Choice Community - for what purpose?

@vax2000 I agree wholeheartedly that these forums will be able to provide others with ideas or information to come back to and @boblorel I understand that the younger generations may be less likely to take on board some of the posts of this forum but not all of the younger people are likely to breeze over it. There are those who were brought up to see the benefit of discussions found on the forum and see for themselves what information there is to be gathered here. Thankfully with on-hand moderators it will be possible to prune out the less popular topics and steer people or ideas towards another dimension. I know of a number of young people who really dislike being categorised in any way. They prefer to make their own choices. One of them is my own daughter and I know that she not only enjoys reading about pitfalls but also about what worked, as do many of her friends.

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I find it very useful for consumer information. And not everyone has access to a large circle of acquaintances who want to discuss consumer issues. I have found excellent advice.

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I think it can be a useful source of othersā€™ experience and advice.

I just spotted, though. a very worrying post in another thread, claiming that sodium bicarbonate cures cancer. Not only incredibly stupid, but potentially deadly and perhaps even exposing Choice to potential litigation from people who are harmed by it.

I was recently pinged for a post that broke the rules - and fair enough, though it was a minor infraction - and yet this dangerous post is allowed to stand.

Sites like this require sensible and vigilant oversight.

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Hi Fred,
If you see anything that worries you, I encourage you to flag the post and weā€™ll check it out. Iā€™ve had a look at the one you mentioned and Iā€™ve left a comment.

To clarify, a comment from an individual on this forum does not constitute a CHOICE position on any particular issue. We will not tolerate personal attacks, different forms of trolling, or people who are consistently unhelpful to the goals here - among which is to facilitate the meaningful transfer of knowledge. Itā€™s through this process that we hope to allow knowledge to unfold.

As part of that process, it means that we donā€™t want to unnecessarily censor individuals who are not contradicting the above, especially when they are sharing an honest position. If someone shares something that is perceived as incorrect, we hope the Community or CHOICE Staff will be able to inform the situation with credible evidence, or by examining the logic or reasoning behind a view and presenting better alternatives. Rather than trying to remove an idea, even if itā€™s considered dangerous or worrying, we face it head on, discuss and hopefully we all learn and reach better outcomes.

People will of course still make up their own minds and draw their own conclusions, and unsolvable disagreements will still occur. However, I hope this has somewhat addressed your concerns. Thanks for being one of our consistently helpful contributors - your impact and genuine approach to assisting others and staff here does not go unnoticed and we thank you for it.

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Thanks Brendan. I looked for a way to report the post, but couldnā€™t find it.

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I am also alarmed about suggestions of cleaning your teeth with Bi-carb of soda it does not sound like something you should constantly use on your teeth enamel, perhaps just sometimes for badly stained teeth.

Hi @ErinTurner[quote=ā€œErinTurner, post:12, topic:12787ā€]
Weā€™ll make sure we report back when we do use ideas and input. Youā€™re right that the community needs to know how it has contributed.
[/quote]

Just wondering if there has been any movement on the mechanisms Choice may be utilising to provide the feedback promised. Cheers :innocent:

Hi @Albie - itā€™s been a little slow to progress over the xmas and new year period but we hope to have a first experiment soon. Thereā€™s a major inquiry into the banking sector thatā€™s coming up in March 2017. Weā€™d really like to use the community to shape our response. Weā€™re coming up with a list of ideas and questions next week and a plan on how we can feedback on this so we should have something for you soon.

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Hi @ErinTurner should be funšŸ˜Ž

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Wow that will be interesting!

Happy to offer any help I can and I certainly have loads of questions that I would like to ask the Big 4.

Hopefully this major inquiry will encourage the Banks to become more transparent in the future!
(we can only live in hope!)

Looking forward to your research Erin!
Cheers Natalie :wink:

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Canā€™t wait after what I have just been through with a certain bank .

Brendan, most of the FAQ is about how to participate not what scope of content might be acceptable.

If I understand you correctly a book (or a movie) is a product so a book review is a product review, so book (or movie) reviews are on topic. Is the content of the book, and hence the review, ever relevant?

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We appreciate the opportunity to discuss the content themes on our Community forum, so thanks for raising the quesiton.

We havenā€™t had a lot of interest so far in terms of posting individual reviews of products, but weā€™re happy for people to do so if they wish. This could include entertainment reviews of books or media as mentioned, kitchen products, food and FMCG and so on. If we start getting a lot of these reviews, we can create more categories and possibly add to our guidelines to help realise our goals for the Community. Weā€™ve always attempted to listen to the Community and to be open to allowing people to use it in different ways where possible.

In answer to your quesiton, the content of the item being reviewed is important. Firstly, if itā€™s something that could be deemed as offensive, then we would need to consider removing it. We would also make special consideration for political and religious content. Itā€™s likely that these subjects would quickly become broader than the original product review (assuming that review is of genuine intent).

However, Iā€™m also happy to review each case on its merits, so please get in touch any time.

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