Why close the TH thread?
Discussion
I’ve been in the public relations game for many years - so I have some genuine questions about why the TH thread was closed.
This is a two-way street. Pistonheads wants to deliver organic content that drives engagement and user numbers - showing relevance of the platform to Cargurus (and increases £ of people flogging cars through the platform as user numbers grow). But engagement with the content being key.
TH (he who cannot be named) wants some positive PR about his operations - possibly in light of a sale gone wrong. Plus a bit of retro 80s ‘left school at 14 but boy done good, I have two phones and a big desk’ action (see Philip Green, Suralun Sugar etc).
So the PR play didn’t go as planned, and the engagement went too well. I understand the removal of certain comments for (potential) legal reasons.
But why shut the thread that PH placed up for reading and commenting on? This was content placed by Pistonheads with the complete approval of TH and, I assume, his team. Was this a straight editorial PH decision, was the ad revenue of PH at threat, or was legal action threatened?
Is also seems odd to close the thread yet keep the somewhat glowing feature live? I’d take both down and have some integrity.
But be honest about the basis for the decision as well.
This is a two-way street. Pistonheads wants to deliver organic content that drives engagement and user numbers - showing relevance of the platform to Cargurus (and increases £ of people flogging cars through the platform as user numbers grow). But engagement with the content being key.
TH (he who cannot be named) wants some positive PR about his operations - possibly in light of a sale gone wrong. Plus a bit of retro 80s ‘left school at 14 but boy done good, I have two phones and a big desk’ action (see Philip Green, Suralun Sugar etc).
So the PR play didn’t go as planned, and the engagement went too well. I understand the removal of certain comments for (potential) legal reasons.
But why shut the thread that PH placed up for reading and commenting on? This was content placed by Pistonheads with the complete approval of TH and, I assume, his team. Was this a straight editorial PH decision, was the ad revenue of PH at threat, or was legal action threatened?
Is also seems odd to close the thread yet keep the somewhat glowing feature live? I’d take both down and have some integrity.
But be honest about the basis for the decision as well.
The time has come to close this thread. There are a few things that we would like to clarify:
Firstly, we were unaware of any legal proceedings taking place between parties outside of PistonHeads. There are thousands of posts on PistonHeads every day, and we do not keep track of everything that’s happening in the forums, unless it’s reported to us for moderation.
To respect all parties involved, we have taken the decision to remove the PH Meets feature from PistonHeads. To reiterate, this was an editorial piece of content; it was not paid for, and any promoted content on PistonHeads is clearly marked as so.
As we are now aware of ongoing legal proceedings we will not accept any further discussion of this on PistonHeads. New threads will be closed and while we really want to avoid suspending or banning members, we may ultimately have to do so if our rules are not respected.
We recognise that this will likely cause frustration, but we strive to remain neutral given the ongoing situation.
Firstly, we were unaware of any legal proceedings taking place between parties outside of PistonHeads. There are thousands of posts on PistonHeads every day, and we do not keep track of everything that’s happening in the forums, unless it’s reported to us for moderation.
To respect all parties involved, we have taken the decision to remove the PH Meets feature from PistonHeads. To reiterate, this was an editorial piece of content; it was not paid for, and any promoted content on PistonHeads is clearly marked as so.
As we are now aware of ongoing legal proceedings we will not accept any further discussion of this on PistonHeads. New threads will be closed and while we really want to avoid suspending or banning members, we may ultimately have to do so if our rules are not respected.
We recognise that this will likely cause frustration, but we strive to remain neutral given the ongoing situation.
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