Is it time for a mass exodus from Broadway World?

[Sondheimite]

Posted: 5/10/18 at 4:09pm

With the censorship on top of the ads... on top of many great posters already leaving.

It's time to discuss if it's time to start a new form for all of us to be able to speak freely on.

[GeorgeandDot]

Posted: 5/10/18 at 4:12pm

Yes.

[Elegance101]

Posted: 5/10/18 at 4:14pm

This is a personal attack against BroadwayWorld.

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 5/10/18 at 4:14pm

Good luck!

[ErikJ972]

Posted: 5/10/18 at 4:18pm

Yes.

In addition to what the OP said, BWW is now a place where racism is fine with the mods but calling out racism gets you deleted. Time to go.

Is it possible to delete your account on here? I looked today but couldn't find anything.

[JBC3]

Posted: 5/10/18 at 4:20pm

I think it is time for a higher quality user experience, one facilitated by better organization of these discussion boards as a start. In 2018, it should be easy to have a more functional hierarchy to posts that keep everything related to a specific show or topic together.

Example (only one way of doing this):

Show name (main folder)
-seating
-previews
-reviews
-merchandise
-et al

We end of having the same 4-6 topics/show discussed repeatedly. Organize the discussion boards around that reality.

[Sondheimite]

Posted: 5/10/18 at 4:23pm

meanwhile...

Updated On: 5/10/18 at 04:23 PM

[JSquared2]

Posted: 5/10/18 at 4:24pm

Hopefully BWW will now be losing a big bunch of crybabies.

[BroadwayConcierge]

Posted: 5/10/18 at 4:25pm

The mods just need to get it together. Their organization and decision-making strategies are really horrendous.

BWWMatt has been excellent in the past few days about being more transparent in their decisions. The problem is their decisions are wildly discretionary and inconsistent.

[ChildofEarth]

Posted: 5/10/18 at 4:29pm

The censorship with Patti Muringate lost us some of the best and now the refusal to delete posts with microagressions...this place is not what it was.

[Gpvegas]

Posted: 5/10/18 at 4:30pm

I love the people like the original poster.  No one is making you stay.  You obviously do not have much business experience.  Websites such as this one do not run for free.  There are cost associated with running a website and a forum like this one.  Therefore, there must be some revenue to cover the costs.   Also, the owners of the website are free to censor whatever they feel is necessary.  Again, when you have a business you have to shield yourself from lawsuits.  

Are you willing to buy the site and pay for all the expenses and to possibly get sued for defamation?  If not then you have a choice understand why they owners are doing what they are doing or never visit the site again.  

[Kad]

Posted: 5/10/18 at 4:31pm

The fact is there are no other options; All That Chat makes BWW look like a vision from the future and other places are defunct.

Creating and maintaining a message board is time consuming, and if it is unattached to a main site that can act as a resource, there is little way to attract new traffic.

The people that want to talk theatre shop can mostly all do so offline with peers. Diehard fans have places like Tumblr.

[JBroadway]

Posted: 5/10/18 at 4:36pm

Not saying these complaints are invalid, but I can only imagine how the mods must have their faces in their palms right now. Just a few days ago people on this board made suggestions as to how to improve moderation, and as soon as they actually implement those suggestions, we have a whole new thread complaining about them. 

Also hilarious to me that people would compare the moderation of a message board to actual censorship imposed by a government on its people. 

[ScottyDoesn'tKnow2]

Posted: 5/10/18 at 4:38pm

JSquared2 said: "Hopefully BWW will now be losing a big bunch of crybabies."

Is this a personal targeted attack that should be deleted or is this a post that furthers open and free discussion?

[BroadwayConcierge]

Posted: 5/10/18 at 4:38pm

^^^ What Scotty asked.

[TotallyEffed]

Posted: 5/10/18 at 4:39pm

I wish we could have a great Theatre Reddit.

[Kad]

Posted: 5/10/18 at 4:40pm

I'm glad that implantations are being made, but the root issue was and is how they were being used. It's like... great, I'm glad you switched from using your fists to using a bat, but why are we hitting rocks, again?

[Gpvegas]

Posted: 5/10/18 at 4:48pm

Personally, I feel this site could use some house cleaning of the same posters that all they do is attack and complain.  There are people that use the anonymous nature if the internet to be a bully under the cloak of free speech.   

[broadwaybabywannabe2]

Posted: 5/10/18 at 4:49pm

JSquared2 said: "Hopefully BWW will now be losing a big bunch of crybabies."

i do hope so!!...i think the ones here thinking of leaving really left sometime ago with their negative posts...i find this site very informative about seeing shows...yes there is a lot crap here too but i quickly scan over that stuff and read only the relevant posts...so this works for me...

[BWWMatt]

Posted: 5/10/18 at 5:00pm

ScottyDoesn'tKnow2 said: "JSquared2 said: "Hopefully BWW will now be losing a big bunch of crybabies."

Is this a personal targeted attack that should be deleted or is this a post that furthers open and free discussion?"

Scotty, probably neither, as JSquared wasn't "attacking" anyone personally, but was clearly insulting posters. However, I also don't think that it advances the conversation. Obviously this thread isn't something that we love having on the board, especially since we are making sincere efforts to make this a better experience for everyone, but if the discussion is going to be had, it needs to be done without insults.

So, from here on out in this thread, since the subject has already been broached, if there are insults or attacks made (of the personal or general variety), they will be addressed. 

[rjm516]

Posted: 5/10/18 at 5:06pm

The racism stuff is despicable. You cannot in good faith delete comments from people calling OUT racism but leave the racist comments there with seemingly no opposition. So immature to have staff's personal feelings reflected in their censorship.

[Steve C.]

Posted: 5/10/18 at 5:07pm

Just checked in to see what fire started today and...

I know musical tastes are personal, intimate and by choice, as is a discussion of race and casting. It's just a little puzzling to me how IMO, some contributions on this topic are subject to censorship. Adult themes and content are and have been part of our nation's fabric. Sometimes disturbing, yes. Some posts are constantly being called out and deleted. Others, many times, just "love" a good cyber battle, posting every five minutes back and forth.

If you need or want to see how race in America is not only treated but mis-treated in America (and Broadway and...), just look at our tv shows that reach mass audiences. There is a post in the off-topic thread on Donald Glover and "This Is America". It has not had a post for over two days, yet if you read the NYT, (not to mention going online), there are articles and links to at least 10 publications, the video and the topic of race in our country.

So there's my 2 cents...continue your bickering... 

Updated On: 5/10/18 at 05:07 PM

[Tom5]

Posted: 5/10/18 at 5:15pm

I'd rather have a message board with regulation, even misguided regulation, than no regulation at all. Nothing is more disheartening  than those. But better than any board, unless you're home bond, is real life, face to face communication. That can be, you know, real.

[BWWMatt]

Posted: 5/10/18 at 5:18pm

rjm516 said: "The racism stuff is despicable. You cannot in good faith delete comments from people calling OUT racism but leave the racist comments there with seemingly no opposition. So immature to have staff's personal feelings reflected in their censorship."

rjm, I can't tell you with 100% certainty that personal feelings played zero part in what you are calling censorship, as what was edited/deleted occurred on both sides of that discussion, and Alan made very clear what BWW's stance is when the thread was eventually locked. 

I just posted this in another thread, but felt that it explains (to a certain extent) the question you raise: 

"Believe it or not, I 100% agree with you, and I think you have perfectly articulated the line between what we think is acceptable, and what maybe isn't. If you had worded the post in question like you did above, it would not have been an issue for us at all (even though, I again think we probably could have let it slide the first time). While it seems semantic to some, there is a difference for us in "attacking" (and of course I'm using that term loosely) a person's work, and "attacking" that person. 

The same is true in the other thread, where we edited or deleted people calling each other racist. While that is obviously a level or 12 up from calling someone an idiot, there is a big difference between saying someone is racist, and saying that something someone says/believes is racist. 

I get that this seems like we are splitting hairs here on this, but I truly believe that if you call someone a racist (for example), that ends the discussion whether you want it to or not, because it makes someone automatically defensive.

However, if you say that you believe that what the other person thinks is racist (and then hopefully explain why), that leaves the other person the opportunity to step back and disassociate with what was said, so that the dialogue can continue in a hopefully positive manner."

So, in neither case were we trying to "censor" anyone's thoughts about "Carousel" or from calling out opinions that they felt were racist. We just want to keep all threads on a plane where we are discussing the topics, and not insulting others. I hope that makes sense. 

[Anakela]

Posted: 5/10/18 at 6:21pm

BWWMatt said: "
I get that this seems like we are splitting hairs here on this, but I truly believe that if you call someone a racist (for example), that ends the discussion whether you want it to or not, because it makes someone automatically defensive.

However, if you say that you believe that what the other person thinks is racist (and then hopefully explain why), that leaves the other person the opportunity to step back and disassociate with what was said, so that the dialogue can continue in a hopefully positive manner."
"

No. Hard no. Pass. 

Call a racist a racist. If anything we should be doing more of calling racists racist.

I'm not going to walk past someone wearing a sheet over their head and burning a cross on a lawn and engage them in the difference between being a racist and having racist beliefs. That's a racist. 

A white woman at Yale who has not once, but twice, called the police on black Yale students, yet manages to never call the police on white Yale students, is a racist. Call her a racist. 

I've probably been on BWW longer than a handful of posters here have been alive, but if this is really the hill the mods are choosing to die on...nope.