Balanced Forum

[Dantheman]

[quote user="Cat"]

A post from a new user has been removed, in accordance with the code of conduct...

The forum is an open discussion board for Francophiles. Please be aware that it is a message board which from time to time is visited by hoaxers and those not necessarily interested in discussing France and French lifestyle. If you encounter users who you feel are abusing the message boards, please do not respond to them. These users are only encouraged when their messages provoke a response, so the best thing you can do is ignore them. Click on the 'Report' link on their message and Forum Admin or a moderator will deal with the complaint.

[/quote]

It was my post you removed.  My sincere apologies if it offended or broke the rules, that was not my intention.  By way of explanation I have PM one of the moderators. 

 

DJ

[Benjamin]

[quote user="Deby"]

  LF want to paint a lovely view of perfect life in France.  It's just that as a member of the public I happen to care that someone might throw a bit of caution to the wind, sell up their house, move their kids to a foreign country all in the name of selling magazines.

[/quote]

Did you see how that nasty Archant crowd suppressed all that negative publicity concerning health care issues for ex-pats in France.  [;-)]

[Benjamin]

Or for that matter go and read what's being posted this afternoon on the thread entitled Re: Cost of Living for families in France.  [6]

That Archant lot will certainly pull that one.

[Dick Smith]

Blimey, Benjamin! You working on getting a Badge?

[Benjamin]

Can't pull a fast one with you watching Dick.  [:D]

[trees 2]

[quote user="Deby"]

This Forum is losing its way.  We can only say good things about companies/people but we cannot  say not so good things!!! Oh please be sensible, by saying someone is not good or not recommended is not naming and shaming.

The Forum needs to have a balanced view. Otherwise everything is Disneyland and not real life.  People get shot down for offering this here. The Forum should offer balanced opinions.

What do others think?

Deby

[/quote]

I think you run the risk of having this thread deleted by a mod for MENTIONING this, and you also risk being banned for QUESTIONING it[:(]

[Russethouse]

I think there are two issues:

The first concerns anyone who runs a forum that is readily accessed by the public: they have to do their best to protect themselves against being involved in cases of libel etc, therefore the no naming and shaming rules exists and will continue to do so, as far as I am aware. Whether an accusation is true or not is hardly the point, whether Archant want to start getting embroiled in law suits, is. There is no pretence here, it is perfectly clear that this forum is provided by a commercial organisation. Other forum owners may have different priorities, but, I suggest they are in the minority.

The other issue is the tone of the contributors. From my perspective I think it is fairly balanced, in fact those who arrive here wearing rose tinted glasses are soon stripped of any illusion they may have about France

[Christine Animal]

I have no problems with this forum, Monika seems to be happy with it.  If you don't like the food in a certain restaurant, you don't keep going there and moaning about it, you find another one which suits you better.   [:)]

 

[woolybananasbrother]

So, after a couple of years, those living here are stripped down to their rose coloured fluffy bits, RH, is that it?

Well, the last few months had certainly seen a major change of tone I must say, from bright aggressive pink to a sort of browny grey. And it is a pity because it means that people's dreams have gone up in smoke. Which means unpleasantness and sometimes hardship all round. Sadly too, there seems to be an 'I told you so' brigade out there who are only too keen to use their electric hedge trimmers to remove the remaining fluffy bits. They are the ones whom I should like to hold upside down in a barrel of pig's whatsit for being such killjoys. Nobody deserves too much reality thrown at them at any one time.

Ironically, just being able to dream might increase Archant's magazine sales.

Is the forum balanced? No, of course it isnt because balance is subjective and is made up of the accumulated opinions experience and feelings of the mods, as well as their prejudices.

[Quillan]

Are you saying the people here are looking at France with pink tinted glass's or are you saying we are not?

[woolybananasbrother]

Many are still quietly optimistic Quillan, yes.  Basically those who have been able to adapt and accommodate themselves to life here. It is similar to any expatriate situation anywhere really. As I think you know from past lives.

The totally fluffy brigade seem however to be disappearing for the moment because, one suspects, of the economic climate and health cover issues.

But recently there too seems to have been a lot of people who have become disillisioned and are hurting and there are a small number of people who seem to rub their noses in it. Which is a pity as I said before.

[raindog]

Narbonne 13 - Toulon 31

[Quillan]

[quote user="woolybananasbrother"]

Many are still quietly optimistic Quillan, yes.  Basically those who have been able to adapt and accommodate themselves to life here. It is similar to any expatriate situation anywhere really. As I think you know from past lives.

The totally fluffy brigade seem however to be disappearing for the moment because, one suspects, of the economic climate and health cover issues.

But recently there too seems to have been a lot of people who have become disillisioned and are hurting and there are a small number of people who seem to rub their noses in it. Which is a pity as I said before.

[/quote]

I take your point but to be fair I personally have not noticed anyone rubbing people’s noses in anything or perhaps they have done in such a way that I never saw it. There are some professional people out there who are very articulate in their writing and you can almost hear them laugh as they type and I openly admit it goes over my head but then if that is how they get their kicks then it’s a bit sad. I personally think that this is a very nasty way to act but it takes all sorts to make a world, we all have to try and get along and in the end people start to understand and see them for what they really are.

There are many, as you say, who are hurting, mainly from a financial point and are often living off of a UK based fix income which they have seen reduced effectively by 17 to 20%. In a way I pity them but normally I would not say that as it sounds condescending and is probably the last thing they want to hear.

There are those that look through incredibly bright rose tinted glasses and are thinking about moving to France. Some people respond feeling they are 'putting them right' although I don't think there is any element of gloating or nastiness intended. The problem is people don't like it when their dream is destroyed but then do you think it right to say nothing and let them spend (possibly) their life savings on something that you know won't work for them? Don't you also sometimes read a question and think "are they mad"? It's a tough call at times and difficult to know what to do for the best. I am sure there have been times when you to have wished somebody had told you before you tried something and it all went wrong.

You mentioned the moderators in your previous post. We are often put in very difficult positions. Of course we know about a certain forum where posts from here (and another French forum with a nickname ending in Farce) are often discussed and both this forum (plus the other one) and it's members are frequently vilified and described en mass as "morons". I am sure some of our members here would be disgusted (to say the least) if they saw some of the posts there.

We see racist posts there and note that whilst those members that post on both forums jump up and down when somebody makes a joke demanding they be 'hung, draw and quartered' yet when a blatant racist comment is made there say nothing. It borders on being two faced or perhaps it is. We see harmless members who do excellent charity work in France rubbished on this other forum and yet we say nothing here. We have never discussed that forum in public here in the past neither as did we with its predecessor which closed down because of certain peoples behaviour (a problem when you have an unmoderated forum). In fact we know quite a lot about some things that have gone on in the past but deem it unprofessional to discuss it in public (some we are banned by Archant from discussing) which at times is particularly difficult when what we read is quite different from what we know to be true. This means we end up being ripped apart by members for something we know is not correct but can do little about.

Before we became moderators we were just ordinary members who were later asked if we wanted to be moderators because of some serious problems with the forum about 5 years ago which nearly led to it closing down. It was a choice as far as I was concerned, see the forum close or help protect it and its members so it could carry on. I have learnt a lot from the forum, from people that are still here and from those that have moved on for which I will always be indebted. As many know we receive nothing other than a free magazine for our work, we don't get any uniform be it physical or cyber and we can't please everyone all of the time. We can't always be here although we try to have somebody around most of the time. Are we strict, no we are not, as current examples just look at the 'English' thread where after mentioning about banned words people are playing around to see what they can get away with and likewise we have not pulled this thread although some posters have 'dared' us to several times.

In the end this is a forum about France, very few of us are professional writers or even typists and make mistakes but that is not important. What is important is 'being there' for people who have questions, problems etc and to help them out to the best of ones ability and hope that others will do the same when you have a problem or whatever. What it's not about is trying to 'get one over' somebody because their English is not up to scratch or to make nasty comments just because you disagree with something somebody has said and then to go and hide away somewhere else and ridicule them further.

Oh and by the way in response to the original post I personally am a bad typist and often miss characters so I use a web based spell checker. The trouble is that it is a US product and often puts hyphens in when it shouldn’t likewise it often spells words differently like a ‘z’ in apologize instead of an ‘s’. If people find it annoying I apologise but perhaps they could point me to a UK version as I don’t want to spend time copy and pasting it in to word and back again. Life is too short.

[mint]

Nice post, Q.  Considered, balanced and kindly put (as I would expect from you!).  And no, I'm not trying to curry favour if you are one of the forum's cynics and reading this.  I feel it's only right that the mods get the occasional bouquet as well as the more frequent brickbats.

[lorna]

Seconded.  I must be a real softy as it brought tears to my eyes. Seriously. [:)]

[Benjamin]

Part of Quillan's posting -

In the end this is a forum about France, very few of us are

professional writers or even typists and make mistakes but that is not

important. What is important is 'being there' for people who have

questions, problems etc and to help them out to the best of ones

ability and hope that others will do the same when you have a problem

or whatever.

Says it all for me.

[Dick Smith]

As someone who has been thoroughly insulted by Quillan in the past, in the most appalling terms, I humbly beg to differ...

And Q might like to look at this site:

http://www.buzzin.net/english/apost.htm

[Christine Animal]

Quillan's post seemed excellent, with typos, errors and all, like any human being.

 

[Dick Smith]

Ah well...

[Quillan]

Very true Dick and that was a long time ago and the way you behaved then is just the same as now. I will not apologise because I told the truth something at the time you failed to do although unlike you I see absolutely no reason to bring the whole subject up again. In fact I had forgotten all about it till you brought it up.

I don't hide behind an exclusive forum that is not available to the general public and insult just about everyone in this forum and another French forum unlike yourself. It took you 12 minutes to make a post there called "Pass the sick bucket Alice" (whoever Alice is, I have no idea) with a direct link to my post and those after it (what on earth have Sweat 17 and Lorna ever done to you) and also gave a link in your post here to a website that explains how to use an apostrophe, childish or what? I shall leave our members to make their own mind up on that one. I also notice that you were quick (not) to jump on the person who made an extremely racist and rude comment about Belgians (that's a clue for you by the way) yet jumped up and down because somebody told an Irish joke here. Sadly I see some of your friends can't even spot a such a racist comment even when its in their face. Next I guess we will be told it was a joke. I think I will let others judge your motives for themselves.

And yes I am a member there and yes I read the posts and yes I have copied them in case I need them in the future and yes I expect that when you find out who I am you will ban me even though I have never made a post there so can never have done anything wrong. If you want to ban me there just because you don't like me then it just adds to my argument that you support censorship and unfair moderation something of which you and your friends are so keen to whinge about here. I am afraid you can't have your cake and eat it.

Personally I have no intention of answering your comments any further as to do so is a total waste of time and effort and is also disruptive to this forum. I do expect you however to post again as you always have a way of having the last word even though by your standards we are to intellectually challenged and won't understand what on earth you are going on about.

Although directed at you I shall take one of your own forum members advice and 'give it a rest', I suggest you do the same before you dig a hole you can't get out of.

[Dick Smith]

See, the problem is, I've never been too worried by a bit of bullying...

I'm glad you've copied the posts - what are you planning to do with them?

[lorna]

Dick, on another thread, you have complained about being ridiculed for being a cultured, educated and intelligent person. And yet, I learn from Q's post that you have chosen to ridicule us - on another forum - for sympathising/empathising with a forum member here. Is this the act of a cultured, educated and intelligent person?

Apologies for any errors in spelling, grammar or the use of commas or quotation marks.

[Dick Smith]

Nah.

Comments only where deserved...

[woolybananasbrother]

Quillan, just a thought. The 'other forum' you refer to is in fact open to any member of the general public who might wish to register, apart from one chap who was banned. Why don't you join in and have some fun instead of larking (sic)?

[Monika]

I would like to join in the fun too, what's this other forum Quillan and Woolybanana!