Staff Demotions

[Jazzy]

I went to check out a forum this morning and was very shocked at what I saw. This forum dedicates a thread to announce a staff demotion. It gives the staff members name, rank held and reason for the demotion.



I personally find this degrading and see no reason why this should be on an open board for everyone (including guests) to see. For this reason alone, I decided not to join.



What are your thoughts on this?



If you're a forum owner: Do you do this too?

 

[Kahnai]

Hhmm...



Unfortunatly sometimes members have to be demoted, given strkes, or even banned. However I see no reason why it should be public news. No reason to upset or embarass people.



I was on a forum once where they explained the banning of a member, as well as why. That too I didn't think needed to be public knowledge. If people had truly cared and wanted to know they could have sent only those a PM stating simply the person was banned for not abiding by the rules of the forum, and leave it at that.



Long story short I agree.

 

[Fatal Dawn]

Depending on the type of community, it's very understandable. Specifically, I'm referring to support forums as they tend to be very large communities which constantly rotate who they add and demote through their staff ranks. And because they are support forums, it becomes more of an obligation to keep records of all changes in the forum administration.



In the case of handing out warnings or infractions to members, there's really no reason to make it a public issue. I don't feel it needs to be announced when someone is banned from the forums.

 

[Ashley]

I don't see the need for posting public news like that, no matter what position was held and how important their job is. I can see this being okay if a person ran a host or something, but for a flat-out forum why a member resigned from staff is to be for staff and member in question alone. We don't need to know why a member quit or was fired. Again, if you were running a host, I can understand an announcement being made, especially if it was an important position, but a site, not so much.

 

[hissae2]

Well it depends...



If the staff member was fired, it should be kept between that person and the staff. There's no reason to make it public. However, if the staff member retired due to time constraints, and that person is okay with having an 'Enjoy retirement' topic in the community matters section I see no reason why not.



As for warning or banning members, that should be kept between the banned member and the staff. There's no reason for this to be announced, it just degrades the member and upsets them further. It should not be public knowledge.

 

[Bluezone777]

Most who end up getting fired usually end up airing all their problems in front of the community so it's best to be prepared to defend your decision so the fired staff member doesn't pull members away from your board as they start up their theatrics. I only dealt with demotions due to inactivity and they usually were clearly not interested to care about being demoted. I am pretty good at spotting the good people so I never had to demote for anything but activity issues.



Warns I normally never bothered to discuss publicly since they aren't easy to notice. Bans on the other hand, I normally state what went on so people know because they are bound to ask and I never have anything to hide. I always ran small boards though so it might be different if the board is bigger then what I dealt with. I find people tend to create problems they could easily avoid by not making everything so creativeness when it's really not necessary but that's just my two cents.

 

[DrLeftover]

It depends on the individual circumstance, the users involved, the staff's role, the given offense or offenses, and so on.



If it was a major public offense that disrupted the entire user/staff community, then yes, at least part of the resolution should be public.



If it was an incident between a couple of users or isolated to a small part of the board or something like that, then no.

 

[Locke]

Depending on the type of community, it's very understandable. Specifically, I'm referring to support forums as they tend to be very large communities which constantly rotate who they add and demote through their staff ranks. And because they are support forums, it becomes more of an obligation to keep records of all changes in the forum administration.



In the case of handing out warnings or infractions to members, there's really no reason to make it a public issue. I don't feel it needs to be announced when someone is banned from the forums.

I have to agree. When members of Staff are in highly trusted positions, it is the administration's responsibility to inform their members when there is a change in staff to minimize the risk associated with a disenfranchised ex-employee abusing the trust placed in them due to their former position. It's not meant to degrade, it's meant to inform. Members have a right to know if someone they are used to approaching with sensitive information is no longer involved with the site that handles that information.



That said, I think it's not something I would feel comfortable seeing on a regular discussion forum.

 

[hotspot]

I agree, I don't think people should do that. It's pretty rude, if you ask me.



I don't do that, and I never will.