Recent fallings out on the forum

[Victoria-NRAS]

Hi everyone

As many of you will be aware, there were issues with a few posts over the weekend. We are very sorry to see how upset this made a number of users, some of whom have sadly now chosen to leave the site.

By the time we were able to investigate these posts yesterday, the posts with the majority of complaints had been removed. I believe they were removed by the people who posted them, and unfortunately this means that we are not able to retrieve them to see exactly what was said. Without being able to see this, we are not able to take action against individual users on this occasion. However, we have made note of all the people who were reported on the posts, and the reasons for this, and will be keeping a particularly close eye on these people’s posts going forward.

The guidelines for using this site are very clear:

'Your participation in the site should be with respect, honesty and in the spirit of supporting and learning from your fellow users.

You are reminded that the site is not the forum to 'name and shame' or to create negative feedback on identifiable individuals. Negative references to identifiable individuals are likely to be edited or deleted.'

Unfortunately, it seems this is not being followed by everybody and we would remind you that although the community welcomes everyone, we cannot let members be made to feel uncomfortable and upset by the content or behaviour of others. Therefore, if something like this happens again, we will review the evidence and may decide to ban those breaking these guidelines, or restrict them from posting for a set period.

It seems a real shame to have to think about these actions as we really depend on you all to look after each other and keep the community going. At the NRAS office we don't have a huge number of staff and work hard to keep up with life on the NRAS community, and would appreciate your help to make it a welcoming and helpful place for others.

Going forward, as my colleague Ruth indicated yesterday on some people’s posts, as far as possible we would prefer if people do not keep referring back to the arguments that took place at the weekend, so that we can all move forward from this incident and have the forum running smoothly again as quickly as possible. If anyone wants to discuss this further it would be best if this were done off the forum, and you are welcome to private message me or one of the other admins, Ruth-NRAS or Lorraine-NRAS. Please be aware that I will be on holiday next week, so won’t be able to respond during that time, but am happy to look at any messages on my return.

In the future, if you ever see a post that you find upsetting or troubling, rather than add fuel to the fire, it would be best to let NRAS handle this, by clicking the ‘report’ button on the individual post/question/response that you are unhappy with. A large number of you did this at the weekend and we are very grateful to you for doing so, as it has helped us a lot in our understanding of what went on. Ordinarily we would respond to each individual who reported a post, but as there are so many, on this occasion we are responding to all forum users on here.

It would also be very useful for us if people take a ‘screen shot’ or copy and paste offending text to send to us, so that if this happens in the future and the posts have been deleted before we get a chance to see them, we are able to read what took place and make a sound judgement. We will also work with HealthUnlocked to see how situations like this might be handled better going forward.

I would therefore ask that all forum users take a moment to think about how they use the site. It is unfortunately all too easy to offend or be offended by written posts, which are not always meant to antagonise.

I hope this will help to draw a line under this situation and will give you some reassurance that we are taking this very seriously.

Thank you for taking the time to read this post, and on a positive note, I really hope to see this forum returning to the welcoming, friendly, supportive site that it so often is soon.

Many thanks

Victoria Butler

Senior Information and Support Coordinator, NRAS

[sylvi]

Victoria,well said,there have been a lot of bad feeling regarding this. I too took a post down because of bad feeling towards me and i am now very careful what i put on here now. I am glad you have put this up.xxxxx

[sciqueen]

I feel that you have not gone far enough. Really disappointed

Sci

[Hidden in reply to sciqueen]

I feel the same way.The offenders have got away with it again!

[Hidden]

I didn't see what it was - it passed me by, and I didn't go looking for it either. But the process seems simple enough - press the report button and PM the offending text or a screen shot to the admins for action, but don't get engaged in an on-line row, The latter will only waste your time in a negative way and potentially warn offenders to remove offensive posts before the admins have had a chance to review them.

Just one question, how do you attach a screen shot to a PM?

[PB1950 in reply to Hidden]

Copy Paste is the only way I know

[allanah in reply to PB1950]

U can screen shot on an iPad. U press the on / off button top right at the same time as the home button and it flashes the page and saves it in your photos, camera roll.

[PB1950 in reply to allanah]

Allanah

Many thanks for that,

It works still learning at my age ha ha

Paul

[allanah in reply to PB1950]

Don't know how old you are Paul but I spent the weekend teaching my mum " tinternet"

As she calls it, she's. 79 now xxx

[PB1950 in reply to allanah]

My user name gives it away

[allanah in reply to PB1950]

I am the last two weeks of the 50's!

[sylvi in reply to allanah]

I am smack bang in the middle of the 50's.

[Jeanabelle60 in reply to allanah]

Awh.....I remember that.....on the day before my birthday itself I watched the clock as the second hand headed toward 12 and i was officially 60! Haven't got over it since!!!!

[Hidden in reply to PB1950]

Same here

[Jeanabelle60 in reply to PB1950]

I'm the same as you.....April.

[PB1950 in reply to Jeanabelle60]

Mine is the third month at the beginning of the 50

[Hidden]

Thank you Victoria, for posting this message, and understand that without the written references you are unable to take further action on this occasion. Having said that I totally agree with Sciqueen in that action has not gone far enough.

[miss]

I have to agree with sciqueen the guilty have got away scot free this can't be write

[allanah]

Must admit to being disappointed I am afraid.

[Hidden]

Please this is not meant to be inflammatory and this past few days have been so lovely on this site, I noticed the following comment on Victoria,s post and am wondering if we can just do this rather continue to post here

If anyone wants to discuss this further it would be best if this were done off the forum, and you are welcome to private message me or one of the other admins, Ruth-NRAS or Lorraine-NRAS

I am new to the site and have been so surprised at the level of support, so many different characters and such smiles that can be brought to my day.

Let's do as Victoria asks and email her privately please

[Ronnie63 in reply to Hidden]

I agree Poppylady as replying to the NRAS post is akin to having the same debate again and undermining the advice/process set out by Victoria

[allanah in reply to Hidden]

Apologies, just reread the post , you are correct .

[sciqueen in reply to Hidden]

I disagree, since nras hands are tied and they have done nothing, despite most peeps knowing who the culprit is, why hide? It is wrong for someone(s) to bully another, to such an extent they leave. Indeed all it seems you have to do is post and take it down quickly and that ensures you get away with it.

Wake up peeps this cannot be right!

Insufficient is being done to curve this behaviour and I'm gonna shout it from the roof tops. Peeps should not be afraid to post or be discouraged in any form from posting.

So report, report & report, as she'll find a new victim - so watch out.

[beauty96 in reply to Hidden]

How does one send private messages. I ask this cos there are times when I would have loved to continue a thread

[Hidden in reply to beauty96]

click on the persons name and that will bring up their profile. On the right there is a yellow box saying "message" click on this and send the message privately.

[Philip]

Hi all , I'm glad I have not been following what has been going on but as it is said those who have gone for good or for a short time, they will be missed by us all and if there is a way to get them back then let's give it a go, please,

Also you can always attach a screen shot and then email it so as to keep the evidence.

Philip

[cathie]

Do we really want NRAS to be concentrating their resources on sorting this out? We do need to monitor things ourselves and take responsibility for one another in showing respect. My personal view is that we need to hold back a little when we get over involved with people we don't, on the whole, really know. I think of people on the forum a bit like people you meet in the hospital waiting room. Once, in ten years I've made friends with someone I met while having infusions, and I was delighted to rediscover her here. And I've been touched by people who have said particularly nice things. But I try to think several times before expressing an opinion which might be controversial or upsetting. Have been considering this since Monday. I hope we can put this all behind us.

[Poppymichael7]

I have been reading on here for a few months now, and written a few replies etc but I can't say anyone has put anything on that would be classed as bullying so I guess I must have missed something somewhere. This site has helped me greatly with being able to express my feelings.

[Victoria-NRAS Partner Moderator NRAS]

Hi all

Just a quick update from me. Firstly, I have deleted a comment on this thread suggesting that the 'bullies' be 'named and shamed'. This goes against our forum guidelines, so please do not name and shame on here. Information can be sent to us by PM or through reports.

I know that a number of you have expressed concern, on this thread and by PM that we have not taken greater action against people who were seen as being in breach of the forum rules. I hope that this was largely explained in my thread, but to try to clarify, I had reports against several individuals, some of which contradicted eachother. This makes it very hard for me to judge what is correct and what isn't, and this has highlighted a big problem for us, in not being able to review deleted posts.

I do not blame people for deleting their posts, as they probably did so because they had got out of hand, but it does make it hard for us to take serious action against individual users.

However, I do not want you to think we take allegations of bullying lightly on the forum, or that we have not taken any action. I have been in contact with HealthUnlocked, who are now fully aware of what happened on the forum, and the difficulties caused by us not being able to see removed threads. They are currently discussing ways of resolving this, and are confident that this process can be improved to stop this from happening again in the future.

I appreciate that this doesn't fully resolve what happened at the weekend, and I am really sad to know that we have lost regular forum users over this dispute and that others may have been put off posting for a while, but I hope it helps to know that we are working hard alongside HU to improve the experience for all of you.

Kind regards

Victoria

[Ronnie63]

Thank you Victoria, I understand the limitations of the IT systems, back up arrangements, and was expecting that to prove a barrier in your investigation. The advice you have provided is sound, and I appreciate the role NRAS has and should play in these situations

Regards

Ronnie

[allanah]

Thank you Victoria I am glad to hear that monitoring of the site will be increased, this makes me feel much happier and more secure.