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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Dont care much about posting there either anymore (after over a year of banishement just for trying to stand up for my rights against a moderator).
The only time I feel bad, is when users ask questions that I can assist with and I am not allowed to respond.
I only visit to check for bank interest rate changes - as most banks now just make a change and post in the Australian -:)
That is the only use I have for Whirlpool (and try to forget/ignore it is run by bullies)Yeah it very clear that the WP moderation is extremely unprofessional and very inconsistent. They've even admited that due to an inability to attract decent moderators that they're just using whoever they can get. They should make changes in order to attract better quality moderators or shut the site down. The number of visitors has fallen sharply so it'll probably die anyway at some stage. The internet will be a better place the day that happens .
The internet will be a better place the day that happens
Not really, those people will just come here
I guess but any shenanigans and their comments should get hidden
@finbar: Yes, at least here I can hide the comments from TROLLS - no moderators need to intervene.
Moderator on WP can hide any post or comment they do not have the intellect to understand either as "off topic" or "ranting"Dare you protest the outcome is inevidable = "banned for life"
And we think -P-u-t-i-n- is bad (embedded -s just in case I get banned here as well for political statements by someone with zero sense of houmor-:)
Hopefully no WP moderators have crossed-over to Oz due to lack of available targets to hunt down.although I strongly suspect that all the "minuses" must be from WP moderators excersising their limited powers here as well (TROLLS-:)
I keep getting posts hidden as "off topic". I have to add content so the simpleton and under-educated moderators can work out how a post is on topic. Most of the posts are anything that would be marked by someone else for review. It is like moderators troll the posts to hide posts and justify their existence.
The most ridiculous comment by a moderator was with one of my posts and the moderator claimed
"For the Voice thread, please ensure you are familiar with the thread header reproduced on every page. The thread is not about anything to do with ATSI peoples"
Just to make it clear, this was a thread for the Voice referendum and not the talent show The Voice, or John Farnham.
Here are people complaining about Whirlpool and as usual so called off topics were deleted and thread closed because Thor didn't like the comments.
https://forums.whirlpool.net.au/thread/3qr1zqy0Thor is supposed to be a retired mod but he isn't he is still very active and has to be one of the worst moderator. It seems that the site owner dosent care how forgone WP has gone. And Because the site owner wont address concern by users WP has become irrelevant. He dosent care if other social platforms and other forums have overtaken WP.
Was it a feedback forum thread?
Yes it was a feedback thread where people were providing feedback. And then it was closed. WPs view is that it's their site and if you don't like it then leave. They have no interest in feedback unless it's praise. Constructive criticism is not welcome lol. Surprise surprise, everyone is leaving lol
I have had direct experience of that. See my first post.
What is the point of having feedback if you are not going to listen to it.
@chuckynoris: It lets people think they have a voice. Just like when the government asks for submissions to changes in legislation.
"Here are people complaining about Whirlpool and as usual so called off topics were deleted and thread closed because Thor didn't like the comments."
Why doesn't that surprise me? Once Thor has the hate on for you, it's all over. He will make sure you're gone.
Yes, Whirlpool is not what it used to be. Mods are control freaks (for the worse).
It's a weird place. The people there are living in in a time period three decades ago when dial up internet was a modern thing lol. A bunch of aging boomers who can't adapt to the current world we live in. Whinging and whining about everything. And they're dying off now. Literally. Hence the declining number of people on there. Thank God we have many better options nowadays for information.
It's funny- it's a pretty good source of a lot of stuff, but terrible for others. I am still on there in some forums, but it's becoming increasingly quieter and am finding myself more on here and Reddit (which is also very hit n miss). What other forums do you use?
Yeah it's just trial and error until you find a place you prefer. The advantage of OzB and Reddit is that generally speaking much of the pointless stuff gets quickly buried or hidden when it's voted down. With Reddit you can specify seeing the top comments first which can sometimes speed things up. Means you can quickly determine if the thread has any value to you. If you have a particular interest then sometimes a forum dedicated to that particular thing is good too. Eg Motorsport or Finance or Movies etc. Generally speaking I find these other places better than WP.
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
they must be related to the moderators, moderators on WP are after all a family of bullies - they look after each other
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.
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.
I can't help but wonder why people still use the Whirlpool platform. I just read some threads every now and then but don't contribute anymore.
Today, I saw a post get deleted because someone mentioned red candlestick charts, and now they're challenging the moderators.
Anyone want to take bets on if they will be banned?
FYI: Glossary of Term This is what they were referring to.
they will get banned, possibly for life (how dare they stand up to the moderator clan -:)
As much I dislike WP and their moderators, I have to say that the exact opposite is happening in Oz bargain.
I do not post often (I only ever made 10 banking related posts in OzB) - but when I do the TROLLS are out to get me - personal attacks and all that BS & even when reported the moderators here think that there was nothing wrong with someone tracking all your previous posts (disturbing behaviour) & listing them as evidence of I do not know what & calling YOU Obssessed, or accusing you of being a tax dodger because you still use cash - thank God for thick skin -:) When I see downvotes for just stating a fact I cannot help but just laugh and ignore -:)Ngl feel there is some of that starting here, i dont mind the opinions and youve got to cop the good and bad. But the trolls have quietly moved it seems
I'd say that the people still using WP are aging boomers. These aging boomers have tried other places out there in the big wide world but they get treated as irrelevant. So they go back to WP where they try and convince themselves that they're still relevant lol.
Paddles is on the rampage again deleting posts.
Thor and Paddles are the worst. Absolute control freaks. If they have the hate on for you, you're gone.
Noticed the moderator I had the most trouble with has no posts last 3 months. Highly unusual given their normally extensive engagement across various whirlpool lounges. I suspect something has happened.
A lot of the moderators have been lurkers rather than real participants. The most inappropriate people to be moderators after those that let their opinions cloud their decision making.
Not this particular moderator.
Gotta agree with others. The moderation is heavy-handed and one-sided at times.
I'm on my 'final' warning, after a previous final warning. So I assume a permaban is incoming. It's funny logging in here and seeing some familiar users. mrdean! I'd been wondering where you went. Not surprised to find some of you venturing away from WP.
It has become increasingly clear that Whirlpool’s moderation is no longer an objective enforcement of its own rules but rather a targeted effort against individual users. Instead of engaging in discussion or offering counterpoints, moderators simply delete posts under flimsy pretexts.
As the forum’s user base declines—barely reaching 500+ members online even at peak times—moderators seem more focused on shutting down discussions, closing threads, and retroactively marking posts as off-topic. The question arises: what purpose does deleting an "off-topic" post several days or even weeks after it was made, especially when no one responded to it? If not a petty display of power, then what?
Whirlpool and its moderators should abandon the pretence of fostering diverse discussions on current events. If they cannot handle controversy or differing opinions, they should stick to the less demanding realm of technical forums, where debate is minimal, and their authority remains unchallenged.
No other forum (or social media platform) bans their users simply because they did not agree with (or were not liked by) a self appointed moderator that is accountable to no-one. WP resembles/mirrors a 100% totalerian regime the likes of I will not mention here. I was happy to browse and contribute/assist on WP until a moderator got in the way and banned me for life with no parole 2 years ago.
They don't have any money for professionals and people now get technical information elsewhere. It's dying a slow unpleasant death. It should simply be put out if it's misery.
It's funny logging in here and seeing some familiar users. mrdean!
I thought that too! Welcome to ozbargain.
I changed my handle when I moved from WP to avoid being trolled/stalked by the WP moderator that banned me on WP -:)
I can still see all of my usefull posts in the banking forum on WP up to 2 years ago … -:) their loss not mine … -:)
For those who might be interested in the statistics behind the slow death of Whirlpool Forums… Stats from The Wayback Machine:
Local time
7:38 PM
25 March 2010
Membership
346,698 registered members
19,275 visited in past 24 hrs
1,749 members are online now
1,411 guests are visitingLocal time
2:57 PM aedt
3 March 2020
Membership
860,247 registered members
11,477 visited in past 24 hrs
1,025 members online now
1,618 guests visiting nowLocal time
4:14 PM aedt
21 March 2022
Membership
900,193 registered members
9,343 visited in past 24 hrs
891 members online now
1,167 guests visiting nowLocal time
12:42 PM AEDT
4 March 2025
Membership
930,426 registered members
6,384 visited in past 24 hrs
599 members online now
789 guests visiting nowThe following are the percentage changes from the above data.
2010-2020 (10 years)
Registered members: +14.81% per year
Visited in past 24 hrs: -4.05% per year
Members online now: -4.14% per year
Guests visiting now: +1.47% per year2020-2022 (2 years)
Registered members: +2.32% per year
Visited in past 24 hrs: -9.30% per year
Members online now: -6.54% per year
Guests visiting now: -13.94% per year2022-2025 (3 years)
Registered members: +1.12% per year
Visited in past 24 hrs: -10.56% per year
Members online now: -10.92% per year
Guests visiting now: -10.80% per yearOverall percentage changes from 2010 to 2025 show the number of registered members is still growing, but user engagement (visits, online members, and guests) has been progressively declining. i.e. Registered members: +168.37% | Visited in past 24 hrs: -66.88% | Members online now: -65.75% | Guests visiting now: -44.08%
The stats for today demonstrate that only 0.064% of the 930,426 registered members are using the sight.
Massive Drop in Active Participation + Guest Traffic Declining = Very Low Active User Ratio. Why? The key reason for the drop in engagement is very likely the overly aggressive moderation and excessive banning of users - they (Whirlpool moderators and leadership) like to think it is explained by a demographic shift to other social media but that is nonsense because Social media was already dominant by 2010 and the site membership kept growing. If people were still registering and not continuing to participate it points to a site-specific problem.
The rot starts at the top i.e. rather than instructing and supervising the moderators to be tolerant, objective, embrace and encourage deep discussions, value users with specialized knowledge - all of which builds a strong sense of community and could make for a very good niche site - the moderates entertain themselves with OCD power tripping and control freak behaviour, inflicting excessively strict, wildly inconsistent rules interpretations based on their own personal bias. All the good users have been banned, driven out or have left, and what they end up with is a very small and obedient group of users who spend the time celebrating the established facts and self-censoring for fear of being declared "off-topic".
This is the result of moderator overreach. Pure and simple.
All the good users have been banned, driven out or have left, and what they end up with is a very small and obedient group of users who spend the time celebrating the established facts and self-censoring for fear of being declared "off-topic".
2 weeks ban from the EV group back when I wanted to buy one, because I mentioned Tesla quality issues.
It was a general EV group and somehow I was being off-topic.It is the same moderator that have banned me, deleted my posts for no reason.
Moderators there are like Reddit.I suspect Simon Wright, the owner of WP, is something of an Elon Musk and Tesla fanboy. He was frantically defending Musk against accusations of fascism, which suggests a personal investment in the narrative. It’s possible Wright sees parallels between himself and Musk—typical tech-bro identification.
Not sure but I suspect Simon might not have as much money as Elon nor as much political influence within the White House. Just guessing tho.
Wow I just saw the dudes photo online, don't judge a book by its cover but holy fuk, dude looks villain asf
Automatically, admins will follow the same mentality (look at Reddit) I don't wonder WP is a big dumpster right now.
Registered members keeps growing as those put in the penalty box for life (like myself for refusing to suck up to a moderator) are not even allowed to de-register or cancel their registration.
They are crooked to the core.
I've tried to get myself removed. They refuse. If only we could get the same laws passed here as they have in Europe.
I am a long term user at WP, over 20 years, and have been fed up with the nazi moderation for years and finally had enough of it. I am on my final warning but won't bother anymore unless its specific information i need. As a discussion forum its dead and pointless. The nazi mods clearly love suffocating any debate if it veers 1mm from robotic discourse. Whole pages of interesting discussion wiped out because a ego tripping mod gets satisfaction in wielding the only power they have in their pathetic lives. I got put in the penalty box recently for 5 off topic posts which were not even off topic after, putting in effort to be extremely careful over the last year,, so it's all pointless. It feels like walking on egg shells constantly and completely undermines the point of encouraging discussion, The mods do their best to discourage it. Its amusing to see a bunch of usernames here that I recognise from there. I have noticed many regulars just vanished over recent years. I hope the place just dies.
Given they don't seem to want open discussion, why don't they just shut the site down then ?
sadly there are a lot of the whirlpool trolls who have come across here now.
By Trolls you must mean WP moderators downvoting any negative comment about them here -:)
I get quite a few downvotes every time I comment about WP on this forum, so it makes sense.@Ave Maria: no i mean the trolls that sit there and cause the toxic problems over in whirlpool forum.
For example i posted a thread about an issue i was having with amazon charging me twice for a purchase and the thread has basically been a whole bunch of straw-man arguments from trolls trying to say its my fault rather than actually address the proper issue at hand. and unfortunately because because there is pages and pages of troll drivel it drowns out the actual genuine posts people who are actually trying to help have posted. and those people who are trolling are also down voting and attacking genuine people wanting to help.
@[Deactivated]: Lets agree that the Trolls on OzB are as much a malignant disease as the moderators are on WP. Both are attacking any genuine or free conversation or attempt to try to help with anything.
There is virtually no way to get yourself removed from Whirlpool - accounts are not deleted.
Not surprised that the number of posts are declining.
Moderator abuse of "off topic" is the biggest issue and there is nothing you can do about it. Try and complain about it and in worst case scenarios, you are victimised. The problem is you never know whether your post will be deemed off topic as many similar posts will remain untouched.
It was once a great forum for discussion.
Yes spot on. The inconsistency in moderation decisions is frustrating especially with regards to "off topic" decisions. I'm guessing it's due to the guidelines not being clear to the moderators and they aren't professional and aren't held to account.
Hopefully Australian law changes are they introduce the Right to be Forgotten. That will hopefully allow people to delete their accounts. That might even result in the death of WP and that would be a healthy thing.
Most just walk away and stop using.
The reason why you cant delete your account is because WP love to keep your history in case you comeback again. I am sure they must be violating some privacy laws here.
Whirlpool is full of babies.
I once gone 2 weeks ban because I mentioned about Tesla quality issues that are well public within… wait for it …. GENERAL EV GROUP.
This was when I thought that buying an EV was a great solution.
Guess what??? The Tesla folks, none got banned.It is always the same moderator, mf must have an alert or something to delete my posts often.
The best part??
If you see the moderator history, the posts and things they said as just (profanity) but being a moderator makes you immune I guess.
As a member, you must not say anything outside the forum you are in, like giving a context to why you are asking something is already gonna give you hard time due to "off-topic". It is beyond pathetic.I still have my account because of the ISP, the CEO is there so it is faster to sort things out/make it public/faster solution.
Noticed another top user probably binned permanently. https://forums.whirlpool.net.au/user/432148?days=60
Always had good interactions with Dreyfus27. They had a lot of knowledge to impart & an excellent communicator.Sooner or later they will realise that having so many previously active contributors in the penalty box without parole is not in the forum's best interest - either grant everyone an amnesty and release them from the web gathering penalty box (I am in it for 2 years now) granting everyone a fresh start and/or get rid of all the moderators that have caused the issue to begin with. Seriously 2 years in the penalty box is absolutely ridiculous.
They won't do either. It will just continue to die as activity decreases.
And discussion over there about wp dying has been closed. That's just about sums up the attitude of the place perfectly
Hahahah I saw that! There was alot of comments about the moderation in that post too. I was going to comment but thought whats the point.
Yeah Simon just wants an echo chamber telling him how good his website is. If he doesn't want to hear constructive criticism then he might as well just pull the plug on the dying website.
As a member of 23 years, I'm still getting value from Whirlpool and, hopefully, someone occasionally benefits from my participation.
It's easy to sit in front of a keyboard and criticise. Moderators are volunteers, imperfect human beings who do what they think is right. Whirlpool may be dying slowly, but that's OK. Nothing lasts forever, but I will always be grateful to Simon for starting and managing the site, and to the moderators for not allowing it to degenerate.
If you don't like the way WP is being run, that's also OK. No one is forcing you to participate. There are many other online forums that may be more to your liking.Initially it was an okay place. ISPs and modems etc were discussed. Times have changed. It's now a highly toxic place and it's unhealthy. When it's dead, the world will be a better place.
Putin is also an imperfect human being. That does not justify his behaviour and treatment of other fellow human beings. I also enjoyed using and contributing to the WP forum until a moderator banned me for life Putin style (for completely self gratifying reasons). I do not agree at all with your assessement of the WP moderators as they have been behaving as anything but human beings - humanity has left WP a long time ago. I was banned during the COVID period where using WP forums was an avenue of escape and I was in no way abusing or posting anything inappropriate. When I complained about being on the receiving end of unfair treatement, the abuse received from moderators only went up a level. When I mentioned that their treatment could have caused someone in a voulnerable position mental issues (or worse) they just laughed and dismissed me (ending in a life ban instead). So sorry hunane + WP moderators are not compatible. Apologies but your post triggered some bad & painfull memories of how I was treated so I could not remain silent.
Lets bring an analogy here. You have been a regular visitor for many years to a restaurant where you enjoy the food, the stuff is polite and helpful and on occasion you enjoy a friendly exchange with other customers. Suddenly, you walk in one day and you find that the suff starts to critise your menu choises, restrict you from talking to other customers and basically make it very unpleasant to remain a customer. Is going to another restaurant or being banned (Seinfeld kitchen soup nazi style) realy fixing the problem or getting rid of the stuff causing the problem - in the WP case the moderators as everyone admits are neither trained or qualified to do the job right - it does not matter if they are doing it for free if what they are doing is wrong and in many cases harmful.
I just had my second or third post out of 1647 posts deleted. Members had posted an news article about a family member of mine who trying to get sympathy as she made out she was getting half of jobseeker payment. Even though she was aged pension aged therefore not eligible for jobseeker. So the 2 don't equal. Post is in the Jobseeker thread page 586 if anyone is interested. People posted her age in the story must be wrong or rounded up. I corrected them they are a year older in 2 months time. So the age in the story is correct.
I posted stuff the fact I was related she had done and that was the reason why it had been 2.5 decades since I spoke to her.
It was flagged as inappropriate and off topic.
How exactly is it off topic when the post is actually contains the person you are related to that members are actively talking about?
Inappropriate how talking about stuff that was proved she did? I dunno how I should feel.
If they said hey we don't like your post can you remove or rephrase this part then sure. Going by some of the posts here asking them what the exact issue was just ends up with more trouble.
I've also been a Whirlpool member since 2002 and experience exactly the same thing as OP is describing. The other day I had a bunch of posts deleted and was told to use another thread that had been created for that specific topic (that I didn't know existed), yet everyone else was quoting me and continuing on the discussion. I herring'd their posts and the mods approved them.
It's a very bizarre moderation scheme they have going on over there.
Anyway, I don't lose sleep over it.