alittlebitfrench Posted September 13, 2015 Share Posted September 13, 2015 This site/forum (and others) was so alive in the mid 2003-2012 period.What happened ? I have read with so much interest the old posts. Where has everyone gone ? Back home ? Still in France ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YCCMB Posted September 13, 2015 Share Posted September 13, 2015 Facebook Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Théière Posted September 13, 2015 Share Posted September 13, 2015 [quote user="You can call me Betty"]Facebook[/quote]Really? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alittlebitfrench Posted September 13, 2015 Author Share Posted September 13, 2015 Facebook ???? Nooooo methinks not.What other forces are at work here ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NickP Posted September 13, 2015 Share Posted September 13, 2015 French forums are old hat now, you don't need to speak French as Google translate is your friend. You can get wonderful British food delivered to France. Also instead of buying all those cheap Chinese tools sold by French DIY stores, you can get really good things delivered by Screwfix.. If you know how; you can get UK TV all the time, no need to watch the stuck in the last century French programs. Plus if you live in the right part of the country there are fish and chip vans, yum yum. As has been said; Facebook Whatsapp; Twitter are all available and it's all in English. so French forums are really just a social chat thing now, although I believe that French people if they can speak English, come to the forums to do searches to find out how to do projects properly as described by good British builders.[:D][:D] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSKS Posted September 13, 2015 Share Posted September 13, 2015 You naughty, provokey man, you!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoddy Posted September 13, 2015 Share Posted September 13, 2015 Whoops - sorry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YCCMB Posted September 13, 2015 Share Posted September 13, 2015 Well, I'm going to beg to differ on the Facebook thing. Once upon a time, I (and a reasonably large number of people with whom I'm still in touch - on Facebook, entre autres) spent heaps of time on forums. Why, it is to my eternal (dis) credit that, on another forum of which you have recently spoken, I sadly featured as one of the top five posters by volume. Proof that quality is indeed better than quantity, before anyone else says so. I now spend little time on any forum, and my membership of them now numbers 1. This one, in fact. One of the joys of Facebook is that one has control of the people one interacts with, and there's almost no obligation to engage with people whose views you dislike. And nobody telling you that if you disagree with them you should "go home" or " just not read the thread".Facebook is awash with groups about many things France-related, and seems to work more satisfactorily, in many ways, than forums.Its software is much more user-friendly ?Posting photos and links is a doddle, and is encouragedYou don't have to categorise your posts by topicAnd other things.Anyway...I can vouch for the fact that a lot of people whom I have met on forums about France, and who no longer post on such forums, are present and active on Facebook. So, you may not want to accept my statement, but in my albeit limited experience, it appears to have some basis in fact. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NickP Posted September 13, 2015 Share Posted September 13, 2015 [quote user="You can call me Betty"] Well, I'm going to beg to differ on the Facebook thing. .[/quote]+1 Betty [B] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suein56 Posted September 13, 2015 Share Posted September 13, 2015 [quote user="NickP"][quote user="You can call me Betty"] Well, I'm going to beg to differ on the Facebook thing. .[/quote]+1 Betty [B][/quote]Apparently so; according to my 42 year old daughter, who seems to know about such things.Sue Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idun Posted September 13, 2015 Share Posted September 13, 2015 I know that I have been told that some former posters from here are on face book. Some I miss.I am not on facebook, although one of my email accounts says I have lots of people asking about me or some such 'thing' on facebook. My husband joined it and has just about driven me around the bend with the xxxxxxx thing. This board is quiet these days, pity really. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YCCMB Posted September 13, 2015 Share Posted September 13, 2015 Without trying hard at all, I can name a good dozen or more formerly very prolific posters on here who I know and have contact with on Facebook. Extending that to other forums, such as the one about which there seems to be a lot of hooha on another thread, I can bump that number up into probably somewhere in the 50's. Like it or loathe it, that's what has largely taken over from forums, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Théière Posted September 14, 2015 Share Posted September 14, 2015 [quote user="You can call me Betty"]Without trying hard at all, I can name a good dozen or more formerly very prolific posters on here who I know and have contact with on Facebook. Extending that to other forums, such as the one about which there seems to be a lot of hooha on another thread, I can bump that number up into probably somewhere in the 50's. Like it or loathe it, that's what has largely taken over from forums,[/quote]Well you can't ask the question if you are part of the problem, (Farcebook)I left a forum recently after it became crystal clear that there was a backroom conversation going on between a Mod and a poster(s) PM, supposed to be private message not Public message as it is on FEI know this for certain by laying several traps as I suspected it and it got confirmed by a PM I sent having a section cut and pasted to a thread but NOT by the person it was sent to. Further confirmed by another poster who admitted they had been discussing it with a Mod (that conversation was taken down pretty damn quick.So now do we have backroom chats on farcebook to contend with?Life is too short for this bullsh1t Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woolybanana Posted September 14, 2015 Share Posted September 14, 2015 No Teapot, I don't think so. But there are many former French forumites who do chat on Facebook, rather as they did here, some no longer resident in France. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alittlebitfrench Posted September 14, 2015 Author Share Posted September 14, 2015 I am not a facebook person so I don't really see how it would work in the same way as a forum. How do you ask a renovation type question.I belong to two other 'French' forums which are there basically to help people. Some of whom are quite desperate. There are only few people answering questions but they all know France and there stuff and seem very nice people. I like to help if I can.That leaves these types of forums (the other one included) which operate differently. They are very cliquey places for newcommers to be fair which I suspect scares people off from joining. Maybe not here but there is a secret network behind the scenes. I tried in most cases to avoid using the PM system as you feel like you are being groomed and sucked into a secret network. Yuk.Having just read Théiére post (which kinda confirms my suspicions) I kinda feel better for all the effort I have put in LOL. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YCCMB Posted September 14, 2015 Share Posted September 14, 2015 I can honestly say that I'm blissfully unaware of any "back room chats" on Facebook. Sure, you have the option to interact privately, but it seems most often to be used in the spirit for which it was intended: things like exchanging very personal info and data. But, as I said earlier, part of its beauty is that you start by being able to choose exactly who you interact with. This means that, unlike forums, you simply don't have the problem of being drawn into petty (or sometimes not so petty) arguments about topics on which you may fundamentally disagree.I think that, with the possible exception of questions regarding legislation, there are few questions that haven't been asked hundreds of times before, and usually by folk who are too lazy to do a search. It's happened to me many times that I've pointed someone in the right direction, only to receive a response asking me to do more work on the OP's behalf. One guy even replied asking me if I could point him to suppliers in his area for a product "because I'm too busy to find them", with no thought that I, too, might have better things to occupy my time. Or there's the classic "can you provide a translation?" usually with a very pointed suggestion that without that, the information is worthless, much like my time in doing the translation...I guess for many of us who have been around forums for so long, the novelty of the above wore off long ago, and it's a relief to exchange chat with like minded friends elsewhere. I also think that for quite a long time pre-Facebook, moderators and forum owners were secretly longing for the "established" members to disappear...because those members found relief from the routine of answering the same old questions by engaging in banter and off-topic chat. Then came the in-fighting, accusations of being a clique, blah, blah.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chancer Posted September 14, 2015 Share Posted September 14, 2015 I have a similar story, I need to reflect on how best to communicate it without breaking any gentlemens agreement or getting banned [:D]And in that regard you can help me ALBF, I could never see what it was you did to get banned so frequently, sure you brought out the very worst in other members but it was they who were impolite or wrote things that may have warranted sanctions, so what was it that you did? Were you even told? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Théière Posted September 14, 2015 Share Posted September 14, 2015 Yes Betty I understand you but I also like others input on a situation, whilst I may not agree, well initially I may well see the others point later on and vice versa. Your comments on various have made me re think the opinion I have taken. It's interaction. On some US forums to go even mildly away from what the mass think is treated as heresy and likely to get you banned. What a sterile narrow minded lot we could become. I too have quite a lot of time answering pool enquiries, not normally an issue as i get help from others on things I don't know but some people are just takers they don't bring anything to the party.I see newbies turn up ask one question and are never heard from again, no wonder others are slow to respond these days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alittlebitfrench Posted September 14, 2015 Author Share Posted September 14, 2015 Chancer, I have no idea. Everything I say about me is true. I have not made anything up, I don't pretend to be anything more than what I am. I was sent to Paris to work by the company I worked for 20 odd years ago and have not really been home since. Worked in the rat race until I had a heart attack. Decided to change life and renovate a farmhouse....like you do. Did that for six years, and now have finished another house where I live now. Spent half my time in France living in a city and half my time in rural world. I am going to do one last renovation and that will be a flat in Paris. I will burn all my tools and do something else.Like I said on the other thread, before joining a forum two years ago I really had no idea of the extent of the British expat community in France. Really no idea. Never heard of places like Eymet, or tescos shopping vans, fish and chips and all that. I knew it happened in Spain but not in France. So I did actually find in quite interesting and funny. Maybe people think I am a troll because I am so nieve. The 'big guns' on a forum like to think they are right about everything and OK I do like taking them down a peg or two when given the opportunity because in most cases they are just spouting nonsense. They think their own sad little 'expat world' is France. They get upset because they can't debate it, throw their toys out the pram and next minute I am banned. Yawn.One of these big guns actually thinks I am on some kind of Portugal forum or something. These big guns are suffering from paranoia. Just wanted to say, thanks for always sticking up for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YCCMB Posted September 14, 2015 Share Posted September 14, 2015 I guess the original question wasn't really about where people have gone and what has changed, more an adjunct to the other post about another forum. Whilst I really don't want to get drawn into discussing that place behind its back, so to speak, all I can say is that I managed a good 10 years there being quite forthright and argumentative without once being banned. Maybe times have changed, I dunno.I left because I was bored rigid. And to allow room for the expansion of at least one giant male ego. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Théière Posted September 14, 2015 Share Posted September 14, 2015 [quote user="You can call me Betty"]I guess the original question wasn't really about where people have gone and what has changed, more an adjunct to the other post about another forum. Whilst I really don't want to get drawn into discussing that place behind its back, so to speak, all I can say is that I managed a good 10 years there being quite forthright and argumentative without once being banned. Maybe times have changed, I dunno.I left because I was bored rigid. And to allow room for the expansion of at least one giant male ego.[/quote]Ditto Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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