I have decided to post this open letter to NAG across some SA community sites/forums in the hopes of receiving feedback. I have received no feedback from their editor wrt this issue. Since I see they are advertising their site and by proxy their forum as a banner on this site, I thought it would be appropriate.

Dear NAG Editor.

I would like to refer to

http://forums.tidemedia.co.za/nag/sh...?t=9448&page=2

screenshot:
http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/9097/naggfyfy7.jpg


Specifically the response by one ‘Azimuth’, a member of your staff and forum moderator, telling a forum user and potential customer of your publication to, and I quote,

“Go <expletive deleted> yourself.”

It is merely but one isolated incident. Perhaps your management should review what is happening on your forums? Unless it’s management policy to allow this kind of thing to run rampant.

I’m not sure what NAG’s policy is in terms of telling clients to go &*%^ themselves, but frankly if this is the way your staff treat users of your website/forums and current/potential purchasers of your magazine, then I’m afraid your publication can, in fact, go %&^$ itself. I will also be sharing this issue to other members of the South African gaming community seeking their input and asking them to boycott your publication until such time as public apologies are made and you review your policy on this issue.
Further, I have logged the issue with Hellopeter. http://www.hellopeter.com/the_comment.asp?recid=240816
I am certain that I am not the only one who feels that a business should value and respect it’s customers. Beyond simply the terrible treatment of customers by some of your staff online, there is also the issue of children reading your site/forums.

I, for one, will not buy your product when your personnel show the people who fund their salaries this amount of disgusting and outright disrespect.

Kind regards,

JG.
What is your view? Their opinion is that the forum is seperate from the magazine, but my opinion is that they are the same company and that when I go to their forum, after having bought their magazine, that the last thing I want to see is being told to 'go <bleep> myself' by one of their writers, for posting a criticism. Of course in a follow up thread (link here: http://forums.tidemedia.co.za/nag/showthread.php?t=9454 )their forum admin tries to make the issue only about the use of expletives when the real issue is the abusive, disrespectful and derogatory way in which their staff respond to customers posting on their site.I think it is a simply shameful way to treat customers, I think that your web presence and your actual product are directly linked in this day and age, I think the concept that the forum is seperate from the magazine is absolutely fallacious, and will no longer support their publication as a result.

signed,
Frustrated ex NAG reader,
Jaygee