Club Together
Happy Monday everyone! Hope you’ve all had an amazing weekend enjoying the some lovely weather.
As the world continues to move at a fast pace, so does Club Together. We have some exciting new plans in the works that we think will contribute to making this forum an inclusive, supportive and friendly place for everyone.
In the past, we've had some issues with disagreements that have arisen on the forum, and we've been taking the time to reflect on how best to handle them going forward without interfering with everyone's experience.
We take your feedback seriously and as such, we've been working on revising and updating the guidelines that we believe will help us maintain the supportive community we've all built together. The new Community Guidelines will be coming soon. Going forward, we're committed to ensuring that there's no tolerance for anything that could disrupt the sense of belonging and friendly culture that we would like Club Together to be known for.
We would also like to invite you to send us any thoughts or ideas on how we can continue to improve the forum. As part of the community your contribution, both to posting comments on discussions and to the development of the forum in the future, is very much valued and appreciated.
Comments
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I would suggest more input into CT by the likes of yourself, Rowena, and not just to advise that guidelines are being transgressed. Also answers to questions posed by members about a club issue rather than letting members second guess or speculate what is going on.
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That’s a very good point, John. It would be good to see CAMC’s own forum being given priority over other forms of social media such as FB when it come to staff input, or at the very least being treated on a par with them. At present, there seems to be very much a ‘hands off’ approach to CT and the staff who used to post here are no longer seen.
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+1 T, now there is a firmer more hands on attitude to transgression the staff who were good enough to provide a heads up on many ongoing innovations no longer need to worry about the attacks that followed. There is already a recognisable calmness evident👍🏻
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+2
I can't help feeling that the "Club" regards CT as a waste of time and space.
Apart from seeing loads of 'Content Removed" posts (probably done by a mod) and the odd "We've got stuff in the pipeline" post they all seem to give it a mega wide berth.
Could it be possible it's because they spend so much time on Facebook and Trip Advisor?
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I think the likes of Facebook etc reach a very wide audience whereas CT only has a small handful of regulars. Just my opinion but apart from the general chat section CT has a negative vibe most of the time with a lot of threads descending into petty arguing and point scoring.
JK
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It could be that your second sentence is the cause of CT not having a bigger audience, JK, and it seems that’s exactly the issue Ro and the team are striving to address. I think we’ve already seen an improvement, especially over the last weekend👍.
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I agree with what you say and let us not forget the petty one-upmanship either, or the frequent posters who, when a new topic is being discussed or people ask for advice, are simply sarcastic, smug and/or patronising. It is little wonder that few new members, bother with CT for very long.
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JK
It's not just the wider audience it's also the greater risk of reputational damage to Club on those channels, hence the reason I suspect why the Club invest resources into countering negative posts on the likes of Facebook, Twitter and Trustpilot? CT being internal to the Club has far less risk and one could argue the need is not really there to communicate as much as the other channels?
David
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CT is not just internal to CAMC though. Let's not forget that the CT forum is public and was set up to encourage new members to join - a place for non-members to pose questions prior to joining. It is most definitely CAMC's shop window and, as such, the club's reputation is on display here as well.
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I am sure many more read but dont post, true of many forums. It seems that sometimes it takes a long time before a first post appears, but for the poster it will seem there are no replies, or their post has disappeared. This can’t help either. I think subject drift on individual threads is bound to happen, but some seem to get very unhappy about it. I agree there are some sarcastic comments at times but usually some one jumps in to put things right. Sometimes people start new threads when there is already an appropriate one running, but that can be the fault of the search engine. I usually use the forum via most recent posts, not via thread because I just find it so cumbersome. I wouldn’t want to see the forum any more controlled than it is.
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Comparing social areas, I've just had a quick read through the contributions on CAMC FB and I think the mix is much the same as on here except there aren't any of the questions regarding vanning in general, technical advice etc which when things go smoothly on CT are useful and helpful. FB is very focused on sites and holidays with occasional social interactions. CAMC can swiftly remove unwanted FB repsonses so it's rather bland with a lot of holiday snaps and "likes."
I think CT does have a character of it's own which when running well and free from unfriendly repsonses is a good social area to enjoy.
I don't quite know what CAMC intends for CT, are there new formatting ideas or are the guidelines just receiving an update? I'm always wary when "exciting new plans" get a mention!
I've had a private concern about reporting which I raised via the opening post, I received a prompt and full reply so I do hope things go forward in a constructive way without removing the spontaneity.
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..... I think CT does have a character of it's own which when running well and ....
I must have missed that time it ran well. CT has ALWAYS limped along at a snail's pace ,,,,, the search is pants ... pictures/photos need to be reduced to a stupidly small size - every other forum I use I can show a normal phone picture that I've hosted elsewhere.
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ditto to all of this, and as a result of poor search engine lots of topics are duplicated, i also see lots of topics going off pieste particularly by those who somehow think "over there" is eutopia and we all constantlly need reminding of how wonderful their experiences have been, end result lots of "content Deleted User"
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I believe dealing with certain types of comments is what this thread is about and how CAMC can make CT as friendly as possible? It's a difficult task to balance the books so to speak, encouraging social interaction whilst discouraging thoughtless and unhelpful responses. Social media in general is full of challenging opinions, responses and disagreements. Are we into a "three strikes and your out" situation (temporary or otherwise) or are there other ways of preventing arguments developing and causing threads to close etc?
When CT is working well most contributors are pretty good at self moderating but it's also easy to misjudge a situation or mention something that inadvertently brings on a chain of reactions.
Rowena quotes in the OP "disrupting the sense of belonging and friendly culture" so it's a pity to read about people dropping out due to adverse comments either generally or personally directed.
How do other social media platforms deal with this. On a personal level I have a friend who runs a blog and behind the scenes she has to deal with some very unpleasant comments, I sometimes wonder why people take part if they just feel the need to "win" or disrupt?! On the other hand I think we all make mistakes occasionally so it's a difficult task. Hope the "no tolerance" bit quoted in the OP works for the best and I think the moderators need some thanks for their ongoing voluntary work on here.
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By far the simplest thing we could do to improve CT in my view would be to remove Deleted User posts completely from public view, even when quoted. That way the discussion wouldn't be interrupted by half a page, or more, of "content has been removed" and people could get on with the discussion.
David
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Agree with DaviidKlyne’s above post
Other ideas some of which may already have been mentioned
Improve the search facility on CT
Maybe remove many past years posts to a separate section/heading and make this an automatic function say every couple of years or so.
Improve the way users can post photos in threads/avatar etc
I can recall some years back some CT posters saying it would not last much longer so on a positive note the fact that HO are updating CT means it will continue to be available to those who wish to use it whether reading or posting. I personally find it helpful for info but only contribute occasionally as social media really isn’t my thing.
Personally, I hope those working on the “exciting new plans” mentioned in the original post ensure CT works well on all devices when launched and all users abide by the updated T & C’s. that are to come which could remove the need to delete non-compliant posts.
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Haven't been on here for the past month or so, partly due to being 'over there' for a month, and the website infrastructure is still as rubbish as before.
Moderator comment: Last sentence edited.
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