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I’ve been extolling the virtues of a Redfern building’s Facebook page so it was disappointing to hear about another Sydney block where the networking has become very antisocial.
Renters and owners had their problems (who doesn’t?) but somebody decided everyone should get to air their grievances online. That it wasn’t monitored by the Executive Committee is understandable – it needed to be independent. That it wasn’t moderated by anyone was unforgiveable.
The anonymity of the web reveals the worst aspects of some people’s characters so pretty soon the poison ran strong and deep.
What started as a disagreement between two groups with strongly held views became a nasty, vicious and highly personal online confrontation.
By the time the dispute got to mediation – the first step in the strata resolution process – the combatants were too far gone with mutual abuse and some were already making calls to defamation lawyers.
The community was torn apart, possibly irretrievably, and an issue that could have been resolved with a little give and take had escalated beyond redemption before anybody could intervene.
Free speech is great but if your building has a Facebook page, Rule One should be no personal abuse.
Have your say (moderated by me) on the Flat Chat Forum.
The opinions offered in these Forum posts and replies are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Readers with serious issues should consult experienced strata lawyers.
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I started a blog for our OC/EC. We use it instead of a physical notice board. So in the lobby of our two buildings (totalling 12 apartments) we just have a small plaque with the blog’s address and that’s it.
The blog has information about the building history, management, rules, services, practical information etc. It’s early days but we’ve had a few hundred hits. It’s not something people would read every day!
Owners, tenants, managers, agents, even tradespeople can all read the blog if they want to. They can also subscribe to it and receive an email if there is a new posting. They of course don’t need to be physically at the building to read the blog – which is a big advantage over a notice board.
Only the EC can post new topics. Comments on most blog posts are allowed but they need moderation first. No-one has commented so far.
We didn’t really want it to be a discussion forum but rather a way the EC could communicate to those that needed to know.
It seems to have been quite well accepted so far.
Could not even imagine us having any kind of online social page for this complex. We have a resident who has made some outrageous statements which were defamatory and vitriolic to the EC and even contractors carrying out works on the premises. This was in writing, with name included! And from the resident who has broken just about every bylaw ever written and continues to do so! Imagine what would have been written if they could be anonymous!
We tried to get everyone onboard with an OC email address. But only a handful could be bothered giving their email addresses to be kept up to date. Everyone here prefers to save up their whinge about lack of communication and what is wrong with the place for the AGM. I give up.
Could the following be managed without a little ‘personal abuse’?
Let’s just say, hypothetically, an executive committee member built something on the common property garden next to his unit without seeking permission and also the treasurer had done renovations in breach of a by-law, then pleaded ignorance, but the larger EC says ‘not to worry’, we’ll stick a resolution sanctioning these things on the next AGM agenda.
Then, thinking there’s no other timely and practical way to stop this corrupt EC, someone starts a Facebook page for residents to register their objections to these matters and more, anonymously. Well it’s worked a treat in the Middle East and now Russia. (Nobody need bother mentioning the strata manager, the OFT or the CTT for reasons which I think must be obvious to Flat Chatters.)
Personally, I reckon a bit of personal abuse could well help.
We have a Yahoo Group. It is moderated by an owner and it is allegedly open to all residents.
It has never degraded to a free for all to abuse each other but the moderator happily denied access to anyone who is not on-board with the mantra expressed by himself.
Due to the clique nature of membership to the group the participation rate is less than 25% of the SP.A social page has pros and cons.
To ensure some balance, I gave all EC members administrative access to our blog. But we only have 3 on the EC. Perhaps for larger ECs just the office bearers would be enough?
And our blog was mainly intended to be a way for the EC to publish information and not a chat forum.
So far, the only slightly controversial issue is that one owner is concerned that one of the blog's entries, which details an on-going problem with water leaks in the building, might affect our property values (although the issue is also mentioned in our AGM and Commitee meeting minutes etc).
My response was: Let's deal with the issue and then we can delete it from the blog.
Despite my personal leanings towards new technologies, there are several owners in our complex of 24 units who don't have email or even a computer. So these IT based solutions don't suit everyone.
We use email as much as possible to distribute info to EC members and unit owners in general. Also to communicate with the strata manager (though I'm not sure they always read the contents, given some responses). But there's always someone I have to give printed info – including a new member elected to our EC at last week's AGM.
Noticeboards can be useful and – if well managed – can add to a sense of community in a strata complex. They also give info to tenants about what's going on, so they're not left out of the communication loop.
In an ideal world, I can see how a well maintained website or blog could be useful. But in the world of our units, I know I'd have to act as 'moderator' on any IT-based info forum for owners… and there's simply not the time.
It's true Gilgal1 that “new” technology takes time to be totally accepted.
Here in Victoria we are not required to have a notice board. And we have never had one where I live. So our blog introduced something new that did not even exist before. At the time I also suggested a notice board as an alternative but several owners objected because they thought notice boards were generally unsightly and we'd need two of them because we have two buildings with separate entrances. Notice boards are not much use to non-resident owners or managers, agents etc either . And a blog can also present so much more information.
Residents don't need email or even their own computer to use the blog – although clearly it helps! They just need to be able to access the internet from somewhere (or know someone that has access to it). In reality, all 12 apartments in our buildings have easy enough access.
It took about a week to write all the information on our blog. But once done, it stays reasonably stable. For us, our blog is more for information and not really a discussion forum.
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