Everyone Please Read: Going Forward, We Must Post With More Respect Toward Others

[Buster Brown]

Originally Posted by Wylie's Mom

Awwww, I feel lurved . Thanks for making me feel good during a week I'm not feeling so good, it means a ton.

Sorry to hear the week has been a rough one sending hugs and best wishes.

[HaroldNevar]

I appreciate your effort.. Thumbs Up..!!

[dabarclay4182]

Hi again,
Phoenix, long ways away.
I must say, and I am quite new here, and I have not followed all the threads or conversations, but what I have seen, I have been impressed with the generosity of spirit, the graciousness with which folks try to reach out and with what appears to be genuine concern comfort, console, support, entertain and interact with those whom they are addressing.....
After being drawn into hours of fascinating topics and things, I have yet to run across distasteful or negative or aggressive stuff, so if this helps at all to be encouraging...if there has been much of it, it must be in small, in frequent occurrences,....You have a really good community here and I look forward to meeting more of you, your babies and the amazingly wonderful things you do for your pups and the generous sharing of experience and advice.
I am not an experienced threader or blogger or whatever but so far I have greatly enjoyed my visits to your site and look forward to more....I have a facebook page and do not enjoy it I have email and find it tedious f most of the time, tried twitter and the rest but, where does one find the time? anyway, I am enjoying this lovely site and look forward to participating more when I can find the free time to reconnect with you.....

Originally Posted by Wylie's Mom

Hi all -

Firstly, I just want to say what a wonderful community YT is, and that I hope this thread can help us all think about improving our presence here during interactions…even if it just means tweaking our posting styles a bit.

I’ll get right to the point: we’ve been receiving a huge amount of communications from members who are concerned/venting about some of the harshness and aggression they’re seeing/perceiving in the community. This harshness pertains to both new and old members - on both the receiving and giving end of things. We’re hearing there is a pervasive feeling that members are being driven away via disrespectful, snarky, disdainful, extremely aggressive, and downright mean posting styles. This needs to stop.

We cannot be a community or call ourselves a community if we don’t come together sometimes, as a collective, and agree to do better. Well, it’s time to come together and agree to do better...to be more aware of giving (yes, GIVING) respect, to be more kind, to be more compassionate and supportive.

No one is asking anyone to be a Pollyanna or to not be themselves. We’re merely asking that, in your interactions, you strive harder and TRULY commit to what is mentioned in the previous paragraph. It’s not that hard -- and if it IS hard for you, then perhaps this isn’t the right board for you and perhaps it’s time to move on from YT to find an environment that does fit.

We are not asking much. If you do think we’re asking too much, then 1) this is not the community for you 2) you’re being self-centered and 3) you need to develop your insight into human beings, other than yourself. WE ARE NOT ASKING MUCH.

It is okay to speak your mind here at YT. However, it is not okay to simply justify any means you deem fit to meet your end goal. We believe in being STRONG advocates for dogs/animals - but not, however, at the expense of the human being behind that dependent and innocent dog. Please do not assume or think that it’s okay to behave any way you please merely because it’s in the interest of an animal. We all need to be decent here and post w/ a modicum of respect…EVEN when and especially when dealing with someone who is doing everything we are personally opposed to. Your opposition to another human being’s behavior does *not* mean you are right, nor is it a fact that they are universally and categorically wrong….it merely means you have opposition. Please learn to deal with it because it’s not going away.

If we see excessively negative and/or badgering posting styles, we will be warning people or suspending people and/or permanently banning members’ accounts.

This is an open discussion in terms of feedback, thoughts, concerns….so please feel free to share. This post is not aimed at anyone, so please do not make assumptions. It was driven by the sheer amount of concerned members who expressed themselves via PMs and on the forum itself. Thank you for reading!

[Wylie's Mom]

Originally Posted by dabarclay4182

Hi again,
Phoenix, long ways away.
I must say, and I am quite new here, and I have not followed all the threads or conversations, but what I have seen, I have been impressed with the generosity of spirit, the graciousness with which folks try to reach out and with what appears to be genuine concern comfort, console, support, entertain and interact with those whom they are addressing.....
After being drawn into hours of fascinating topics and things, I have yet to run across distasteful or negative or aggressive stuff, so if this helps at all to be encouraging...if there has been much of it, it must be in small, in frequent occurrences,....You have a really good community here and I look forward to meeting more of you, your babies and the amazingly wonderful things you do for your pups and the generous sharing of experience and advice.
I am not an experienced threader or blogger or whatever but so far I have greatly enjoyed my visits to your site and look forward to more....I have a facebook page and do not enjoy it I have email and find it tedious f most of the time, tried twitter and the rest but, where does one find the time? anyway, I am enjoying this lovely site and look forward to participating more when I can find the free time to reconnect with you.....

So glad to read you're having such a great experience here ! Happy you found us.

[Faerie54]

I voiced an honest opinion about a bad purchase experience on this site several years ago. The merchant sent a sample, which I approved of. Sadly, the purchased item, boxes of puppy pads, were absolutely nothing like the sample he sent. They were cheap, thin and ragged. When I carefully voiced a warning, various writers AND the merchant were all over me like bullies in a schoolyard.
While I now occasionally look to Y.T. for advice or a heads up, I rarely contribute or lend a thought. That experience was so offensive and not monitored by any means of decent guidelines by those leading Y.T.
I'm a 60 year old experienced dog owner who once enjoyed the community and sharing gleaned from other beloved Yorkie devotees on this site. Albeit free speech and right to opinion, one should at least be kindly and fair. The world provides us with enough other places to be bullied or abused. It should NOT be happening on Yorkie Talk.
We should be treating each other with the endearing and sweet manner in which our dear Yorkie companions treat us...
Mom to Mr. Darcy and Jackson

[adamsrose]

Thank you, Ann, for a post well said. I am extremely new here and looked forward to joining this community. However, I too, was starting to second guess leaving a post or comment. Maybe I'm not talking like a seasoned Yorkie Mom and someone may not agree with my comments. But I am here to learn how to be the best human for my baby, even though this is NOT my first rodeo. I think I will just remain silent for a bit...and read...and learn. Thank you

[ClassyCritters]

I'm new to the forum...I am a groomer I have many yorkies. They are my favorite to groom! I like post in pictures of all my critters and I hope the YorkieTalk community enjoys them as much as I do. I am also a foster parent for Yorkies along with other small breeds. I hope I see a lot of Yorkie pictures from other forum members

[mshancock66]

Welcome and I would love to see pictures of some of your work!

[MauiGirl]

Originally Posted by ClassyCritters

I'm new to the forum...I am a groomer I have many yorkies. They are my favorite to groom! I like post in pictures of all my critters and I hope the YorkieTalk community enjoys them as much as I do. I am also a foster parent for Yorkies along with other small breeds. I hope I see a lot of Yorkie pictures from other forum members

How exciting, I'd love to see pics. Welcome to Yorkie Talk. You should start a new tread in the general section to introduce yourself, as your intro may get lost in this very long thread. Looking forward to hearing more about your Yorkies.

[EarthAngel]

Welcome to YT! I, too would love to see photos of your grooming! Also, like Sandy mentioned you should make a new post in General as more people go there.

[YB 2]

I totally agree with I just joined recently and love this site! I think it's a wonderful thing to have to Yorkie owners please be nice and respectful don't ruin the experience for others. Let's keep this place wonderful!

[JadeD]

Being new here I have really only seen people being nice, so maybe this post did make a difference. I posted what I THOUGHT was a decent and not rude comment on something though and the person quoted me and basically said I was being rude and I was totally taken back because I thought I was NOT being rude.

I try to be a very supportive and nice (maybe even polite) person on anything that I am on (facebook, a forum, etc).

I hope that I will continue to enjoy this forum as much as I have the past week, since I found it.

I will definitely try to be polite to people and I am sorry if someone took something I tried to keep upbeat as something rude when it was not. I went back and read what I wrote and I still don't think I was being rude to them even after re-reading it.

[maxdog]

It is so easy to misread someone's words. The same sentence, said with different inflection, can mean the opposite of what you meant. While the internet, technology, facebook, twitter, etc, can be wonderful tools, they take away the personal experience. The face to face interaction that makes life wonderful and also holds you responsible for your words. There are too many stories out there about cyber bullying. It is so easy to be mean when you are a faceless being. It does take a little effort (not much though!) to be nice to people. So if we all put in a little effort, the world will be a wonderful place !

Having said all that, i have not experienced any problems with this site in the short time I have been here. I absolutely LOVE this site. The people are caring and helpful and full of knowledge. To those people who are holding back due a bad experience - give it another shot! Don't let one or two bad apples deprive you of a great experience. Max will be 2 in May and Sasha just turned 1 in January. I look forward to may years of sharing with the people here.

[Buster Brown]

Originally Posted by JadeD

Being new here I have really only seen people being nice, so maybe this post did make a difference. I posted what I THOUGHT was a decent and not rude comment on something though and the person quoted me and basically said I was being rude and I was totally taken back because I thought I was NOT being rude.

I try to be a very supportive and nice (maybe even polite) person on anything that I am on (facebook, a forum, etc).

I hope that I will continue to enjoy this forum as much as I have the past week, since I found it.

I will definitely try to be polite to people and I am sorry if someone took something I tried to keep upbeat as something rude when it was not. I went back and read what I wrote and I still don't think I was being rude to them even after re-reading it.

I saw that thread and I beleive that the OP was so devastated by her landlord and felt so guilty that they felt attacked by people just trying to help. I do not believe anyone was mean other than the landlady.

[MauiGirl]

Originally Posted by Buster Brown

I saw that thread and I beleive that the OP was so devastated by her landlord and felt so guilty that they felt attacked by people just trying to help. I do not believe anyone was mean other than the landlady.

I agree completely. That poster was so guilt ridden about rehoming an 11 week old pup, she was not even in a position to accept caring/helpful suggestions which were offered. There was a lot of caring compassion on that thread