Discussion: Misinformation In the Community

For the past week I’ve found that the community has a really big misinformation problem It’s actually been much longer than that but due to recent events, I’ve realized how severe it is.

What I mean by “misinformation” is authors and community members usually assume or word their opinions a certain way, leading others in the community to spread false information.

For example, some people were spreading around that Ink was being removed, and naturally, Ink fans were upset and made all sorts of drama. This in NO WAY WAS TRUE, but because everyone was so upset they assumed what was more an opinion, as fact.

The fact that anyone can say something and others will run with it without even stopping to find the facts is horrifying. It’s great to have trust in each other as a community, but you CANNOT just assume the worst without even looking for clarity. And I’m not saying that every person who spreads something is malicious or even on purpose, but we as a community need to start asking questions about any new information we receive from our friends or other members.

Feel free to discuss I mean, I put discussion in the title :sweat_smile: The only thing I will ask is to please keep things civil.

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I don’t have anything to say, but I’m glad something made this post because all these assumptions were driving me crazy.
Ahhh… Thank you for making this post. :relieved:

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Where did they even get this ‘Episode is removing Ink’ conspiracy from? :thinking: They haven’t really said anything about INK since they announced they stopped updating it MONTHS ago.

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Y’know what’s funny? The fact that they believed Ink was being removed BEFORE Classic :joy:

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I just think this community is full of immature 13 year old girls. And it doesn’t help that authors are posting confidential emails publicly to thousands of followers to essentially manipulate and control the narrative. :roll_eyes:

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:eyes: Even some of the adults are immature

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It comes from entitlement they have that episode owes ink stans something even though episode doesn’t owe them anything.

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Yup sorry, don’t wanna exclude the adults acting like 13 year olds :sweat_smile:

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This happens too often, although it’s more sad that people would believe this. If episode didn’t screw up so much (i know i’m going to get reported lmao) these kinds of things would be wayyy less believable ngl

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I think it’s just that they stan so hard that they’re super defensive

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How did episode screw up if authors are posting confidential emails that’s not meant for the public? I mean I guess they could be more consistent in enforcing guidelines but it’s the authors who posted bits and pieces of private emails to get their way.

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Well I mean in many different ways. Yes, those authors shouldn’t have done that but on the other hand episodes own work like their advertisements and theIr features stories both break many of their own guidelines and so do many of the stories in the trending section, but don’t take a look in their direction because they’re pOpULar. I mean that and other things too

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I think it’s more like Episode isn’t clear about something which sparks outrage (which usually gets out of control), Episode addresses the situation, and the community either moves on or continues to be pissed…

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I hope people keep this in mind going forward. I’m sure the ink-being-removed rumour will not be the last rumour to spread throughout the community, but hopefully people will remember not to mistake everything they hear as the truth next time

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I think episode needs a better PR team, cuz the current one is just…idk man :woman_facepalming:t4: Some of this could be avoided so much easier

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So glad someone made this post :hugs:

I believe a small part of this has to do with people sharing snippets of emails from Episode staff and people on the forum. When authors do this, they are providing their audience very limited context, thus muddying the waters.

And remember, a lot of people in the Episode community are young. To the younger members of the community, I mean this with respect, but you might not be as rational as you might think you are. Your strike post (not just the demands, but even what it’s written) is clear evidence of that.

A lot of the younger members seem to have a hard time even grasping the idea that the emails authors are showing not only are meant to be confidential, but they’re only small portions of what the author is told. No author who wants to maintain their audience would reveal something that would incriminate them. Of course, your favorite person seems rightfully upset. They’re showing the parts that make Episode seem unreasonable.

To ensure things like this would never happen again, Episode will need to make significant revisions to its guidelines. It will undoubtedly take some time, but it’ll save a massive headache for everyone at Episode. Especially for the people who run Episode’s Instagram account, who aren’t even involved in decisions related to the guidelines.

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To be fair, we did have a minor screw up there. The reviewer misread the guideline on violence. But the second we were made aware of this I corrected it. Mistakes happen. Especially to reviewers who are under a contest deadline.

However, it was one person. The communications I have received seemed to be under the impression that it was many people and that the rule only applied to Ink authors and stories. This is absolutely not true and I have no idea where that came from.

Also, the emails really should not be posted to Instagram. Since I am covering for most of the team this weekend and handling most things, due to people ignoring the disclaimer at the bottom of emails everyone on IG is going to know my name by the time the Easter holiday is over.

The disclaimer is this:

  • This email may contain confidential and/or privileged information. If you are not the intended recipient (or have received this email in error) please notify the sender immediately and destroy this email. Any unauthorized copying, disclosure, sharing, re-posting or distribution of the material in this email is strictly forbidden.*
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Oof. It’s unfortunate that this mistake caused this much of a mess.

Especially all because one author decided to share an email they really shouldn’t have.

Maybe not the best time for this joke, but I’m definitely counting on this post being spread around on Instagram.

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@Arlene , is there a protocol in place for those who share/disclose these private conversations? I mean, I know that some people post the emails they recieve when they are being featured and those are generally innocuous, but is there a set of repercussions for those who post this information that ultimately leads to massive issues within the community?
I also think a public statement about the crossover and using authors as characters guidelines needs to be made on Instagram as there are SEVERAL in the community that only watch Instagram and not the forums.
I think what would also help is if the community panel was put in place. I know that it was tabled when @Liz came back from maternity leave due to personnel issues, but I think it would help with some of these break downs in communication in the community.
I hope you have a better weekend!

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Yes I definitely think there should be repercussions for authors who carelessly post confidential emails to their followers. Especially since the author only posted certain parts of the email while proceeding to rant and make baseless claims about ink authors being targeted which is a huge reason why this misinformation spread the way it did.

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