Q Talk

[Spurt]

Someone posted Standard Guidelines, but here are the ones that need to be followed

Be sure to read the Community Standards for complete details so you know what to expect and what is expected of you when you're here.

Here are a few of the key areas that you should be aware of before posting in the Community:

• Controversial topics will be removed – Discussions of a controversial or confrontational nature will be removed at our discretion. The following are examples of topics that generally create a negative dialogue between Community members which will result in removal of the discussion and possible banning: current events, politics, religion, and unkind comments about hosts, vendors, models, or employees. Asking for and giving prayers is acceptable.
• Personal attacks are not allowed - Don't attack or insult another Community member. It's not helpful and it doesn't make for a friendly place. This includes calling other members names. Disagreement is no excuse for poor manners and we will not allow frustration to turn into a personal attack.
• No Trolling - "Trolling" is a big, messy term, but we know what trolls are and we won't tolerate it. If you're abusing good conversations, we will take your comments and posts down. This includes hijacking or taking a thread off-topic.
• Do not cross-post - Don’t make duplicate posts across different forums — it clogs things up and fractures the conversation.
• We may lock a thread - If a thread has turned into a non-constructive argument between users, or derailed entirely off topic, we will lock the thread to block further commenting. We will always share a reason why the discussion was locked.
• Report Inappropriate content - We work very hard to keep conversations friendly, engaging, helpful, and productive - with your best interests at heart. We don’t read every discussion so we ask for your help by flagging inappropriate comments for our review. 
• Moderation decisions are final - We understand it can be frustrating when you do not agree with our decision to close or remove a discussion that you feel is appropriate. However, once we decide a post or member needs to be removed from the forums, the decision is final.

• Select QVC employees are permitted to post in the forums - If things go off topic or become unpleasant, we may comment to get things back on track before needing to remove the post entirely. We may just want to say hello and that we are enjoying your conversation. All employee profiles include a QVC identification.

• The Suggestion Box forum is here for you – We strive to continually improve your experience with QVC and appreciate your suggestions. If you have suggestions, or questions, please post them here and we will do our best to respond.

QVC Community Team

[dooBdoo]

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@santorini wrote:

I miss the days before "mods" were a thing.  I remember when they asked everyone if we WANTED Q employees to be able to post here.  Uh, no, thank you.  Happened anyway.  Too much control.  I don't like it.

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             @santorini,  The survey results were in favor of the badged QVC employees posting on the forums.    There was a thread last autumn discussing this, and at that time I looked up the info.    This is a copy of the survey results and I'll highlight that specific portion in red:

"Community Forum Survey Results"   

"Below are the results of the survey conducted in July, over 1,500 people participated in the survey.  

Community members logged in page

When asked about the Community Members Logged In (page located here) 48% of the survey participants did not know this page existed. 36% want the page removed, and 16% want the page to stay.

QVC employees posting comments in the forums

When asked about QVC employees posting in the forums 83% of the survey participants are ok with QVC posting.

Of the people who are for QVC posting in the forums,

55% welcome posts anywhere,

22% are ok with posts anywhere to help answer questions,

and finally 23% want QVC to post in a specific category.

Survey questions about managing nasty posts

73% of the survey participants want QVC to remove negative/nasty posts about Community members. 14% do not care either way, and 13% are against QVC removing negative posts about Community members.

50% of the survey participants want QVC to remove negative/nasty posts about hosts.  25% do not care either way, and 25% are against QVC removing negative/nasty posts about hosts

50% of the survey participants want QVC to do nothing about negative posts about brands and on-air guests. 21% do not care either way, and 29% would like QVC to remove negative posts about brands.

Good posts that take a bad turn and become nasty

72% of the survey participants want QVC to take some action when a discussion takes a negative turn. 28% are against QVC taking action on a post that turns negative.

The majority of the votes went to QVC removing the negative posts only (60%), QVC closing comments came in second (23%), and last was QVC removes the entire discussion (17%).

Forum maintenance of older posts with thousands of comments

64% of the survey participants like to see older threads closed after a certain time period or reach a maximum number of replies. 36% don’t want the long standing discussions to be closed ever."

Source:  survey results (thread dated 08-03-2014), see thread at link:

https://community.qvc.com/t5/Blogs/Community-Forum-Survey-Results/ba-p/1855212

[Reever]

Do the moderators work in the QVC offices ? Perhaps a letter to management asking for more freedom would be beneficial to all ? Ive never seen anyone use foul language on the boards. Sure we may be negative but thats human nature. QVC surely understands this.

[Spurt]

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@proudlyfromNJ wrote:

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@handygal2 wrote:

What some might interpret as "unkind," others would call "helpful." When l express opinions that aren't glowing or gushing, the purpose is to improve the hosts' performances. That's called constructive criticism, and is not meant to be mean-spirited. This should result in higher sales, which is QVC's goal, isn't it?

I notice that "unkind" posts about a couple of the hosts get deleted right away, but those regarding other hosts are not removed at all...

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@handygal2 . But since everyone has a different opinion on each host, how does that work. Some posters criticize hosts who I like and have no criticism. Who’s point should they take. And vice versa. 

Each poster has her favorite and least favorite. If we take everyone’s helpful hints, there wouldn’t be any hosts left.

posters don’t like JT taking about her family and personal life. They want it to stop. I enjoy it and want it to continue. What do we do??

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@proudlyfromNJ 

There were articles and interviews awhile back called "A Day In The Life Of A QVC Host"....it mentioned host/vendor critiques and evaluations and sales performances......

So some may like a host to talk about their family and their personal lives, others may feel there is not enough product information being provided ......So what does QVC do?  It all goes back to SALES PERFORMANCE.....If QVC's sales are down they are going to look at customer feedback and if the same constructive comments keep coming up--- QVC is going to make changes or talk to hosts in their evaluations and discuss areas for improvement.   Afterall QVC's business and a host's job is to SELL MERCHANDISE.....And when it comes time to renew a host's contract it's their sales and not their fan club following that QVC is going to look at!  And we have all seen hosts that didn't make the cut and were gone...those that were given a fond farewell on air it was the hosts decision to leave....those that were here one day and gone the next....using common sense ya know what happened....

[dooBdoo]

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@Carmie wrote:

It's easy to figure out what is unkind and what is not.

Put your name in the comments instead of the hosts and imagine how you would feel if you read your new hairstyle is unattractive, or that the Clothing you wore in front of millions on TV made you look fat or overweight.

How would you feel if you read that you ate too much during the presentations, or you mispronounced a word or made a mistake. So you took off a sick day and read comments stating that your sickness was minor and you should have worked....I could go one and on, but you get it.

If you have a negative comment about a host, keep it to yourself.

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               That's an excellent post, @Carmie.  

               However,  I do think there's benefit to offering useful feedback, even if it's negative, but  the way it's done  is the key to this.

               I also would go one step beyond your comment, and suggest we put the name of someone we love in the place of the host or vendor being criticized, pause, and think about the tone and delivery of the "helpful feedback."   

               All too often the internet has provided a venue for people to hide behind anonymity, make caustic and hateful comments

under the guise of "constructive criticism,"

and for others to heart their posts and support the vitriol.    That's not helpful. 

               It does make a chat forum difficult to moderate (I wish everyone could spend about a month moderating a forum to see what's involved), and one by one companies, businesses, publications have completely closed their community chat boards.   

               There are published standards, we agree to them when we post, and there also are our personal ethics and sense of respect and civility, and when those are set aside and the conversations continue to be disruptive and outside the policies...  well, we run the risk of driving this Community off the cliff, too.   

               Like it or not, this is located on a privately-owned website, managed by a business, with every word we type showing up on all major search engines...   and if we keep trying to force it to be something it's not, we might come here one day and see a banner announcing the end of the Community.

[dooBdoo]

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@this is my nic wrote:

@barb40 

Thank you for the info!  Of course everything stated is quite reasonable.  One of the rules caught my eye, 

Be respectful and courteous to others, even if you disagree with them. Do not use language or post content that is unkind or in poor taste or engage in personal attacks.

I interpret that as a guideline for responding to members' comments which sometimes get quite snarky. 

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               @this is my nic,   With the addition of the Community Guidelines (thank you, @Spurt, for posting that😊), when this new platform was launched they added more helpful clarifications to the Standards for Participation.    The unkind comments in poor taste and the personal attacks also apply to "hosts, vendors, models, or employees."    

[dooBdoo]

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@staciesmom wrote:

It seems like they delete any thread about the hosts that is not complimentary. No one is allowed to say anything even remotely critical. JMO

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               @staciesmom,  I understand this is your perception, yet I'm not sure what the reason might be since there are numerous threads and posts every day containing uncomplimentary and critical content and they're not removed.    Just my observation, and I certainly do not always agree with the moderators' decisions, but it seems to me the comments that are taken down are not posted in a respectful or civil way.    I remember seeing, on one chat board's guidelines:   "Start a discussion, not a fire.   Encourage respectful conversation, don't fan the flames."

[Spurt]

THESE FORUMS ARE FOR CUSTOMER DISCUSSIONS/FEEDBACK (And their purpose isn't' meant for the HOSTS to read)

Don't worry about what's considered "unkind" its subjective---let the MODERATORS do their job, if you feel something posted is  objectionable--- report it and let the Moderators decide...their Forum, their jurisdiction....

Challenging a Moderator's decision is also against the Guidelines, people need to just skip the thread if a topic bothers them....

[Spurt]

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@this is my nic wrote:

@barb40 

Thank you for the info!  Of course everything stated is quite reasonable.  One of the rules caught my eye, 

Be respectful and courteous to others, even if you disagree with them. Do not use language or post content that is unkind or in poor taste or engage in personal attacks.

I interpret that as a guideline for responding to members' comments which sometimes get quite snarky. 

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@this is my nic 

Yep, sometimes the snarky and mean comments to other members are far worse than what was said about the host....but they don't see the irony or the fact they are also not following the rules.....

[Spurt]

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@dooBdoo wrote:

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@staciesmom wrote:

It seems like they delete any thread about the hosts that is not complimentary. No one is allowed to say anything even remotely critical. JMO

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               @staciesmom,  I understand this is your perception, yet I'm not sure what the reason might be since there are numerous threads and posts every day containing uncomplimentary and critical content and they're not removed.    Just my observation, and I certainly do not always agree with the moderators' decisions, but it seems to me the comments that are taken down are not posted in a respectful or civil way.    I remember seeing, on one chat board's guidelines:   "Start a discussion, not a fire.   Encourage respectful conversation, don't fan the flames."

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@dooBdoo 

Its the old rule going all the way back when Forums were first started:  Watch what you say, and how you say it.....