Vaccine forum complaint

[Jennyanydots]

This has been brought up a couple of times recently in the vax forums, but it has not been addressed by a moderator yet. There are currently a couple of locked threads in the INV forum that do not appear to violate the UA, and if they do, it has not been explained adequately.

Posters who are critical of vaccine skepticism are given plenty of leeway in stretching the limits of the forum guidelines with respect to personal attacks, etc, but vax questioners are walking on eggshells.

Recently, a slew of posters encouraged by troll sites launched a campaign to derail threads in the vax forum. Their posts were eventually stopped and deleted, but the official response from moderators was to loosen the guidelines to ALLOW more aggressive behavior.

Will someone please explain what mothering's official stance on this controversy is currently? Is the site funded by pharmaceutical advertisers, and bound by some restrictions as to what criticisms of drug products can be allowed? When will the locked threads be addressed?

There are a good number of concerned posters who would like some answers, and would like to feel that we have a place where we can discuss these issues.

[Cynthia Mosher]

Originally Posted by Jennyanydots 

This has been brought up a couple of times recently in the vax forums, but it has not been addressed by a moderator yet. There are currently a couple of locked threads in the INV forum that do not appear to violate the UA, and if they do, it has not been explained adequately.

Send a PM to the moderator who closed the thread and ask about the possibility of it being reopened. If it is not being reopened ask her to post to state so and why. That should clarify things for everyone.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jennyanydots 

Posters who are critical of vaccine skepticism are given plenty of leeway in stretching the limits of the forum guidelines with respect to personal attacks, etc, but vax questioners are walking on eggshells.

 

We have handled several incidents recently (before the holidays) infracting, suspending and banning some members. I believe many were on the "critical of vaccine skepticism" side. I don't think there is an imbalance in moderation. Follow the new guidelines and you shouldn't have to be walking on egg shells.  

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jennyanydots 

Recently, a slew of posters encouraged by troll sites launched a campaign to derail threads in the vax forum. Their posts were eventually stopped and deleted, but the official response from moderators was to loosen the guidelines to ALLOW more aggressive behavior.
Will someone please explain what mothering's official stance on this controversy is currently? Is the site funded by pharmaceutical advertisers, and bound by some restrictions as to what criticisms of drug products can be allowed? When will the locked threads be addressed?

 

We loosened the guidelines because we changed the forum to a debate forum which will naturally be more aggressive in discussion. We also defined what is and is not acceptable. Much of this came about due to the EXCESSIVE reporting of posts to moderators that were complaints of offense over even the slightest of things. Hours of time was being spent by mods in back and forth PM discussion with members complaining about being offended by comments in which they were reading between the lines finding things to take personally and be offended about. We simply cannot afford to invest the majority of our volunteer resources and energy into such moderation. So, we provide a safe support space for all sides of the coin and a general discussion form that also hosts debate and in which you should expect adversarial discussion. No personal attacks or insults. That has not changed. But no one gets to define things as an attack when it is not and we have the job of deciding when it is and it isn't. if you can't 

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jennyanydots 

Will someone please explain what mothering's official stance on this controversy is currently? Is the site funded by pharmaceutical advertisers, and bound by some restrictions as to what criticisms of drug products can be allowed? When will the locked threads be addressed?

No - no funding of the site by pharma. No restrictions regarding criticism of drug products. Have you seen any posts removed that were critical of a drug product? If so please link me to that discussion. 

As I said above, PM the moderator who closed the thread to ask about it being unlocked. She will probably  unlock the thread or will explain why the decision was made to keep it closed - and she can post that to the thread to explain. You can link the moderator you PM to the my words in this thread. If a thread was closed by a moderator who is no longer moderating, contact one of the active mods to ask them about it. However, keep in mind that the mods have been busy with the holidays and with Holiday Helper so they have been busy with other things and their own families. If the discussion is urgently in need of reopening and you do not get a response you can contact me.