Tandem - Language Exchange
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Mod abuse
Mods seem to wield their power arbitrarily, handing out warnings or bans for the most trivial and unfair reasons on Tandem. Recently, I politely expressed my desire to end a one-sided conversation, and the other user turned it into a drama. When I told them I did not want to start arguing about it they blocked and reported me. No foul language was used, but Tandem deemed this a violation anyway, which seems absurd. My friend was permanently banned months ago (that is also a permanent device ban) for a harmless compliment on someone's smile, despite having a pro membership and countless positive reviews from other users. Users can make up any story about another user and irrespective of its accuracy you'll be at the risk of being warned or banned. Suffice to say Tandem appears more focused on taking money and randomly banning users than maintaining fair moderation. Rather than addressing the abundance of fake profiles, scammers, and explicit images sent randomly by other users they go after harmless conversations. Had they chosen to strictly enforce their quite arbitrarily rules it would likely result in the permanent suspension of a significant portion of their userbase. To be more specific, the claim that the app is strictly for language exchange isn't fooling anyone. While it certainly might be the intended goal, even Tandem knows that it's not the reality as the userbase also use it for other purposes (friendship, making new connections from abroad, making travel buddies, dating etc) There should be a more transparent process around this – users deserve to know the specific reasons for warnings/bans. In addition, for very clear violations a temporary ban, based on the severity of the violation, would be more sensible than a permanent one-size-fits-all approach. Tandem needs to reevaluate its priorities and create a system that truly promotes a positive environment.