@John1574 Ummmm John - if you're going to quote me, at least do so in context. I also said...
"This thread has it all... irony, hypocrisy, narcissism, veiled threats, subtle (and not so subtle!) insults, alleged personal attacks, blind denial, bias, double-entendres, bullying, delusion, jaw-dropping arrogance.... Priceless! The 'I'm alright Jack's playing an absolute blinder, there... loving that community spirit!"
I guess you missed my point...
The *only* reason I found it even remotely entertaining was that it showed up this 'Community' Centre - in high definition - for the intolerant, blinkered, misinformed, biased, clique-y, malfunctioning echo chamber that I had claimed it to be in another post, just hours earlier. I honestly couldn't have dreamed up a more (in)appropriate thread to perfectly illustrate my points. At first, I genuinely thought the 0P was being satirical, or that Emily had somehow hacked into Elizabeth's account and was up to a bit of scallywagging. Then the penny slowly started to drop that, nope - these people were actually serious....
So just to clarify - the thread in question was as preposterous, as it was reprehensible. A crystal clear example of how a very tiny core group of self-appointed 'Guardians of the Forum and Defenders of the Realm get their buzz from acting as thought-police and word-police for the rest of the 445,000+ members of this 'Community', and appear to be of the belief that they're somehow qualified and entitled to ridicule, bully, silence, shut down and ludicrously, even banish from *their* forum, anyone whose views, opinions and experiences don't tally exactly with their own rose-tinted, self-absorbed perspectives. There's a word for that kind of behaviour, and it sure as sh*t ain't 'inclusive'. Some of you guys need to go and look up the definition of 'Community' again. It certainly isn't, "I'm alright Jack, so anyone who isn't feeling quite so smug and self-satisfied as me, needs to eff right off, lest they upset *my* fuzzy-warm fantasy world"
The ugliest aspect of that entire thread - and indeed this one - was the shameful, contemptuous, bullying treatment of @Rebecca181 - ironically, far and away the most perceptive, savvy, knowledgeable member of this group. Rather than blindly regurgitating gossip, rumours, outdated info and the (very) occasional morsels of self-serving 'updates' Airbnb likes to drip-feed its breathless missionaries through the medium of the CC, Rebecca is one of the few who actually does her research, before expressing her educated and insightful opinion. She checks her facts. Then she double-checks her facts. She sees the bigger picture, and comprehends how current and imminent Airbnb host-punitive practices and policies will ultimately negatively impact *every* host - even those who are still under the illusion that they're sitting pretty in their ivory towers right now. That's the nice, community-spirited thing about Rebecca though - it's not all 'Me, Me, Me' with her. She stops to consider how issues and changes will affect the *entire* host community, not just those in her own insulated little bubble. And she states solid *facts*, rather than airy-fairy fiction, straight from the annals of the Airbnb Compendium of Make Believe.
Yet in return for her tireless, herculean efforts in trying to support and inform her fellow hosts, and keep them updated, (in real time, not weeks/months after the fact) of serious and/or contentious issues that every last one of us *really* needs to know about, she gets slandered, accused of all sorts of nebulous behind-the-scenes antics, denigrated, sneered at and ridiculed, primarily - though not exclusively - by a 'select' few hosts with a sum total of less than 50 reviews and just over a year's hosting experience between the lot of them!! Now that takes a neck like the back of a jockey's ******, as we say over here.
The unbridled hubris of a tiny minority, believing they have some sort of god-given right to dictate that anyone who isn't singing and dancing to their particular Airbnb tune, must not only exit the CC immediately, but must also quit hosting altogether(!), is gob-smacking to behold. Stunning display of ignorance, arrogance, disrespect and yes, rampant narcissism, there.
But next time you cheerleaders are dishing out your (often erroneous) advice and pearls of wisdom, do try to bear in mind that many of those 'whiny, unhappy, ungrateful people' you're clamouring to have exiled and banished from Airbnb, are long-term, highly experienced hosts, who at this point, have seen and heard it all, and who actually *know* what they're talking about. You know - that small army of loyal, industrious hosts who have been grafting their arses off in Airbnb-land for the best part of a decade in some cases, each playing their own small but vital role in building and creating the goodwill and reputation that allowed Airbnb to become the highly successful platform it is today? The ones without whose years of hard graft, dedication and commitment, there'd *be* no Airbnb for *anyone* to ply their wares on in 2018... But hey, why allow those dinosaur fantasists and conspiracy theorists a voice at all - what would they know in comparison to the dynamic Go-Getter New Kids on the Block anyway... right??
Incredibly - and shockingly - the (wholly unproven) accusations against Rebecca were permitted to sail right on by, largely unchallenged, unchecked and uncorrected by the mods. Instead, we once again were palmed off with the usual happy-clappy Airbnb spiel about what an 'inclusive, empowering, welcoming space for all' the CC truly is, etc etc... prior to further discourse being shut down by the closing of the thread. So rather than being reprimanded or taken to task - as they absolutely should have been - for their vicious attacks and hateful judgements on a fellow host, it appears that those who vilified and slandered Rebecca, have simply been 'empowered' to carry on abusing her in yet more nasty, spiteful posts/threads.
Mind-blowing. Or as Sarah rightly put it - disturbing.
@Mariann4 is also correct in saying that a Private corporation should be able to run its forums any which way it likes. However, considering Airbnb's relentlessly-proclaimed 'inclusive ethos' and 'core values', one would reasonably expect their official community forum to be run fairly, firmly, and equitably, with all voices being of equal worth and value, regardless of what perspectives they're expressing. Time and time again though, threads like these would suggest the very opposite to be the reality in this CC.
