The questions people have asked me the most in the last couple of days
since ABBAMAIL began a campaign to stop the vilification, victimisation,
bullying and homophobia happening to fans at the official ABBA site forums
is...what's going on? Why are you doing this? What's it all about?
Well here, to the best of my ability, are the details.
When the first version of ABBA - The Site was created, a section was added
for fans to communicate with each other - a kind of bulletin board where
people could share news, views, ask questions and make comments.
Unfortunately, due to the nature of the internet itself, this bulletin
board type arrangement quickly became untenable. It got completely out of
control and became flooded with inappropriate posts, people signing on
claiming they were members of ABBA and fans abusing each other.
When Version 2 of the site was being designed, it was realised that, if the
forum type arrangement was to continue, there would have to be some kind of
control and moderation introduced. To achieve this, Fame Studios/Universal
Music recruited the assistance of a group of ABBA fans that they selected
from various ABBA mailing lists and other discussion forums. Including a
number of members of ABBAMAIL.
These people were to work on a voluntary basis as a team of "moderators"
that would look after the "ABBA Site Forums", provide assistance to fans
using the forums and to ensure that the discussions didn't get out of
control and degenerate as they had in Version 1 of the site.
They say that a camel is a horse that's been organised by a committee. And
that's probably a good analogy of what immediately happened at ABBA - The
Site with the 13-15 people chosen as moderators. Despite the fact that some
of the people chosen were known to be sensible, mature people, the
moderating team quickly became embroiled in personal and political
struggles with each other. People split into various factions - much as
happens in political parties - and secret emails would go back and forth
between these various factions depending on what latest drama was occurring
between them.
The struggle for who would control the forum began early. Despite Universal
Music expecting the moderators to work as one team with one set of
principles and guidelines, it became apparent quickly that more energy was
being spent on internal struggles between the moderators than actually
expended on doing their jobs and helping the site's ABBA fans.
One early power grab was an attempt by moderators from one particular
country to force all moderators to stick to a rigid time schedule - they
would have to agree when to clock on and clock off for their "shift" at
work. As the moderating work was purely voluntary, other moderators were
incensed at this idea. The original idea was for people to sign on and
moderate the forums when they had the time - after all, that's why a large
team was set up.
The moderators have their own "Administration" forum that is only able to
be viewed by themselves and staff from Universal Music. They also set up
their own mini-mailing list and their own chat rooms. Even these tools
became a problem from the earliest days. While the communications between
them should have been open and inclusive, the various factions deliberately
excluded certain moderators when they sent communications. The
communication channels were used to shore up support for this faction and
that faction etc.
And always there were arguments about how the forums should be moderated.
Any group of people thrown together in a team will argue, it is only a
natural part of the process. But the depth and scope of these arguments
descended to almost farcical levels. Agreement couldn't be reached on many
basic issues. Universal Music staff were continually being contacted to act
as "arbiter" by one moderator or another. The trouble is that the person in
charge of liaison with the moderating team also had a very full workload as
part of the small Universal Music team in Sweden. They were already very
busy and the ABBA site job was something additional to their work.
This situation, unfortunately, allowed the power struggles between the
moderators to escalate. Some moderators began to try and impose their views
of how things should be run on the whole team. Universal wasn't able to
respond in a timely manner when there was a drama happening or a forum
matter that needed to be urgently resolved. The person doing the job at
Universal at that time certainly did their best but their time was limited.
And, because of the huge popularity of the site forums with thousands of
members signing up, the issues and problems increased exponentially.
One of the key parts of the moderating team's job is to ensure that
discussions on the site do not degenerate to the level of vilification and
abuse. They also have to make sure that fans can use the forums without
fear of harassment, threats and so on. The team also has to monitor that
sexual comments and references do not become lurid and pornographic.
But in all of this their primary role is to make sure the www.abbasite.com
forums are functioning in a healthy way with fans able to contribute in an
enjoyable atmosphere. The moderators primary role is also to make sure that
the decisions they make are fair and reasonable and can be justified upon
examination. These primary functions are key to the success of the forum
because ABBA and Universal Music are naturally concerned that the official
ABBA site does not bring them into disrepute or generate negative
publicity. The last thing they wanted is for the site to develop a bad
reputation. After all, it is primarily a marketing tool for ABBA related
product and it has to present a positive impression of the ABBA name.
There were and are some good people involved in moderating the forums. They
worked hard and tried to be as fair and reasonable in their administration
of the site and in the way they treated the fans using the site.
Unfortunately, not all of the people chosen as moderators were interested
in being "fair" or "reasonable".
Some early departures in the moderating team saw the balance of power shift
rather dramatically. One particular moderator saw this as their chance to
exert control over everything related to the forums. A newly appointed
moderator joined with the person exerting this control to form a power
block that remains until this day. And this is where the real problems
began for regular ABBA fan members of the site.
It is often the person that shouts the loudest that gets their way. Some
people are easily influenced by stronger personalities and others don't
enjoy conflict. That's just the way the world works. What has happened at
the abbasite is that there has been a dramatic split between the moderating
team since this power block was formed.
The moderating team is currently comprised of (a) the power block of 2-3
people who presently control everything that happens on the site (b) a few
other people who are easily influenced by the stronger personalities of the
power block and simply do as they are told (c) a few who do not contribute
very much to the team - that is, they don't sign in to help out very often
but seem to be more interested in the prestige of being a "moderator on the
official abba site" and the free gifts that Universal Music regularly give
each moderator and finally (d) a few very sensible, very hard working, very
down to earth moderators or "mods" as they call themselves who are fighting
a losing battle to ensure the forums are moderated appropriately and that
site members are treated with dignity, respect and fairness.
The power block comprises two particular very strong personalities that
have openly admitted they want to run a "conservative agenda" for the site.
From their earliest moments, they stated that they are on a mission to
"clean up the site" - they are anti just about any type of interesting or
unusual discussion and want to rid the site of what they consider to be
"the Gay element".
The power block moderators began a very early struggle to ban any mention
of "Gay" on the site. This is despite the fact that a substantial number of
ABBA fans are Gay and that a substantial number of contributors to the
forums are also Gay. The power block moderators began to delete posts to
the site with any mention of the "G" word. This immediately began upset the
more openly Gay fans on the site and, even more importantly, infuriated
some of the other moderators.
Interestingly, the anti-Gay campaign began shortly after one of the more
prominent original members of the moderating team, an openly Gay man,
resigned from his position. But this still left other members of the team
who were either (1) Gay themselves or (2) comfortable with Gay people. The
majority of the moderators did not consider sexuality should be an issue in
the way the site was run and certainly did not want to be involved in the
persecution of Gay fans using the site.
Tension increased between the moderators to the point of shouting and
screaming arguments in their administration forum and some moderators
appealing directly to Universal Music staff for support.
A humongous argument developed between the team over this issue. Universal was contacted for a decision: their response was that their primary concern was to ensure sexually explicit comments or material were not on the site. And that is fair enough.
However, as mentioned earlier, it is often the people who shout the loudest
that get their way. The very conservative power block moderators continued
on regardless. They made up their own rules for what could and couldn't be
said and done by fans on the site despite the objections of the other
moderators. No matter how much other moderators disagreed with these people - two in particular - they carried on regardless. They shouted louder and screamed louder at the other members of the team and also began systematically targetting certain fans using the site who were either Gay or who did not share their views on how the site should be run.
The reactions of the other moderators to the power block have ranged from
meek compliance to indignant outrage. Some have obeyed unquestioningly
fearing they will lose their positions and free gifts otherwise. Some have
gone along for the ride and then realised that they have been used by the
power block and that they are, in fact, not happy with the decisions being
made for them. Some have argued each and every point with the power block - trying to reason with them and come to some kind of compromise, agreement etc. Unfortunately this has not been successful.
Some moderators have approached Universal Music staff and begged for
intervention. They have explained what is happening and asked Universal to
intervene and rectify the situation. Unfortunately, Universal Music have
not done so up to this point. And it may well be because the staff member
now looking after the site is, like her predecessor, snowed under with
other work.
At the same time as all this has been happening, fans using the site (many
now ex-members) began to question why they were being treated so
appallingly by certain moderators. They began to ask why they were being
targetted, threatened and harassed. Why their often harmless posts
questionning certain aspects of the forum's administration were being
instantly deleted by a couple of moderators. And Gay fans began asking why
they couldn't say they were Gay or talk about being Gay on the site. After all, the whole point of the forum was to encourage people to get to know each other and share their love of ABBA. Being Gay is not illegal or a crime (in most democracies) and simply mentioning that you are Gay should not result in our post automatically being deleted and you being threatened with expulsion from
the site.
Some fans became so frustrated that they began to contact Universal Music
directly using the info@abbasite.com address. This address cannot be
accessed by moderators but only by staff at Universal. Unfortunately,
again, their complaints and pleas for assistance were not acted upon nor
were their emails acknowledged. It can only be said, in fairness, that this again
would be a workload issue for the staff member at Universal looking after
the ABBA site.
What has happened more recently is that the power block has become even
bolder and more rabid in the way they control the site and the fans
participating in the forums. One of the two has become so bold that they
have appointed themselves unofficial chief of the moderating team and will
tolerate no dissention from the other moderators. This person exercises
absolute control over the selection of new moderators so that, as original
team members have moved on, the only people allowed to be selected are
those that will "follow orders".
Other original members of the team have tried stop the insanity and bring
things back to a reasonable lev
