After searching threads for 'good dentist ' this one disturbed me a little. I will now change my appointment with Dr Nyc at Worldlink and conclude from my own experience and others posts that WL are a highly variable bunch!
But what really disturbs me is the fact that I have to guess about the credibility and intent of posters eg was that really you Dr Chan....you did not deny this question but went 'off air' when you were asked.
This is not the first time I have come across this sort of thing on this site, rarely do I see posters declare their interests. Unless SE works with the whole issue of how best to deal with such examples of ' conflict of interest' it will deteriorate into worthless community of sheisters who use anonymity (spell?) to manipulate genuine information seekers, who as a result, will go elsewhere. Then the SE community will consist of nothing but vested interests all trying to con each other!.... imagine the advertising revenue in that!
I think this is a new topic so I will go to the dentist now but not really confident I am making the right choice.

^ in regards to the postings on ANY forum site...

Always take posted content with a grain of salt and if possible, look into what else the poster has posted in the past to get a sense of their own biases. Not everyone is here to help each other out, but many are. And even the well intentioned make mistakes.

Forums allow a multitude of opinions and characters to come share info, some good some not so good. Sorry to say that despite having the highest traffic of an English language website here in Shanghai, ShanghaiExpat's forum is no different in that here too, we need to be cautious of what one accepts as fact. Repeat offenders are removed but new users with only biased statements and posts should be eyed with scrutiny.

amazing wrote:
The real clue here is your comment " ...having the highest traffic of an English language website here in Shanghai..." Maybe traffic is all that counts in terms of 'revenue metrics' not the the actual quality of user experience. I understand now, good lesson, thanks.

I understand your concern and appreciate your cynicism. Ironically, this site's "business side" was spawned only because the site's overhead of maintaining servers as well as staffing to build and maintain the community, became too great to maintain as a hobby and this it is now an advertising supported site. It seemed a better idea at the time than to limit access to such information to paid membership, which to the management, would be even more distasteful.

Trust me if it were purely about revenues, we would not bother hosting three free events weekly for our members and readers, and I personally would not bother hosting them.

The reason I mentioned traffic is two-fold... One, the traffic has come because the site's goal is to provide an open access point to all sorts of info about living and working in Shanghai. Unfortunately despite moderation, some of what you are concerned about exists. Two, its is because of the increased traffic that even more commercial interests attempt to get on the site to reach this group and so while hundreds of blatently commercial posts are removed every week, it is impossible for the moderation team and admins to get to all of them and verify every single one.

We would appreciate your assistance whenever possible if you have the time. We are adding features onto the forum to allow members to flag commercial and other posts you feel may not belong.

OK....This (website) is an advertised supported activity as a result of evolution,..... community minded hobby becomes too big and popular. so business decision required eg advertising versus paid membership to help defray costs. I understand. You also suggest the return for effort is not great and so implying i might be expecting too much.

Lets be clear - I am not talking about removing all trace of vested interest or activity that 'pollutes' an otherwise healthy diverse community. Don't think that is possible. I said there is a lack of leadership on dealing with this and I do not think moderating is the answer on its own.
Regardless of history, SE is now running a business which is based on a community. I think this business is in transition (eg the community is getting bigger and changing demographically ) The increased commercial interest is a measure of this. So the way things might have worked in the past may not be appropriate anymore. I searched and could not see anything in your TOS (terms of service) relating to poster declaration of interest. I think that latest TOS version was dated 2004?

i appreciate also you give back to the community in free hosted shows but isn't that a development activity in support of community upon which the business is based? And really isnt that the nature of your business?

Well I like this website but I think it could be better and recently think the quality of input is in decline. I wonder about the defensiveness of your (& other moderators) comments and conclude I probably cannot convince you of what I am saying. I wonder also about transparency, for example are you paid? ( or have a share in the business?) cause you post like a volunteer helper. Whatever is the case, I dont think you can be both. Please don't be offended but ALL posters should, as much as possible, be transparent.

So you understand me I see three levels of defense, 1) self regulation (guided by a clear up to date TOS like document) 2) community policing (which does happen but could happen more with leadership) and formal Moderation. Transparency is a level one issue. From experience it is the people who have a conflict of interest who have the hardest time
understanding the concept, so some guidelines would not go astray.

Finally to refer back to the original thread, as someone who lives in fear of oral surgery and has had bad medical experiences in Shanghai, I think finding a Dentist is a serious topic. I cannot tell if a poster is actually talking his own services up under the guise of a pseudonym but it would help to know that they would be barred if they do so. In fact I think its OK for someone to defend their commercial interests but they have to declare them first.
Your answer to this scenario is 'be careful' my answer is there are some business decisions that could be made here to help avoid stuff like this happening.