Monday, January 27, 2014

Backgate debating a 100% move over to social media....

The Backgate Website is considering a move that would take everything to social media, Facebook in particular. The current lack of employee reporters and volunteers has slowed progress of the site over the past few months. The move would enable the site to remain up and interactive, and require less daily direct programming. The stand alone message board would remain open and operational, but this format, along with the dot com address would no longer exist. Viewers would have to access Facebook to read and interact. What are your thoughts?

13 comments:

  1. I can't say this comes as a surprise, since the site has pretty much been dead in 2014. I don't care if the site stays here or totally migrates to facebook. What I'm hoping to see is the folks who have been the driving force behind the site continue to keep hitting TDCJ with FOIA requests. Presenting hard data about staffing, turnover, overtime, disciplinary, et cetera is what attracted me to the site to begin with. Some of that stuff was really professional quality journalism. Maybe the union folks could start doing some of the legwork, and letting backgate publish the info. It would be a shame to see the site die off.

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  2. From the Desk of BoBoTheBeaten:

    We can come here and say things anonymously that we wouldn't say on Facebook for fear of reprisal and retaliation. This site has crashed because you keep changing formats and people got frustrated trying to navigate through it.

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    Replies
    1. Well we had 1 of your moderators go and tell the warden who we were so Sorry Charlie

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    2. From the Desk of BoBoTheBeaten:

      Well that could cause a decline in comments quicker than anything else. I hope that moderator has been removed from servicing this site.

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  3. BoBo has a point about anonymity...

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  4. Well in the early years (we started in 1998) we had a good crop of employees willing to help change the agency, stand up for whats was right, and cared what happened. Those types of employees have either quit, or retired from the agency over time and of course had no time to continue on with the fight. Most newer employees could care less about the environment they work in, or if it progresses or fails. Most of our site changes came out of necessity to make it easier for our staff to post stories, and contribute. But i see the point about changing to often. Over the next few weeks we will be looking at the future of the site, and see if we can draw some new blood in to help manage it. Thanks for sticking with us and we hope you continue to see us through any potential transitions we may face.

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  5. This Site has been a great healer. For those who needed to vent or had something to share. My objection was and is all the policing and restrictions that were placed. All the deleting and warnings. The Site got away from exposing all the wrong done to the staff. Whether it was a Captain berating and bullying his Lieutenant with vulgar language, or an Officer facing disciplinary over the power of words placed on an Offender. This Site exposed a lot of wrong doing, it just got away from the true topic, without that one direction of telling everyone what is going on in their Unit. Needing a password, being logged. It needs to go back to exposing and not worry about how short the Units are. This is the way it is setup. This is the way the work horses are treated. This is the way it's going to continue. Every year it is going to get worse. Just when you think it can't get any worse. You will be proven wrong. Facebook will end what this Site could still do. Don't try to be the unofficial TDCJ Site. Be the Official Site that even the Director can't help, but hear the voices of the staff. As the quote goes, there are no bad employees just bad leadership with over inflated egos to make up for their incompetence.

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  6. From the Desk of BoBoTheBeaten:

    I have a Facebook account, but I keep my close friends and relatives separate from my work. I don't go home and tell them all the hell I go through and I wouldn't want them to hear about the work environment. When I'm with my friends we don't talk about the job. I wouldn never share things I read and write on here with my Facebook friends/family. Everyday when I go home my wife, Mrs. BoBo always asks - "How was your day dear" and I always tell her it was good. What we do is very depressing and people not in this business would think there was something wrong with you if you told them the truth. This site needs to be maintained to allow for the truth to be told and voices to be heard. Most of the stuff on here is silly venting, but sometimes that's all you need to keep your sanity and maintain balance. It's easier to get through this job when you know other people are dealing with the same issues. It's funny to read many of the posts on here and relieves tension. We (man) are not an island and we need a forum to share our experiences with each other.

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  7. I have a Facebook account but like BoBo I never refer to my job. Do you really think Correctional Officers would reveal what is really on their minds? I know we have some "slow" individuals working in the agency but they would have to really be stupid to post their dislikes about the unit they work at on Facebook. Bad idea.

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  8. I think you should leave it as is. Facebook requires people to reveal themselves. Some have that fear which will reduce your numbers to 0.

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  9. You have to find a way to get people to trust the site again. When people feel safe about it then they will return. and the info will continue to flow.. good or bad .. true or false. at least it would be a start.

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  10. It will all come to an END. If you use Social Media it will wreak havoc as the Administration can and will use our comments against us. They already threaten us by telling us not to post comments about work on FB.
    I mean you can say something negative about work or a coworker at work but type it on FB and let someone report it and your in trouble.
    Where do you see that going? BYE BYE

    When and where did we allow TDCJ to take away our Rights?

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  11. There are some of us that do not subscribe to face book.

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