2008 My Broadband Conference
4 November 2008 | 
Author And your broadband conference 
The My Broadband Conference 2008 is set to take place on 27 November at Vodaworld in Johannesburg and promises to be a very interesting event for anyone keen to gain an insight into the state of broadband Internet access in South Africa.
The conference program includes talks by a number of the country’s biggest telecommunication providers as well as panel discussions. Best of all, the event is free of charge – register here if you are interested.
Posted in 
Tags:
All is not well on MyBroadband.
I have been following the happenings on this site for a few years now.
I have seen it grow and change. Many of the more interesting personalities have left, only to be replaced by those more interested in high post-counts and derailing threads with LOL-posts than meaningful contributions. I believe this has brought about conflict between the old-timers and the scruffy new lot.
Personally, I blame a lack of leadership from rpm and his generals. They seem more interested in deflecting criticism of the untouchables and their soundalikes than keeping order.
After many complaints, constructive and destructive, instead of seeing some sort of reform, we saw a crack-down. The infraction system was revised to give moderators more firepower, which they begun to use with great gusto, especially ic.
If one were to ask which person has caused the greatest amount of disharmony and distrust on the forum, I would say ic is, without a doubt, top offender. The things I have seen him do and the brazen lies put forth as fact have made me see red on many an accasion.
Sure, he spends a lot of time on the forum. But what good is that time if he can’t be impartial? I won’t even go into the blatant double standards and warped logic!
Of course senior members would never have seen the full interactions. Much of the head-chopping is done quite secretively, so one only sees the events from a narrow perspective. The lack of explanation, the lack of accountability for disciplinary actions is much cause for concern. The mods claim they don’t have time to explain things. I say, don’t do these things if you can’t or won’t explain them! The fact that a moderator can change your posts, without leaving any trace is also worrying, and I’ve seen ic do that many times and then deny doing so.
Many say that the forum has become far too commercial and is now accepting ad space from arch-enemy, Telkom, and other companies like Vodacom. It has been accused of shielding them from criticism.
I think that MyBB has lost its way. rpm has shown very poor leadership, and we see the result. I don’t blame him for accepting advertising, just the way he panders to those companies.
The link between MyADSL and Vodacom is also very suspect. Vodacom sponsors ads on the site, but that’s fine. They pay for the conferences, social evenings (with alcohol), free lunch etc.. In return, MyADSL gives them top rank amongst the networks through rigged polls. They must be rigged because anyone asking for details gets ignored or banned.
Only one network rep is allowed to roam freely. He’s Jannie van Zyl or Vodacom3g on the forum when he’s working and ‘Neo’ or ‘Jannie’ when he’s cloaked and wants to push the company surreptitiously or troll. He’s been called “Royal Game” because any criticism is removed or deflected by the management. He’s not the most open and honest individual. Did you know that Vodacom asked him to test their broadband speed claims? Apparently they touted him as an independent tester to the ASA (Advertising Standards Authority). It seems the ASA rejected his ‘independent’ report anyway and Vodacom were banned from making claims of “up to 1.8 Mbps” because the speeds were not consistently achievable.
(Vodacom 3G / DJ Dawkins & Another / 8207 / 8285)
The poll methodology is never made public either. If you look at the results you would see some highly suspicious results – all in percentages. At the end, Vodacom gets to quote “Best broadband for your rand”, so you can see the symbiotic relationship at work.
rpm had better watch out, because the forum is his baby. It’s also his moral authority and basis for his campaign for better telecommunication in SA. If he doesn’t regain the moral high ground, what remains of his reputation will be in tatters and he may as well cancel all his speaking engagements and stay at home.
I’m not an active forum member and haven’t followed any of the threads in detail to be able to comment. I assume the bias towards certain industry players is difficult to ignore if that’s where sponsorship money and test equipment is coming from…
I’m very pleased that a forum such as My BroadBand exists, though – it does open up a dialog that would have been almost impossible to achieve otherwise.
Not sure if my problem with ‘MyBroadBand’ is related.
I’m a iBurst subsriber and having some problem, made a post and all went well
with the post. Had one reply, did one reply to that when I some how started to
be moderated with no explanation…
Did one PM to admin, had one reply and after that everything might as well gone
to ‘/dev/null’.
All very frustrating, and post & PM where both civil and none confrontational…