The whirlpool forum is out of control. Its full of bullies and trollers with mods who protect the bullies.
I've been a member of that forum since 2002.
Has anyone else experience this?
Is the ozbargin forum a lot better?
Whirlpool forum is out of control
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OzBargain forum is more active than Whirlpool. Says it all really.
Whirlpool traffic ranking fell from top #5000 to around #20,000 now
Ozbargain in the meantime has gone opposite and now ranked #3200.
Ozbargain now the top 3200 website in the world, WP now rank 20,000th most visited.Alot of this is due to the people and mods on WP. If you screw around with users, they will leave for something better.
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OzB also has other functions than just forums (eg. the Deals/Bargains + Comps sections) … I suspect that would be a factor in difference of traffic between the two sites.
I've been with Whirlpool since 1998'ish … in recent years, ventured to OzB for the deals/comps pages - and only found the OzB forums section in the last 9 months.
IMO … Whirlpool is more moderated, whereas - OzB threads tend to go off on various tangents - often away from what the specified OP initially discussed - just saying from what I have observed so far.
As to the OP - @offgrid …judging by your username, were you commenting in the "Energy" section on Whirlpool? Have previously found that is a hard area to discuss in - everyone seems to think that know everything (more than anyone else) - and that they are a wealth of knowledge that they want to push on others.
Since you are now permanently banned from whirlpool - guess you wanted to find another place to discuss things.
Just don't get too judgemental or heated when during discussions.- 8
The energy and home segment in whirlpool are run by 6 figure tradies thinking that $200 for changing a power point is cheap and anything else is shoddy work risking your home insurance.
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I won't be going back to WP.
The is a saying g. For every good service people tell three others. For every bad service people tell 10 others.
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Interesting numbers, thanks.
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Whirlpool lost the plot many many moons ago.
It's the same problem, over and over again - the only people who want to be mods are the power tripping type that shouldn't be let near mod duties, ever. And its those with the least to say that say it the loudest.
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I've been a member of Whirlpool for around 18 years. Not a prolific poster. I think I only have around 800 posts.
I generally don't bother arguing with/debating people online. I see it as a waste of time, especially when I know I'm always right. :-)
I tend to post in threads that actually serve a purpose (e.g. someone asking for help or advice with a particular piece of equipment).
I did experience an overzealous mod around two years ago. Posted a thread asking if anyone had suffered a deep cut and lost sensation in the area of the cut. Made it pretty clear I'd received medical advice, but was wondering if people who'd experienced the same thing had feeling/sensation return down the track.
Mod deleted the thread, saying I was asking for medical advice. Pointed out that, in my post, made it clear that I wasn't. Refused to budge. Not the end of the world, but I personally find it irritating if my infrequent posts are deleted. Unless it's completely outrageous, people should be free to post whatever they want.
Overzealous moderation simply turns people off and they leave the forum as a result.
It seems to be more open here, though I genuinely don't understand the point of "down voting" comments. Who cares if what the member wrote is generally unpopular amongst other members? You end up wasting time having to expand the comments so you can read them.
Overall, I generally get the impression OzBargain has a friendlier user base than Whirlpool, and the moderation appears to be more reasonable here.
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Neg voting is useful, as you can neg a comment and feel like you've done your duty expressing that you don't agree and not feel the need to get involved in a long debate. Whereas without it you may feel the need to comment and then you get dragged into a flame war.
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Agree neg is a useful tool to not get into argument and/or rant. Sometimes asking a question will get a neg, you don't find out why you get neg. And the question still get unanswered, not useful in that context.
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I generally don't bother arguing with/debating people online. I see it as a waste of time,
I see many examples of "clash of titans" in ozbargain where huge paragraphs were written in replied to each other in the hope one will agree with the other, hoping the other person will retreat. Walk away can be a good option.
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Definitely. I usually avoid even getting into those types of debates altogether. People see things the way they see things. Ranting at someone isn't going to change their minds. I don't particularly care if other people disagree with my perspective. Everyone's entitled to their opinion.
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The whirlpool forum is out of control. Its full of bullies and trollers with mods who protect the bullies.
Dunnno, ozbargain isn't that far behind…..
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Loved WP when I first joined up 20 odd years back.
Brilliant placed to get tech advice, fixing stuff, ADSL plans, router reviews.
Lots of helpful people, willing to go the extra mile to help out.
Now the tech stuff has fallen by the wayside. You’re treated like a fool far asking basic questions, or looking for advice.I gave up being active on there about 8 years ago. Still use it sometimes as it comes up on Google searches for tech queries a lot.
But wading through the treacle, the trolls, the absolute idiots and the snobbery means it’s not fun anymoreUnfortunately I can see a similar trait in OzB these days too. I hope it doesn’t descend to the depths of WP
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Its a downward slide over here, I think. Too many people think they are comedians over here all the time. Look at what happened lately with anything tennis-related, everyone piping up about Novak (i have no opinion on him at all, btw)… it got a bit stupid when you are actually looking for tennis deals.
And wayyyyyyy too many injokes.
but i stay for the bargains
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Unfortunately I can see a similar trait in OzB these days too. I hope it doesn’t descend to the depths of WP
The forums are much more toxic than the deals section.
I think as a nation (although this is probably the case globally) we’re just becoming unhappier as time goes on. Wage growth is stagnant, housing costs have gone nuts and COL is going crazy right now too. When rates rise and climate change takes more of a hold people will be unhappier than ever and no doubt will blame the Labor party for everything despite the Liberals having been in power the majority of the past 20 years lol. COVID probably hasn’t helped either.
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If anything, COVID has divided people even more and brought the nastiness out of people.
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I can also see similar traits on Ozbargins forum. Thanks for your comment.
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I'm a whirlpool refugee here, I got a lifetime ban there in 2019
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What did you do to earn that?
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Gave an honest opinion about something
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Nothing to see here folks. Just an antivaxxer looking for attention
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I joined Whingepool when it was just a technology website, from memory created to keep Telstra on its toes. I learned a lot lurking and reading posts from members who actually knew what they were talking about.
Unfortunately, they have gone, to be replaced by trolls who seem to just enjoy arguing about pointless things, making pointless posts, and are more interested in having the biggest post count than anything else.
I still post there on occasions but unfortunately, the lunatics are now running the asylum.
I wouldn't mod there if they paid me, and I've modded on a number of forums (all unpaid) over the years.
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I remember https://whirlpool.net.au/survey/2010/
but nothing like a survey lately…I guess they lost their way in the Vortex.
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So is the original post not a troll post?
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There's a reason why the forum is called 'Whingepool'.
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Usually by whingers from other places…
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Mods there will shut you down if you have a different perspective that does not fit the mods view from a thought police perspective even if the view is expressed in as neutral a way as possible.
By doing this, they bias any attempt at debate by steering conversation towards the (mostly leftist) view that best matches the mod's own stance. As such I avoid any non technical general threads there.
Didn't really care though really. Just meant I stopped wasting time there.
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They have a news section but than ban you for discussing certain news or having certain opinions. It was great back in its hey day, ISP reps would respond to problems, John (rip)from exetel would be posting crazy shit. Good times.
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Whirlpool … the free speech forum that bans all speech that goes against neoliberalism.
Such as discussion of climate change.
A pathetic forum for a pathetic country.
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Man you've really lost your flame over the years.
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In answer to the op post If you need technical advice on pretty much anything my first port of call would be whirlpool.
Bullying should be reported,- 4
I'm registered as member #5xx, been on there since the very beginning and stopped using 5+yrs ago. The moderators became bullies and power hungry. My last attempt to use the community was when I posted a question regarding dental charges for general comment and my post was deleted with the crap reason to use the existing dental thread which was not a sticky and was like 5+pages away that no one was actively using.
It is full of whiners and no moderations for the better of the community. Absolutely toxic.- 4
I just checked my number. Turn out I registered 14 years ago, yikes. Time flies.
But my number is still like 250k. When did you register to be the first 500, just out of curiosity?
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I just checked mine and found out that after being a lurker for a while I registered in 2001 and I'm #5***
Time flies when you are having fun.
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andee10 then got a 1 month ban for bad grammar…
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It’s horrible. The amount of censorship is crazy. Especially on anything medical.
It’s only getting worse but the good news is you don’t have to go there anymore. It’s shrinking and dying. The australia subreddits have more people are varied opinions.
Whirlpool is just for whirlpool regulars. New posters get turned off within a few weeks.
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The amount of censorship is crazy. Especially on anything medical.
I don't spend enough time on WP to know what kind of medical advice people were seeking/giving that lead to censorship. But given how it's a topic that can lead to death and serious harm to someone, I can understand why censorship may be necessary. At least poor financial and legal advice won't kill someone.
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It's a just bunch of people posting statistics from Public Health Scotland's recent data that shows vaccinated are more likely to get infected. There is also the Danish study which is banned as well….
It's good because most of us can find this data and make our own decisions about why without the booster there is negative efficacy in the current vaccine.
TLDR: Basically vaccine efficacy is dropping and therefore you should get the booster. However, if you delve into the statistics you will find those who are unvaccinated do not suffer this negative vaccine efficacy. Who knows what the reason is behind this at the moment…
More research is needed. Not more censorship.
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I don’t know.. kind of sounds like misinformation…
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No it’s not about covid.
Try saying panadol is a placebo and see what happens.
Or anything medical really. It’s really odd what gets deleted in health threads.
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I actually wasn't thinking about Covid specifically, but more like Jilly Juice and the like.
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@Ughhh: Look I don’t want to get bogged down here. It was a throwaway point for me, I don’t give a shit about anything medical per se. I’ve also seen a lot of censorship in threads about building work especially around comparisons to America or Europe.
It just seems like a grab bag of weird opinions that mods suppress.
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Toxic platform
Quit years ago, not surprised it's worse. Has some useful info now just toxicity.
I'll just google info required
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Whirlpool has been slowly deteriorating over the last decade.
20+ years ago it used to be a great place to get assistance with anything internet related. Now it is borderline irrelevant and has been usurped by places such as Reddit.
I occasionally check in and post but its certainly lost its sparkle, there isn't as much traffic or up to date content compared to 5-10 years ago.
There's also a smarmy self-important feel that the place gives off with the way certain users and mods engage and behave. The ItN and AFL forums are so toxic. People don't have time to deal with that arrogant, internet superiorty low quality BS which is evident there, so many have moved on. People think they're more important than they really are.
Still some good tech content around, but you've generally got to dig to find it. The forum is also toxic by design:
- The interface is muddy and outdated
- The moderation process is generally too touchy and by being overly heavy handed with deleting posts it can mess with the context of the thread
- You don't get notifications if someone responds to your post, which can be difficult to follow the discussion
OzB is decent for the most part. Too many resident comedians who rehash the same old tired schtick though, but I guess you'll find that in most places. I'd rather that friendly vibe with a bit of banter then the stuffy structure of Whirlpool though.
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I'd rather that friendly vibe with a bit of banter then the stuffy structure of Whirlpool though.
Ironic that this is most prevalent at reddit despite it being labeled as lefty.
I guess the people who say such things are the type to comment on news.com.au articles.
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Exactly what post/material did you post that got the mods attention enough to ban you?
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I was put in the penalty box because I was on WP and my female friend asked what I was up to. I said I'm on WP forum. She said what's that so I told her. She makes an account and contributes to the post with non offence at all.
Next min we are both put in the penalty box for aprently me making a ghost account.
If I was going to do that I would have used a VPN or used my mobile internet instead of the NBN but I had nothing to hide.
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Ok so that;s the penalty box - how did you escalate it to a banning worthy status?
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I contacted a mod and told them they had made a mistake. The only answer I got back was its now 14 days. I contacted back asking for a senior mod to review the mod www1 decision. Got a message back for www1 saying I'm now banned permanently.
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@Offgrid: I got the same response from moderators. I went years and years not arguing with any Whirlpool moderators decisions, no matter how inexplicable and incomprehensible they were. Then I took them for their word that the moderators "don't bite", and questioned a decision. To which the moderator responded not by giving me a polite explanation to go with my polite request for one - I don't think he could explain it with anything but bias - he went back and deleted all my recent posting on some vague pretext or other, then sin binned me for a long time for "persistently disobeying the rules".
That is the behaviour of a bully. And saying that that's what it was got me - at least that login - banned.
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@Offgrid: Does your friend also have abysmal spelling and logic? Is she called "Mary Willy" by any chance?
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Are you going to write a stat dec asking the AFP to close down WP as well
Or take them down personally with your mad hacking skills
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All this self serving bullshit really - they think they are better than everyone else (the mods).
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Unless you are a leftie you are doomed.
Then again, try voicing a rightish / help yourself agenda and the left brigade gathers and attacks in all areas.
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If you have a help yourself agenda why bother replying to someone asking for help at all?
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Because I am sick and tired of helping everyone else
Each person who realises they are being subsidised by others and addresses it is less tax I am expected to pay to subsidise their lifestyle
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Because I am sick and tired of helping everyone else
You know you could just not look at the forum at all and save yourself so much time
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@Quantumcat: Making changes one dependent person at a time. Helping me and others like me is something that I enjoy more than going to work.
Hopefully one person reads these on their iPhone 12 supadooper max xrs gets off their ass and starts to work when they realise that someone else paid for their plaything
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Helping me and others like me is something that I enjoy more than going to work.
Because I am sick and tired of helping everyone else
🤔
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At least 3 people on handouts. That's ok. I don't mind paying for your lifestyle
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@smartazz104: Work hard, live within my means. Does it matter what the occupation is?
I live more frugally than people who get govt handouts (and still have nice things and do things). The middle class welfare in this country is out of control.
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That seems to be true of most forums nowadays, generally.
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Yep. Try posting a non-woke opinion in r/australia and you will be downvoted into oblivion. It would be quite humorous if it wasn't so pathetic.
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What would be an example of a non-woke opinion?
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@RecklessMonkeys: Something that gratuitously insults or denigrates people or a group the utterer holds in distain…
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@RecklessMonkeys: A non-woke opinion? Suggesting that the story a "victim" is telling has holes in it, and suggesting they might not be telling the truth. That gets your posting deleted pretty much anywhere these days. Hey, I got postings deleted from Whirlpool because I said from the start that the allegation against Pell was implausible and not supported by any evidence, and no reasonable person could conclude on the basis of the evidence that he was guilty, which in the end was what the High Court decided unanimously.
I keep getting postings deleted in various places because I argue that the Jenkins report into sexual harassment and bullying at parliament house, and the similar one on Rio Tinto, and others, are dodgy surveys because they aren't based on either asking everyone or asking a representative sample, but rely on people deciding for themselves whether they participate. That results in people with no grievance not bothering to respond, and people with a grievance responding, so you can't extrapolate the experience of the few who chose to respond to the many who didn't. Its something that you learn in statistics 101. But its not woke. These days surveys are valid if they get the "right" answer, like that every man is a sexual harasser or assaulter, and somehow wrong if they get the "wrong" one.
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@GordonD: Just post to the sky news and Fox News comments and you’ll be much happier. Those are your safe spaces.
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@GordonD: I think there's a big difference between reasonable doubt and 'implausible', but I wouldn't have removed your post on the basis of what you have said here.
I also don't think we can assume that someone who has been assaulted necessarily comes forward either. 1700 people did participate which should be enough to indicate there is a problem, even if the stats are flawed. Part of any subsequent processes need to protect those who are falsely accused.
Again, I wouldn't remove your post, mainly because it's a lost opportunity for a mutual exchange.
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I got banned from there for arguing with a Tony Abbott supporter.
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Can’t agree with this. I’ve been checking the NSW Covid thread in In the News for general information and people’s experiences, and it seems completely full of Young Liberals with a religious bent.
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The COVID threads attract all the crazies and bots.
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Whirlpool in exile here too.
Got banned because I told folks one too many times to pull their socks up and save hard but they don’t want to give up their luxuries and responding to posts on housing markets overseas.
Mods there don’t mind if the like minded mob insult others but if you say something against their leftist views, they’ll come at you.
I remember joining in the early 2000s to find the best ISP.
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Can't say I see that happening much myself. Wondering if maybe it is the way you engage with people or perhaps you choose to participate in particularly controversial topics? given some of your responses here you are definitely at least part of the problem.
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I posted once asking about why me and my girlfriend were getting dizzy in a new car and 99% of the posts were all trolls calling me a bad driver. One of the posters then started trolling about his cruise control in a 3 generation old model car and saying the newest model was the exact same.
There was 1 post that mentioned the smell so we tested by sitting in the car without moving and we started getting sick which helped us figure out we needed to air out the car a bit more.
Honestly not worth sifting through the trolls for that one single answer.
The people who are on there don't have anything better to do but make posts to make themselves feel better whether that be trolling or by pretending to be above everyone else because they can't do it in real life.
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I wonder how many smart-arse comments you would get if you had posted that here…
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probably a fair few, but at least the helpful reply wouldn't be deleted for being off topic here.
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hey, I remember that thread.
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Like all good things, people who should not be let anywhere near any position of power/trust move in & take over the administration duties nobody could be bothered doing.
They then proceed to ruin it until everyone that built it leaves.
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The comments here are exactly why humanity is doomed.
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Agreed…, however I have enough dirt of a lot to crumble thrm
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Well you should write a juicy book then.
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Well im a new whirlpool refugee now to
I think the mods over at whirlpool just want to kill the site, i have had run ins with hstroyer/www1/thor and all of them are so damn high on theyre own supply its insane
they have this arrogant style of just typing closed after they reply to you in TWAM and closing the thread as if they have the God's last word and how dare you could ever think to reply.
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No better than reddit moderators: no life losers who have no power over their own life, only have power on internet forums.
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I posted there about a week ago, I was asking about pass through ethernet crimping pliers and if if the different brands of pliers were proprietary and required specific modular connections.
Came back the next day and my post has been deleted, no staff pm or reason given?
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WP is anti diy cabling in all regards, it does all the cablers who shill on the forum out of business.lol
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Don't whirlpool loser mods have anything better to do? They're constantly deleting posts for being off topic on the finance subforum. The userbase just wants to talk about stuff that may not be strictly on topic but is still related.
Just effing let people chat you government welfare mod parasite leeches.
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If you want to experience bullying & harrasment to the max, simply ask a WP moderator to remove you from the penalty box. How this group of sad and misserable poor excuse of beings have been allowed to take over & rule WP is beyond belief. That a web side is alowed to operate under such oppresive & abusive regime avoiding any penalties & accountability for treating users with complete dissrespect is inexcusable.
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Yep the WP site is accountable to no one. The moderators are disgusting creatures.
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It's mind boggling how some of the most aggressive and rude commenters on WP all seem to have very positive auras. Anyone that challenges their thoughts have low auras and eventually gets banned. WP seems to promote a bully a culture
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they must be related to the moderators, moderators on WP are after all a family of bullies - they look after each other
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Yeah. I get comments deleted as pointless or off-topic but commenters with high auras will make similar off-topic comments but not get deleted. Honestly, I can’t believe the rudeness of some of those high aura commentators that I cannot believe something funny isnt going on.
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I've got over 10k posts and have been a member since 2001. I've rarely posted in the last 10 years. I had a few political debates about 15 years ago. As a result, my aura seems to be Pervasively Low until the end of time. :)
WP moderation has always been over the top, and a tight clique of group think. I wouldn't lose any sleep over it.
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Paddles is on the rampage again deleting posts.
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Nope