Missing disability gamechanger?

Cressida

I have noticed that one of the really helpful disability gamechangers on this forum @chiarieds doesn't seem to have posted for a while. I hope she is okay. 

janer1967

Hi yes I noticed that too think it has only been this week but not seen her around for few days 

Cressida

I don't think I should tag her again as I don't want to appear rude. I always enjoy reading her thoughtful responses and hope she will be back at some stage. I thought I might have missed something @janer1967.

I hope she is okay. 

janer1967

If you have missed anything then so have I 

Sure she will be back soon and she is ok 

Lou67

Hi I was actually just thinking the same there, hopefully all’s well with her and she’s just having a break.😊

mikehughescq

It's not for me to say anything in detail but a number of helpful, experienced and humble posters have stepped back from the forum recently in relation to how it is run by Scope; responses to complaints; moderation etc. 

woodbine

Totally agree Mike, it's shameful that scope does little to support it's most valued contributors whilst allowing some others to get away with almost anything. It really is odd and has become more so since the turn of the year <scratches head>

Cressida

All I can say to the remaining disability gamechangers is please hang on in there. I agree with Woodbine's comment  things have certainly gone downhill on here over the last 6 months ...............   

Tori_Scope

We hope that chiarieds is okay too I'm sure they're just taking a bit of a break, and will be back when they're ready. 

66Mustang

I wondered where she had got to as well, as hadn’t seen her for a few days.

Hopefully she is just reading a particularly good book.

mikehughescq

To be clear, I know exactly where she is and so do Scope. It is disingenuous to suggest otherwise.

66Mustang

I’m not really into riddles Mike, can you tell us whether she will be back?

Ross_Scope

mikehughescq said:

To be clear, I know exactly where she is and so do Scope. It is disingenuous to suggest otherwise.

We're not being disingenuous, and we would appreciate it if you didn't cast aspersions. We didn't ask chiarieds to leave the community at any point, and will welcome them back whenever they feel ready to return from what appears to be a bit of a break from the community.

We of course wish them well and they have our full support.

woodbine

And yet it seems odd @Ross_Scope that some of those who have stepped aside from where I'm sitting haven't received the support from scope that their years of contributing deserve, and I say this as someone who has had contact with others.

Scope really has to be careful, and yes I know it's a difficult line to tread but it seems to many of us that long-standing and valuable (to the community if not to scope) posters are allowed to just disappear when and I say this having thought about it some (Removed by moderator) are allowed to remain almost unchecked. There has been another glaring example of a repeated A.I. posting rubbish, surely scope has the technical ability to detect people creating multiple accounts, most other forum can do this with ease.

Scope should be the M&S of forums not the Lidl.

woodbine

66Mustang said:

I’m not really into riddles Mike, can you tell us whether she will be back?

@66Mustang whilst some of us know the answer to that "riddle" i'm sure we all agree it's not for us to speak on behalf of others.

mikehughescq

Ross_Scope said:

mikehughescq said:

To be clear, I know exactly where she is and so do Scope. It is disingenuous to suggest otherwise.

We're not being disingenuous, and we would appreciate it if you didn't cast aspersions. We didn't ask chiarieds to leave the community at any point, and will welcome them back whenever they feel ready to return from what appears to be a bit of a break from the community.

We of course wish them well and they have our full support.

Far far from casting aspersions I am making an accurate statement based on what I was advised first hand i.e. Scope are well aware why said poster has stepped back. I'm sorry if that hasn't been communicated to you. That would also speak volumes about the handling of these matters. 

Your post also reads as though I have suggested you asked said poster to leave. Hmm. 

@66Mustang and nor am I riddling. I don't have that information; wouldn't post it if I had as it's not for me to do so and it would strike me as rather odd if someone stepped back or left but set a finite date on that after which they would return. 

woodbine

Spot on Mike.

woodbine

I find it odd that another comment on this thread and still it's off the front page?

Cressida

@woodbine let's see if it moves now

Cress

Same thing happened with the Poppy thread....
Not that I'd think about things such as convenient glitches...

Come back @chiarieds
We miss you!!

woodbine

I wonder how scope would like us to describe other posters who are basically using this forum to  < removed by poster before scope gets the chance>, it's getting laughable when serial A.I 's are taking us for < not sure what word i'm allowed to use here>

woodbine

Ross_Scope said:

mikehughescq said:

To be clear, I know exactly where she is and so do Scope. It is disingenuous to suggest otherwise.

We're not being disingenuous, and we would appreciate it if you didn't cast aspersions. We didn't ask chiarieds to leave the community at any point, and will welcome them back whenever they feel ready to return from what appears to be a bit of a break from the community.

We of course wish them well and they have our full support.

@Ross_Scope i'm sure a number of us would like to know what that "full support"entails, it's easy to bandy these words about but do they mean anything ? I'm genuinely interested for a number of reasons, does for example scope take the time to find out why longstanding posters up and leave? do they actively encourage them to return?

I'm perfectly happy to in your own words "cast aspersions" because like a number of us I am extremely concerned that we are losing valuable people who give a lot of their time freely imparting their depth of knowledge, if they are cast into the wind they may well never return, and some of them are proving to be irreplaceable.

In short scope has to become more pro-active in supporting such valued people or risk the forum falling into free fall.

I hope you don't take this the wrong way, but i am genuinely concerned for the immediate and longer term success of the forum, we as forum members deserve some answers or else scope might want to consider the very future of it's forums, the reason I say this is because I know from experience that well managed forums go on and on, the others just fall by the wayside.

John

mikehughescq

I can honestly say that the conduct of the moderation in this forum is like nothing I’ve experienced since the advent of the internet and I don’t mean that in a positive way. Literally bending over backwards to keep abusive posters on here because everyone deserves a voice and finding ever more bizarre reasons to intervene on threads with no reference to T&Cs at all.

If Trump were British he’d like it be a disability game changer on here.

Cher_Scope

Hi everyone,

I’m sorry to hear that @chiarieds hasn’t been about on the community and I too hope she is keeping well and taking ‘a breather’ if she feels that is right.  I know we all appreciate her thoughtful, well-researched responses and she undoubtedly brings comfort to many people on a daily basis. 

I’m also disappointed to hear that many of you are feeling disillusioned with the moderating decisions made by the team.  As established members, I completely understand your upset at seeing friends leave and any interventions that you feel are unjustified.  You all share a want for this community to be the best it can be, and you have every right to express this. 

Speaking as a moderator, I want to reassure you that our intention is always to do the best we can for the community as a whole.  Our decisions are based on the gamut of information to hand (emanating from individual posts, emails, reports, feedback) and an objective as possible judgment by the team in line with the community guidelines.  Clearly as humans, this process isn’t infallible, and I apologise for times when our moderation may have fallen short.  We are equally as invested in the livelihood of this community as you all and are actively listening to your feedback to learn and improve our processes.  In this spirit, please continue to send constructive critique to [email protected] or by posting on our ‘Discussion on moderation’ thread.

@woodbine – our support heavily goes on ‘behind the scenes’ via email and is personalised to the member in question.  If it is unclear why a member wants to leave, we ask open questions to try and ascertain what has happened and to see if there is anything we can do to help.  Whilst regards encouraging members to stay – absolutely, we make sure to express our gratitude for loyalty and contributions made but would always put forward the option of taking a break if a person’s wellbeing may seem detrimentally impacted by their time on the community.  Again, if you have any thoughts on how this could be improved send them our way.

I hope you all have a good Friday and take care. 

Francis_theythem

I'm really sad that this is going on. This forum has been really supportive for me and in a way that has been non-toxic for me that is often the case with disability forums. I haven't been here that long but I wanted to say this to those involved recently. Chiarieds has been so helpful to me and I always love reading her messages across the forum, even if I didn't have the energy to reply to all of them/forgot because amnesia. @woodbine @mikehughescq I don't think we've come across each other much but I appreciate everything that you do for the forum. I'll be sad if you left too but I completely respect that.