"Users Who Criticise Monzo Get Shouted Down Here"

“Users who criticise Monzo get shouted down in this community”

That phrase or a version of it has been repeated several times in the community recently so I’m creating this post to explain how I feel about it & to have something to link to whenever it comes up again. To be clear, this is not a response to a particular user & I’m not going to quote / link to posts here because I don’t want to single anyone out.

First of all, I believe this is a friendly community & I want it to stay that way. Users should feel comfortable posting constructive criticism of Monzo, which will ultimately help them improve their service for all users. I don’t have a problem with that, regardless of how much criticism is posted or what tone is used - although please do remember that there’s actual people on the receiving end!

At the same time, users are welcome to disagree with each other in whichever way they choose, providing it’s within the community guidelines*. Since this is a community of users who are generally fans of Monzo, if you criticise the service, there’s a good chance that someone will disagree with you. If responses to your criticism don’t seem to make sense, you can simply explain why. It’s not possible to be shouted down here, you can always reply. And it’s worth remembering that it’s the team who will decide what feedback to take on board, not other users.

I know that the discussion can get heated & emotional but please try to resist the temptation to make that sort of comment, rather than replying to the content of a user’s post. I hate to think that users who’re considering using Monzo / joining the community might be put off by seeing those sorts of comments & end up missing out on the experience that everyone is here to enjoy.

As always, feel free to disagree :wink:


*If you believe that a user’s post does not meet the community guidelines then please flag the post & / or DM a member of the team.

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I think this is a really important point. After all, there is no point debating who is or isn’t various types of swear words (extreme example), the idea is to provide constructive criticism of Monzo so they can build everyone a better bank. This is best done by measurably discussing the facts I think :slight_smile:

Thanks @alexs for your time and effort on the forum :+1:

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So much to say… must not bite :upside_down_face:

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Not quite sure about this bit - depending on what the “that” in “that sort of post”, means.

If a poster feels their criticism will be “shouted down” then that’s probably not an inability of that person to make their case, but of the defensive atmosphere that has been fostered. I can understand where it comes from. As you point out, this is mostly a Monzo-fan community forum. It makes no pretense otherwise, and it is always going to be intimidating raising criticism in such places. There are more of ‘us’ (fans) then their are of ‘them’.

We mustn’t use our capacity to shout louder or wield the mere fact we’ve been here longer and heard it all before, to win the argument. If ten people make the same idiotic point them maybe we’re the idiots.

Perhaps, instead, we might suggest those who “shout down” might choose their words more diplomatically and not assume the poster is wrong, but simply try, before hitting “Reply”, to put themselves in the place of the critic and understand why they might have posted the thing you disagree with. We learn more that way.

Crickey. I sound sanctimonious. Sorry.

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Sometimes you see someone say something not even particularly devisive and you’ll get 5 members defending Monzo unnecessarily. I think the like system should be used more rather than piling on against somone.

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Yes, this community is riddled with such zellot Monzo Fans that any difference of thought or any questioning of app features or functions is heavily stamped on by a stream of people unwilling to remove their blinkers and consider any alternative path. We have seen this many times before in numerous threads and from comments on other forums it has on occassion led to the departure of previously loyal customers to competitors

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As you know, there’s numerous examples of discussions where users have criticised Monzo & that hasn’t happened.

Sometimes lots of users do disagree with a post & they reply to say so, I don’t see that as inherently bad. On other occasions, lots of users will complain about something that Monzo’s done & I don’t consider that as bad either.

There’s nothing stopping those users from responding to any criticism of the points that they’ve made so could you please explain what you see as the issue there?

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I agree in many cases users can be quite calm but the issue is when there is not a minor disagreement but differences that are poles apart or where opinions held more strongly than normal. Then new users unused to the nature and style of debate on the forum feel personally attacked (even if they aren’t) or shocked by the strength of wording in any responses.

I agree that some posts can come across as harsh. But as I’ve already pointed out -

& it’s not down to us to judge other user’s tone, which is easily misinterpreted online.

As long as the user replies to the content of the post & not the tone (as the guidelines request) then they should be fine - they’re still perfectly able to give constructive criticism of Monzo in that situation.

I think this is the most important thing to come back to here!

I believe we should treat others the same way you would if you were having this discussion in person :slightly_smiling_face:

Conducting a debate behind a screen has one big advantage, you can think before you ‘speak’ which if you’re anything like me is a huge plus in comparison to real life conversations! We should make the most of this opportunity. If somone has riled you up, or you strongly disagree with a point someone has made, take a second or two to consider the response you’re about to post - and try asking two questions

(Am I posting this to raise a point which I think is important and valuable to the conversation, or just to shut the other person/people up?

(Would I be comfortable saying this to someone standing right in front of me?

If the answer is no to the latter, maybe it’s worth reconsidering your wording :slightly_smiling_face:

The code of conduct is a base guideline to make sure people who use the forum are treated with respect and feel safe on the forum, so whilst this is true, I hope most people would make an effort to go beyond these more formal rules when writing a reply or posting some constructive criticism. There’s a lot we can learn from each other!

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I see this question being asked all the time and my answer is yes, what I say online I would say offline to someones face, why would I pussyfoot around the fact someone a tool or what not?

Not gonna lie though what I say here is pretty tame compared to other forums I go on.

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You’re a very special case @anon72173902! :wink:

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I would like to see people coming in to defend discussion even if they don’t necessarily agree with the new point being raised.

It’s definitely become a bit of a hivemind here and that’s not good for anyone in the long run.
If someone comes here with an idea they can’t express properly and they get shouted down before they’re understood why would they try any further? Then we’re missing out.

I’d also be interested in the statistics for the gender/age/race balance of the community, I imagine it’s a fairly specific demographic and just because some people are comfortable with forum environments doesn’t mean others will be.

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This post seems to be defending the fact that users who criticise Monzo get shot down.

Maybe the post should be more about acknowledging the issue and trying to find a way to actually fix it? It’s not healthy.

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I genuinely don’t think there’s a huge issue around this… the community is already pretty balanced, there’s perhaps a 60/40 split of those who are pro-Monzo’s stance on any particularly issue versus those who are against.

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I agree, Ultimately its a community for people who use monzo so the chances are that they are going to be sympathetic to the brand and product because otherwise they wouldn’t be here. In my experience for most posts there is a good variety of discussion (argument) on either side.

Given that monzo will tend to align its policies to its user base and as I said that you’re probably generally in favour if you join a monzo forum, I think the current mix of discussion is not inappropriate or unexpected, in fact im surprised that there is such a good mix of views :slight_smile:

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I agree generally with you.

As long as a user can constructively criticise. You can want Monzo to succeed and still find parts of it frustrating, or not working, or “could be better” or outright disagree.

For the most part this is respected, but I’ve certainly seen some instances of a user who otherwise likes Monzo, simply disagreeing with one aspect turn into a “Why do you hate Monzo” match.

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I’m afraid you’ve completely missed the point of my post. Having given other users enough time to reply, I’m confident that it’s clear so if you read it again, you’ll see that, that’s not what I’m doing at all.

If there’s any particular comments that I’ve made which don’t make sense to you or that you don’t agree with then let me know & I’d be happy to explain them.

I occasionally look at the forum, but have largely given up posting.
If I need to find out stuff then I’ll ask the “grown ups” directly using the in app instant chat.
I don’t think the forum has a particularly positive vibe anymore, and don’t really feel the need to be part of that process A few more open minds and a sense of proportion, after all, it is just a bank account.

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The forum has always had conflicts and politics going on, but compared to the rest of the Internet this is a Christian rock concert at the worst of times.

I think all public forums tend to descend into the depths of depravity as time goes by and users numbers swell. It is only a matter of time until the forum gets pulled imho.

In the early stages a new user starting a thread suggesting Apple Pay integration may have been a positive interaction for them and the community but at this mainstream stage almost every suggestion makes everyone including Monzo think “ugh, ffs, search the history mate”. I don’t think this has a lot further to run, although that’s just my opinion, maybe it will scale - although if Monzo is launching in the USA then I highly doubt it.

Can you imagine a public forum for a billion users? Even a thousandth of that would be an absolute disaster as forums tend to be frequented by people with no filter and people who delight in abusing the anonymity of the net.

I think the current wave of negativity is fairly constructive and well mannered, but imo the bar will keep on lowering as it becomes more mainstream, until a public forum is no longer viable.

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