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Lessons From The Chat Room: Defusing A Potential Firestorm

By Roger Leo
February 23, 2009

Sugarloaf operators ran into a chat room buzz saw when they yanked the season pass of a longtime 'Loafer for an off-hand, but ill-advised, comment he made about a tragic ski accident. A 16-year-old student at the Stratton Mountain School had skied off Spillway and hit a tree Jan. 20. She died the next day.

Posts at the resort's chat room, discussed the accident and speculated about many aspects of it. One frequent poster, calling himself "Exiled/Vonzipe," commented three days after the accident on what he perceived as marketing spin in a statement by one mountain employee reported in a news article.

Sugarloaf revoked his season pass, effectively "exiling" Vonzipe for real, the next day. He was told he would be escorted off the premises should he show up to ski again this season.

The online forums erupted in outrage over the next two weeks. Many posters called the pass-pulling an attempt to muzzle free speech. The recipe for real backlash was everywhere.

Enter Stephen Kircher, president of Boyne Resorts' Eastern Operations, who personally waded into the fray. (Sugarloaf is owned by CNL Lifestyle Properties and operated by Boyne.)

The upshot: Sugarloaf's Marketing Director Jim Costello and "Exiled/Vonzipe" met in person and talked. The pass was restored.

The Sugarloaf situation is worthy of review because of the speed with which the incident spread through the Web world of skiers and riders, how it reached across a variety of chat rooms, the nastiness of many of the comments, and the adroit way Kircher handled a very volatile situation.

"This was an example of the good and the bad aspects of online forums, and the challenge of dealing with facts before having all the facts," Kircher told The Industry Report. "I found out in a chat room that we took the guy's pass. I called our team and said, 'What transpired here?'

"I said, 'Have a meeting with this young man and come to a resolution.'"

Kircher posted the results of his intervention Feb. 10.

His post read, "After further discussion with the Sugarloaf team, it became clear since my last post, that it was the emotional attachment to the trauma resulting from the accident (that) were the catalysts for the pass suspension. It was not their intent to suppress free speech.

"The team was wrong to allow posted comments or such emotion to play a part in their decision to revoke skiing privileges and acknowledge that both, along with past issues, clouded their judgment in this case...

"Jim Costello … and Matt (Exiled/Vonzipe) did meet to work out the issues between them. As a result of that meeting, they did indeed find reconciliation and reached common ground, Matt is now fully back in the Sugarloaf family. I also know that the team has learned from these recent interactions and are working toward a fresh start and toward a brighter future for Sugarloaf."

Kircher told us he has been active "out there, hoping these chat rooms will become a good dialogue in the industry and, if we deal with each other respectfully, they can be real effective. We can all learn from what transpired and hopefully everybody understands that everyone involved is a human being, not some big evil corporate giant."

What It Means: It paid off for Sugarloaf executives to stay in the loop on the chat rooms, to be flexible in responding to what posters were saying, and to be able to step back, reflect, and reverse course. What's your policy? Need an example: You've got a good one.

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Comments

Bulletin boards are extremely valuable forms of social media. They work best when there are solid ground rules in place. One such ground rule, in the case of ski-oriented boards, is that discussion of accidents will not be permitted. Make that clear to folks up front, when they register, and you can nuke threads accordingly. With all due respect to my brethren and former co-workers at Sugarloaf, this situation could have been avoided in the first place with proper ground rules and careful moderators. Running boards requires a sense of humor and give and take. Forum mods need to sit still for a lot, in order to keep their community thriving. One can't be too ham-handed, and there's definitely an art to running these boards. Anyone interested in learning more is welcome to contact me. Skip King Reputation Strategies, LLC www.reputationstrategies.com

Posted by: Skip King | February 23, 2009 01:06 PM

Suppression of free speech? Well, free speech should rule absolute only in the political world. On the other hand, if a publisher wishes to deny a forum to a person for any and all reasons, it's called "editorial discretion." Exercising that discretion may be wise or foolish, but "free speech" is never absolute. (Think of the "fire in a movie theater" court case.) If Boyne thought it was best to restore the pass of the offender (or keep it revoked), that's their decision.

Posted by: John LaPlante GraysOnTrays.com | February 23, 2009 01:10 PM