Over 7000 views

How pathetic is it when the word ars##ole is moderated as being " vulgar ", when is the last time you heard that word used, ( 18th century, or in a Chu#ch, oops can't use that word, related to religion ), I know many people, when being called that,  it would actually be a compliment to them.
   No wonder CF isn't interested in coming back to EP, back to boring , often mis informed, out of date threads on Visa's, VN laws, and of course the " my Viet for your English " match making , the regular English teaching threads, ( you would have thought some one who thinks themselves capable of teaching, would know how to Google something? ), at least on FB the mods, ( what mods??? ), will let you say ars#@ole .
Of course Julien wouldn't know anything about "white pride ", as a Kiwi, we always get the piss, ( can I say that? ), taken out of us by Aussies, and vice versa, but maybe whites have thicker skins after all.
  Bye, Bye , see you on FB, " the  Freedom site  "

He probably didn't report it because it doesn't offend him. He is just pointing out inconsistency

Julien wrote:

the convictions of 1 individuals

The convictions of the owner 


jimbream > have you complained about these threads or reported them ? The reply is no. By the way the threads you quote are all about the complicated situation between locals and expats in VN. Might be relevant on an expat website ? The other thread is just a mix of copy and paste from any website. I don't say humour isn't welcome here, but that thread is probably less expat-life-oriented than the ones you quoted.

Anyway, have we removed a message from this thread ? the response is no. Please, we're not talking of censorship, I am just asking of avoid certain jokes which we don't consider as funny.

Thanks for your comprehension

I have indeed made reports (complaints???   are not available on EB) concerning posters and threads regarding the blatant defamation of foreigners.     In case you may have not received, I have made several objections about Expat.com forum members who have typed racist and anti western posts on various threads AND unfortunately these requests for censorship were ignored.

I am more than happy to go back and research my old files on EB and provide you(if not already deleted) relevant links and EB member tag names to support my case.

bluenz wrote:

Julien wrote:

the convictions of 1 individuals

The convictions of the owner 


jimbream > have you complained about these threads or reported them ? The reply is no. By the way the threads you quote are all about the complicated situation between locals and expats in VN. Might be relevant on an expat website ? The other thread is just a mix of copy and paste from any website. I don't say humour isn't welcome here, but that thread is probably less expat-life-oriented than the ones you quoted.

Anyway, have we removed a message from this thread ? the response is no. Please, we're not talking of censorship, I am just asking of avoid certain jokes which we don't consider as funny.

Thanks for your comprehension

"   I am just asking of avoid certain jokes which we don't consider as funny. "      especially the French ones??? .

Cultural Marxism anyone?

Yeah right , you got banned because your Muslim !!! I think like the a great majority of your fellow Muslims , you suffer from paranoia. Don't be so utterly ridiculous

And I suppose they told you in writing"You are banned because you are Muslim did they? Yeah right ! Congratulating , you have just been elevated to "Delusional Paranoia"

Nothing much actually. You should not just assume that is the reason without any concrete evidence, because that is exactly what you have done , isn't it ?

Well I don't drink and live a rural lifestyle and I haven't been banned

Of course censorship exists. It is so obvious. Who doesn't believe it doesn't exist ????

Happy8888 wrote:

Freedom of speech includes the freedom to offend people !! Does this blog advocate repression because of the convictions of 1individuals personal beliefs????  If a lot of these comments/jokes were not said 'tongue in cheek' then fair enough. There is never any intention to be spiteful or say anything with malice , every thing is said with the utmost belief that the sign of a strong character is the ability to laugh at ones self.                                                                                                   Personally , I thoroughly enjoy when someone ridicules and denigrates my country because I can see the humour in it and as a child ,I learnt that words only, can never hurt me. However , I might be a bit more mature and thick skinned than your average koala bear

Freedom of Speech???  Where did you ever get the idea that your so-called freedom of speech give you the right to offend anyone? It clearly does not. And where did you ever get the idea that your freedom of speech extends to a privately owned blog? It also does not.

If you think that the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America has any effect outside the territorial limits of the USA you're sadly mistaken. Better go back and look of the definition of the word SOVEREIGNTY in a dictionary. Every nation has its own laws and a blog like Expat-blog that operates internationally needs to comply with the laws in every nation where it is available, or it can simply be banned in that nation. So, what happens? We make rules, that our members must abide by, or they get banned. It's as simple as that.

If you think for one moment that after years of hard work to build Expat-blog into what it is today, that anyone is going to put that at risk by letting someone break rules that may also violate local laws, you're quite wrong. If you think for one moment that your so-called freedom of speech protects you from that, or even applies here you are also sadly mistaken.

Cheers,
William James Woodward, EB Experts Team

Wake up and smell the coffee Happy8888 Freedom of Speech only means that you can shout FIRE in a crowded theater only if it is actually on fire.

Get over it! Seems like you people in Vietnam have far too much idle time on your hands and that you not only think you own the place but that you own Expat-blog too.

I've been here for a good long time and I've never seen a forum that is so problematic and so filled with utter CRAP as the VN forum.

bluenz wrote:

No wonder CF isn't interested in coming back to EP, back to boring , often mis informed, out of date threads on Visa's, VN laws

And just to clear up your obvious misguided notion that Chris Fox's not coming back to EB has anything to do with moderation, despite the conflicts that he has had with moderators and with Julien in the past, I've actually had quite a bit of personal contact with Chris.

Chris isn't interested in coming back here because of the organized conspiracy mounted against him by certain members of the VN forum (who shall remain namless - mostly because everybody already knows who they are) who constantly got him banned.

So, instead of just namedropping, please at least get the facts straight. It would be appreciated.

Also, the mere fact that a topic thread has had a large number of viewings is absolutely no indicator that nobody objects to it's content, just that they've seen it. Obviously any member has no idea of just how many times a particular topic thread or individual reply to it gets reported by other members, and that really is the bottom line in terms of making any evaluation whether it was objectionable or not.

Happy8888 wrote:

Here here.Moderators please take notice of what these famous learned people say

To put the comments of those famous 'learned' people into their proper context, these individuals were not necessarily ENLIGHTENED, nor did many of them have to deal with modern-day law in many countries that make some such jokes a criminal offense. Just try telling some of those jokes in the workplace in many countries and see how soon you get called on the carpet to explain why your continued employment with the company would be beneficial, or worse yet why your employer shouldn't involve the authorities.

Perhaps you should actually read the dictionary definition of the word too...

joke (AMUSING)    /dZ@Uk/  /dZoUk/ noun [C]
something, such as an amusing story or trick, that is said or done in order to make people laugh.

I don't see any reference to the word OFFEND in there anywhere, nor do I think that what might make you laugh would necessarily make others laugh.

1. Some people are sensitive others are touchy. 
2. Opinions are just opinions not facts.
3. Sharing our experiences in Vietnam are meant to help others.
4. A lot of my posts are laced with humor.
5. I enjoy reading about the pain and joy of living here.
6. If I am unhappy with something I leave or give it away.

Thank You Mr.Woodward. 

I refer to it as 'trespassing'; knowing where I end..and where another self begins.
Excellent point also about leaving your 'laws' in your own country of origin.

Tutenkamen wrote:

Thank You Mr.Woodward. 

I refer to it as 'trespassing'; knowing where I end..and where another self begins.
Excellent point also about leaving your 'laws' in your own country of origin.

I also agree with Mr. Woodward, we need to abide by the wishes of our host, be it a country or private ownership.

wjwoodward wrote:

Chris isn't interested in coming back here because of the organized conspiracy mounted against him by certain members of the VN forum (who shall remain namless - mostly because everybody already knows who they are) who constantly got him banned.

Oh please, Chris got himself banned with his constant and deliberate hate filled posts. He was not capable of responding to a mundane topic like "Where to buy shoes" without spewing his hate filled political ideology. He would intentionally and purposedly antagonize members so they would make a personal attack on him just so he could play "victim." Furthermore, EB allowed, yes allowed, him to spew his hate and offend more people than some joke thread could ever do.

People like Chris do have a place in society though. They should be held up as the example of what people should strive not to be.

Parmyd wrote:

Oh please, Chris got himself banned with his constant and deliberate hate filled posts. He was not capable of responding to a mundane topic like "Where to buy shoes" without spewing his hate filled political ideology. He would intentionally and purposedly antagonize members so they would make a personal attack on him just so he could play "victim." Furthermore, EB allowed, yes allowed, him to spew his hate and offend more people than some joke thread could ever do.

People like Chris do have a place in society though. They should be held up as the example of what people should strive not to be.

Well, that's a rather odd observation given the numerous and prolonged personal conversations that I had with Chris and having read many of the so-called objectionable postings that were the object of  a campaign of numerous (and obiously well orchestrated) reports. I hardly think one would need to think too hard to come up with a list of names, it would be more like the old movie plot "round up the usual suspects", an exercise in the obvious.

While I would be the very last person to say that Chris didn't have his faults and didn't engage in some disputes here I for one tend to see there is a strong thread of truth in what he related to me in several of our communications. It was quite clear that he obviously stepped on the toes of some of the members of the VN Forum who have been equally, if not more problematic than he was, members who seem even now to think that they're running the show over there. Given that it was Chris himself who told me why he wasn't interested in the VN Forum anymore I can only reiterate that it had much more to do with that than it did with any conflicts he may have had with anybody involved in the administration of Expat-blog, regardless of what you personally may think. You are of course, entitled to your own opinion.

And since the original thrust of this topic thread was the jokes being posted to the forum, let's try and keep from drifting too far afield here. It didn't start out to be a discussion about Chris Fox or any other individual member, but whether or not certain kinds of jokes are or aren't acceptable; and I think that if some of the members of this forum were to use common sense they'd clearly see that many of the jokes clearly were not. If bluenz doesn't agree with the rules that have been established by Expat-blog and doesn't like the moderation to the extent that he wishes to leave and go over to FB or "The Freedom Site" as he refers to it, then more power to him, that's his right. Enough said!

Cheers,
William James Woodward, EB Experts Team

Chris Fox speaks.  Blue and WJW have it right.  When I first came on here there was a clique of a few people led by a compulsive braggart who performed miniscule acts of charity and then devoted dozens of times as much effort boasting about them and presenting himself as the VN forum's self-appointed leader.  He had a following of consistently nasty people who posted heavily and set a generally ugly tone here.  I read the beads of this little showboat and called him on his phoniness, thereby earning the enmity of his little clique of VKs and a few rednecks.  What followed is exactly as WJW said, they reported every post I did (however innocuous) , the moderators are far too lazy to check if they were actually offensive, and when the report count crossed some threshold they banned me.

I came back a few times, but nowhere near as many times as some of you think; while lurking I've seen several "Chris Foxes" banned, people who weren't me.  Hence this moniker.

My hate-filled posts?  Point one out.  Find anything I ever wrote uglier than anything coming from the clique member who said he was coming at me with a gun, or the pompous online pamphlet-hawker who urged the people of VN to overthrow their government. 

This is my first post in many months, not likely to have a sequel. I do have a lurker account but I never post and haven't even read this blog in months.  Because bluenz is right; the topics are repetitive and the moderators will not allow a real discussion to get far.  Posts are deleted, topics are closed, only light banter is tolerated and I'm not really interested in reading about relationship issues or questions about where to get an iPhone fixed (probably down the street.  Got eyes?).

This is a good place to meet people, it's been far and away my best resource for meeting friends, but as a place for discussion it's one of the very worst I've seen in 18 years on online forums. 

We who live abroad have real issues to discuss, real challenges with language, culture, legal issues.  Those discussions must needs include mention of unpleasant realities: thieving vendors, disgusting practices, grasping women, rude and inconsiderate people, suicidal driving.  Mention of such "negative" aspects of life gets savagely ugly responses and soon one of the moderators steps in with something about "offensive generalizations" and starts hacking away.  I hope they aren't getting paid.

Fine with me.  I'll lurk and exchange private mail but I'm really not interested in another hundred 'hi I just arrived in D1, let's get drunk" threads followed by a dozen empty welcomes.

Thanks to wjwoodward for the hed zup on this thread.

Oh, and I don't think racist jokes are funny.

@bluenz

The reason derogatory names aimed at white people in your country and mine get less outrage than the same directed at racial and other minorities ... don't tell me you actually need this explained to you.  You can't be serious. 

In America the n-word referring to black people has direct and unbroken ancestry to a legacy of slavery, terror, murder, discrimination.  It is nothing less than an extension of the same sentiment that had men yanked from their homes in the middle of the night, their fingers and testicles cut off, and hung by the neck from trees.

What comparable legacy does "honky" evoke?  Whites in these societies are comfortably in the majority.

I'm not proud to be white.  Neither am I ashamed.  Nor proud nor ashamed to be gay.  All these are characteristics which in sane civil society would be as neutral as brown versus blond hair.

I like a good joke and yes some racist jokes have made me snicker.  Their kids would be too lazy to steal. 

But not here.  And not just because of the rule (which is routinely ignored when the offender has the right status) but because of the heterogeneity of the membership.

I am a white, Anglo-Saxon, Protestand male (WASP) and I'm certainly not proud of that anymore. If there has ever been a group that has engaged in a bigger PITY PARTY than us WASPS I sure haven't seen one in my 65 years on this earth. Civilized countries everywhere have taken great strides to try and make up for many of the atrocities that we whites have perpetrated on numerous aboriginal, ethnic and religious groups. Why, because we whites have always been in the "comfortable majority" who had everything, simply because we took it by force from those who were weaker. Now we don't like having to somehow make up for that??? What's that?

Racist jokes, gay jokes, blonde jokes, religious based jokes none of these have a place in any truly "enlightened" society. I'm beginning to firmly believe that Darwin was absolutely correct when he made his statements regarding the Theory of Evolution, but that he somehow forgot that it also can function in reverse gear... some people around this planet are definitely heading back to their roots among the primates.

Just remember the term "White Pride" is just one step away from "White Supremacy", that was tried a few times before... Remember Adolph Hitler and the "master race", or the ANP and George Lincoln Rockwell or the Ku Klux Klan, or the Apartheid movement. Lately we see that same kind of hate spewn against religious groups too. The sick jokes and racist statements about members of the Islamic faith, as if THEY WERE ALL responsible for 9/11, which in itself is the biggest joke of all.

So the next time you think to publicly state something that is, in itself, intended for nothing less than to insult, injure, hurt, ridicule or humiliate anyone, be he/she red, blue, green, black, white or any other color, gender, lifestyle choice or religion, don't be surprised if there's somebody just waiting to stomp you back down into your rightful place. And I promise to be one of them, until my dying breath, here on EB or anywhere else. I haven't spent my entire adult life raising 5 happy and well balanced and unprejudiced children to have all that I've taught them to be good and sacred, thrown out the window by bigots who think that they are somehow better than anyone else, because they clearly ARE NOT.

Hello everyone,

I think everything has been said here, we have to close this topic as it is not really useful and constructive to members who want to live in Vietnam.

This topic is now closed.

Thank you,
Have a nice day,
Christine
Expat.com team