A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM

optimist

Yes Fred, I'm really a "the glass is half full" kind of guy. Gotta try anyway to see if it has any positive results!

Cheers,
James

wjwoodward wrote:

Yes Fred, I'm really a "the glass is half full" kind of guy. Gotta try anyway to see if it has any positive results!

Cheers,
James

Hailey in HK did one of these some months ago - total waste of time.
So, how do I buy a villa in Bali?

Not too sure, but I can tell you how to buy a shack in a FAVELA in Rio!!!! 

Ner, I'll give that a miss ....but I would like a wander round with my camera.

James. It seems that sometimes topics are welcomed on the general forums, but not on the national ones. Below here in italics is a post of mine on the Greece Forum, and below that is the response it received from the Administration team. And yet there are many threads on politics in the two general forums (Expat Cafe and Expatriate). I will happily accept any and all rulings of the forum-masters, and am not going to argue with them or to question their right to decide what to publish. But in light of their ruling on the "suicides in Greece" topic - that is is political and therefore taboo - it seems reasonable to conclude that political topics are NOT taboo on the GENERAL forums. Witness the following current topics: Racism, European Parliament Elections, Mixed Marriages.

So. Is my conclusion correct, or not? Yours very respectfully! G

Suicides in Greece
This report (link below) is terribly, terribly sad, if true. (Is it?) Forty years ago my family and I spend some happy times in Greece - mainly in Corfu - and it pains me to know that the Greek politicians have screwed up its economy so badly.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9WZN2dWDSo

Please note that your post is now in a private folder visible only by the moderators and the administrators
Political and religious topics are not welcome on Expat.com, we are not competent to deal with those two topics that is why we prefer avoid talking about it on the Forum.
Maximilien
Expat-blog Team

Hello Gordon Barlow,

I would like to inform you that we had to remove your discussion because as it is written in the Greece forum code of conduct, discussions related to politics are not allowed.

Gordon Barlow wrote:

But in light of their ruling on the "suicides in Greece" topic - that is is political and therefore taboo - it seems reasonable to conclude that political topics are NOT taboo on the GENERAL forums. Witness the following current topics: Racism, European Parliament Elections, Mixed Marriages.

In fact, we kind of deal differently with the posts in Expat Forum and same thing with the Open Discussions. Your discussion, however, was a little sensitive and risky one as it could have turned into a political debate and upset the greek politicians or other members. That mainly explain our actions here.

If you do have any other questions or anything to add regarding our decision here,  please do not hesitate to contact us privately,  by clicking on this link :  : https://www.expat.com/en/contact.html

Thank you,

Priscilla

Hi Gordon,

While I'm not part of Expat-blog Administration (just a volunteer here) let me add something that might clear things up even more. You are correct, but as Priscilla points out, there are some very sound reasons this happens.

When one posts directly to a NATIONAL forum it is treated differently, because those posts will most certainly be subjected to local laws should a member post something that violates local laws then EB will probably be held responsible (at least jointly) and this could result in the blog being banned in that country. So as a result they do have to be extremely careful. In many nations, even so-called democratic ones, freedom of speech is NOT all that free. I push things to the very limit here in Brazil for example.

On the "generic" international forums unless a posting were blatantly anti-government or something referring to a specific nation and was something clearly against the law then it would probably not be judged using the same yardstick since the nation's laws may not apply to an international forum in just the same way. So for example if I posted a topic on the Saudi Arabia Forum which essentially incited women to break the law by driving, Expat-blog could get their plug pulled by the Saudi government. Yet, I could probably post on the Expatriate Forum a topic like "What give Saudis the right to think they can ban women from driving?" and since there is really no specific law that prohibits women from driving (rather it is a religious edict) such a post would be treated differently since it was on an international forum, less likely to ruffle the feathers of the Saudi government, and much less likely to be subjected to any action by them if it were posted from outside Saudi Arabia and by a non-Saudi.

It seems to be more difficult sometimes for people coming from nations where Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Expression are entrenched in their Constitution to understand this, but that freedom does not apply everywhere in the world. Things that I can say quite freely and without any problems whatsoever in Canada, if said here in Brazil would result in me getting taken into custody by the Brazilian Federal Police and promptly deported because I'm subject to local laws and my Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms does not apply outside Canada.

So you're right.... essentially sometimes you really can compare apples to oranges!

That said, this is not what this topic thread is about... but rather those people who simply just can't figure out how to navigate through the various national forums. It really is a constant problem and rather annoying to see topics like, "Can I get a taxi in front of IKEA in Riyhad" posted to the Expatriate Forum or "Where can I find a haberdasher in Rio" posted to the Expat Cafe. instead ot the national forums where they belong,

Cheers,
James

Priscilla wrote:

In fact, we kind of deal differently with the posts in Expat Forum and same thing with the Open Discussions. Your discussion, however, was a little sensitive and risky one as it could have turned into a political debate and upset the greek politicians or other members.

OK, Priscilla. I won't argue, of course: after all, it's your Forum, not mine. I am just a little disappointed that upsetting a nation's politicians is considered a revolutionary act; in effect, that ruling restricts members' contributions to the trivial and banal.

Anyhoo... I apologise for breaking your rule. I must confess I have already broken it several times in the Cayman Islands Forum, so you might want to review some of my submissions there and delete them as necessary. (And surely Julien's invitation in February to explore "the other side of the Caymanian postcard" was looking for trouble, then, wasn't it?)

wjwoodward wrote:

When one posts directly to a NATIONAL forum it is treated differently, because those posts will most certainly be subjected to local laws should a member post something that violates local laws then EB will probably be held responsible (at least jointly) and this could result in the blog being banned in that country. So as a result they do have to be extremely careful. In many nations, even so-called democratic ones, freedom of speech is NOT all that free. I push things to the very limit here in Brazil for example.

Thanks, James. I take all your points, and have already apologised to Priscilla for insulting Greece's politicians. (As an aside, let me say that I insult every national politician I can find, pretty much - specifically those who are indifferent to human lives. My banned post on the Greece Forum was on this topic.)

Censorship is permanent government policy, in my home, this British colony of Cayman Islands. Expats who speak out of turn are usually deported, and I have for the past 26 years continually fought for free speech - including the freedom to protest against theft of migrants' wages by local employers. I explained in my response to Priscilla that I have posted several criticisms of my politicians in the Cayman Islands Forum; I don't know whether she will allow me to keep doing that. I had better keep my head down for a while, or at least post nothing that might spoil the image conveyed by the standard Cayman islands postcard!

You wrote, "this is not what this topic is about" - but surely it is. Your OP didn't mention what a huge restriction exists on postings to the national forums. With respect, I think it's been extremely useful to discuss that restriction. Now we all know of it.