Bill Herald

Published: Sunday, December 6, 2009 at 1:00 a.m.
Last Modified: Tuesday, December 8, 2009 at 8:56 p.m.

QUESTION: When is a bowling discussion forum not a bowling discussion forum?

ANSWER: As of the time the United States Bowling Congress unveiled its all-new forums on Aug. 3.

USBC obviously has the right to monitor its own forums and establish “terms” regarding its use. But why even have discussion forums if all posts are held for moderation and subject to strict censorship?

‘Negatives’ deleted

………..

Mark Miller, one of 41 USBC forum moderators, has stated the following policy: “Anything deemed to be negative toward USBC or the sport of bowling will be deleted.”

By the same token, one frequent poster was told that one of his posts was censored “due to the fact it had absolutely nothing to do with any positive aspect of bowling … (and) as the rules state when you sign up, we are here to promote bowling in a positive way.”

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Not long ago, USBC’s vice president of media, Pete Tredwell, ventured into the PBA.com Web site.

In starting a new thread, Tredwell said, in part: “I’m trying to learn what people see as the most important things we do, so that we can better serve our customers … I’d like to hear what this group thinks … (and I’m) hoping people take this seriously, and don’t use it as a platform to make jokes.”

……..

After many negative posts, a PBA.com moderator, Bruce Falcon, posted the following, in part:

“This thread has been very educational. I have learned that USBC has a lot of time to spend in PBA message boards. I have learned that the USBC has no vision … I have learned that the USBC has no communication from top to bottom … I have learned that the USBC is in danger of going bankrupt … I have learned that bowl.com was really bad before, and (they) just simply had to change because it was old and sucked and there were no employees working on it … I have learned that the national governing body of bowling is not real good and nobody has a clue. The USBC better get it together or it won’t really matter in 5 years. They better start changing their thinking quick.”

Tredwell responded to Falcon: “Congratulations, your post was the tipping point. After this post, I am done with this thread. What you wrote was inflammatory and hurtful to the entire industry. Hope you are proud.” And Tredwell left the thread amidst a sea of negative responses.