Banking forum.

parsi

The Charter for the Banking forum states:

"This board is for people who want to know more about Banking, Insurance and Pensions services/products/providers. Any threads posted here should relate to these topics."

A recent thread suggested that there should be more robust discussion related to banking services, products and providers. This thread was ultimately closed citing:

"There are more appropriate forums for the "bigger" topics. The remit of this forum is quite specific with regards to what it's about and what the purpose is. (Something which has been explained to you via PM, previously)."

This seems to be in direct conflict with the charter.

BuffyBot

I don't see any conflict.

The raison d'etre of the forum is to provide day-to-day advice on banking, insurance and pension products and services. These are the questions like "who's my best choice for a current account?", "Problem with my direct debit?", or "what kind of pension works best for me?" etc.

The issue is that in the last 18-24 months, people seem to have mistaken it as being the designated zone to whip banks, the economic crisis, bank bail outs, loans to property tycoons, bank bonuses etc. This isn't what it was designed for - there are more appropriate forums for that. This channelling/threading of different topics/aspects of topics helps to keep boards a relatively (and I say relatively) clutter free, on topic place where people can find relevant information.

If you feel the charter needs to be clarified further, then I'm sure we'd value a suggestion on how it could be worded.

parsi

People want to discuss:

why do banks have awkward opening hours,
why do inter-bank transfers take so long,
why exactly does the clearing system seem so inefficient.

Whenever these queries are raised there's a closing of the ranks from bank staff and a failure to actually explain why it's so and a failure to accept that it may be less than efficient.

The charter doesn't mention "day to day". It mentions "Banking, Insurance and Pensions services/products/providers".

I used the example of the ES forum where this discussion does happen and not every query is seen as bashing.

Edit: I feel the banking forum is biased towards the existing almost-nationalised banks. When Rabobank came in there was a fairly vicious , unfounded and unsanctioned (by Mods) backlash against it from the IBOA members. However years later I don't find my paypacket reduced in order to bail out Rabo.

BuffyBot

People want to discuss:

why do banks have awkward opening hours,
why do inter-bank transfers take so long,
why exactly does the clearing system seem so inefficient.

Great - because all of those topics have been discussed at lenght before on the forum.

Whenever these queries are raised there's a closing of the ranks from bank staff and a failure to actually explain why it's so and a failure to accept that it may be less than efficient.

From what I've seen there is no "closing ranks". They've had people from both sides contribute and from what I've seen there's no conspiracy to not explain things. People don't have to "accept" anything if they don't want to, however - that's the beauty of boards. If you don't like what they're posting or the fact that they won't accept what you are posting, you're free to ignore them.

The charter doesn't mention "day to day". It mentions "Banking, Insurance and Pensions services/products/providers".

Maybe that's an adjustment that's needed then.

I used the example of the ES forum where this discussion does happen and not every query is seen as bashing.

What works for one forum, doesn't nessecarily work for all. There is a massive difference in the remit of the two forums. It's like comparing an apple and a cauliflower, never mind an orange.

Edit: I feel the banking forum is biased towards the existing almost-nationalised banks. When Rabobank came in there was a fairly vicious , unfounded and unsanctioned (by Mods) backlash against it from the IBOA members. However years later I don't find my paypacket reduced in order to bail out Rabo.

And here is where we go off the road - how can a forum be "biased"? It's not run by the banks. Most of the users aren't employed by banks.

I've seen no evidence of any concerted attack on anyone. Of course, if you have evidence to the contrary, I'd welcome you to present it. If there were problems at the time, then they would have been dealt with if the posts were reported.

parsi

BuffyBot wrote: »

Great - because all of those topics have been discussed at lenght before on the forum.

Boards would be a much smaller site if topics were only discussed once.

BuffyBot wrote:

Maybe that's an adjustment that's needed then.

I think that it's more than a maybe.

BuffyBot wrote:

What works for one forum, doesn't nessecarily work for all. There is a massive difference in the remit of the two forums. It's like comparing an apple and a cauliflower, never mind an orange.

Tosh. The concepts are the same - two fora that deal with issues that often occupy people's minds and which have the potential to escalate.

Then again maybe they are different - one is a fairly busy forum and the other is quiet.

LoLth

Parsi: if you can provide links supporting your assertion it would be very helpful.

thanks

LoLth

mikemac

BuffyBot wrote: »

I don't see any conflict.

The raison d'etre of the forum is to provide day-to-day advice on banking, insurance and pension products and services. These are the questions like "who's my best choice for a current account?", "Problem with my direct debit?", or "what kind of pension works best for me?" etc.

It doesn't happen in that forum, I see too many ranting threads.
If I wanted to find out the best interest rates I'd stroll over to Brendan Burgess and www.askaboutmoney.com then asking in that forum

Boards is great for many things but for some areas, there are better Irish sites