To ban or not to ban, that is the question.

Verily I sayeth unto thee, doth thou knowest whenst to  baneth and whenst to hideth?  Yep, old Billy Shakespeare is probably turning in his grave now! But the point remains, do you know the difference between banning a student and hiding from them? Are you a tutor that realises there are specific times to use one or the other, or are you that power hungry tutor that gives a maniacal laugh as you press the ban button for the tenth time today?

It’s a sad fact of life that there will always be some people that abuse what is an otherwise good system and  Cambly is no exception. Some students will take it upon themselves to be rude, obnoxious, nasty, or downright disgusting. On a platform that is basically one on one video, the options for abuse are obvious, and Cambly has taken steps to help tutors remove themselves from abusive students. As a tutor you are empowered to ‘Ban’ or ‘Hide’ from students. So let’s delve into these options a little.

• Ban:-  This does exactly what it says, it will ban the student from Cambly. They will be immediately kicked off the platform and be unable to return. (I’m guessing some kind of IP ban?)  In my opinion it’s to be used for the worst offenders, those that should not be allowed on a video platform and should be kicked into the depths of Cambly hell. Yep, weirdos, perverts and  lowlife scum have all been on the receiving end of my ban button and they will never return to Cambly. I’ve banned several men (I use the term loosely) that thought it would be a good idea to point their penis at the camera *see my other post here* as well as a few students who decided that  the F word was going out of fashion and they needed to use it as much as possible….”F you, you  F-ing Futhermucker, you can just F-off and…”  well, I’m sure you get the picture. Yep, the Alice ban-button was well used that day!
• Hide.   Unlike the ban button, hiding does not kick the student off the platform, it simply hides you and your profile from them, meaning they cannot contact you again. I use the hide button when a student makes me uncomfortable and I no longer want to teach them.  Recently a student was telling me how attractive I was, that he’d like to be my boyfriend and could I give him my phone number. While this wasn’t something that I felt needed a ban, I was very uncomfortable about having any further classes with him, so I hit the hide button. I’ve also used it to hide from rude or overpowering students, where a ban would be excessive.

Of course, using ban or hide is down to your own judgement, but be sensible. The Ban button isn’t there because you don’t like the way a student calls you “Babe” or because they ask you what city you live in. It’s there to remove the worst offenders from Cambly and to make it a safer place for all tutors.

The Hide button is great to prevent students from contacting you again, but as I recently found out, it doesn’t help when their friend has an account…. “Hi, do you remember a student called Harry (name changed to protect the guilty) from France, he was a Doctor.”… “Um, I think so.”.. “Well he’s my friend and he wants to say hello.”  The camera swung around to Harry, who proceeded to ask why I banned him. I had to think on my feet for that one and I think I handled it quite well. But that’s a story for another post. 🙂

Until Next time. Alice.

“I’m not crazy, my reality is just different than yours.”