A while ago I wrote about my (negative) experience with the Flickr moderation process. I guess I am not the only one uncomfortable with it – Thomas Hawk touched this topic several times (“Use a Swear Word in a Private Email at Flickr and You Get Your Account Deleted“, “Flickr = Censorship“).

And then I saw this “question” by Aya Rosen, aka lilly1975 on Flickr. But don’t click on the Flickr link, because there is nothing on the other side. Flickr closed Aya’s account.

Full disclosure: Aya is a citizen on Yedda. She’s earned her citizenship long ago – she’s been a helpful, kind and knowledgeable citizen. She’s been helping lots and lots of people with her knowledge and yet down to earth candid answers.

And an even fuller disclosure: Aye is a personal friend. I know her to be an original, free thinking artist, and one of the sweetest, most candid, most kind-hearted person I know.

From Aya’s letter to Flickr:

Your site gave so much and by my account being deleted, took so much from me.

I’m thinking back on my photo stream and remembering so many important moments of my life, which the documentations and interactions of are now gone and all is left in my own memory.

How many web services out there have users that feel that strongly about them?

But Flickr is not the issue. We all do that. Bloggers approve or delete a comment on a whim. Digg promotes or hides news – news! – on an algorithmic whim. Even Google sends web sites and companies to stardom or oblivion due to an “Index Update”, aka The Google Dance.

And Yedda. Let’s not forget Yedda – the company I co-founded – which deletes questions & answers if they don’t adhere to our terms of use. Which, as much as we try, may sometime amount to no more than a whim.

Aya is right, she is “breaking the rules” and her not-a-question does not adhere to the Yedda terms of use, but there is no way we will delete it. Because respect to the people who made the community comes before terms of use.