"From personal experience: Madison's reviews are accurate"

You know they are all accurate because you posted all of her reviews? Or you interviewed everyone who posted a review to determine their accruacy?  Or maybe you were there during the sessions taking notes for later verification.

If she had a bad review, would it be inaccurate, and so should be pulled?  (I'm not saying Madi has ever done that, though some providers have.)

If I saw someone and posted a positive review, and you saw the same person and posted a negative review, is my review inaccurate since it doesn't agree with your personal experience?

“At any rate, you have not made case to remove Madison's reviews, you are making a case to remove EVERY review.  Either that, or you are unfairly singling Madison out.  Your choice.”

I choose option C:  None of the above.  I wasn’t making a case at all, I was merely questioning a specific claim you made.

My guess is that TER chooses to delist providers who compromise client confidentiality on the message boards for the following reasons:

1) It sends a much stronger message to other providers that TER is serious about protecting the privacy of its members.  Staff clearly stated that their intent was to make an example of Madison.  I don’t think the mere threat of disallowing posting privileges would be a particularly strong deterrent.  Madison herself said that she wasn’t planning on posting to the boards much anymore anyway.  I think it would probably be enough deterrent to prevent intentional violations by other providers, but would not be a strong enough jolt to force them to reexamine their privacy policies in general, and see to it that they put safeguards in place to protect themselves from their own carelessness.  I think that is what is needed here.

2) Problem providers are most likely a real administrative nightmare.  There is probably a high correlation between message board violations and review complaint submissions.  High maintenance providers cost them too much time and money to be worth their while.

3) To protect their own reputation and credibility.  I’d hazard to guess that they’d rather disassociate themselves entirely with a provider they feel they can no longer trust rather then simply putting up barriers to prevent further misconduct.

Finally, I never meant to imply that TER reviews are worthless.  They certainly have their place.  I’d just caution against taking them too seriously.  I simply meant to put things in perspective and point out that they don’t tell the full story.  They are a fairly good tool for giving a hobbyist a general idea of what to expect, and an even better tool for weeding out complete scam artists.