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Topic: Banned from the Mike Oldfield Personal page< Next Oldest | Next Newest >
zerblatt Offline




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Joined: Nov. 1999
Posted: Mar. 24 2014, 16:39

Hey everyone,

Has anyone else got banned from the Mike Oldfield Personal site on Facebook for sharing opinions that's not just positive? I wrote one short sentence that I didn't like the first single/video from MOTR and got banned without notice. Well, I can just guess that's the reason as I never got an explanation for it. I contacted Caroline Monk privately on Facebook and asked her politely why I couldn't access the page anymore, but she didn't answer and I was blocked from contacting her. Then I tried Twitter, but was blocked there as well.

It's a shame that after being a MO fan for 20 years I'm now banned from getting the best updates because I expressed an honest opinion on one single/video. If she just wants positive feedback, then she should say so instead of pushing fans away.
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Priabonia Offline




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Posted: Mar. 25 2014, 06:49

No, but I don't post on there, in fact I hardly visit it, it has very little to interest me as it seems to be either Caroline spamming promotions or undiscriminating fanboys eulogising over Mike's last fart! The "Mike Oldfield on record" and "Mike Oldfield covers" groups are usually more stimulating.

It seems harsh and/or petty to ban you though...out of interest why don't you quote here what you said, so we can judge how "offensive" you were!


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https://www.youtube.com/user/PriaboniaMusic

www.soundcloud.com/just-before-dawn
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zerblatt Offline




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Posted: Mar. 25 2014, 07:47

Well, I agree with you, but it's nice to get some videos and messages from the man himself every now and then.

To be honest, I can't remember what I said as it's probably 6-7 weeks ago, but it wasn't a praise, and by that I obviously broke the untold rules and had to be banned. No warning either.

I find the behaviour ridiculous and unprofessional, as instead of giving me a simple answer on a polite and legitimate question she ignores me and blocks me from contacting her. That's not the right way to treat fans.
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Korgscrew Offline




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Posted: Mar. 25 2014, 10:50

Crazily enough, it's the tubular.net forum's 15th birthday this November. So far, it hasn't been a difficult teenager, but now it's getting to the age for wild parties, so we'd better watch out...

What I really mean to say, though, is that we've been doing this a scarily long time and have picked up a fair amount of insight on the way. Obviously I didn't see the particular comment in question and also don't know what other things might constitute the bigger picture over there, so it wouldn't be fair of me to comment on that, but I'll share some of the things we've learned in the hope that it might prove relevant.

Making sure that everyone's on the same page from the beginning is really key - like you suggested, if a particular kind of conduct beyond that which is generally considered reasonable, that needs to be stated up front (i.e. it probably shouldn't need to be said that hurling abuse at people isn't acceptable, but if saying in a matter of fact way that you don't like a piece of music isn't welcome, that really does need to be said). We learnt that one the hard way, after a few incidents where we realised that what we considered obvious wasn't necessarily obvious to those joining the forum. We sat down together and put together our guidelines, which are linked to in the terms of service section of our registration page.

Doing that felt like quite a Big Thing, because the forum had always been an informal kind of place, and lists of guidelines feel like a very formal thing, but it does mean that everyone knows (in theory, at least!) what's expected.

It's pretty rare that we have to even remind people of those. Occasionally there'll be a thread which perhaps seems to be going in a dangerous direction and one of us will step in and try to gently pull it back in the right direction. It's then rare for it to be necessary to delete a post (or topic - for those, we have the ability to hide them so we can calmly take a look without any more people getting upset in the meantime) and even rarer still to need to ban someone.

Banning isn't a particularly great solution, because if someone's really determined to cause trouble, they're going to work out a way of doing that whatever obstacles you put in the way. It sends out a strong message of "That kind of thing is really not welcome here" and we do sometimes do it here, but I don't think getting too trigger happy with the ban button is ultimately a very helpful thing.

Personally, if there's a problem here, I'd much rather be having a discussion about it on this forum than have someone going over to another forum to complain about me (which inevitably means they only get presented with one side of the story), which is what seems to be happening here. That's possibly with the slight proviso that things are voiced in as non-provocative a way as possible (I do try and just breathe deeply and give a sensible reply however things are voiced, but that's easier at some times than at others...).

I think the other really important thing is that there's a team of us here. That means we can ask each other whether we're being reasonable (and we're not the sort of team who'll just go "yeah man, you show that guy who's boss!" - we do try to gently balance each other out, to a degree at least). Also, there are times when there's a particularly problematic person and it really feels like we're under siege. That's not particularly nice as a team, but it'd be far, far worse if there was just one of us here, feeling singled out and under attack. That's the position Caroline potentially finds herself in when running Mike Oldfield Personal, and I imagine that, especially considering how active it seems to be, that could potentially seem like a very vulnerable position to be in.

I also imagine the fact that part of its aim is to provide a channel for Mike to interact with fans directly makes Mike Oldfield Personal a difficult place to run. I'd think that, by necessity, there's a certain requirement to keep the place free of stuff which Mike doesn't want to see, which may include things as seemingly inoffensive as someone saying "I don't like this song". Of course, if he really doesn't want to see something as mild as that, I'd have to ask whether an open discussion group is really the appropriate space for what they're trying to achieve.
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zerblatt Offline




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Posted: Mar. 25 2014, 12:11

Agreed.

I can understand and accept if it's Mike's wishes to just read positive comments from fans (although that keeps him in a bubble which I think is unhealty), but then it should be stated upfront, or at least you should get a warning if you're going too far - we're fans with passion, most of his music we adore, but some we don't, and we're likely to express both opinions when we get to listen to new music. It's not like I'm a troublemaker, I've written (as I can recall) a total of one sentence in the group.

The group is a good idea, really, but if it's too big to cope with alone, then she should ask some trustworthy fans to do the "dirty work" deleting comments and warning/banning people, I'm sure there are plenty of people interested in doing that, so she could focus on promoting Mike's music.
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Korgscrew Offline




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Posted: Mar. 25 2014, 12:39

Quote (zerblatt @ Mar. 25 2014, 16:11)
[...] if it's too big to cope with alone, then she should ask some trustworthy fans to do the "dirty work" warning/banning people, I'm sure there are plenty of people interested in doing that, so she could focus on promoting Mike's music.

When she first returned on the scene, Caroline seemed very enthusiastic for us to relay the message to the world, and also seemed to want to return to the forum here (she'd had an account for quite a while).

At that point, she mentioned Mike having control of mikeoldfield.com again and wanting to put a forum on there, and I offered our advice and assistance with that. At that point, she seemed interested in that offer, but I assume she's now happy handling it all herself. She'll go her way and we'll go ours, I guess!
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zerblatt Offline




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Posted: Mar. 25 2014, 13:06

Quote
At that point, she seemed interested in that offer, but I assume she's now happy handling it all herself.


That's a pity.

Caroline is of course welcome to present her side of the story in this thread, but as she has ignored my polite private queries and blocked me from contacting her again, I doubt it. I'm very disappointed by behaviour like that from a professional.
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Nezzico Offline




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Posted: Mar. 25 2014, 15:59

The same happened to me zerblatt, some months ago, and until now i have no chance to call Mikes personal group again. If i search for it, it is no longer in my facebook search results. As you, i felt a bit disappointed and i looked for answers. As you, I dont really know, what happened - no communication. In my case, I suspect my own failure was posting some video rarities from youtube there.

But now, i dont really miss it that much. Every important news, finds its way to tubular.net  and other places. My relation to Mikes music wont be affected of this incident.

And facebook at all is something, i want to use more careful now. Comments and posts in a very short frequency make you crazy, to watch there again, again and again. Lost too much time in it. Here the frequence of communication is much more relaxed, and the qualitiy of discussion is more deliberated .. mostly ;-)

Sorry my horrible english ;-)
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larstangmark Offline




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Posted: Mar. 25 2014, 17:24

I am involved in several fan forums/discussion boards/mailing lists, several of which I have followed for a decade or more.
My experience is that having "The artist", band members, ex band-members, collaborators, ex-collaborators, the artist's ex-girfriends etc etc...on board. Sooner or later you'll run into trouble. There are a hundred really obvious reasons. Fandom is best practiced at a distance.


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"There are twelve people in the world, the rest are paste"
Mark E Smith
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Tati The Sentinel Offline




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Posted: Mar. 26 2014, 08:06

Quote (larstangmark @ Mar. 25 2014, 21:24)
I am involved in several fan forums/discussion boards/mailing lists, several of which I have followed for a decade or more.
My experience is that having "The artist", band members, ex band-members, collaborators, ex-collaborators, the artist's ex-girfriends etc etc...on board. Sooner or later you'll run into trouble. There are a hundred really obvious reasons. Fandom is best practiced at a distance.

Same here.It's a tough one I'd say!

I remember the now defunct MO.com forum,which his former wife was administrating.There were a lot of incidents which resulted on its end for good.I thought Tubular.net admin team and/or Dark Star would be involved helping Caroline to moderate MO Personal FB page based on their experiences.

Getting trustworthy fans to help on the moderation of such a forum is a bit of risk really - some people just bring the worse in them because of a recently acquired power due to being close to official sources and so on.

Compared to other artists I follow,MO's fan base can be very pushy sometimes,it can trigger not so nice attitudes which reflects on his relationship with his fan base.We all know he needs to be in a safe environment with established boundaries so he can provide the infos we fans want to know without any social anxiety.


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"But it's always the outsider, the black sheep, that becomes the blockbuster." - Mike Oldfield, 2014

"I remember feeling that I'd been judged unfairly and that I was going to prove them wrong." - Peter Davison, 2011
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zerblatt Offline




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Posted: Mar. 26 2014, 10:24

Quote
Getting trustworthy fans to help on the moderation of such a forum is a bit of risk really - some people just bring the worse in them because of a recently acquired power due to being close to official sources and so on.


It could be risky, but it's clearly better to have some more moderators than just the one who can't cope with it - and I guess only fans will do it for free.
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10 replies since Mar. 24 2014, 16:39 < Next Oldest | Next Newest >

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