"A safe and friendly community"

MSE_JC

Hi all,

Unfortunately it's come to the team's attention that there's been an uptick in needlessly confrontational and provocative posting on the board recently. I'm not going to retread all the ground covered in a previous thread, but the conduct we've been seeing warrants a new intervention.

Firstly, MSE's ethos is 'cutting your costs, fighting your corner'. As well as assisting huge numbers of people with their cases many users on this board have also drawn attention to some private parking industry practices that cause issues for consumers.

As a result, it's understandable that some Forumites may have unfavourable views of private parking firms (either particular ones or in general). However, there is a difference between saying an organisation is incompetent, terrible etc and saying things like its employees are 'intellectually impaired' / should befall an unpleasant fate etc. We appreciate emotions can run high, but we want everyone to stay focused on MoneySaving and assisting users rather than excessive vitriol. As they say in football, "play the ball, not the man".

Secondly, please try to be patient and give other users the benefit of the doubt. The Forum is intended to be a place for people to request and share help and insight.  If you feel like you need to offer an alternative view or think someone's post may be inaccurate, please bear this in mind and respond respectfully. It's frustrating for the team to see simple misunderstandings that escalate into personal abuse, or have to wade through arguments that could have been nipped in the bud if someone had taken a moment to reflect before posting.

We all have different levels of knowledge and have had different experiences. For various reasons, some people have difficulty writing and posting on the internet or processing written information. If you're new to a forum and someone aggressively tells you to just go and read a very long thread containing what can feel like an overwhelmingly huge amount of information, it can be highly intimidating. Some users are struggling with challenging personal circumstances or health issues (physical or mental) that you aren't aware of.

No-one wins when the team have to ban knowledgable people or remove informative but harshly-worded posts. Unchecked, that sort of behaviour makes online spaces toxic, scaring away users and creating echo chambers that don't help anybody. 

We've seen instances of new members asking to have their account deleted not along after signing up because they've been treated poorly or had unfriendly responses from long standing members. This is unacceptable, and completely undermines what the Forum is for. When we say "treated poorly" and "unfriendly responses", this isn't us just taking a user's word for it, this isn't someone simply being told the opposite of what they expected to hear, this is us having carefully reviewed the relevant content and determined that the conduct is not becoming of a welcoming and safe discussion space.

It's entirely possible to offer information or signpost someone to the right board/thread without treating them dismissively. In the past we've seen some posts sarcastically deriding our requests for friendly behaviour but the fact of the matter is that even if you've been a member for years, even if you have a wealth of experise on a subject, if you're unable to respectfully interact with other users then for the sake of the community we'll have no choice but to follow the ACT process.

Think to yourself:

'Is my post going to be useful or contribute to the thread in a meaningful way?'

'Would I speak this way to someone in real life?'

'What if I was in their situation and didn't know what to do?'

Rants, arguments and sneering aren't useful and so aren't welcome. We ask that you please help the Forum fulfil its purpose in a way that we can all be proud of.