Thursday, November 1, 2007
It is not easy being in charge...
I appreciate that, and that while people are flailing at your head for something you nearly wish you hadn't done, they are also making it very difficult to respond like an adult or a leader or a professional management team. If you change your decision, it lets them think they've won, you've lost. Can't be havin' with that!
There are certain kinds of trouble you wanted to avoid, so you put in place The Rules. But what do you do when The Rules fail in fairness, or in avoiding trouble or actually create more hassle than they prevent--there you are stuck without a graceful way to make adjustments.
No one is going to browbeat or bully you into reconsidering something you have done According to The Rules.
What do you need as an alternative, from us, to make it possible to reconsider a Rule that isn't working the way it was intended?
Can you tune out the bullies in the crowd who just want to knock you down and rub your nose in wrongness? There are plenty of mature and reasonable people talking to you now about this banning issue, and you could listen just to them, and have a reasonable dialog with them, and work out a better system than this one which has caused grief and hassle every now and then for as long as I have been on Blogit.
There are times and places when an Autocrat is the only way to get things done. Usually it is in situations that are short term, like a party, or when the people being managed are unable or unwilling to grasp the whole picture, or lack the sophistication to make informed and rational decisions. Or when quorums are not to be found reliably, to make changes that need to be made.
I don't think Blogit is that sort of situation: It is a long-term party, full of diverse people many of whom are far from unsophisticated, many of whom are mature and good-natured as a rule, and willing to be reasonable. Hard to tell, though, when so many people are angry and frustrated and alarmed and defensive--on both sides of the discussion!
Is there not some way this sort of situation can be addressed productively? Is there not some solution to going through this every time someone is banned whom others liked, admired, and saw good and no harm in?
How about locking down an allegedly offensive blog, long enough to have some time to work out the problem if indeed there is one, or permanently if no other solution will serve?
And what is your concept of the relationship of Blogiteers and Blogit and Blogit Team? Is a community the people who live in it, or the people who run it? Is a management team the autocrat, or the steward of the community? Is walking away the only effective voice of distress the community member has, when distress is with the management of the site? Is protest like this, over this banning, just a storm that will blow over eventually, that can't really do too much damage, so need not be taken too seriously long term?
Blogit has a lot to offer, is basically a great notion--but this is about real people, real feelings, real investments of time, energy and other resources. Yours and ours, both.
So what's to be done?
Ciel
A Pure Businesslike Suggestion
I do intend to leave as a matter of principle. However, I believe the success of any business is partly dependant upon the business owner being flexible to the needs - and changes - of his venture.
In this case, it seems that unless your intent is indeed to create discord and sadness - rather than a healthy, open forum through which creative people can interact - it would behoove you to make some adjustments to your policy regarding conduct. Here are a few:
1) Do not rely on one complaint from one member about another member to be the platform from which you base your decisions. Set your number higher. How about 5 complaints from 5 individual members? This is a big site, with lots of people on it. One complaint should not reflect the opinion of the entire community.
2) Consider a period of suspension. How about allowing an offending blogger one week with edit-only access to his account? After that time, if the writer's material still violates conduct, the account could be closed.
3) Keep in mind that bloggers have "real" lives, too. Suppose a writer posts something offensive or "spam-like" to his blog, but then has to leave for the day to, I don't know, go to work. Upon his return to the keyboard, said writer discovers three warnings from Shaycom, goes to his account to fix the problem and finds the account closed. That is, in essence, what happened this time.
4) Build a System of Appeal. Allow the banned blogger to plead his/her case. Perhaps build a petition system, upon which bloggers can sign for or against the blogger's banning. Writers come to this site because they have voices, and they want their voices to be heard. Taking that voice away from us takes the air out of our blogging sails.
I realize this seems like quite a bit of extra work, but given how seldom a beloved blogger is kicked off the network, I imagine the time spent judiciously making your decision would be time well spent.
Thanks for listening.
In response to members who posted about .Dave.
The loss of .Dave. is a loss for Blogit and he will be missed.
Believe it or not, we are human and it is frustrating that we can't discuss everything publicly and completely. Unfortunately, for privacy reasons, we cannot discuss a different member's account. All we can tell you is that .Dave.'s account is closed and we are sorry for any distress this is causing you.
To those who are asking about the procedure we use when reviewing reports of potential policy violations, here is more information. You may also wish to read the Conduct Policy.
Robert
Seriously now, guys, his post was in the humor section...
And it clearly was satirical.. humor... nonsense. Just being silly. It cannot be spam if someone is not having it forced upon them, and people have to click on it to read it. If they don't like it, they don't have to click. It was never truly identical or repetitive considering that he changed the number at the very least, and he said that while waiting for a response from you that he changed it dramatically and you still banned him. Why would you not give him more warning? He's been a wonderful part of our community for years and this is such a dramatic and monumental overreaction, I can't believe it. You have become automatons, no feelings or concerns for the very people that make Blogit happen ... for the people who have made it grow. So many good people have left because of that. Why can't you just suspend someone, not be so extreme? Especially someone like Dave. It ruins the experience for so many of us when you treat us as nothing but money coming in.
Community members have spoken here.
Where is the help?
No answers yet ...
I see we're still being given the silent treatment here. Now that's very professional indeed!
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Just a suggestion...
You might want to at least pretend like you give a rat's ass about what your paying customers are thinking and posting right now, for the good of the site. I've watched many a blogger banning go down, but this is the first time I've seen this much of a public outcry. Just a suggestion, and I'm sure you think you're too smart, too powerful, and too in the right to address the likes of us lowly bloggers. You might want to consider that thought process a little because, the fact is, without bloggers there is no Blogit. Not all of us here are nobodies in the real world, some of us carry a little real life clout and could really do damage to the reputation of this company you are trying to market and build. Again, just a suggestion, but why not try climbing down from the high horse long enough to explain yourselves. If you continue to silently wait for this to subside, you could find yourselves in a very steamy situation. We all see it coming. Do you?
I doubt you'll answer this one either but...
It seems to me like you have a problem or two here to contend with regarding the banning of .Dave.
First of all, you are allowing people free access to his intellectual property, including yourselves, while he does not have access to it.
Also, there are consumer rights issues that need to be addressed here because we are paying customers of Blogit. As consumers we have rights to information and services that are necessary to our use and enjoyment of the site we are paying to use.
How many complaints does it take to offset the rest of the community, all of whom pay to be here. I'm concerned that as a consumer of Blogit, my personal enjoyment of this site has fallen second fiddle to the complaints of another. Where did I agree to that when I signed on here? I certainly don't recall any such thing being suggested anywhere in the rules.
And where in the world did you come up with the idea that posting to a blog could possibly be spamming in any situation. Do you really have no clue what the term means? Are you really convinced that you have a good handle on what's going on here, because you might want to look again. You don't seem to understand the concept of your own website. If a person voluntarily clicks on a post it is not spamming, and 5 posts to one page per day isn't all that repetitive either. So, a defining of your own rules would be nice. They make no more sense today than they did when I first joined here.
Another thing to be addressed, paying customers of Dave's counting blog no longer have a product to consume, and based on what exactly? Do we not have the right to know what the situation was, so our own service isn't shut off without warning as well. Besides wondering where a certain daily read blogger has disappeared to.
Eventually you will have to answer to these and many other questions being raised all over Blogit. I don't think silence is going to make this go away this time, you're probably going to have to actually address your actions and try to justify them to the community. Too many people think you are too far over the line on this one. So, speak up already, stop being such wussies.
BLOGGER SORELY IN NEED OF BANNING
I am at a complete loss to understand Blogit’s conduct policy : on the one hand, and amusing, innocuous blogger is banned for some totally obscure reason, fathomable only to it creators, while a trawl through the Religion and Spirituality post will reveal a blog that is truly shocking, repulsive, and one would imagine, utterly unacceptable in any public forum.
It would be invidious to mention names, but the bloggers identity is easily established. He is an ignorant, bigoted, semi-literate cretin, whose rantings might well have been lifted verbatim from the Instructions of Tomas de Torquemada, or Malleus Maleficarum, ( The Hammer of Witches.)
Never, since my researches into the Spanish Inquisition have I seen such disgusting rubbish peddled in any public forum, nor see such venomous, contemptible, and contemptuous dismissal of dissenting comments.
What the Hell are Blogit doing, giving a platform to this subhuman cretin's insane vapourings, and utterly loathsome treatment of his fellow bloggers? I'm sure that his reply to their comments must have left some female bloggers in tears, and if that isn't sufficient reason to ban someone, then I don't know what is.
68 BRING DAVE B ACK THIS IS CRAZY.
