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bobs12
  Saint Petersburg Crusty Tech Support Veteran Posts: 914 |
Language Studio: second English school to be penalized for directory abuse 16th Nov '07 6:44 PM
Language Studio's Academic Director Paul Evans recently registered on VisaRus using a false name in a deliberate attempt to abuse the school rating system. Hi there The above email contains many points that would be most diplomatically described as 'utterly inaccurate'. 1. Mr Evans made no attempt to communicate his intention when signing up, nor did I ask him. He signed up at 16:55:58, using the name 'Dave Ritche' and stating as his reason for signing up 'Learn about schools', and at 17:03:20 left his review of Language Studio (just over seven minutes later - that's incredibly fast, considering that you have to receive an email, click a link to activate your account, return to the site, log in, find the right page, type the review - all at the same time as allegedly writing to explain why you want to use the site...) 2. Mr Evans was already DoS at the time that he left the 'review'. 3. If the reason for signing up under a false name was "to make the point" that my system was open to abuse, why would he have tried to contact me and tell me what he was going to do, or use his personal email so that I 'knew how to contact him'? In actual fact, he has only proven that I am, in fact, able to keep the system fairly well protected from abuse. It's idiot-proof. I was trying to make the point that anyone can post here and that it needs to have some fairness. I sadly do not know the criteria to use or how to make it work, I wish I had those answers, but you do run a mostly fair site, and from the people I have spoken to they think it is a good site for references and such. It is fair precisely because anyone can post there, and because schools cannot have genuine reviews removed. 4. Discrimination issues are of no relevance to the matter in hand. In any case, the original review by Rosa101 did not imply that Mr Evans was involved in any form of discrimination. 5. Clearly Mr Evans did not read or did not understand the post by mememe (regarding looooads of work), which has since been disabled as it was not a direct account of working in the school. It referred to a teacher who had been invited to interview at Language Studio at a specific time and arrived to find that the person he was supposed to meet was not expected to be in the office all day, NOT a teacher who was overworked. Mr Evans has successfully proven the point that my system IS unfair and open to abuse if I don't moderate it and delete reviews from idiots that have no business teaching English in the first place, or delete malicious reviews that aim to damage a school's reputation. He has also proven the point that I am able to moderate the system and keep it clean by validating reviews. This process is time-consuming and costs money, which is why I will no longer be providing moderation for schools that have abused the system. Mr Evans was the first school representative to abuse the system in this manner. In a telephone conversation subsequent to receiving the above email from Mr Evans, it was clear to me that he was entirely unrepentant and still felt justified in his actions. A second attempt at apologising by Mr Evans was slightly closer to the mark: Dear Robert But nonetheless unacceptable due to the sarcastic opening tone (I appear to have been caught with my hand in the cookie jar...), the continued justification of his actions (I stand by my comments...) and his unjustified personal attack on the teacher who posted the original below-average review, and incidentally was genuinely upset by Mr Evans' conduct in the first place (my irritation at a review that I believed was unprofessional, immature and unsubstantiated...). I would like to point out that Mr Wilson-Fish, senior director of Language Studio, took the matter seriously, cooperated fully in investigating matters relating to Mr Evans and also took the initiative of apologising on Mr Evans' behalf. I am satisfied with Mr Wilson-Fish's assurances that no other members of staff were involved in Mr Evans' attempt at abusing the directory. The following is the official apology that was accepted for publication on the Language Studio page in the school directory: Dear Robert, I am fully aware that there are most likely very many happy teachers at Language Studio, just as I do not doubt that the number of happy teachers may well outnumber the disgruntled. Such is the usual balance of things in most schools. Nonetheless, I fully believe that a teacher who has unresolved issues with a school, be those issues unresolved because the teacher has not taken appropriate steps to resolve them or has not felt that the school's working environment supports such resolution, should be allowed to express those issues to other teachers who may find themselves similarly affected. If a school feels that a review warrants investigation or removal (i.e. fabricated like Mr Evans' or otherwise posted with malicious intent), then it is very easy to contact me. Where a school sees fit to take matters into its own hands in order to 'redress the balance', I will publicise that school's activities in accordance with the Terms of Use. VisaRus is here for many reasons, one of which is to provide teachers with information about schools and to protect them from bad employers. I take matters of bullying, harassment and intimidation very seriously and I ask that school owners and directors do likewise. No teacher should be expected to work in an environment where he or she is made to feel uncomfortable. Just as Language Studio expects its teachers to resolve issues with senior members of staff before publicising them, I expect schools to resolve review/rating issues with me and not to take 'retaliatory' action, either by way of attempting to manipulate ratings or by way of repercussions against teachers who have shared negative experiences with the community. I expect schools to treat teachers with fairness and equality, regardless of their relationship to the school - contract or no contract, long-serving or newcomer. Any other treatment of teachers is unacceptable and will lead to a bad reputation. I do support Mr Wilson-Fish's point that teachers ought to attempt to resolve issues with school administration, but I also recognise that in Russian schools many teachers may not feel that they have this option. Mr Evans' conduct has been despicable and contemptible to say the least, and by no means befitting of a senior employee of a school that is trying to present a 'high end' image. The fact he did not come to me to have the 'review' he was responding to investigated raises a number of questions. ___________________________________________________ I demand a shrubbery. |
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