Good-bye to all

Forums attract many people, that including spammers, various trypes of con men and a lot of sex pests.
Contact details are kept away from the forum to protect members and, in the odd case, protect other members from members who claim to be what they are not, commonly for sexual reasons.
I'm sure if you used the 'contact us' link at the bottom of any page your account will be removed, but it would be better if you didn't post dangerously inaccurate opinion in the course of your flounce.

Fred, You just made my point.  To protect ONE we will take away the rights of ALL.

Those are the views of Communists and Socialists.

By-the-way, there is nothing in the "Code of Conduct" that states NOT to post such information.

GaryFunk wrote:

By-the-way, there is nothing in the "Code of Conduct" that states NOT to post such information.

https://www.expat.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=190521

> Avoid posting personal details, such as your phone number, email address or Skype contact, on a public forum. The Expat.com team will remove these details for your safety.

Perhaps it would be a good idea to read the code before making such a claim as you could end up looking silly.

AVOID.  It's clear you don't know the meaning of the word.

Youi should AVOID having an accident. Doesn't mean you can't.

Fred, again, I'm stating facts, There is noting this board can do to protect me. This is one small forum out of millions. Removing it from does not remove it from public information.

GaryFunk wrote:

AVOID.  It's clear you don't know the meaning of the word.

Youi should AVOID having an accident. Doesn't mean you can't.

.

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/defin … lish/avoid

1Keep away from or stop oneself from doing (something):
avoid excessive exposure to the sun
Gerard avoided meeting his eye

If I were you I'd avoid poor definitions as this will allow to to avoid looking silly.

Fred, you and I are never going to agree.  You can call me silly all you want. It doesn't bother me.

Avoid does not mean it's forbidden.  But that's beside the point. I've had posts edited when I posted no such information. And I've had posts edited by a moderator only to have that same moderator make a post even more egregious.

Don't worry, Fred, I'm sure Julian will come to your rescue.

Good riddance! LOL. If your gonna leave then leave. Why start a thread about it Are you really that special? Or perhaps you just bitter that the Internet doesn't bend to your demands?

I have to say that I agree with both sides on certain points.


To Gary: you can't control what you don't create. Better you create your own forum/website and do what ever you want with it.

At the same time, you have said the thing which me (and maybe others) feel but didn't say: my posts are often being edited and deleted without make me feel valid to do so.

Few posts were deleted perhaps to avoid argument. But it may not the right way since argument and unpleasant feelings still happen.

I did have post to promote my business/service, and it was deleted because having "commercial purpose". I can say that all the posts of people offer to teach Vietnamese, house maid, ... do have commercial purpose.

However, I am not here to blame expat.com, I need to be thankful of it, since I was given a free platform/forum to connect with people and I've met good people from this forum.


And anyway, expat.com is not here to please everybody and it has its right to do whatever it wants.

However, there is room for improvement on the aspect of posts being deleted/edited.

Adverts are free in the 'jobs' and 'classifieds' sections, but commercial ads or private ads with private contact details generally get deleted or edited if they get posted on the open forums.
There are a surprising number of ads posted, enough to make the point of the forum, mutual help, get lost in the mess.
That and a lot are scams of vatious types.

As for contact details, imagine the number of sex pests that try to contact expat ladies (and men for gay sex) then ask again why contact details aren't allowed.
All the prostitution threads go very quickly, as do the marriage offer threads.
After that bunch comes the scammers. That lot always try to get hold of contact details or share theirs as much as possible.

Most posters never see such as these because they get banned very quickly, but lots are out there.
I've lost count of the number I've removed this month, and every month before it.
The point being, the forum is either kept clean or allowed to be filled up with stuff that would make it useless.

When used properly this forum is extremely helpful for expats.
People here helped me when I was green and I try to help them now.
Seemed fair and reasonable, as does trying to help the forum stay clean

Are we not allowed to place personal information (email, tel #) on our profile page?  I know this is OK on other forums.  By doing so we relieve the moderators of responsibility. 

Also it is fairly easy for anyone, whether they are selling something or seeking a product, to put a sentence at the end of their message that says something like "Please contact me by PM."

I do think the moderators are a little too quick to push things to the classifieds.  I have said this before but I see a difference between posts that want to sell vs. those that want to buy.  The latter are soliciting a range of opinions and sources.  They may be looking for advice on the best brand or model of a product and not only a location to buy.  Often the poster simply needs to be directed to a certain part of town or street where he can find the requested items.  Also in the expat situation, the potential seller would be highly unlikely to be perusing the Expat.com classifieds.

I recall one instance where the poster was looking for additional hours for their maid and got pushed to the classifieds.  I saw this not as a commercial offer but as a kindness to the maid, who certainly would not be posting on the classifieds, as well as providing a friendly offer of a proven good employee to other expats.  Of course solicitation is basically annoying but we have plenty of real estate agents for that.

Another area I question the purpose of is the contacts page.  I think most of the contact requests that I have are from people who think this site operates like Facebook.  I believe they are well intentioned as my profile clearly states that I am married, but my page filled up quickly before I figured out how to turn it off.

Another area I question the purpose of is the contacts page.  I think most of the contact requests that I have are from people who think this site operates like Facebook.  I believe they are well intentioned as my profile clearly states that I am married, but my page filled up quickly before I figured out how to turn it off.

There goes the point.
Imagine that, many with fowl intent, all as posts, and that's a lot of what goes.
We get men looking for women (including paid services), women looking for men (likely gold diggers), men looking for men, men and women looking for three in a bed and one woman looking for female friends only who turned out to be a man.
We had one really odd advert where a woman was looking for a second wife for her husband, but that was unlikely to be reality.
The illegal drugs adverts go as well, as do the piles of fake degree rubbish (loads of them).

Most of the ads that go are commercial, but many are worded to look private, that including a good few about maids.
Most of the real private ads without contact details are left on with nothing more than a post suggesting they pop an ad in 'jobs' or 'classifieds'.

I know some posters are unsure why forum policy is so strict, but you guys rarely see the stuff that gets dumped because it usually goes quickly.

So why have the contacts page at all?  I see no purpose for it.

I haven't turned mine off, but mostly because I haven't got to it yet.
Not my idea and I have no clue what it's for.