Dear users of the VEBA message board,
I am the BenefitsLink.com, Inc. employee who acts as the
"administrator" of these message boards. I want to keep
the boards running as a valuable, free tool for employee
benefits practitioners.
I have taken an administrative action that some of you will
not like, but which I believe to be in the best interests of every
user of the message boards.
I decided to remove a topic (a message thread) about a
particular, named VEBA service-provider whose business
practices were roundly criticized in messages in the thread.
The service-provider contacted me by email and by phone this
week and we discussed the message thread in some detail. Until
then I had not read the message thread.
The service-provider says that some of the statements posted in
the message thread are false, and that they are damaging his
reputation.
I do not know whether the statements are true or false.
If a statement is proven to be false and it harms the reputation of
an individual, the individual has a legal cause of action for defamation
against the person making the statement.
Per the ground rules that are displayed when a new user
registers, a message can be taken down if a person complains
that it is "objectionable" to him. (Also, users agree not to
post defamatory statements.) As the administrator of the message
boards it falls to me to determine in my discretion what's
"objectionable" when a party complains.
If you or some other user say to me as administrator that a
statement about you in a message is defamatory, I believe you've
pointed out a message that's objectionable to you, and that the
message should be taken down.
My reasoning is that you wouldn't want to have to defend
yourself by rebutting such statements via a public "point-counterpoint"
exchange in a thread on the message boards. Among other reasons,
it would be hard and time-consuming to put down into text all of
the things you would want to say in response, especially responses
to claims made by anonymous posters. Damage to your reputation
could be catastrophic and perhaps irreparable, because a Google search
on your name by a potential client might easily include a link to the
message thread.
Naturally, when one believes that people are being harmed by a
service-provider, he wants to be helpful by warning others. I can
appreciate how very strongly you could feel about
another service-provider's business practices, especially if
based on your first-hand experience or on other information that
you believe to be certainly and provably true. The question, though,
is whether these public message boards ought to be available to
do that. You would have other opportunities to share your opinion,
such as conversations in person, via private email, or via some
other medium that is not publicly viewable. You also could write
and publish an article on a web site that you own or operate,
if you wish to publish your opinion on the Web.
I would like to emphasize that BenefitsLink.com, Inc. has not
made any investigation into whether various statements that were
made in the message thread are true or false. That's not a role
the company has taken on. BenefitsLink.com, Inc. is not the
"publisher" of messages posted to this public message board,
pursuant to interpretations of defamation law made by several
courts, and we do not monitor messages to determine whether or
not they might be considered defamatory. But we have agreed to
take down messages that a party finds to be objectionable if the
party complains.
I know this action might offend you, especially if you put time
and thought into making one or more posts in the message thread.
I can see how you would feel offended and disappointed by this
action affecting your already-posted messages, and for that I
sincerely apologize.
I am not questioning the good faith of any of the folks who
posted messages in the thread. Also, I do not mean to imply
that posts made anonymously are unwelcome.
Thank you very much for all the great help you provide to
practitioners and plan participants through your posts on
these message boards. I hope you continue to find them
to be valuable in your practice.
Dave Baker
Email: davebaker at benefitslink.com