Censorship at AC

And I completely agree. I love those threads (although I am jealous) where people take pics and show how awesome their LFS is, I prefer compliments to complaints too.

However most people expect living fish, apparently free of disease, and clean looking water.

If the average person could walk into a pet store and find those things, a lot of these rants wouldn't exist, however in isolated areas (and the US is a huge, sprawling place) it is very common to see only chain stores, sometimes only ***-Mart selling fish, and it is human nature to focus on the negative and shocking (oh no! dirty water, dead fish!) rather than the positive and subtle (ahh, living fish and clean water)


Sadly, on this point I can point out many members here that give advice that have horrible water conditions, and I've seen these same people complain about their LFS or claim most of their fish are "rescues" from their LFS.

I'm lucky in that the Pet** near me does a good job with their fish, and I know every Tuesday they get more stock and every Wednesday they will have dead fish. Its a sad fact that when large chain stores get fish in, they have a lot of DOAs.
 
It's not always big box stores. Even our local LFS will get dead fish and disease. It's just part of being a fish store. They do their best to control it but with new stock coming in on a weekly basis and taking fish brought in by customers it can be tough. The LFS near me will put a tank on hold if it shows any sign of disease and they will treat the disease as needed.

Now I will buy from many big box stores if they have something I want. There is only 1 store locally I won't (usually) buy fish from and that is because their fish are extra sickly, usually with 2-3 different diseases in the same tank. At the same time it is up to the consumer to make wise purchases. If a tank is full of disease don't buy from that tank, don't always take the employees advice and quarantine any fish you bring home.

I think the AC is doing the right thing by reducing the amount of LFS bashing. Not every big box store is the same and it is not always their fault for the state of their fish.
 
Personally, I am tired of the numerous negative posts in regards to a chain store. A simple search will yield so many posts of the same chain your head will spin. It does no good to kick a dead dog cause it still ain't gonna move!

People being all chuffed up and bellowing about the conditions always makes me ask the same question: if conditions are so repulsive, why do you shop there? All the posting of how bad XYZ is shows your lack of maturity and grasp of business practices.

Don't tell us how bad the place is, we already know! Don't shop there and don't post about it! Stop with the self-righteous indignation and tirades. All the posting and blubbering in the world will do no good unless you address it to the store in person, not on some obscure hobby forum the store will never see.
 
http://overthink.org/content/view/3/1/

This alone, is enough reason for them to censor names of big box stores. Rest assured a major corporation has more resources at their disposal than the last schmuck who tried to sue for comment made on an internet forum.
 
Rest assured a major corporation has more resources at their disposal than the last schmuck who tried to sue for comment made on an internet forum.

I don't know, I feel like the legal departments of big corporations don't generally waste their time taking the unwashed masses to court over a few trite criticisms...whereas one schmuck would sue over a long, detailed, personal account of bad business practices, aimed at one individual, running a small operation. Even if they don't have the resources of a big corporation...they take it more personally and see it as a much bigger threat.

Personally, I am tired of the numerous negative posts in regards to a chain store. A simple search will yield so many posts of the same chain your head will spin.

Heh, not if they are all asterisks and such ;) In my opinion, you should just delete the thread at this point, because it's virtually unreadable. See here:
http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=239565
 
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Platytudes, I'm glad you brought this up because I hadn't thought of the property vs place thing either. Having a clarification was nice even though I wasn't really concerned as to why since it didn't really affect my own thoughts on any stores. It's just nice to know why things are they way they are sometimes.
 
The point is not so much whether a company would choose to sue or not, but that it has already happened, and AC is just looking out for its own best interests when deciding not to condone any of that behavior. Honestly, as has been said before, pissing and moaning on an aquarium forum does absolutely nothing to better the situation, and is frankly, completely useless, because every store will be run differently. Money talks, bs walks. If you don't like the way a store does business, don't shop there, or complain to a manager/corporate. Complaining here accomplishes nothing but creating a liability issue for the admins. Take it elsewhere, IMO.
 
http://overthink.org/content/view/3/1/

This alone, is enough reason for them to censor names of big box stores. Rest assured a major corporation has more resources at their disposal than the last schmuck who tried to sue for comment made on an internet forum.

I don't know, I feel like the legal departments of big corporations don't generally waste their time taking the unwashed masses to court over a few trite criticisms...whereas one schmuck would sue over a long, detailed, personal account of bad business practices, aimed at one individual, running a small operation. Even if they don't have the resources of a big corporation...they take it more personally and see it as a much bigger threat.
have you met the RIAA lol i know there is a difference. my last crack at this. we make stickies but no one reads them lol.... you can say petco walmart what ever. i went into (fill in the blank) and got a fish. thats fine. the line is drawn in when you go into bashing them. something like.... oh my (fill in the blank) is so horrible all their dead fish and sick fish. so on and so on. anyone spent much time on a fish forum should know what i am talking about. besides as many point out there are good walmarts petco petsmart along with ones not so great. they doint point out their store but all of them in general. it happens with lfs a lot but since most people will have no clue what store they talking about they already just use lfs. on another personal note most of the ones i seen people just want to vent doesnt make much difference what store name is there or not. at least thats what it seems from my side of the computer.

the staff doesnt see ever thread and dont spend their time looking for posts to edit. if one of them happens to come across one thats over the top or been reported they deal with it. the staff would miss a lot more if it wasnt for so many helpful members reporting threads they think might be a problem.
 
The point is not so much whether a company would choose to sue or not, but that it has already happened, and AC is just looking out for its own best interests when deciding not to condone any of that behavior. Honestly, as has been said before, pissing and moaning on an aquarium forum does absolutely nothing to better the situation, and is frankly, completely useless, because every store will be run differently. Money talks, bs walks. If you don't like the way a store does business, don't shop there, or complain to a manager/corporate. Complaining here accomplishes nothing but creating a liability issue for the admins. Take it elsewhere, IMO.

To borrow your own phrasing, the point is not so much that complaining makes no difference, but that when you feel afraid to complain, something isn't...right.


It quite frankly, saddens me slightly (ever so slightly) that my community is afraid to use proper names of corporations when making complaints, no matter how hopeless their complaints may be, no matter how poor their own fishkeeping skills may be.

Even if they are blanket generalizations, even if they are poorly written and unhelpful...usually, people are not afraid to rant for fear of being sued. God help us if we couldn't complain about Windows operating systems, or Fox news, or Outback steakhouse, or whatever else we wanted to frivolously complain about, without using proper names. The internet would be unreadable!
 
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