Is there Censorship at POA

William Pete Hodges

William Pete Hodges

Line Up and Wait
PoA Supporter
Joined
Mar 6, 2020
Messages
852
Location
Virginia
Display Name
Petehdgs
Home Airfield
KCJR
I use GPS in my Mooney now, but being able to seamlessly move to different navigation styles is very important. Two years ago I flew through a GPS hole near Cleveland Ohio. For 30 minutes none of my GPS equipment provided and position data at all. I had a GPS 496, an AERA760, a Garmin GTX345 transponder, and a SPOT Communicator. Not one of these separate devices gave me position or direction during that 30 minutes. The first thing I did was verify my heading and check my DG. Then I pulled up a list of nearest VORs and dialed in a VOR along my heading. I started preparing to complete the 300NM flight using VOR and Dead Reckoning. 30 minutes later everything started working again. Due to this incident I have changed my panel and added ADF as backup. NDBs are going away but AM radio stations aren't, and there is one only 6 miles from my home airport.

I wrote about this incident on POA and I was going to reference it here but I can no longer find the thread. My only conclusion is that POA management deleted it. I find that disturbing. I openly criticized the FAA for removing so many land based navigation aids, especially NDBs which are the least expensive to build and maintain, less than any other type. I guess BIG BROTHER is real.

One of the things that make this a free country is the freedom of speech allowing anyone to share their views openly without censorship or reprisal. I criticized the FAA and my thread on that subject has been deleted. What does that say about POA?
 
Well I am glad you found it. I looked through all my content pages twice and searched the terms GPS OUTAGE and it didn't come up. I will edit my previous post and remove the criticism of POA there.

Thank you for your help,

You have my permission to delete this thread, but your reply to me speaks volumes about what POA is all about.
 
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It appears there is a limit to how far back I can search for content. Is there a way to search farther back. Maybe I don't know how to use the system properly.

Thank you in advance for any help you can provide.
 
William Pete Hodges said:
It appears there is a limit to how far back I can search for content. Is there a way to search farther back. Maybe I don't know how to use the system properly.

Thank you in advance for any help you can provide.
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I don't know about POA search capabilities, but another option you can use is Google. Type in "william hodges gps outage pilotsofamerica.com" and it's the first hit: https://share.google/9gGKkZvNuycLSr2sY

Edit: Click the "Advanced Search" in the POA search box and you can specify dates.
1768661017278.png
 
William Pete Hodges said:
One of the things that make this a free country is the freedom of speech allowing anyone to share their views openly without censorship or reprisal. I criticized the FAA and my thread on that subject has been deleted. What does that say about POA?
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Baked Potato said:
Well that certainly is not true.
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Baked Potato is absolutely right.
freedom of speech, right, as stated in the 1st and 14th Amendments to the Constitution of the United States, to express information, ideas, and opinions free of government restrictions based on content.
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POA is NOT the government.

Freedom means POA can implement (almost) any rule they want.
Freedom means you can decline to participate for any reason you want.

I have been put on timeout more times than I can remember, but I don't remember any time that I didn't deserve it. If I have something I want to say that violates the TOS, there are plenty of other places for me to exercise that choice.
 
William Pete Hodges said:
I use GPS in my Mooney now, but being able to seamlessly move to different navigation styles is very important. Two years ago I flew through a GPS hole near Cleveland Ohio. For 30 minutes none of my GPS equipment provided and position data at all. I had a GPS 496, an AERA760, a Garmin GTX345 transponder, and a SPOT Communicator. Not one of these separate devices gave me position or direction during that 30 minutes. The first thing I did was verify my heading and check my DG. Then I pulled up a list of nearest VORs and dialed in a VOR along my heading. I started preparing to complete the 300NM flight using VOR and Dead Reckoning. 30 minutes later everything started working again. Due to this incident I have changed my panel and added ADF as backup. NDBs are going away but AM radio stations aren't, and there is one only 6 miles from my home airport.

I wrote about this incident on POA and I was going to reference it here but I can no longer find the thread. My only conclusion is that POA management deleted it. I find that disturbing. I openly criticized the FAA for removing so many land based navigation aids, especially NDBs which are the least expensive to build and maintain, less than any other type. I guess BIG BROTHER is real.

One of the things that make this a free country is the freedom of speech allowing anyone to share their views openly without censorship or reprisal. I criticized the FAA and my thread on that subject has been deleted. What does that say about POA?
Click to expand...
Well, you do fly a Mooney and somebody has to draw a line somewhere.
 
William Pete Hodges said:
…country is the freedom of speech allowing anyone to share their views openly without censorship or reprisal. I criticized the FAA and my thread on that subject has been deleted. What does that say about POA?
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The protection you are afforded under the first amendment is protection from the government.

You are not afforded those same protections from a private entity, of which POA is. You may think you should be, but there is much case law stating differently and you voluntarily entered into an agreement with POA to abide by the terms and conditions (Rules of Conduct), which state some speech is prohibited and your account can be be subject to adverse actions by violating those terms and conditions.

www.pilotsofamerica.com

Terms and rules

You must agree to these terms and rules before using the site.
www.pilotsofamerica.com www.pilotsofamerica.com


Never the less, that you posted something and could not immediately find it is not indicative of censorship and raising that flag is uncalled for.
 
JOhnH said:
Baked Potato is absolutely right.

POA is NOT the government.

Freedom means POA can implement (almost) any rule they want.
Freedom means you can decline to participate for any reason you want.

I have been put on timeout more times than I can remember, but I don't remember any time that I didn't deserve it. If I have something I want to say that violates the TOS, there are plenty of other places for me to exercise that choice.
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Except in this case it was simple operator error and not POA censoring anything.
 
Of course there's censorship here. Most of it legit. However, I've noticed that there are some here whose contributions can never be questioned: The Oracles, you might call them. If you question a pronouncement from an Oracle, your post will be deleted. Suggest that an Oracle is opining beyond his expertise and you'll be put on time out.
 
William Pete Hodges said:
It appears there is a limit to how far back I can search for content. Is there a way to search farther back. Maybe I don't know how to use the system properly.
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That is not the intended behavior. Did you used the standard or advanced search option? Do you recall the terms you searchged for? I did a standard search for posts containing "Toledo Suburban Culpeper" by user "william pete hodges" from a user account that has default privileges and fewer than 5 posts, so fewer privileges than an established user such as yourself. It returned a link to the thread in question. If you try it again and take a screen capture prior to hitting the search button (after entering your search terms) it will help narrow down the issue.

Nauga,
with remarkable restraint
 
William Pete Hodges said:
It appears there is a limit to how far back I can search for content. Is there a way to search farther back. Maybe I don't know how to use the system properly.

Thank you in advance for any help you can provide.
Click to expand...
FWIW, Here was my attempt to find it. First try, first page. So it appears that rather that there being some huge POA management conspiracy against you, it's simple "whiner error" by someone who doesn't know how to find things.
1768672265588.png
 
OneCharlieTango said:
The Oracles, you might call them. If you question a pronouncement from an Oracle, your post will be deleted. Suggest that an Oracle is opining beyond his expertise and you'll be put on time out.
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Note: "You" applies to everyone, not just the quoted poster. If you think this has happened please report it. If you're questioning a post that has been deleted you can report the post you think inspired the deleted post and in the report say you think a response was unfairly deleted. If brought to our attention this way the deletion will definitely get reviewed and discussed by the mods, and the deleted post will be easy to find from the report post rather than just rumored and impossible to find.

Nauga,
in the blind
 
I didn’t read the whole thread so ignore if already covered. Even if poa deleted something it has no relation to your constitutional rights. You have no right to publish something on a private company or persons website.

You are only protected in as much as you are free to create your own website and publish whatever you like on it without being censored.

Nobody owes you a platform to exercise your free speech from.

In fact, it would be a violation of the owners rights to force them to publish something against their wishes.
 
William Pete Hodges said:
My only conclusion is that POA management deleted it. I find that disturbing. I openly criticized the FAA for removing so many land based navigation aids, especially NDBs which are the least expensive to build and maintain, less than any other type. I guess BIG BROTHER is real.
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I would ask yourself what made you jump to that conclusion. Because it's far from the simplest explanation.

en.wikipedia.org

Occam's razor - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
 
eman1200 said:
Censorship is neither a censor nor a ship. Discuss.

**** **** **** ****

Hey, I’ve been censored!
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Strange thing with censorship - some words get filtered, same meaning, different word does not. Poop **** Crap

But when you go back to edit, the filter gets undone. So, it's an active filter which, I assume, could be modified to censor something already posted - not just a straight up character substitution.
 
William Pete Hodges said:
I openly criticized the FAA for removing so many land based navigation aids, especially NDBs which are the least expensive to build and maintain, less than any other type.
Click to expand...
Is it possible you were searching for the thread based on the description of it quoted here? I read your old thread (thanks to the users who found it) and did not see any posts in it that quite match your description.

As far as censorship goes, that’s been covered in the thread already. What I would add is that, while the volunteer MC staff does not owe it under the Constitution or otherwise, we strive to be transparent about the moderation decisions that we make. If your thread had been deleted, it is very likely that you would have received notice of the decision and the reason for it under the Rules of Conduct.

We largely operate on the report system. If you have any issue related to a post, report it for MC review. The Report button does not punish anyone, it just generates a flag so the MC knows there is a potential issue. We get, and appreciate, reports of all kinds from “this post violates the ROC” to “in case you didn’t see it because you’re too busy maintaining the order here to read the best threads, this post invites the MC to attend a parade held in its honor.” The latter is, admittedly, less common. We also get reports seeking further review of a moderation action, which is the ROC-safe method of asking us to rethink a decision.

Granted, struggling to find the post you want does stand in the way of reporting it, so this subforum is the next best thing for situations like this. But to my point, I didn’t notice this thread for almost a week after it started. I would have noticed a report, since there are days when that is the only section of POA I have time to read.
 
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