Other Fintech Forum Moderation

General Chat
456

Yes, that’s definitely me (although after the revels name saga I suppose I could be anybody 🤷).

I’m sure there are lots of discussions going on behind the scenes about what we can do to avoid some of the things which happened this weekend from happening again.

It’s also worth nothing that some of what happened was very quickly and swiftly removed by the team and so was unlikely to have been witnessed by many. I didn’t see any of it, I had my jab on Thursday and felt fought for a few days so actually took a few days sick…

I suspect it’s unlikely to come out of read-only until its been worked out what the new direction will look like and what changes will be made.

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457

Well I suppose I could post a tweet verifying myself, or on Reddit. But then what if my Twitter and Reddit accounts aren’t really me? :wink::thinking:

458

A little bit of organisation doesn’t hurt :wink:

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461

I think it’s just a quirk of the internet. I don’t have time (Okay, I probably do if I’m honest) to commit to volunteering and what it entails. But can I have another tab open and answer someones question? That’s pretty easy. I can do it while I’m working.

I’ve used forums for all sorts of things, car questions, tech, Excel and countless others. If you post an Excel problem on Reddit, someone will solve it for you, for free, incredibly quickly.

If you know enough to help someone, it’s nice to help them.

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462

I think that’s a little bit twisted from what I meant. I don’t think there’s anybody on that forum that is there to volunteer as free online support, I just think for many it comes as part of the parcel of being a member.

I and I know others are there for discussions we have on certain threads as well as looking out for news about what Monzo are doing next. For most people, if somebody asks a question which you know the answer to whilst you’re on the forum for other means, then you’re more than likely going to share it, thus offering support.

Nobody sits there waiting to offer it

Edit: @anon46977588 said it better than me above

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463

We got an update!

Hello everyone,

Just to keep you updated - we don’t have a timeline for reopening the forum just yet. But it’ll likely be early next week.

We’re taking the time to make sure that this is a safe place to post and that the conversations remain constructive.

Speak soon!

Thank you cookywook!

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464

I’m waiting for it to get burned to the ground next week then.

tenor (1)

Stock up on popcorn at the weekend, I feel it’s going to be needed :sweat_smile:

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466

I think it can also be explained by people wanting to feel part of something which is important or meaningful for them.

I started off helping run a BBS and IRC channel in my teens, it was just a bit of fun and a way of connecting with likeminded people and meeting new friends.

Then I later got involved with the online forums of my local radio station, moderating them and eventually running them. It was interesting and I got invited to various events that the station put on and got to meet “celebrities”.

For my sins I then helped run (with a couple of friends) the world’s most popular Mary-Kate and Ashley fansite. We got ~31 million visitors a month, but struggled to monetise it and constantly struggled to make ends meet. We also use to get threatening letters from Dualstar’s lawyers which was pretty ironic because we worked closely with MKA’s staff and regularly got to break news and updates. All we had to do was to email Zak (who ran their own online operation) and we’d get a grovelling letter of apology blaming the threatened legal action on a ‘miscommunication’.

All of those were voluntary, and in the case of otorg it cost month each month. They were all fun, all came with a bit of prestige and access you wouldn’t have otherwise.

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467

I’ll take that bet :money_mouth_face:

468

How many time have you used this in a “Tell two truths and a lie” situation?

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469

It’s so perfect for that!

(And great to see you here, @danw, welcome!)

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470

Those who know me well would work it out too easily!

Until I redecorated my spare room two years I still had a signed New York Minute poster on the wall :sweat_smile:

471

are you sure El Pedro?

473

That’s the right of the people who run a site (any site - in this case a company).

When you sign up to a website then you’re agreeing to the way that site is run, and how that site may be run in future. The choices you have are either to conform to that, or to not use the site.

There are lots of online communities that I don’t use, or no longer participate in because I don’t agree with that. I don’t feel like I’ve got the right to complain about that, after all it’s their site to run and not mine.

I’m not sure why people get so worked up by it, or the sense of entitlement people feel to have them run in the way they want.

I’m having an ongoing ‘discussion’ at the moment with some local Nextdoor leads. The terms and conditions of Nextdoor clearly stated that you can only use the for sale section for personal items. If you’re running a business then you have to have a business page. For a long time both my community and all those around us have followed those guidelines and consequently the place has been free from spam. Now one of the local leads has gotten involved with MLM and decreed in their community (against the TOS) you can post anywhere to promote your MLM business.

Now there are lots of spam posts, which also appear in nearby communities and it’s an ongoing battle to keep on top of them and moderate the posts out.

Said members are now getting abusive that they’re having posts removed and temporary suspensions to their posting rights. I genuinely don’t understand this - you know what the terms and conditions are, it’s clearly signposted within the app what you need to do if you’re business and yet people expect to be ignore that 🤷

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474

The thing is, though, that that’s not what’s happening at Monzo:

Their “terms” (“code of conduct”) have been very clear. But Coral Crew routinely break them with impunity, while those who want to abide by them are being punished. All that while being endorsed by Alan and Cookie

The very opposite of your statement and situation with nextdoor

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476

And to add, whilst I agree with @danw that Monzo don’t owe us anything, I also understand why many, including me, expect some level of accountability and transparency with moderation. People sacrifice their time to answer stupid questions that would otherwise all land with COps and as such I feel there should be a bit of give-and-take, not just tyrannical rule and purging of undesirable threads

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478

I completely understand where you’re coming from, and you’re not wrong in that Monzo don’t owe us anything. But what you’re saying here comes across as gaslighting, to me.

But I believe we always have a third choice, and that is to engage in the act of providing constructive criticism and feedback. Monzo say they’re open to that, as do some of the coral crew members. After months of being told take it up with Alan which leads to a dead end, cookywook made a post welcoming feedback to his inbox, and Peter’s also reached out to me for feedback too. That’s great engagement, I applaud it, and it’s why I’ve not left or asked for my account to be closed like a lot of others have. I’ve not given up it, purely because Monzo’s leadership have expressed the intention of welcoming criticism and feedback; a third choice.

And whilst Monzo don’t have to heed or acknowledge any of it, because they don’t owe us anything, then, frankly, they shouldn’t be inviting it. To suggest otherwise, is, again, gaslighting.

If my options were limited to the two you presented, I would have left Monzo’s community and closed my account with Monzo as a result of my early experiences there. It can be a very unwelcoming and hostile place at times, and no one is currently protecting users from that. I’m sure this is not the sort of behaviour Monzo want to endorse and would rather folk raise those things than just leave?

I think this is an ever so important thing with online forums and communities. Forums are, and should be run for the benefits of their community members. As a user, I agree to follow the code of conduct, and in return the community leaders agree to enforce it equally and fairly. I’ve seen long standing members violate it so clearly that there’s little left to interpretation be lapped up by their peers and supported by moderators, whilst new outside members are attacked, abused, and have their threads locked as a result of loose interpretations of the conduct, particularly when the close knit long standing members don’t like what the new user is saying.

I’ve seen a lot of communities die because they failed to understand this. Trolls may have ruined the forum at the weekend, which has led to the situation we’re in now. It’s easy to blame trolls, but trolls are almost always a result, not a cause, of something.

It’s not right that folk get abusive, nor is it right that folks have their stuff moderated when it hasn’t broken the code of conduct.

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480

Banned!? What on Earth for? You were one of the more sensible folks on there, and someone I enjoyed engaging with. Don’t think I’ve ever seen you in violation of the code of conduct either.

When your account was anonymised, I noticed, and actually asked one of the coral crew members what happened. This was before I knew anon accounts were users who asked for their accounts to be deleted, mind you.

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482

As a daily reader and possibly not daily poster it left me baffled at times the way threads were chopped and changed.
Any criticism should be embraced - it’s an opportunity to improve.

I did find some posters to seemingly part of a fan club?

The hot coral card company is great but as we all know there are so many improvements it could make.

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483

Yep, I was just told that’s what happens when folks ask for their account to be deleted. Never said anything more than that.

Was a shame to see you go, I think.

Absolutely with you on this.

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