It's not censorship at all, it's the moderation of the forum maintained by the company. If I would maintain my forum I'd also delete the comments that are aggressive, overblown, conspiracy-insane etc, for example. I'd also know it's hard to win: only a few weirdos (and internet makes it really easy for them to be visible) are enough to waste the time of more people, but it's still a nice goal: better a few people on the payroll deleting the comments than the thousands or even millions of users being distracted, creating the new conspiracy theories or organizing lynching.
In short, "do it in your own forum, I reserve the right to delete your posts in mine, and by participating, you're acknowledging my right."
If you did any real-life engineering, you know there isn't anything that can be produced without any glitches. You are aware that your product isn't perfect, but you still wouldn't want to support aggression in your own forums. Due to the different laws in different countries, who should you personally contact to solve the problem varies so even such answers in globally-read thread which should be purely technical can be inappropriate. In European countries it's very regulated and clear, for example. I don't know how it's in US.
What's certainly clear is that nobody would even want the forums without the active moderation, except the spammers and the insane.
>If I would maintain my forum I'd also delete the comments that are aggressive, overblown, conspiracy-insane etc, for example. //
That's fine, but a polite legitimate enquiry about a genuine problem doesn't meet with those characteristics - it is "censorship". Apple Computers are censoring the speech of their users seeking support from other users (and Apple).
So I guess what you're saying is "don't expect Apple to offer support or act ethically towards their users". Fair enough.
>Due to the different laws in different countries, who should you personally contact to solve the problem varies so even such answers in globally-read thread which should be purely technical can be inappropriate. //
Yeah 'cause that's why the posts were deleted. Not like you could simply add a comment "these returns are only available in the EU".
>What's certainly clear is that nobody would even want the forums without the active moderation, except the spammers and the insane. //
Which is a strawman. You can have a moderated forum without deleting posts simply because they'd affect your profits.
Not sure if you're trolling, but I'll bite. Agreed that aggression in forums shouldn't be tolerated and aggressive or false comments deleted, but this isn't a case here. The point of a support forum is to provide a platform for getting information about a problem you are having. Legitimate questions and solutions to problems are being actively deleted by Apple and it's clear they are trying to hide bugs in their software rather than addressing it.
Have you actually read the posts or do you also react purelly emotionally? Lessig fixed on the post that was clearly inconsistent, and Lessig's own posts are "why ate you moderating" subjects, nothing technical. There were also some strange claims of "heating the chips to 300 degrees helps."
The frustration of non-functioning phone is understandable. But the decision to keep away too emotional posts or those that attack moderator's decisions is also understandable.
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/03/19
In short, "do it in your own forum, I reserve the right to delete your posts in mine, and by participating, you're acknowledging my right."
If you did any real-life engineering, you know there isn't anything that can be produced without any glitches. You are aware that your product isn't perfect, but you still wouldn't want to support aggression in your own forums. Due to the different laws in different countries, who should you personally contact to solve the problem varies so even such answers in globally-read thread which should be purely technical can be inappropriate. In European countries it's very regulated and clear, for example. I don't know how it's in US.
What's certainly clear is that nobody would even want the forums without the active moderation, except the spammers and the insane.