Loomio
Thu 9 May 2019 11:30AM

Managing Anti-social Behaviour Online

S Siren Public Seen by 98

I feel it is important that the team who facilitate comms and social media enable positive discourse, without enforcing a set of rules or censoring. Both Nest Tone of Voice and Social Media guidelines were drafted in 2017 and approved by the Core Team to encourage positivity and compassion in all our interactions, both from the Core Team and across the wider community.

As we are continuing to improve our governance and organisation, i think this is a good time to capture some thoughts and a way forward that the majority of the Community agree with and endorse. These guidelines should fit into our Code of Conduct (which has also been recently refreshed) and will underpin all platforms.

The ToV and Social Media guidelines are aligned to our 11 Principles and encourage respect, basic human decency, civility, consideration and compassion.

I would like to invite a discussion about what the Community would like to see in formalising a set of guidelines devised and sanctioned by the Community to address anti-social behaviour online, in particular language and behaviour relating to racism, sexism, transphobia, homophobia and ableism, to look at not only whether this behaviour should be minimised; and if so how it should be minimised, addressing the impacts and consequences of such behaviour (for example, discouraging under privileged folks from attending and collaborating) and the wider consequences of complicity to such behaviour or opposition to such behaviour.

Everyone is welcome to join in the discussion and i'll add the documents i've referenced above this evening when i have access to my personal laptop.

L

Lexy Thu 9 May 2019 1:22PM

You can read the (revised) Code of Conduct on website here:
https://www.burningnest.co.uk/nest-code-of-conduct/

The intention is that the code of conduct applies not only to event time, but to online spaces and to volunteers planning the event etc.

Very much open to feedback on this document, and in general on how we can best manage anti social or problematic behaviour. We want to keep Nest a SAFE and INCLUSIVE space.

Thank You Nestlings! :heart:

TA

Tom Allen Fri 10 May 2019 12:56PM

Can I ask what a accountability the people carrying out this soft moderation are subject too? What happens if the group admin breaks the guidelines? Can I also ask how criticism and difficult questions we are devided on can be discussed if an admin can arbitrarily shut it down for being negative?

XD

xavier dubruille Fri 10 May 2019 1:25PM

I suppose if we realize Siren burns out and do a really bad job easing the shitstorm on some post on fb (withotu the filter of body language/intonation/...) by being rude to people or basically not following the guideline put in place, she will be encouraged to step down because of that.... so far, she is doing a good job even if this jobs consist of keeping an eye on loose post, managing the comms this near to the event, answering the question (even if the answer becomes now in substance and without her tact "it s already in the infos provided, self reliance, look yourself" ) all this while preparing herself for the event and living a normal life.
After like said previously, this is an interesting question but at one week from the event, rethinking all the comms process is not a task that should be done. If with the rush of the event itself, we forget this question in June, I suppose you ll be encouraged to ask them again after leaving a required amount of time for the team to decompress and get back to a more calm style of life.
And else you are welcome to bring the subject in situ face to face to siren (cf next remark on this point) or anybody deeply involved during meeting or chance encounter at Nest if the person are willing to speak about it (because this can be a wrong time, after all we are all there to enjoy the event, speaking about difficult subject while enabriated or during yoga or rushing to deal with another situationor ...)
Or maybe leave this post here until after Nest, people will be less pressured and more focused to bring a proper answer.

PS : Thanks siren to have taken ths role with the shitty aspect of moderator involved, keep the good energy and the smile if we want to recruit a new one next year, don t show how much it can be a burden.

CD

Charlotte Davis Fri 10 May 2019 1:56PM

Siren is not the only person moderating the FB group, but she does seem to receive all the flak. You're free to argue over here, but the FB group needs to be kept clear for actual information, for the rest of the people attending the event to see.

S

Siren Fri 10 May 2019 2:08PM

@tomallen4 all valid points and thank you for sharing and you've captured exactly what I'm trying to get to... the SM guidelines aren't perfect, they were drafted based on my professional experience as a communications manager trying to match with my personal experience as a burner and living in burn communities. At Nest we are different from other communities because we insist on encouraging kindness and compassion and keeping people safe. We have a very strong consent culture. You'll see from the new code of conduct, that there are consequences of shitty behaviour across all platforms but of course shitty behaviour is subjective I guess.

I think this is a discussion for how to do everything better next year, rather than fix anything this year, considering that we have only a week to go really (to your point @xavierdubruille).

What's essential for me is for everyone to be bought into keeping people SAFE online and offline, and that includes the language that we use online. Messages and opinions are easier to misinterpret online as there's no tone, there's greater distance and people tend to not sugar coat thoughts as they would in face to face situations. Rather than shutting threads down, I have to weigh up a lot of consequence for and against value on discussions which become aggressive and potentially damaging. That is a judgement call and it does come from years of experience. believe me, it's not arbitrary. Other Mods approach me about shutting threads down a lot sooner than I actually do for lots of raesons... mainly because I don't like censorship. But sometimes we have to accept that conversations have run their course and are now just being damaging to the community (especially right before the event).

The issue always is that everyone thinks their personal opinion is the most important one. And no one considers that A. it might not be and B. their behaviour actually real time impacts and effects real people who do actually care (i.e., me and Charlotte, namely).

so I started this conversation with a view to getting a holistic approach to dealing with people being shitty on line to protect everyone and for the community to tell the comms team what you want to see, so that we can execute it, rather than the comms team being autocratic. See... I really really do care.

I think for me we should probably start to create a framework which differentiates what channel is used for what and make that clear to everyone. If you or anyone has beef or wants to effect change it should go in Loomio. Facebook is for sharing information relating to the event.

If we use that as the basis for our social media and comms guidelines, we'll probably make a really good start to continue keeping people safe.

XD

xavier dubruille Fri 10 May 2019 2:50PM

Sorry charlotte, consider all the things i said about siren are for you too because they are (and it s true siren is more vocal on fb :D)

TA

Tom Allen Fri 10 May 2019 4:15PM

That's great you care so much and want to keep a positive atmosphere. Thanks for that. So what consequences are coming from all the shitty things said about people with dreads earlier today by the Comms person and others. They weren't just opinions, they were attacks

GM

Graeme McGregor Sat 11 May 2019 10:46AM

What do you think should happen? This is a community discussion.

S

Siren Sun 12 May 2019 2:33AM

I'm fascinated by what you think were 'negative' comments about dreads expressed by 'comms people', @tomallen4 ... perhaps you could screenshot and share with us what you think were negative comments about dreads that 'comms people' shared... i believe, personally, i just expressed a common misconception in the very specific inherent difference between celtic and viking dreads and african dreads... i'm sorry if you feel that i said something else. i was not in any way criticising dreads but suggesting that perhaps the person who was making the argument that 'celtic people have dreads too' was misplaced with their argument. No one was suggesting in the entire post or thread that celtic or viking dreads were any part of the problem... yet this person felt so triggered they had to protect their own interests... and i wasn't the only person who highlighted this disparity. there is nothing wrong with celtic or viking or european hair expressions... i use pagan hair styles myself in my personal expression a lot.. so...

What you and others are forgetting or possibly not considered - i don't know? - i am my own person in my own right and as much of a member of the community as you and anyone else, and i'm entitled to make my own personal points. If you cannot separate me from my role as comms person, then i would challenge that maybe you need to have a think about the community as a whole and how Nest is run: we are all just volunteers with our own thoughts and feelings which occur entirely outside of our volunteership... and that's ok. Please don't conflate my personal extensive knowledge of cultural anthropology and the politics of identity with my role as 'comms person'... i'm very clear when i post as 'comms person'.. you'll know it because i either post under the guise of Burning Nest, or if i'm posting the link to Nest news, or i'm encouraging people to not behave like racist/ableist/homophobic/transphobic/sexist shit bags (when i will start my post with 'ok, mod here, can you please read the social media guidelines and think about what you're saying (or similar)'... the rest is JUST ME. Not Nest 'comms person'... i actually encourage decentralisation of comms and encourage all leads to post about their own activity, and all camps to post their own announcements to circumnavigate this perception of 'comms person'... there is no one on social media more nor less important than anyone else.

And that gives us other food for thought. We all think our opinions are the most important... so.. you know... PERSONALLY not as comms person: someone might feel like theirs is the most important opinion, but also maybe no one else does..? we are all so good at centreing ourselves in everything, its human nature.. but largely lots of other peoples shit is not all about us... so to that end, i'd love everyone to be a lot more thoughtful, mindful, expansive, compassionate and kind altogether... <3

TA

Tom Allen Sun 12 May 2019 4:56AM

Here? Calling us 'bullshit white fragile'..... You then shutdown my follow up questions under your own name and never once differentiated between your personal and admin roles. You are so quick to tell us how professional you are but you seem to forget what you posted. You have still not answered my main question here. To whom and how are FB admins accountable?

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