existing websites. The template is a ripoff of a popular website. They slap the any popular utterance onto merchandise to sell and profit. Why are you concerning yourself with a ripoff copycat wannabee cheesy website that no one cares about? Just don’t give those charlatans the time of day and they’ll essentially be buried in the basement bar they front for.
Of course I am admiting censorship and I will openly do so for the life of our board. If someone drops in on our message board, signs up and leaves only one post regardless of it’s message it will be looked at in more detail then any other posts. In fact the last 5 posts that were deleted on our board were virgin posters and their posts were vere immature and lacked any intelligence whatsoever (some were done literally by children or angry yankee fans) , these people started bogus threads that were of ridiculous nature. These individuals joined our board to do nothing but leave one post that did not contribute to the board at all. Exactly what you did Derek. Should I have left those there as well? As far as Boston 212 and a thread created on our board- Go ahead and create a thread labeled Boston 212, my constructive opinion, leave some intelligent comments about how you didn’t enjoy your time there in a mature manner and your post will be respected. Go ahead and CC your buddy at Bostondirtdogs as well.
Yes, I do know the people that have started Boston 212.. Do I have a financial investment in the place? No…. If you started a bar I would support you as well to the best I can… I run a Red Sox website that is aimed at furthering the support of our team regarless if it makes money in my pocket..
You know what, I actually appreciate the stuff you have to say here on and respect your freedom of speech on your site but don’t go and scream foul play over your one and only post on our board being deleted because your comment was oen that didn’t invite review or discussion at all.
This email was also sent directly to Derek following my post on his board:
Derek,
I appreciate you dropping me a line to inform me of your rebuttal..
Honestly, I could care less about your criticism of this place.. I don’t have any ownership of it nor was my hosting any more of a weblet that I was going to do for them to help these guys promote Red Sox Nation in NYC. As you saw it was incomplete and I didn’t even realize it had been indexed.
I did delete your post and continue to stand by the fact that your sole post on our board seemed to have an agenda, was profane, and didn’t contribute in a constructive manner at all. Our message board has numerous members that do nothing but join the board to make 1 post for advertisement, Red Sox bashing, personal vendetta, etc… How as I to distinguish yours from these?
If you are so passionate about your distaste of this bar then go ahead and repost in the “Sox Places” section in our website in a constructive & clean nature. Just don’t go leaving curse words and at least try to use our forum as a place to discuss the Sox in general not just some bar in NYC..
Ryan G.
Born Into It.com
Also, one may note that Derek’s reporting about my comment on “how good the pizza is” or any comment on Boston212 at all in that thread does not exist. I made not comment at all about the Boston212 cafe as he indicates on our message board.
His reporting on this is incorrect.
Just to be clear: I didn’t mean to imply that you wrote the comment about how good the pizza is! There is a post on your thread that says that, however.
I’m not going to go back and post on your site … really not on a crusade against this place, although I don’t like it or how I was kicked out of the Red Sox meetup just for expressing my opinion … but if people actually enjoy spending time there, then more power to them.
this practice of deleting posts/censoring them/etc. is duly practiced by none other than your co-worker, dawn eden aka goldstein.. maybe she should weigh in on the practice here on your blog …. maybe this is just a gratuitous shot… sorry again… lol
Well, Dawn discloses, very prominently, that she deletes comments.
Actually, I do notice now that Bornintoit does have a disclosure line as well (“Board Managers reserve the right to modify this board by editing, moving, or deleting posts that are deemed inappropriate for our theme.”) … hmm… well, it’s still not what I would have done, but to each their own.
[…] t board administrators delete comments. Ryan responded to this post in the comment section here and here.] (The owner claims he deleted my post because it was a “negative profane bashing […]