JC3

What is happening at BE? Trouble at t’mill?

• Last month, I noticed Pollyana is no longer moderating.
• This week, I noticed InVinoVeritas is no longer moderating.
• Today, BakedBean tells us she is no longer a Concierge.

What’s causing the exodus?

Whatever it is, I hope BE can:
a) Tell us, the humble BE users promptly, and not just keep silent. This a community and “everyone who participates is in it together” after all.
b) Explain what BE is doing to deal with the problem, and the next steps, both in the short term and the long term.

My major personal concern, living in Malaysia, is of course the Malaysia Forum, where InVinoVeritas was moderator and BakedBean was the Concierge.

With only a few thousand Brits living in Malaysia, reaching a critical mass of contributing members to the Malaysia forum takes a hell of a lot of work and effort behind the scenes.

Having a decent Mod on the Malaysia section has made a HUGE difference. InVinoVeritas’s lively input, local knowledge, and good moderating skills helped enormously to generate debate, and to keep the Malaysia forum content fresh and up-to-date. This is absolutely essential to increasing both visitors numbers AND their frequency of visit.

BakedBean’s friendly welcome to newcomers, encouraging them to post and not just lurk, very obviously went a long way to making a small country forum successful.

Currently Malaysia is the top forum in BE’s Far East & Asia section for both visitors AND content. The major reason for that is the contribution made by IVV (Moderator) and Baked Bean (Concierge).

I really hope whatever the problem, BE can sort it out, and pronto.

Meanwhile I would like to extend my thanks to IVV and BB, who have done such a great job. And to Pollyana too, if this hasn’t been done.

It’s a sad day indeed.

JC3

If any BE members wish to reply to this post, please take care to adhere to Site Rule Number 15. Moderator Actions – see below:
Discussions about moderator or administrator actions are welcome in email, or local private messages, but should not be discussed in public forums. This is out of respect for the members, moderators and policy involved.

jonboy

I do hope that this situation can be managed and stabilised as the individuals mentioned have been active and positive participants in a thriving forum. The Malaysia forum has been well served by them.

the troubadour

That is sad as liked to pop over to the Malaysia Forum to see what was happening.


I wonder if interest hasn't declined over recent times though? Perhaps Malaysia never really caught on as a retirement place as well.


With the apparent taboo on more ' sensitive' posts relating to wider discussion on goings on within Malaysia, there was seldom the ability to ' smoke' as found on some other national forums.

JC3

Very interesting to read IVV’s excellent post about this issue here:

http://britishexpats.com/forum/malay...anitas-879381/

Clearly something is amiss.

I agree wholeheartedly with IVV’s comment that:

BE’s popularity depends entirely on the member-experience. If this is not pleasant and welcoming then those thousands who view our forums every day will prefer to lurk rather than post and BE will diminish as a result.

I imagine that most (perhaps all) of the moderators, administrators, concierges etc. are unpaid volunteers, who give freely of their time to BritishExpats.com.

I am disappointed to note that when these volunteers step down (for whatever reason) it appears BE fails to inform the BE member community that this has happened, and does not make any public statement on BE acknowledging their contribution (in some cases many years’ contribution) and thanking them for the work they have performed.

If such silence is BE policy, I think it fails to treat the volunteers with the respect they deserve, and is disrespectful of the BE member community.

It is not the "British way" of doing things, and hardly encourages other BE members to volunteer.

Time for a review, perhaps?

JC3

Parnell

Lets have a referendum

moneypenny20

Just noticed this thread and thought I'd add my my two pence worth. People take on Mod/Con positions because they want to give back for the help and support they've received in the past. No one gets paid/backhanders/flowers/pints etc, it's completely voluntary. When they decide to leave their Mod/Con ship positions for whatever reason they decide if they want thanks for not. Some even make a point of requesting that no one acknowledges their work with public threads. It's completely down to the wants of the person concerned as to whether they get a 'thank you' thread. Nothing to do with BE policy or the 'British Way'.

As you were.

JC3

Hi Moneypenny20,

Thank you very much for your viewpoint and for clarifying that all the Moderators and Concierges are volunteers.

However there is a big difference between a BE ‘thank you thread’ for a departing Moderator/Concierge, and not telling the BE Member Community that their Moderator/Concierge has stepped down. I believe those BE members who use BE regularly will often regard their country Moderators/Concierges as friends.

Do you think it is right for BE not to inform the BE Member Community when their country Concierge or Moderator steps down, i.e. to be completely silent?

From what we have just experienced, when a departing Moderator/Concierge steps down it seems that silence or inertia becomes BE policy by default. I doubt all three departing Mods/Concs specifically asked BE not to tell the BE Member Community they had stepped down, let alone not to thank them.

I believe the BE Member Community would much prefer a succinct message from BE, to silence. Something along these lines perhaps:

• ABC person has stepped down from his or her Moderator/Concierge position
• DEF person will be kindly holding the reins whilst we seek a new volunteer
• We’ll let you know as soon as a new Moderator/Concierge is appointed
• In the meantime, BE would like to thank ABC person for their contribution over the last x months/years. It’s much appreciated. (Or don’t say “thank you” if asked not to by the departing Moderator/Concierge).

Surely this is preferable to BE saying nothing at all. At least if BE posted such a simple message then the Member Community would know what's going on, and feel that they and the departing Moderator/Concierge were respected by BE.

I see you are a Moderator once again Moneypenny. That's great. I'm sure you guys must talk to each other. I'd like to promote conscious policy-making by BE, in contrast to policy by inertia.

As it stands, silence when a volunteer departs is simply wrong. Please look at this, or try to come up with a better idea.

JC3

moneypenny20

I can only go by my personal opinion and choice. When I 'resigned' in December I wanted no fanfair or comments, I didn't see the point. I didn't stop posting and now I'm back, I'm not sure anyone noticed I wasn't modding

SushiFan

My experience from other communication boards is that it is preferable to make announcements when there are changes in the crew. This helps to avoid gossiping, speculation and guessing online (e.g. this very thread). It also helps to quickly affirm the status of a newly assigned Moderator among the board users.

bakedbean

I agree with you, Sushifan. I think there is a problem or two, which IVV has covered, in that the Site Rules sometimes don't permit you to say what you want to say Presumably there are reasons for that, which I don't fully understand, but this is of course a commercial site. Not quite the same as Scott's old site where the rules got made up as you go along. Of course that is the other end of the scale and other problems with that concept for sure.

At least we are all talking on here, which is an improvement in the system.

I remember when the India sub-forum imploded after Mod and Conc left. This used to be the largest sub-forum within Asia (no longer is). Even as a Conc, I had no idea what was going on. It was a complete mystery and so the gossip machine transferred to Farcebook and there were some real ugly arguments on there. Not nice at all.

Anyway, guys n gals, enjoy your day in this fab country. Just think, you could be stuck in some godawful country like some poor folks on BE.

Have come back to Penang with some fluey bug. If anyone's got any flu recommendations, please let me know. I'm trying Lemon and Honey, buckets of it.

NeonHippy

As a child my mother always sent me to bed with a slightly sweetened glass of warm milk and brandy and an aspirin, worked every time although now I'm an adult (don't ask my wife to comment on that!) it needs slightly more brandy and less milk

Gunnar45

Hot tea with a shot or two of rum is another one.
It may not really help, but it will be more fun having the flu.

bakedbean

Good grief..... milk and brandy and aspirin

Somebody told me that ginger is good, so I've made some Lemongrass and Ginger "Tea".

SushiFan

Don't fight the fever, don't try to reduce the body temperature. The fever and elevated body temperature help you to kill the bug. And sleep, don't spend energy on anything else but fighting the bug.

ex reg

Paracetamol is today's drug of choice rather than asprin.

Lemsip and honey works for me.
Sometimes.