What Really Happened on The Bump
Jan 20, 2015 21:48:02 GMT -5
Post by MissMusic on Jan 20, 2015 21:48:02 GMT -5
A number of people have asked me personally, and probably Jfresh got asked as well. Many more have posted that they're in the dark. Well, here it is all laid out for you guys. Its long, but thats only because the shit list is extensive. jfresh, if you have any of those nice PIPs of the drop in traffic or any of those numbers, feel free to add them. I think its important to understand the scope.
----
Ah-hem.
What happened lastweek on TB was absolutely out of control. Its a long story but I will do the best I can to shorten it. Here's rundown of what occurred, and maybe it will help you understand why people left.
We (mods) were told that new TOU were being drafted. There was a lot of whining in the community, as well as newbies complaining that TB was snarky and mean. TB wants all the clicks they can get (thats how they make their $$) and to drive away new people is not good business, so they asked mods for feedback from their communities. There was a big to-do about calling mods, having personal emails with them, etc in an effort to "improve" the community.
Keep in mind that for a very long time, mods felt like we were abused: we got blamed for EVERYTHING that happened on the site, both from admin and the community. We couldn't win. We felt that admin didn't listen to us nor care about us, and sometimes were obnoxious when dealing with certain communities (ie, IF or Loss). At some point we found out that the Mod Director (or whatever you called it) at Admin was not who she said she was. That person had been fired months before. So who were we feeding personal and community info to? How safe was our own info? Why were we lied to? We had no idea. It was jarring.
So after all the hubub of mod input, TOU was drafted--and it was NOTHING like what mod input had said. They basically let us post what the community needed, made a big deal of "working with us" and then told us to shove it. They did say that actually--in as many words. It sucked. New TOU was basically making TB into Babycenter and people were NOT happy. It allowed for noobs to go to places like the Loss board or Infertility, say shit like "don't worry, I lost a child too but now we're pregnant again so you'll all heal!" and the community could not say anything against it. Thats just one example.
Mods were trying to protect their boards. Thats it.
So one mod wrote a post to admin on the mod board, in which she said this was ridic. and they were outright wrong. She was sick of being in a bad position. Admin responded in a very rude manner and told us all that if we spoke out, we'd have consequences.
Mods started speaking out, and the banhammer fell without warning. Members of boards were banned for asking questions. BAM. I mean...literally. Mods who said it was unfair got banned. This all happened in a span of maybe 32 hrs. We had we lost half the mods or so.
The community went nuts. It was made very clear to us that speaking out or trying to change things meant we didn't support TB and their mission...but that wasn't true at all. People started posting angry threads on boards about it...and you guessed it, BANNED. Every single person.
More anger, more bans. Then, admin wiped out entire boards. Literally wiped them clean. Zero posts. It was an effort to shut people up and hide evidence of unrest. When called out on this, they claim its hackers (it wasn't, mods know it, and they lied.) Mods weren't about to lie, so they started phoning corporate. BANNED.
See admin always hated a few boards, Parenting and TTGP are just 2 of them. HATED. There have been many efforts to "rein them in" but all have failed. This was a good way to remove the communities and rebuild them in the manner than admin liked better.
Admin then made a board called BumpHQ or something, where they were moving "problem threads". It was leaked that the board existed, and they backpedaled to say it was so they could deal with questions 1 by 1 and in a personal manner. It wasn't. It was to keep track of who said what, and systematically ban them and delete the threads.
And by this time, "banning" meant deleting a user's content, too.
Boards rose up in support of other boards, since so many are interconnected. The "silence" posts are so new members don't have anything to read on the board, and in solidarity for people banned and deleted because they said something was no ok.
What is going on with admin is an organized effort to purge people and communities who didn't break any TOS, but who don't fit the mould of what they want TB to look like. They want it more warm and fuzzy, because that brings in more money. TB has a reputation for being snarky, but ALSO for being filled with some of the most educated women on pregnancy boards.
So many people were banned. SO MANY. The rest...left. They are afraid that their info isn't safe, that they will be banned if they say anything wrong, and that their communities will be wiped out if there is any snark. And trust me, it will happen. But most of all, they were shocked and angry that their mods, community members, and friends were booted unjustly and then Admin lied.
FWIW, JFresh and I are not banned--yet.
Whats awesome is that the ENTIRE Bump has looked outside the individual communities: BOTB saw what happened on TTGP, who saw what happened on 3T, who saw what happened on Parenting, etc. Everyone reached outside their bubble to see what was going on. Its like J12 are the Hobbits in The Shire and Admin is Mordor--it doesn't affect us now, but it WILL.
So TB is banning people, removing threads, wiping out boards, stopping private messaging, and only allowing so many posts per 5min in an effort to scale back the anger. Its scary. Its unfair. Its sad that entire communities were silenced because they disagreed...and I'm not talking about posting tons of porn (which happened, and it was isolated), but just saying "WTF this isn't right!".
**Let me add that the excuse they gave for banning mods was because THEY posted the porn, but thats impossible: the porn posts didn't happen until well AFTER it all went down, and that member still has yet to be banned. They keep mentioning the porn In their "apologies"...but they have it wrong.
Many people went to the source: they called HQ, gave a bad rating on the app, called TB advertisers...everything. The XO page on FB actually went down because of the response. TB lost 4% of their stock on Friday alone. 3700+ people have left the site.
----------
[Below is what I can add thats updated]
Did I mention that mods were stripped of powers last week, well before you guys noticed? Yeah, thats how they thanked us.
Now TB has issued a backhanded apology, and wiped out sanctuary boards like TTCAL. They've hired people to moderate. They have no educated community members left to dish out the advice that people came here for--myself included.
Admin is now having personal Twitter accounts shut down if you post info about them.
So I think everyone is done. TB wants a certain kind of fuzzy-fluffy-uneducated-glitter farting-social disaster, and that's what they'll get. Until then, people are continuing to blog, tweet, and post about this in hopes that the news gets out there about what XO has done to the people who volunteered for them, the people who relied on them for a safe haven, and the people who brought them clicks and income for god knows how many years.
---------
*deep breath**
----
Ah-hem.
What happened lastweek on TB was absolutely out of control. Its a long story but I will do the best I can to shorten it. Here's rundown of what occurred, and maybe it will help you understand why people left.
We (mods) were told that new TOU were being drafted. There was a lot of whining in the community, as well as newbies complaining that TB was snarky and mean. TB wants all the clicks they can get (thats how they make their $$) and to drive away new people is not good business, so they asked mods for feedback from their communities. There was a big to-do about calling mods, having personal emails with them, etc in an effort to "improve" the community.
Keep in mind that for a very long time, mods felt like we were abused: we got blamed for EVERYTHING that happened on the site, both from admin and the community. We couldn't win. We felt that admin didn't listen to us nor care about us, and sometimes were obnoxious when dealing with certain communities (ie, IF or Loss). At some point we found out that the Mod Director (or whatever you called it) at Admin was not who she said she was. That person had been fired months before. So who were we feeding personal and community info to? How safe was our own info? Why were we lied to? We had no idea. It was jarring.
So after all the hubub of mod input, TOU was drafted--and it was NOTHING like what mod input had said. They basically let us post what the community needed, made a big deal of "working with us" and then told us to shove it. They did say that actually--in as many words. It sucked. New TOU was basically making TB into Babycenter and people were NOT happy. It allowed for noobs to go to places like the Loss board or Infertility, say shit like "don't worry, I lost a child too but now we're pregnant again so you'll all heal!" and the community could not say anything against it. Thats just one example.
Mods were trying to protect their boards. Thats it.
So one mod wrote a post to admin on the mod board, in which she said this was ridic. and they were outright wrong. She was sick of being in a bad position. Admin responded in a very rude manner and told us all that if we spoke out, we'd have consequences.
Mods started speaking out, and the banhammer fell without warning. Members of boards were banned for asking questions. BAM. I mean...literally. Mods who said it was unfair got banned. This all happened in a span of maybe 32 hrs. We had we lost half the mods or so.
The community went nuts. It was made very clear to us that speaking out or trying to change things meant we didn't support TB and their mission...but that wasn't true at all. People started posting angry threads on boards about it...and you guessed it, BANNED. Every single person.
More anger, more bans. Then, admin wiped out entire boards. Literally wiped them clean. Zero posts. It was an effort to shut people up and hide evidence of unrest. When called out on this, they claim its hackers (it wasn't, mods know it, and they lied.) Mods weren't about to lie, so they started phoning corporate. BANNED.
See admin always hated a few boards, Parenting and TTGP are just 2 of them. HATED. There have been many efforts to "rein them in" but all have failed. This was a good way to remove the communities and rebuild them in the manner than admin liked better.
Admin then made a board called BumpHQ or something, where they were moving "problem threads". It was leaked that the board existed, and they backpedaled to say it was so they could deal with questions 1 by 1 and in a personal manner. It wasn't. It was to keep track of who said what, and systematically ban them and delete the threads.
And by this time, "banning" meant deleting a user's content, too.
Boards rose up in support of other boards, since so many are interconnected. The "silence" posts are so new members don't have anything to read on the board, and in solidarity for people banned and deleted because they said something was no ok.
What is going on with admin is an organized effort to purge people and communities who didn't break any TOS, but who don't fit the mould of what they want TB to look like. They want it more warm and fuzzy, because that brings in more money. TB has a reputation for being snarky, but ALSO for being filled with some of the most educated women on pregnancy boards.
So many people were banned. SO MANY. The rest...left. They are afraid that their info isn't safe, that they will be banned if they say anything wrong, and that their communities will be wiped out if there is any snark. And trust me, it will happen. But most of all, they were shocked and angry that their mods, community members, and friends were booted unjustly and then Admin lied.
FWIW, JFresh and I are not banned--yet.
Whats awesome is that the ENTIRE Bump has looked outside the individual communities: BOTB saw what happened on TTGP, who saw what happened on 3T, who saw what happened on Parenting, etc. Everyone reached outside their bubble to see what was going on. Its like J12 are the Hobbits in The Shire and Admin is Mordor--it doesn't affect us now, but it WILL.
So TB is banning people, removing threads, wiping out boards, stopping private messaging, and only allowing so many posts per 5min in an effort to scale back the anger. Its scary. Its unfair. Its sad that entire communities were silenced because they disagreed...and I'm not talking about posting tons of porn (which happened, and it was isolated), but just saying "WTF this isn't right!".
**Let me add that the excuse they gave for banning mods was because THEY posted the porn, but thats impossible: the porn posts didn't happen until well AFTER it all went down, and that member still has yet to be banned. They keep mentioning the porn In their "apologies"...but they have it wrong.
Many people went to the source: they called HQ, gave a bad rating on the app, called TB advertisers...everything. The XO page on FB actually went down because of the response. TB lost 4% of their stock on Friday alone. 3700+ people have left the site.
----------
[Below is what I can add thats updated]
Did I mention that mods were stripped of powers last week, well before you guys noticed? Yeah, thats how they thanked us.
Now TB has issued a backhanded apology, and wiped out sanctuary boards like TTCAL. They've hired people to moderate. They have no educated community members left to dish out the advice that people came here for--myself included.
Admin is now having personal Twitter accounts shut down if you post info about them.
So I think everyone is done. TB wants a certain kind of fuzzy-fluffy-uneducated-glitter farting-social disaster, and that's what they'll get. Until then, people are continuing to blog, tweet, and post about this in hopes that the news gets out there about what XO has done to the people who volunteered for them, the people who relied on them for a safe haven, and the people who brought them clicks and income for god knows how many years.
---------
*deep breath**
wow. Just. Wow. Thank you so much for posting this. I really can't believe how all of that went down, it's completely ridiculous. I'm just glad we've got a new home and don't have to loose our little community.
