West Somerset Railway General Discussion

Are not WSR volunteers 'representing' the WSR as an organisation when they post on here? It cuts both ways.

Speaking about speaking in capacities and to take it back to the subject of volunteering, a good rule of thumb is to look at the behaviour of people in the organisation towards others. Is it a my way or the highway kind of place? Is there lots of rank pulling? Is it open and inclusive of diversity of people and thought or is it hostile to difference?

In short - is this somewhere or people with whom I want to spend all day under a carriage underframe, in the buffet, ticket office, or unclogging drains with.

Looking at a railway's social media is always a useful snapshot and first impression of a place. Thinking about other lines, I can see from the behaviour of people on this forum for example that it is still the same as it ever was. I can also see that the culture at another line has changed. I know where I would rather give up my free time to volunteer.

Maybe, some of the WSR volunteers who post here and crop up on social media are different in person, and maybe I am an outlier in checking out a railway before volunteering and seeing if it is the kind of place I'd like to volunteer, but maybe I'm not. Those involved with the WSR ought to really look closer to home before pointing the finger at others when it comes to telling people how they ought to behave in public and on the internet.

I think that the moderators here are pretty good about saying *moderator's hat off* when giving a personal opinion and I have never for one been confused between what is a moderators personal view and when they are expressing an 'organisational view'.

 

Indeed, debate is good. Passion is good and diversity of opinions and how those opinions are given is good. The question is do you tolerate those who disagree with you or do you stifle dissent and run the dissenters off the railway?

 

There's a certain irony in our movement having, in no small part, got into gear - if not actually started - by the efforts of Tom Rolt, in so many ways the epitome of opposition to Attlee's postwar brand of socialism, which produced a preserved railway with so notably egalitarian and cooperative an ethos.

 

If you say so.

 

If this thread shows anyone thinking about giving up their free time to volunteer at any railway one thing, its don't! No matter how hard to you try to keep your head down, nob along nicely to play trains a few times a month youll always upset someone its really not worth the hassle!

 

Interesting to see what has been achieved compared with Minehead Rail Link Restoration Group or whatever they are called.

 

Surely it should be the other way around, i.e. that when moderators post on NP, it is always in a personal capacity, giving their own personal views, unless they explicitly state they are speaking as a moderator. As a suggestion, perhaps NP could have a different coloured background for moderator's posts when they are speaking as a moderator, to make this quite clear.

 

For a few years I was a moderator on a non-railway forum. Moderators were allowed to post and did so regularly. If we were posting with a moderator's hat on or on behalf of the forum management the text colour was changed to blue.

 

Other forums I belong to manage quite well with the moderators declaring hat on or off, and not needing something more robust. No moderator, here or elsewhere, gets it right all of the time; I think the team here get it pretty right most of the time.

 

+1 to this suggestion. I'm a member of other forms where this is the normal practice and seems to work well. But thanks to all our Mods for all that you do.

 

To make it explicit would shut up those who try and promote censorship whilst purporting to have a genuine complaint, like post #4104.

 

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Wanna bet?

 

Some of us are also on RM Web where the moderation can be a little over zealous compared with here

 

I would fully understand it, if the posts were over the top, but they aren't, this is nothing more than some WSR members trying to silence people who are critical not of their railway, but of certain people in positions of power, who it would appear have used that power to stifle dissent, and looking at it continue, to ,other wise why are they calling for the moderation team to be censured? no one else is, its just a few who happen to be supporters of the WSR plc.
The railway is in a dire position, and its not the fault of anyone on here, moderator, or not, its only down to the actions of the WSR plc, and those who hold positions of power, and have used that power not for the good of the railway, but for what ever agenda they may have, that has made this position that much worse by their own actions.

 

"Punctuates the coastal train line"?