An open letter to the Community Manager - reviews

No problem from me with your letter and time spent writing it.

My opposite view to yours, 😁, if reviews state, " Nice site, nice wardens" then it follows negative comments about wardens, provided they are not abusive etc, are permitted.

Also I think this forum has become a very sterile environment, maybe part of the reason for reduced posters.

I will not post further on this thread so as to respect your approach and not to diminish in anyway your efforts.

(Open to a general chat about the subject mind🙂)

Thanks, Brit. All I seek to do here is to obtain clarification regarding comments, not the review itself as that has already been given. I’m not intending this to be a debate of the rights and wrongs of the Guidelines. 👍🏻

Having worked in the public eye all my life it's obvious that everyone can recognise and acknowledged friendliness if they try hard enough. Problem is that even a saint with all patience and approachability can be painted as unfriendly by some who don't get their very own way! That's when comments about those attempting to do their jobs can be deliberately constructed as negative in a most unfair way. Such negative comments don't have to be abusive to be incorrect.

Hi Tinwheeler,

Thank you for your post and I apologise for any confusion. 

With regards to reviews we have always said we would like other members to be able to comment however the intention wasn't for the review to turn into a discussion as we have the forum for this type of conversation. This however has been happening more frequently. Because the conversations can often be about sites that people love they can understandably get quite heated when there are negative comments and arguments can happen when people have strong differing views.

We always want people to be able to review a site they have stayed at with their honest opinion about the site and their experience. We will remove reviews if they contravene the guidelines i.e. are offensive to Club Staff as we have a duty of care or if they may potentially be libellous. However wherever possible the Club will try and post a response. We do also ask that reviews aren't complaints and that complaints are sent directly to the Club to investigate via our complaints and compliments procedure. We do get a lot of reviews that are just a complaint about staff and do not actually review the site. If complaints are sent via the right channels they will be investigated so leaving a review is not the best course of action. 

We haven't had guidelines in place before about comments on reviews other than the Club's standard Community Guidelines as we haven't needed them specifically in the past however we do feel this needs to be reviewed in light of the way they are turning into discussions, which unfortunately we do not have the resource to moderate. Ideally responses should only be from someone who has also recently stayed or regularly stays on that particular site. As such we may need to remove the option for commenting in the future. However for now we would really appreciate it if members could avoid turning reviews into discussions and if there is a review you feel needs a response from the Club or that contravenes the guidelines please report this to us.

I hope this helps clarify and I will look to update the 'Guide to Club Together' and 'Community Guidelines' for further clarification. 

I think that the recent problem has been using a review to start a discussion. Indeed there seems an element of spamming with three so called reviews addressing the same point. I would hate to loose the ability to comment on a review solely because of this.

I am to take from that, is the Club want all reviews to be all 'light and fluffy", and the issues swept under the carpet 

I don't think that is true, if the site has a problem then state it, for example continuous road noise, unclean facilities, grass not cut or cut too often, bins not emptied...  Remember how people complained about early bin emptying and it got changed?

However stating that the wardens are unfriendly, aggressive, rude... is not allowed and rightly so as these are all subjective (and may arise from people not getting their own way or being asked to follow rules) and also could be unfounded and affects wardens. The club has a duty of care to its staff.

Also the best way to deal with complaints is to write in, then it will be investigated fully. And if founded in truth the wardens can be held accountable. Far better than on a review. Surely a formal letter can hardly be sweeping things under the carpet, quite the opposite I would say?

Either way these are the rules we have to abide by.

‘Not have enough resources to moderate’, comments have been Deleted User regularly, positive & negative ones. The resource seems to be there.

+1

These have been moderated by volunteers in their own time rather than Club staff. We want to use Club resource to be there to respond to comments rather than moderate discussions on reviews.