We try our best to keep forum politics and nastiness away from this site. But in some cases, I think our readers would be interested in seeing some high profile backlashing going on.
Recently, Doug Heil, owner of IHelpYou Forums, a forum we cover every now and then, was placed in pre-moderation status over at Search Engine Watch Forums. Pre-moderation, for those that do not know, means that all posts submitted need to be approved by a moderator before they are posted.
It is known that Doug was never happy with certain aspects of Search Engine Watch Forums. Doug is a well known white hat with a mission to remove "black hat" methods from the forums and from the industry. Search Engine Watch's perspective on this topic is that they want to allow both views, white hat and black hat, to be discussed openly in the forum. That is why there are different forums, different people like different styles.
Apparently, Danny Sullivan and Doug Heil have been in communication via private messaging about the pre-moderation. I have been watching a thread at IHelpYou forums, and Danny has made a strong reply. It is hard to imagine, Danny has basically, single-handed, built this industry up.
Anyway, I will not share my opinion on this topic, view the thread if your into the politics and if your into the industry. All I have to say, it is not easy running a forum.