Board Observations...

[Pierced Musie]

Back when I first joined here I was called a bully. The incident was cleared up within a day and all was forgotten. Flash forward to now and I'm stumped as to why the obvious bullying tactics of certain members of this board hasn't been dealt with. This isn't a bitch and this isn't a moan... this is an observation from someone who has been sat in the virtual corner and watching.

1. The Shipping War

Not just between shippers, but between the ones who are not die hard shippers. I've seen nastiness between two ships, blantant hate when anyone enjoys a character that threatens that ship completely. A hate for the character is fine because we can't love everyone can we. But to hate the fan and make it personal? Not cool.

An example being contradictions with certain members. They attack a certain favourite couple and pile the fans into one catagory, but will make things very personal when it comes to the couple they adore. What gives anyone the right to believe their favourite is what everyone else should love and their hate should be hated by everyone.

Back when I joined I was a Noah/Kit fan, which was not a popular ship. But did any Noah/Hayley fans attack me for prefering Noah with someone else? No. If anything I had a lot of fun with Noah/Hayley fans because we shared different views!

2. Character Appreciation

So much has changed when it comes to character appreciation. We used to be able to voice our views on character's, whether good or bad, and not get heat from it. We used to have decent conversations that didn't flow into a bloodly argument with personal attacks and smackdowns of intelligents.

Now when someone voices how they feel they get slammed completely. I'm not a coward but for the last few weeks I haven't been able to post something meaningful in the Aus discussion thread because it makes me feel physically sick to be in there. One of this boards most intelligent and respected (yes, you are and you know it!) members is being bullied and yet nothing is being done. Surely everyone knows who I'm talking about?

I love Emmasi because she isn't afraid to put her thoughts down when everyone is being so horrible. It has been obvious for what... 2 years now that Rachel is not her favourite character yet this year she gets slammed for her longtime opinion.

Is she being bullied because she disses the actress? No. Has she personally attacked anyone without being provoked? No.

And she is not the only member who has gone through this but I name her because I don't want to see her change her posting style.

There is probably more that I have noticed but typing that has sent me in a complete rage to be honest.

Because this is a section about questions I have one.

Will anyone listen to me?

P.S Don't you dare close this or delete it. Someone needs to say these things!

[Natasha]

^^I've actually sent a mod with my concerns about this about two hours ago about this. I'm glad someone has spoken up. I've been too afraid to.

Thanks for speaking your mind. I hope they won't close this because something does need to be done.

[Pierced Musie]

So I have support? Awesome!

[Traceve]

Wow. Hats off to you for making a post about it all! I've been thinking about the points you made on and off for a while now, but didn't really have the balls to speak up. Well done!

[*Maddie*]

I'm sure lots of people will appreciate your guts for taking the first step. Hopefully something will be done about it soon

[.Amy.]

I know that people can get pretty protective about their ships and characters and I am glad that you have spoken up about it, the only question is though, what can actually be done? But it would be great if it stopped so that people can feel that they can discuss their personal opinions without angering someone.

[Skykat]

Probably I shouldn't be posting because I'm on high levels of medication so I apologise if my post doesn't make sense.

The situation with emmasi has been bought to my attention recently and I promise you that it is being dealt with if you can trust me on that one. I'm sure if you ask emmasi she will also back me up that I am working with her to resolve things for her and have been since i was made aware of the situation last week.

With regards to the shipping and people jumping on each other for liking or not liking a certain ship I am tearing my hair out as to what more I can do. I've posted numerous warnings, we've pulled up individual members on the boards, in private, we've issued moderator preview, posting bans I've mediated between members. I posted not so long ago a very clear definition of what constitutes personal attacks in the character appreciation forum, we overturned that whole forum because of the hatred in there. There is a lot of stuff behind the scenes that you guys don't see, we're working our asses off trying to keep the peace on here.

I personally HATE that people are jumping down each others throats and making personal attacks but we deal with each case as it's reported to us and make warnings to the boards as a whole.

On one hand we're accused of being too heavy handed and taking sides, on another hand we aren't doing enough.

Obviously the aus forum is a bone of contention so I'll be turning that into my focus for the next few weeks, probably we'll appoint a new australian mod to specifically monitor and moderate that forum, it seems a common complaint that we neglect in there and a high quantity of our staff are UK pace so not posting in there regulary, maybe since emmasi stood down we haven't paid it enough attention so that will be changing.

I'm not going to close this thread because contrary to popular belief I'm not a complete bitch and I do want members to feedback their opinions to us. I just honestly don't know what to do so yeah bash away but if you have suggestions for something we haven't already tried, by all means I want to hear it.

[emmasi]

Emmasi's been AWOL for a while, but this thread was brought to my attention and I have to post.

I remember posting in Aus Discussion that I could give as good as I get when it comes to bitching at people who bitch at me, but the truth is I don't want to be a bitch anymore than Kat or Jess does, and the truth is that none of us are bitches, we're just members of this board who are sick to the back teeth of the crap that goes on here day in and day out.

I've been a member, I've been on staff, and now I'm a member who knows what it's like to try and control other members, and a member who knows what it's like to be repeatedly attacked when the mods appear to be doing nothing to help. The truth is, I have been talking to Kat about my situation and she and the other mods are trying to help, but there's nothing they can do, short of banning every offender, that will ensure the board is free of spite and malice, and people generally trying to make their name off of hurting other people. It sux. Is it so hard for people to just be nice to one another, and to respect one another? Is it so hard to bloody behave like civilized human beings? Or is there some law that says that, just because you can't see the person you're talking to, you don't have to think about what your words are doing to them?

The reason I've been AWOL is because I just can't be stuffed listening to the garbage that I have to put up with for having a different opinion, or for expressing it with a bit of colour. And that's the reason that I will continue to be AWOL until this sh*t sorts itself out.

Thank you sincerely to Jess and Kat for both jumping into the fray on my behalf, even when I'm too tired to keep fighting for myself, and thank you to anyone else who is supportive of me, and of my hopes that one day we will all just get along, and be able to say what we want, when we want, AS LONG AS it is not against the FORUM RULES, and is NOT an ATTACK on another member!!

[Dean]

I just want to back Sky up by saying that everything that gets reported and that is brought to our attention is discussed at length in the staff section, NOTHING is ignored at all, the whole reason we are moderating is to keep the board going. The staff are only human and we do not have immeadiate solutions for everything. I think that is why we get so frustrated by things that continue to happen which are completely unecessary after we have worked so hard to try and change things for the better, from the character/actor forum to spoilers and now to bullying in Aus Discussion. As a member I love (example, sorry Jem) Jem's point of view each and every week as it offers some variety. I am an avid Rachel fan and her views offer an insight and another way of seeing things. Never once has she said her way is the only way, or that anyone else's opinion is invalid.

I think it sad if it gets to the point where people feel they can't even make ONE post for the fear of instant retribution. If this it what it has come to I would encourgae everyone to two things. THINK before they post and IMAGINE what it would be like if you were recieving the reply, not giving it.

[Izzy H]

I don't normally comment on these things, but the past few weeks my frustration about certain members being nasty to others has really annoyed me. I noticed it with the whole situation with emmasi a few weeks back and I just could not understand why the members involved would not respect her opinion even if they disagreed with it. In fact, it was just getting personal and it was horrible to read.

Other situations I have came across is certain members being very agressive in their posts when they reply to others comments. There has been one member in particular whose posts I read and whether they intend for it to be agressive or not, it comes across badly. It just seems like any chance they get to post they will do so.

I am also getting annoyed with this whole Jack Holden situation. I am one of those people that believe that at a later date if they wanted to bring the character of Jack back, whether it be Paul or another actor that plays him, they could potentially do so. Fair enough it has been confirmed his gone, and yes, on screen he is dead. I am sick and tired of people saying things like 'get over it' etc. Again, they do not have to agree or think the same, but I as a member like to speculate about what could possibly happen which I did so with cryptic clues and there were a few that I commented on that were about Jack. Cryptic clues, to me is about speculating and thinking of what the clues could actually mean, and its annoying when people knock down what you say and say no its not correct, how the hell do they know.

And there is another thing that annoys the hell out of me. It is when members constantly ask Dan (Admin) to confirm/tell them things. What is the fun in that? Yes, we get told spoilers on a weekly basis, and we can have fun talking about them. But he doesn't need to constantly confirm information, he doesn't have to either, I mean sometimes he may not even know whats going to happen. I have noticed members ask Dan at least two times in certain topics to confirm something. For me, the fun is discussing and talking about possibilities or stories that may happen. It would be boring if we constantly had to answers all of the time - there just wouldn't be much of a discussion in most cases.

.... leading on to my next point

Once something has been confirmed using a reliable source of information, why do people not always believe this, why do people get angry and annoyed and nasty when they choose not to believe a reliable source of information. For me being from the UK, I can not always tell what articles from Australia should be taken as confirmed or not reliable, which is always why at first I am a bit unsure as to what to believe, which is why I ask how reliable something is. It's just annoying that once something is 100% confirmed with a reliable source that people still choose to be nasty because they don't believe it.

My points have been building up over some time now, and I am just glad that the topic got started so I thank Pierced Musie for starting this. I am not sure I have covered all what I want to say, but I guess this is a starting point.