babble.ca in full meltdown

[Canadian Socialist]

It seems the "management committee" of rabble/babble.ca fired their moderator (audra) by email. Classy. Real classy. babble.ca is my other favourite board but now... not so much. For a progressive, pro-labour, pro-union entity to act in such a callous and inhumane way has really got my goat.
http://www.rabble.ca/babble/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_daily
I really really hope this doesn't bring down a great progressive voice in Canada.

[tuvor]

1. Crap. I just signed up.

We need something like DU more than ever.

[Canadian Socialist]

2. hang in there, tuvor

I think this will blow over soon. People just need to vent a little.

[MrPrax]

3. Kinda sad...

I was reading through some of the posts. There is a boycott of sorts going on by the more regular users.

I did find out that Judy Rebick is a lot closer to 'managing' it than I thought...one of the threads was sporting some tinfoil top hat wearer saying there was some political partisanship and might have something to do with Liberal Party leadership frictions.

They'll get their shit together I am sure--the outline of what happened to a long-running moderator Audra seemed as one put it, 'shitty, real shitty' in the least. The management e-mails being posted there do back up some of the claims.

[Canadian Socialist]

4. Alternate site for babble.ca

http://babblestrike.lbprojects.com/index.php
A lot of the babblers (myself included) have gone to this new site set up in protest. So far, so good!

[MrPrax]

6. OK...

Great...

But could you in say a paragraph or less explain the WHOLE problem to the unwashed?

I am sure MODs here at DU would love to know about 'getting paid' for MOD duties and many many people who work for a living would LOVE to hear how this valued employee just didn't want to fill out time sheets, even though they were asked to do so weekly since, when, November?

You find a good fight in all this--you let us know, 'kay? But I suspect you are being fooled and there is some 'liberal party' thing going on regarding Ignietiff supporters and Rae supporters, actually.

Rabble/Babble has always been kinda 'lite' on the Progressive front--I mean do you really give a shit what Duncan Cameron has to say on anything? Do anyone think Rebick is some 'go to' person on the Left in Canada? I mean really...the board is just really boring partisan sniping most of the time.

[V. Kid]

7. Oh, I'd disagree...

...no offense to DU or anything, but this site is more of a conversation place with almost to much drivel. People are all like "kick n/t", "bump", "I agree", "you repiglican troll!1!!111". I thought that, while babble had a lot of things that made it annoying, it had far more substantive discussions than pretty much most of those places out there.

Anyways, so basically the whole things is this. Audra, the moderator, was fired over by e-mail about "timesheets" or something. It's strange, because she was the moderator for five years. Anyhow, we will never know the "true" reasons, because of obvious HR restrictions, even though the management of that site released a bit of information pertaining to her perceived failings which in itself is a no-no as they really shouldn't have. And because, judging by the board responses, the issue seems to be boiled down to this; most ppl have agreed that it's hypocritical for a progressive organization to treat one of their most important employees so shabbily.

[Telly Savalas]

9. Kick!

:D

[V. Kid]

10. Repignican Troll!!!11!!!!11

;-)

[V. Kid]

8. If it intrests you...

...there's a news story that sums that addressed this issue.

http://www.halifaxlive.com/content/view/656/2/

I think this fellow, a rather moderate and level headed fellow, and an economist intrestingly enough, summed the issue up rather well:

Stephen Gordon "I've been wondering why this bothered me as much as it did, and the answer can be summarised by one word: respect.

She insisted that babblers give it - even to those who may not have deserved it. And by doing so, she earned the respect of all babblers.

But not, apparently, the respect the the Management Committee ("Well, I wouldn't want to start unsubstantiated rumours about what a crappy job Audra's been doing lately. Oops! Was that aloud? I meant to say that Audra was an honourable woman.").

This general atmosphere of respect is one of the reasons why I don't mind occasionally playing the role of babble pinata. I've trusted the moderators, and if the only thing that was going on here was the passing of the baton from Audra to Michelle, there'd be no problem.

But it's not, so there is. The Management Committee's lack of respect towards someone who's earned it many times over does not bode well for babble's future.

So unless this plays out to the general satisfaction of babblers, this will be my last post here."

[V. Kid]

5. Yeah, I'm hoping things turn out well...

...it would be unfortunate, to say the least, if this issue isn't addressed in a substantive way and the site pretty much dies.