From The Editor’s Desk: Where did that post go?

Where did that post go?
Was it a Web site post that was irrelevant to the topic of the thread, was abusive or threatening, or was posted by an author who provided false information about their identity? It has been unpublished.
Many members of our online community have wondered what has happened on our Web site after seeing a post or a thread, only to find that it is gone later.
Last week, one of the new posters to our online community gave us a bit of a mystery to solve.
The topic forum began with negative comments about the performance of one of our staff writers. Criticism of our work is not unusual. It is very public and sometime people like to take a jab at us, sometimes with legitimate criticism and other times with unwarranted attacks. Oh well, that’s the nature of the job.
In this case, the comments were made about our sports editor and indicated that he had skipped out of work, or called in sick, to attend a professional sports game. No big deal. The information was inaccurate, but we did not feel compelled to respond to such ridiculous criticism. Yes, he attended a Twins game and yet managed to get three local sports stories in the next paper. Nothing was missed and we heard no legitimate concerns about the coverage of those events.
But as the thread continued, it became apparent that this was something personal and so we began our investigation.
My first check was in the information provided on the user profile and agreement. At first glance, the name, address and telephone number looked legitimate. When I Googled the phone number, a state agency’s name and address came up. So I called the number provided to us and, sure enough, it rang through to a state agency’s office in Eveleth.
Like any journalist worth her salt, I got a little excited — could this person be posting on our Web site on the state taxpayer’s dime? When I asked to speak to the person listed in the user profile, the receptionist said no one by that name was employed by the office I called. To help me solve the mystery, the receptionist reviewed a state employee list and said the person was not a state employee anywhere.
At that point, it became clear that the poster had violated one of the rules for use of our site. In this case, the poster had misrepresented their identity. They were very creative about it, but clearly this was attempted to deceive us.
As a result of that violation, the thread was discontinued and the poster banned from use of our Web site.
We’d like to think that all our posters are providing us with correct information when they register to use our Web site, even if they choose to use a nickname on the site. Of course we know not everyone is being honest, and this recent case made us believe we need to be more vigilant in checking the identities of our posters.
At some newspapers, staff check the truth behind each post before it is published on the Web site. And other newspapers check each poster’s identity with a follow-up call before they can post. But we believe the immediate exchange of ideas fostered by this forum is too valuable to sit on posters and posts until the limited number of staff find time to review them.
Instead, we’d like to urge people to be honest. We do check names and telephone numbers from time to time. And we will ban posters who violate the simple rules we’ve established. The rules are listed at the time of each posting and on our user agreement, and we take them seriously. We believe our online community should, too.