Farewell

General Chat
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I think it’s time for me to leave this community. I do so with some sadness, as I’ve liked (most of) my time here. But sadly recent weeks have proven to be quite harsh. I realise that I was part of the problem, due to my serious misgivings regarding Monzo, which I couldn’t just ignore when someone new requested help. And I don’t think I will be able to do so going forward see my earlier post from today - you may not have noticed it, but I really tried to shut up….

I opened my Monzo account in March 2017 and was excited: There were lots of missing features at that time (it was a prepaid card, after all!), but I was curious what the future would bring. Sadly, it didn’t take me long to discover the first serious issue that went beyond “missing features” and so I had to stop using Monzo completely some time in June 2017. Since then Monzo has continued to move into a direction that is at odds with its original premise, and we’ve gotten to the point were I see no point in the future where I’d reconsider using them. Tom’s comments yesterday only cemented this opinion: As someone rightly pointed out: They seem to be emulating the worst of legacy banking, while pretending to be different. It’s this hypocrisy that really puts me off.

I stuck out with the community for a while, even after I stopped using Monzo, in part because I was curious to see what Monzo’s future would hold, and in part because despite disagreeing with Monzo there were plenty of interesting discussions on here. But sadly, over recent weeks, this community has started to become a place where you must either be “for” Monzo, or “against”. I feel that the majority of users here no longer appreciate factual criticism (with exceptions, of course!), and this is no longer enjoyable.

I regret this, because there are still nuggets of truly interesting discussions here, but ultimately the community has become more and more polarised, and I don’t want to be part of the reason for the community to become even more toxic than it already is.

As such this is my farewell. I wish Monzo, their staff, and everyone in this community all the best.

Take care everyone!
nanos

PS Some of you may wonder, why I’m posting this. I want to assure you that I have no ulterior motive. I just want to say farewell to those whom I have interacted with on this community over the previous year.

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I might not agree with you on a lot of things and have agreed on some. I do find some of your concerns bit over the top but your contributions here have been great.
You were voice from the other side of the fence a lot of times which is always good to have. So you’ll be missed.

Please stick around.

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Hey nanos - We’re sorry to see you leave and appreciate you openly expressing your thoughts.

I think, for many community members, it’s quite jarring and a little bit confusing to see someone continually expressing negative thoughts on a product that they admittedly have not used for a year. It’s a little bit hard to understand how your thoughts could be considered to be constructive when you aren’t using the product and haven’t done for a considerable amount of time. That undoubtedly contributes to a polarising atmosphere. Other users are critical because they love the product and want to see it improve to suit them better. That position is understandable even when some don’t agree. But many passionate users aren’t willing to entertain thoughts by someone who doesn’t use the product and doesn’t seem to have any future intention to do so.

That said - things have, sadly, become quite intense at times, in ways that perhaps aren’t conducive to continued discussion. That’s a reality of having such a passionate fanbase, and I think it speaks well to your character that you’ve considered the possibility that your methods of participation have perhaps added to that.

I think it’s absolutely fair to have misgivings, to disagree with product choices that we make, and it’s absolutely your right to not use the product because of that. That said, to state that we “pretend” to be different does an absolute disservice to the hundreds of people working here who legitimately want to make banking better and create something new. I think that is quite an extreme statement, and our passionate community, I believe is proof positive that what we do is bringing something fresh to people’s lives and making a difference for many people in having control of their financial life. I don’t think we’d be where we are if people (both within the company and customers) didn’t genuinely see that we are trying to do better than the status quo.

I’m really sorry that you’ve come to the conclusions you have - and I do hope you’ll continue to revisit that opinion in the future.

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I’ve noticed one or two of the Coral Crew sometimes adding fuel to an already existing fire.

Personally I think Coral Crew members should be impartial.

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Those comments from Tom were revelatory to me, also.

I hope you change your mind about leaving, though; I’ve always found your contributions illuminating, helpful and fun.

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We are users with views just like everyone else

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Why do you think we shouldn’t be able to have our own opinion like yourself and every other member of the community?

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Well someone should be impartial, don’t you think?

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Journalists probably?

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What did he say? I seemed to have missed that

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Where are these comments? What have I missed?

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It’s in the closed thread about Pots counting towards your main balance, when deciding if overdraft fees should be applied.

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It’s a Monzo community and they are called Coral Crew don’t think they are supposed to be impartial and I will not want them to be. They are users like us should be free to express their opinion.

Also, an impartial view can also be viewed as partial. It’s just how someone is interpreting what someone else said. So that won’t work at all IMO.

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So install “Moderators” then?

The simple fact is, is that I’ve seen people get cut down when voicing an opinion. It shouldn’t be allowed to happen and people shouldn’t feel bullied or alienated (strong terms I know) when they come to these forums. Maybe this is why legacy banks don’t have communities?

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I find it useful to treat the contributions of Coral Crew members exactly the same as anyone else’s.

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They’re here -

& here -

(needless to say, this is not an opportunity to restart that discussion)

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In your opinion as a user with views just like everyone else? :wink:

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It’s your call at the end of the day, but personally I find it sad to see people critical of Monzo leaving.

We need such people and adverse opinions on the community (as long as discussion is kept civil, which for you I felt it was, unlike some other critics), otherwise the community just turns into an echo chamber.

In any case, I bid you farewell and hope you reconsider your decision and give us another try in a year or so, if anything, to see if it’s evolved for the better.

Good luck!

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Take care @nanos - I hope to see you back someday soon! You will be missed I am sure :slight_smile:

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16 posts were merged into an existing topic: Removed posts 18/06/18