HorseIsle: A study in message control
4th post from Ophelia, yes, 4th, have any been addresed? nah. will they? probably not, but its best to keep trying.
(thread started by Ophelia) Oct 17 2020 1:13pm
Hello, it’s me.
I was wondering if after all these years you’d like to stop deleting my posts?
We’re skipping the disclaimer at this point. I’m running out of ways to say “I’m trying to help you here, please listen to my professional advice.”
If admins think for a second that removing my posts is ending these discussions, you’re wrong. We have at this point completely flooded social media with screenshots of these posts. (did you even read the last one? It went poof pretty fast.) This discussion is not simply happening on your platforms anymore. (Should I mention the boycott petition going around, or is that too far?)
You may tell us to drop it as “this is not the place for that.” So, tell us, where is the place? Where is the place if you continue to remove our amicable discussions on these forums? Where is the place if you remove our voice?
Smell that fresh afternoon air? This is what we call an organizationally made PR disaster.
The dissent and the conversations all exist outside of the platforms you control.
In PR, we look at things like how to control our messaging. (Can I just give communications degrees for you all after this? I’ve pretty much explained my entire education at this point.) Please note that avoidance is a type of message control, but not the only method by which to accomplish message control.
At this point, HorseIsle has shown that they are unwilling to engage in conversations with us. If you had commented and locked my post instead of just deleting it, that would have been different. If you had engaged with us at any point, that would have been different. But so far, I have observed nothing except deletion and ignoring. You haven’t even reached out to me yet to say hello.
Here is the problem with using avoidance as message control: you are not stopping the problem. You are not redirecting the dialogue. You are not giving your audience an out by which to express themselves.
Remember that first post where I explained that there is a specific time and place wherein each form of avoidance should be used? And that by using the wrong one, you inflate the problem? (If you don’t remember, maybe you should have read the post before deleting it.)
HorseIsle, you continue to use the wrong form of avoidance. Deletion is not the answer here. Ignoring is not the answer here.
You have lost all sense of message control at this point. I am trying to be amicable. I am trying to be professional. I have outlined problems, solutions, and explicitly invited you to engage in dialogue with not just me, but all your players.
You don’t exist without us. And if we decided to move our support elsewhere, then what?
I wouldn’t be making my fourth post today if I genuinely didn’t care. People wouldn’t be commenting if they genuinely didn’t care.
Stop trying to control your narrative through deletion, and start engaging us in respectful, meaningful dialogue.
We are not boring. We are not a mob mentality. We are not trying to tear you down. We are begging you to work with us to build this up.
You think we enjoy when global chat turns into a dumpster fire? No more than you do.
Stop being lazy. Stop trying to control a message you have lost all sense of. Stop thinking these forums and in-game chats are the only places we are talking.
It’s not too late to fix this. But you’re starting to reach a breaking point. Everything you do is public relations.
Help us help you.
We’re extending an olive branch. Please stop trying to set it on fire.
“If I was down to the last dollar of my marketing budget I’d spend it on PR!” – Bill Gates
"Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much." – Helen Keller
