Member Behaviour

About Media Spy
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Hi everyone :wave:

This is not a post I really want to have to make, but I think it’s time to address it.

It hasn’t gone unnoticed (by myself and the Mod team) that the posting conduct has changed negatively - it’s been happening for some time, but it has become particularly apparent in the last few weeks.

I don’t think it’s due to one specific reason, although it’s clear that a few things are going on that are contributing factors - there are lots of things going on in the world around us (both directly and indirectly related to the site) and a hell of a lot of it isn’t particularly positive and it appears that some of the reaction to this, be it frustration, anger or whatever else you want to term it is starting to leech through to this discussion here.

The purpose of this post isn’t to single particular people, or discussions out - rather it is to act as a reminder of our Forum Rules (available to review here) but also remind you to think about how you interact with the site. The member base here is made up of a fairly diverse bunch of people and we all need to be cognizant of this when interacting with each other as sometimes what we post may not be against the rules, but may be construed in a negative context when that may not have been the intention which seems to be the cause of some of the angst we’re seeing.

We’ve traditionally been pretty liberal with the rules and I’d like to hope that we can avoid the need to be stricter with their application, but that is very much driven by how we all interact. If you’re concerned about particular content, the flag system exists to bring it to our attention.

If you have concerns about the conduct of someone, please bring it to my attention (or the attention of one of the team) via PM (the last bit is important, don’t do it in this thread) and we’ll look into it. If you think you need some timeout from the site, we’re not an airport so don’t feel like you need to tell us, but if you have concerns about whether you’ll be able to do it or not, we can arrange for an agreed period of site-enforced self-exclusion if that helps.

If you think your participation here (be it directly or indirectly) is having a negative impact on your mental health, I implore you to prioritize it - lots of great resources exist that can help (there is a good list here). Your mental health is important and there is little gained by putting it at risk by participating here, and please, take all the time you need - we’ll still be here.

I’ll keep this open for comment for the time being - but if it turns to shit, I’m closing it.

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I think this shouldnt need to be said, and I have tried myself to reign in some of the negative comments I see from other members behaving like children. @bacco007 it is really sad you had to make this post as I try myself to stay calm and keep discussions on topic.

Healthy debate is good. Personal attacks for opinions is not.

Keep it civil guys

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I will have to curtail some of my posts as well, I feel like tonight I may have just gone a little to much with what transpired in the pet peeve thread and another thread. I will apologize to the admins for that.

Again I am sorry for tonight.

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I think what we all need to remember is that we are all humans behind a screen. No matter what the discussion is, or if there are disagreements, words can still resent in different ways for other people, especially in text where that tone context is 100% gone.

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Ive decided to not post anymore due to the toxicity and may delete my account due to whats been happening.

There are many Facebook and reddit groups that can fill my discussions.

This site used to have proper discussion but its divulging into shit talking and personal attacks.

Its a shame but I have watched this site going downhill for the past few months with all this and its finally come to a head with some of the private messages I’ve been getting.

Its amazing how otherwise partially educated people can turn into menaces on the internet.

Thank you to everyone who has been good to me but its time for me to go bye bye and cut the negativity out of my life

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I’m a very quiet contributor to this forum but unfortunately have stopped commenting. The response to a neutral comment often warrants a debate or being questioned, and I’m certainly not here to argue! It’s a shame because there could be some great discussions.

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I’m hesitant to post here now, especially after being continually attacked for my posts. I’ve worked for all three of the big commercial FM networks, and don’t hold animosity towards any of them. I call it how I see it, but some people really don’t like that, and I have a feeling those people are likely die-hard company loyalists.

I know others in the industry who hate these sorts of forums, and will take every opportunity to attack and berate others for having an opinion. What they don’t actually realise is that there is many of us in the industry who post here.

From the look of the lack of activity on the radio forums for the last 4 days, it seems a lot of people feel the same way, which is sad, but understandable. Thanks for the good chats over the years folks.

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I agree. I think in the past month or so we have witnessed the decline of the site and now people are afraid to post due to being harrased or bullied for their opinions.

Sad to think its now dying and was once a lively discussion beong brought down by a few bad eggs.

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You guys clearly haven’t been here very long, in the last 20 years this happens every once in a while. Things get heated and then it calms down. I wouldn’t worry too much.

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I was here back in the original forum days, so yes, I’ve been around for a while.

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I would like to know how defening myself aganist someone who has insulted me deserves to be belittled, or maybe thats a subject for me to bring up to my clients to have this forum looked at for libel.

I was insulted by someone and was simply pointing out and defending myself.

Bad call guys, bad call.

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I’ve been a long time follower of the site since shortly after the move to Discourse, but even during COVID I don’t think things were this bad. I joined the site to have a good, decent discussion of the media with reasonable critiques, but now every second thread I read involves some sort of battle between individual members.

@OnAir could a solution be taking the site offline for a week or two? Could give people sometime to calm down, and reassess their usage of the website.

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I would vote for this ^^ You probably don’t need to take the whole site down. If you were to follow what Whirlpool do they would take the whole thread down the either clean it up in other words delet a lot of unnecessary discussion. Or if it is really out of hand just take the thread down.

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The Covid threads ended up being a bit of a bearpit at times during that time, but it didn’t really spill over to the rest of the forum all too often. I do agree that things seem more intense now than I can ever recall and it seems to be across even parts of the forum that have traditionally never had many problems.

I’d concur with your idea that perhaps a pause on things for a week or two might actually be a good idea at this stage to perhaps take the some of the heat out of things.

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In MS defence on that one, the misinformation around Covid was everywhere and MS was not immune.

Theyre were varying levels of understanding, conspiracy theories and to be honest absolute batshit crazy stuff going on around that time.

Heck I even saw a friend divorce his wife because she became a conspiracy nutter overnight!

Covid was a crazy time!

I think it was inevitable that it would make its way onto here in some capacity.

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I don’t think the forum should be shut down for any period due to the daily events such as ratings reports and any breaking news. People shouldn’t be punished and have to miss out. I don’t have the answer but do agree it’s gotten pretty bad around here.

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Literally all the problems seem to be with you, maybe get a mirror and stop moaning about everything else. This is a media forum, not a politics one.

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I fail to see the politics aspect in what I have said. The Covid stuff? Thats just self explanitory and I’m not going down a conspiracy rabbit hole with you or anyone as thats all crazy stuff. Lets leave that in 2020. :rofl:

Either way I am over it now, people just treat other like dregs and things get removed/taken out of context. I guess thats life. Lets move on

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I feel I have missed a lot of the drama. I will stick to my AFL thread. I think the worst thing is to discuss political issues with anyone online. Anyone can tap at a keyboard but not anyone can voice it in person.

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Me too, I didn’t realise there was such an issue until i saw this thread.

There has always been a few snarky remarks in this forum here and there, occasionally at me, but I just resist the temptation to hit back and just steer clear of that individual for a while.

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