seang

Who said that ?
No just kidding. yeah I hear you. I have seen it time and time again - I think podgypossum (might be wrong) even tested this out. posted a few threads - no replies and then posted a thread with contoversal title and presto 5 pages of replies (titled its like pushing s**t uphill with a stick- meaning getting replies). Sometimes here you can know straight away who will reply to certain peoples threads.

Geordie George

There are endless number of reasons why people post and why they don't. Personally speaking, I've just taken a week off; I had enough of the people still in the UK attacking someone already in Aus who dared to post their own personal (negative) experience of life in Australia. How many pages did that thread run to in the end?! I gave up after page 15. And, truth be known, I need the forum less - I have my life here now and a group of friends. I can't be bothered with the petty bickering and childishness that this forum all-too-often descends to.

It is cyclical - people come and go, especially if they feel they've seen it all before. The rose-tinted specs brigade in the UK will get here in time and then they can become the ones getting pissed off with a new breed of rose-tinted people. And, in turn, they'll move on.

Having chilled for a while, I'll be in the lounge occassionally (a much nicer place, to my mind!). Head into The Docile Trollop once in a while, B - it would be good to stay in touch!

BettyBoop

Totally agree with you there....we had a saying in our house....'If you can't say something nice about someone, say nothing at all'.
Let's just get on with the business of helping each other and spreading our knowledge to others, and stop trying to be top dog!!!

kirsty&al

I wouldn't worry about it; it happens from time to time regardless of how long you've been posting.

Here's a classic: people have previously posted questions about MRSA in Aus and there have even been a few heated exchanges about, therefore you would think that at least there would be interested in a report that gives some figures (for Victoria). I posted it (http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=320564) and not a dicky bird of interest.

Probably just the wrong time to post it. Everyone was interested in the 20,000 new visas that was supposedly being made available.

A
PS: Are you felling loved with all these replies?

moneypenny20

I must be missing something big that is flying straight over my head cos I just haven't noticed all this aggro. Yes threads get heated and yes people say things they probably shouldn't but it doesn't seem any better or worse than all the time I have been on here.

It is very difficult to get a point over with the written word done quickly. People don't hear the inflections in speech that can change a sentence nor the facial expressions.

If you are feeling even slightly out of sorts someone can say boo and it will rub you up the wrong way. On the other hand, you could be in a really good mood and someone will say something unpleasant but you will ride over it.

There will always be people who want to stamp on your dreams, how many have posted to say family are being really negative. A forum is no different. Personally I get really irritated by the happy clappy threads where everyone is kissing everyone else's arses. Give me a good debate that gets heated any time but then I am an individual and don't necessarily expect anyone else to agree with me but I'm not going to get upset by those threads, I just leave alone.

I use the ignore facility for the people who really irritate - I have four on there at the moment and I think they will be there for a while

If someone wants to leave for a period, do they have to make an announcement? Can they not just stop posting for a couple of weeks. I only say this because it tends to exacerbate an already inflamed situation. You then get people posting the "bring back xxxxxxxx" threads, other people join in asking why xxxxx has gone and someone posts the link to the "bad" thread.

It is the silly season in the media cos nothing happens at this time of year, maybe it's silly season here to.

It's only a forum. Chill everyone and be grateful for what you have. Imagine 10 or 15 years ago if you had been emigrating then. You would have had no internet back up or help at all. Just gone blind.

kris maynard

I joined this forum for everyones experience and advice and have so far found it invaluable!
I find most people seem to be nice positive and helpful
Personally when a thread becomes bitchy and personal or controversial i steer clear!
My reasons for this are although i appreciate everyones opinions i dont really KNOW THEM after all this is cyber land I have my own images of the people on this forum and what they maybe like ,but in reality this is probably way off the real people!
I am an opinionated person in life and will always say what i think but as i have yet to experience life in Oz dont feel i have the right to slate peoples REAL experiences , or other people as i dont know them or their cicumstances in REAL LIFE!
In my opinion this forum is about bringing people in similar situations together for support advice and a laugh along the way!!
Maybe those who enjoy a good slanging match should find somewhere else to go!
But for us who need the support and advice of this forum lets stick together and ignore the people who just need a row!!

Well thats what i think anyway
Kris xx

seang

I am totally with you. There were much worse times. We have mods policing the forum let them decide what goes and what doesnt. None of us should be "stepping in" when a thread goes a little against what "we" would like.

DollyDaydream

I love being on here, it's given me advice, support, comfort.....and this does seem to be a cyclic thing so totally agree with GG. I've been haunting this forum for a few years now and seen that this is not the first time (and it definitely won't be the last) it's happened whereby people are pissed off with someone or something and decides not to post any more.

There is a fine, fine line between being a forum used to get the information you need, hence coming on here in the first place and being a forum where some use it just for the crack to stir trouble. You'll never stop some people from doing this (on any forum), it's down to us not to let them get away with it [soapbox now dutifully put away (for now!!!) ].

Hopefully this thread will calm things down a bit and we can all get back to some sort of normality (if there ever is such a thing on here )

In some minor way, I would guess that the mod policing at the moment may not be helping either.

D D

Flutterscutter

I know EXACTLY how you feel!!

Its quite disheartening to take a lot of time and trouble to do long post only to be totally ignored. Happens to me all the time. I am obviously too boring to reply to.
I dont get bullied because i wont allow myself to be, but i sometimes think that stops people replying to my posts too. Maybe "quieter" members think i'm too assertive. I dont know, but theres been a lot of subjects i would like to join in, but cant be bothered to spend time writing for it all to be washed away on someone elses glory.

anya4oz

Maybe deleting one's forum account is 'the new black'.....

Anya.

The A Team

You could never be ignored with THAT avatar
Tried to send you some karma but have to spread!

Flutterscutter

LOL.. maybe you have a point..too busy watching the bouncers to read the writing

cresta57

It's also an easy way to reinvent yourself. Asking for your account to be deleted makes all your old posts impossible to search, very handy if you've pissed a lot of posters off. It could also be seen as a final act of foot stamping.
That said, I've been reading the forum since it's start and it took me months before I dared to post. Bullies have always been here, PB arrived here as I was about to start posting :scared:
There does seem to have been more directly personal attacks just recently and a few that spring immediately to mind are the lady who lived in the North of England torn apart by the mob for stating her comfortable lifestyle could be compromised by a move across here, then the woman who quite rightly pointed out that her urine sample could be tainted by her period again ridiculed by the latest in crowd, more recently the guy who was quite obviously a high roller used to living in the far east, again attacked for asking a perfectly civil question about maids.
The forum won't die as many of you are suggesting, it's more a case of the posters you've met personally or who joined around the same time as you did and whom you can empathise easily with have simply moved on. For sure posters who have made valid contributions will be missed but they will be replaced by others who were probably to in awe of the long standing popular posters.

As my final word on the "Phoenixuk" topic. I read the original argument before it's removal, I copied and pasted it into an email to a solicitor friend as I'd also read the lies and the "deleted at a later date posts". I then read the constant months of sniping in the location and signature fields. I read and took part in the sarcastic electrical Question I also read and took part in the later apologising thread
I don't often get wound up enough to post on these type of threads but please don't expect me to forgive and forget when treasured friends are lambasted and humiliated.
If you live by the sword you die by the sword and as we all know the pen and now the keyboard is far mightier.

ABCDiamond

I don't have to imagine it, I just need to try to remember it (It was a while ago now, just after they invented the PC )

Hutch

I think a lot of the folks who've become faces on here can also unwittingly alienate people. They've been kicking around here for a couple of years and have a lot of in-jokes that often surface in other people's threads. Might be that they feel proprietorial about the forum, it might be that they're sick of reading the same thread for the 50th time, but it's worth remembering that people are at all stages in the process.

Maybe there should be two forums (just musing, don't take it too seriously) - a 'real' expats forum for people actually out there living the life, and an 'on the treadmill' forum for people on the way.

I think in a lot of cases people are just un-used to forum-life. Me, I've been online since the Internet was a military and educational tool only and I've become well used to the politics of Usenet, IRC and web forums and the character types that seem to appear on every single one of them. Bottom line is, people speak in ways they simply wouldn't do in 'real' life because they're sat in the privacy of their own home, on their own PC and know there's little chance of any come-back. And sometimes people just don't think before hitting the old submit button. Personally I'll continue to take the rough with the smooth and I hope the interesting folks I've encountered here continue to do so too.