Hey everyone.
This post isn't going to have my usual happy energy. Actually, it's going to be rather serious. I'm not just an administrator of this forum, I'm also an active user of it, and last night my user self saw something which my admin self should now address, as it made me very uncomfortable.
Some of you may have seen a post asking if you can tell a certain food won't meet your sensory needs just by looking at it. Some of you may have replied to it, myself included. And some of you may notice that today, it's gone. Hopefully you're all aware of the ongoing battle against spam and scam posts on the forum.
Going into this, there were a few things I wasn't fully aware of, which I'm learning about and getting better at. Professionalism, accountability, asking NDSA what's okay to do and what isn't BEFORE I do it. Engagement bait-and-switchers, if you will.
Hopefully we all know not to engage with these shady posts in any way. Don't reply, don't contact the account, don't click the post or any of its contents. But it seems that occasionally, we fall for it.
The sensory needs food thread was posted by what looked, at a glance, like a legitimate account. It was a legitimate question, with a legitimate answer from the poster. It looked like a legitimate person, one of us, accessing our safe space to join our safe conversations.
Last night just before bed I decided to check the forum one last time for shady new posts. I was very unhappy to find the sensory foods thread had been changed from the original question into yet another spam post. Usually I just ban all the account's IP addresses, then the account itself, then delete the post and move on, but this was different. It was personal, manipulative, almost intimate in a way. It made me feel like, instead of trying to drop the junk at the front door, they managed to enter the house and leave it on the living room couch.
I did manage to revert the thread, but it still felt wrong, so I deleted it outright. I'm sorry to anyone that interacted with that thread, I'm sorry its value is lost and I'm sorry that this is seriously a thing that actually happens.
I'm not sure I need to say I'll do better next time, since I didn't really do any less than my best and I definitely did nothing wrong. This is the first time this exact thing has happened to me and it was very unsettling, so I suppose this whole post is just me talking through it, sharing with you all, reaching out in case anyone else feels this way about it.
It's not the first time it's happened in this forum though, and it won't be the last. We will keep up the good fight and continue working to keep the forum clean!
Let's pick this up with some good news, shall we? I got some feedback on my Ultimate Blue theme, and now for all 3 Ultimate themes you may notice the contrast of the text when you click yourself in the top right is MUCH better! I'm thinking of adding some new colours soon, and if I do I'll let you know!
Thank you so much for reading this whole thing, here's a bowl containing a treat of your choice for your efforts!
UnicornSpoon
This post isn't going to have my usual happy energy. Actually, it's going to be rather serious. I'm not just an administrator of this forum, I'm also an active user of it, and last night my user self saw something which my admin self should now address, as it made me very uncomfortable.
Some of you may have seen a post asking if you can tell a certain food won't meet your sensory needs just by looking at it. Some of you may have replied to it, myself included. And some of you may notice that today, it's gone. Hopefully you're all aware of the ongoing battle against spam and scam posts on the forum.
Going into this, there were a few things I wasn't fully aware of, which I'm learning about and getting better at. Professionalism, accountability, asking NDSA what's okay to do and what isn't BEFORE I do it. Engagement bait-and-switchers, if you will.
Hopefully we all know not to engage with these shady posts in any way. Don't reply, don't contact the account, don't click the post or any of its contents. But it seems that occasionally, we fall for it.
The sensory needs food thread was posted by what looked, at a glance, like a legitimate account. It was a legitimate question, with a legitimate answer from the poster. It looked like a legitimate person, one of us, accessing our safe space to join our safe conversations.
Last night just before bed I decided to check the forum one last time for shady new posts. I was very unhappy to find the sensory foods thread had been changed from the original question into yet another spam post. Usually I just ban all the account's IP addresses, then the account itself, then delete the post and move on, but this was different. It was personal, manipulative, almost intimate in a way. It made me feel like, instead of trying to drop the junk at the front door, they managed to enter the house and leave it on the living room couch.
I did manage to revert the thread, but it still felt wrong, so I deleted it outright. I'm sorry to anyone that interacted with that thread, I'm sorry its value is lost and I'm sorry that this is seriously a thing that actually happens.
I'm not sure I need to say I'll do better next time, since I didn't really do any less than my best and I definitely did nothing wrong. This is the first time this exact thing has happened to me and it was very unsettling, so I suppose this whole post is just me talking through it, sharing with you all, reaching out in case anyone else feels this way about it.
It's not the first time it's happened in this forum though, and it won't be the last. We will keep up the good fight and continue working to keep the forum clean!
Let's pick this up with some good news, shall we? I got some feedback on my Ultimate Blue theme, and now for all 3 Ultimate themes you may notice the contrast of the text when you click yourself in the top right is MUCH better! I'm thinking of adding some new colours soon, and if I do I'll let you know!
Thank you so much for reading this whole thing, here's a bowl containing a treat of your choice for your efforts!
UnicornSpoon
