• ℹ️ Heads up...

    This is a popular topic that is fast moving Guest - before posting, please ensure that you check out the first post in the topic for a quick reminder of guidelines, and importantly a summary of the known facts and information so far. Thanks.

Bullying on Towers Street

The nature of the beast when it comes to the internet is agreements will never be had by all, and every single corner of it cannot be moderated 24/7. Perceptions are skewered as we can rarely detect tones that are being conveyed.

As someone who was a team member on another site and left after witnessing the entire admin team hack a 14-year-old member's fansite, converting it to leekspin and then giving every member of a similar age bracket a hard time in their Shoutbox, I'm grateful for the time, effort and care the team here put in.

I think the nail has been hit on the head by people who've posted before me in this topic, but the diversity of our users and range of opinions (whether agreed on or not) is one of the better ones out there.

You don't need to have been on more than 700 creds, 300 of which are Mexican and Korean wacky worms, and aren't doing well-documented trips to Indian and Asian parks each month to post here or be part of the community.

You don't need to fork out for event fees on top of park admission or transport/hotels to be a part of the community.

This community has so much to give. Lifelong friendships have been forged out of it. Relationships and marriages have come from it. Thousands and thousands of miles of globetrotting trips have been had together. All of this from an online platform.

Whilst we can't always all get along together, there are plenty of occasions where necks have been put on the line for one another and to support each other. It's true, a thick skin is needed to browse the internet these days otherwise it's nigh on impossible not to be offended by something. But as a community, I think there's a general consensus of being able to pick each other up, to acknowledge when wrongs have been had and to apologise where needed.
 
Two last things.
1...
If you want to see what happens with a forum when it becomes overadministrated and over moderated to the point of almost oblivion?
The SABRE roads site at the moment is going through real hard times over what is pretty much falling out and minor threats.
Massive votes on banning two members leading to huge divisions.
No fun for anyone.
2...
This site is very, very good with those of us who can be considered in some way "special".
Love this site.
Credit to all the team.
 
Also I post regularly in less moderated forums where discussion is regularly veering off topic and it can get tiresome quickly wading through pages of back and forth between two people to find actual news.
 
Didn't say it earlier, but meant to: TST is honestly one of the nicest, most welcoming communities I've ever been a part of, and for the team's part in that I am truly grateful. It's not perfect - nowhere ever is - but when compared to so, so many other communities I am or have been a part of, it's just brilliant. So thanks :)
 
First off, as a user of the forums since they started but having had nothing to do with discord so can't comment much about that, I believe the initial post to be utter bobbins of the highest order.

This forum is fantastic, the people are fantastic, the mods are fantastic. When I was getting a bit of heat in a discussion recently (not bullying, not anywhere near bullying, just strongly disagreeing) that momentarily turned a tiny bit personal towards me I had multiple PMs from people of a supportive nature, just people being nice and I guess their underlying thought was checking I was ok and being generally supportive. The mods also jumped in and reminded a poster that getting personal was not on, publicly posted and reiterated by PM I understand.

These are people I don't know, I've never met, I'm not friends on Facebook with. That's the kind of people that are here though. It's a shame to so harshly undermine that.

I moderate a forum elsewhere. It's nothing like as busy as here and it's still testing with reports coming through, boundaries to set and common ground to find. There is no absolute right way of doing it but I find the balance here is just about perfect.
As for off site antics like discord, I've had this elsewhere too and in my experience it never goes well. It cannot be moded in the same way, it will cause splinters and groups and that will lead to cliques which can drive divisions between forum members that can seriously damage the forums. We had a lot of issues and frankly I don't think our forums ever recovered from the fallout a couple of years back. It's difficult though to criticise the moderators of the original forum for members actions off site, their scope for action is hugely limited, but it seems here that appropriate action was taken with apologies all round so what more could you want?

Disappointing, stock response to be honest.

It was anything but. Silly response to be honest.

Hopefully someday you'll get wise.

You are not intellectually or morally superior to anyone else here. Your thoughts might be your own truth, but it doesn't mean they are right and those not agreeing with you don't need to 'get wise' to anything. If you've had your own negative experiences here why don't you try dealing with them in a sensible way directly with whoever you feel has wronged you and the team privately, rather than being offended on behalf of others who have made it pretty damn clear are not offended themselves?
 
Bear I can understand your beef but please take a step back, in your own text it’s coming across quite aggressive.

The mods have responded in a calm and collected manner to your points.

I’m not sure what resolution you want? Please let us know your best outcome to resolve the issue.

Not sure about the discord shenanigans but if it’s anything like the usual WhatsApp groups/messages going around atm, I can understand.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Didn't say it earlier, but meant to: TST is honestly one of the nicest, most welcoming communities I've ever been a part of, and for the team's part in that I am truly grateful. It's not perfect - nowhere ever is - but when compared to so, so many other communities I am or have been a part of, it's just brilliant. So thanks :)

For me they were at one point pretty far away from most welcoming...

Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk
 
So my posts get deleted again. :rolleyes:
I have to be constructive
Ok

Quite a few people posting on here patting them self’s on the back about how nice and welcoming they are.
La la la

Very hypercritical
Very
Hypercritical

Following people across different forums to have a go , irl verbal abuse
 
@imanautie - as Sazzle explained please get in touch with specifics. We want to hear from people who feel they were bullied here. Without hearing from those people we can’t review and make changes where necessary.

@bluesonichd - as stated in the notification you received when your post was deleted, posts should be constructive. Writing a post and adding a single emoji is not constructive nor does it add to the discussion in any way.

Again if you have specifics you want to raise, please message either myself or Sazzle.
 
Quite a few people posting on here patting them self’s on the back about how nice and welcoming they are.
La la la

Very hypercritical
Very
Hypercritical

Who and where? People are saying how they find the forums and other users, not how they are themselves.

If you've had serious issues have you raised them properly?

Edit - it appears Craig's simultaneous post may have answered that question :grimacing:

Edit 2 - I read as hypocritical as it's the only thing that makes sense?
 
Last edited:
So my posts get deleted again. :rolleyes:
I have to be constructive
Ok

Quite a few people posting on here patting them self’s on the back about how nice and welcoming they are.
La la la

Very hypercritical
Very
Hypercritical

Following people across different forums to have a go , irl verbal abuse

In fairness, your original post comprised of just a standalone emoji before it was removed. After a quick scan of the Member Expectations:

Topics can get busy, so try to make sure your contribution is on topic and adds something to the discussion rather than just replying. If your post is only a word or two, or it is off-topic then we may need to remove it to ensure discussion flows.

The blatant fact is this. If there's a knock at the door and on the other side is a well-mannered individual with good intentions, you'd think nothing of it.

If there's a knock at the door and on the other side is a deliberate troll who posts to either cause spite, offence or with hideously outdated views on heated topics (we all know the ones) with an "I AM GOD ALMIGHTY" stance, then chances are that door will be slammed in your face.

Personally? I'm on the side of being all for the well-intentioned, well-mannered as opposed to having time for trolls.
 
So my posts get deleted again. :rolleyes:
I have to be constructive
Ok

Quite a few people posting on here patting them self’s on the back about how nice and welcoming they are.
La la la

Very hypercritical
Very
Hypercritical

Following people across different forums to have a go , irl verbal abuse

do you mean hypocritical as in someone is pretending to be nice when they really aren’t?
Or do you mean hypercritical As in excessively critical and fault finding?

I’m not not-picking on spelling, just trying to make sure you are being correctly understood :)
 
In fairness, your original post comprised of just a standalone emoji before it was removed. After a quick scan of the Member Expectations:



The blatant fact is this. If there's a knock at the door and on the other side is a well-mannered individual with good intentions, you'd think nothing of it.

If there's a knock at the door and on the other side is a deliberate troll who posts to either cause spite, offence or with hideously outdated views on heated topics (we all know the ones) with an "I AM GOD ALMIGHTY" stance, then chances are that door will be slammed in your face.

Personally? I'm on the side of being all for the well-intentioned, well-mannered as opposed to having time for trolls.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Having said there's been issues myself, I don't think there's really anything the team can do other then boot any staff actively being hostile (not that I'm aware of any).

Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk
 
Having said there's been issues myself, I don't think there's really anything the team can do other then boot any staff actively being hostile (not that I'm aware of any).

Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk
As Craig said, send your specifics to mods.

The annoying thing is that’s the 2nd time you have deflected issues towards yourself in the past hour but felt the need to post it.

I’m sure we could sort out all issues with adult conversations.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
As Craig said, send your specifics to mods.

The annoying thing is that’s the 2nd time you have deflected issues towards yourself in the past hour but felt the need to post it.

I’m sure we could sort out all issues with adult conversations.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Have messaged craig.
Not entirely sure what you are getting at saying I'm deflecting issues towards myself? (And twice?)

Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk
 
Top