Hey all,
As some of you noticed we had a rather ugly exchange here this evening. Regardless of anyoneās opinions on the people involved with it, it was an unacceptable breach of our Code of Conduct and it has led to a permanent ban on one account. Actions that could be considered to be harassment are taken very seriously here and weāre grateful to those of you that flagged it with us privately, especially the members of the Coral Crew who brought it to our attention.
I want to talk about some of the things that led us to this point and how, in the future, we can deal with them in a constructive way.
After a thorough investigation, weāve determined that an individual who was displeased with the behaviour of another individual, took it upon himself to very publicly denigrate the person with whom he was displeased. Neither party, in our opinion, was innocent, but the public actions of the former went way beyond the pale in respect to the behaviour of the latter.
Thatās not how we deal with things here.
If you are upset with something thatās been said by another user, you use the flag system and explain why. If you need to add more context, you DM a staff member such as myself, @cookywook, @yen, @naji, @HughWells or @beths. We donāt quite have 24/7 cover (yet) but most hours and days of the week, at least one of us will be around to address anything.
In this particular incident, had the person discussed it with us instead of taking it upon themselves to target that person directly, they would have quickly learned that we were already in the process of taking action.
The point is, that weāre a civilised forum and we have staff and processes in place to ensure everything runs smoothly. You are free to disagree with anyone else, as long as you can speak (or rather, type) in a polite, constructive manner and act with basic human decency. We donāt use patronising or exclusive language. We donāt insert ourselves into volatile conversations with the intent of making them worse. We donāt abuse the flag system, and we definitely donāt harass other people, even if we find them particularly offensive. Itās just not how we do things here.
As Monzo has grown to over a million users, weāre adding over 100k users a month at this point. Community, as you all know, is at the absolute heart of what we do. Over time, itāll be even more visible in the app itself (like the new Making Monzo section) and so weāll see lots of new users here. We want them to feel welcome, and included, and to participate - we need a range of diverse voices and opinions to improve our product, and thatās why we celebrate diversity so much. But the thing that all the diverse voices absolutely have to have in common is basic decency and kindness to others and the desire to actually be part of a healthy community and to respect the other people in it. Itās not just about Monzo either - although we own this space, weāve hosted and welcomed feedback from many other companies in or close to the fintech space, so that they can learn and gather feedback from our vibrant community. Ultimately, we believe in community as a space for the wider scene. As they say, a rising tide lifts all boats.
Weāre a growing company and a growing community, but here on the forum weāre still a relatively small team. We rely on all of you, and particularly the Coral Crew, to help us shape and maintain this place as we grow.
Our community, and how itās regarded both inside and outside the company, is a testament to how incredible the power of community can be. Iāve been around the country meeting and talking to members of our community in different cities, and itās the number 1 thing I hear, about how much people value our community. Other companies seek to understand how weāve built something so vibrant, and every single company thatās reached out to us to do a Fintech Q&A so far has said how impressed they are with what we do here.
What happened this evening was so far from the behaviour that we seek to encourage, and I know that I speak for the company as a whole, and the community as a whole, when I say that weāre better than this. Weāve made the fastest growing current account in the country, with an awesome community behind us, and weāll continue to do that, as long as we can all respect each other and work together, even when thereās differences of opinion.
This can be an open topic, and we can discuss ways to improve the community if we so wish. And if youāre more comfortable speaking privately - you can always DM myself or another staff member 
excellent post as always Simon! The forum should always be diverse and inclusive, but not at the expense of including people who cannot be civil or understanding.
