English Forum Switzerland - View Single Post

nina_guha · #16 09.05.2006, 17:01

Guys!

I don’t believe Britta was every chased out of the Expat-In-Zurich group. She made a conscious decision not to post her events as messages after moans and complaints from some members. If I’m not wrong, a yahoo group was created specially for this purpose and is running successfully now – or was that Sarah and not Britta?

This does not mean she (or others) are not allowed to post events. Many members still post events, advertisements etc. Moderators seldom say adverts/events are not allowed. How can a moderator stop members from complaining? By encouraging democracy and freedom of expression, such complaints should be allowed. If everyone agreed to everyone else, how boring would that be?

People always moan and complain – it’s a process of letting out steam. Public Forums are often a safe place to do so because you do not meet people face to face. With a group size of 1040+, there are bound to be arguments, conflict and disagreements. Politics, Religion and taboo topics are always volatile material. If English Forum every reached a 1000+ member state, it would probably see a fair amount of conflict and similar moaning too.

Expats in Zurich has become a very active debating forum. I don’t approve of name-calling myself but if you follow the discussion thread, you might realise that it is often a case of two people (of totally contradictory views) clashing against each other. Here are some figures - in case you want to compare the two.

English Forum Statistics:

279 members
Inactive members – 113 i.e. 40.50% (They have 0 post till date.)
Not so active members – 213 i.e. 76% (4 or less post till date.)

Here are some Yahoo Forum Statistics:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Expats-in-Zurich/ - 1042 members. 4580 messages posted in 2006 alone. 99% cannot be classified as spam IMO!

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Expat-Moms-In-Switzerland/ - 599 members. 3977 messages posted in 2006 alone. This one’s my favourite!!

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Expats-in-Switzerland/ - 566 members. 712 mails posted in 2006 alone.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Families-in-Zurich/ - 480 members. 1321 messages posted in 2006 alone.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Expats-in-Zurich/message/25719 - Unsure whether this link will work or not but if it does, you’ll get an idea of how successful some of these yahoo groups are.

Let’s not lose perspective when comparing yahoo groups to English Forum. I think English Forum is a well moderated forum but given the number of active members, it definitely offers lesser challenges than some of the existing Expat Yahoo groups.

I am not taking Carmen’s side – I don’t think she needs me (or anyone else) to defend her moderating style. IMHO, she is one of the most simple, modest and humble person I have met so far who encourages and allows freedom of expression. She never brags or boasts about her yahoo groups and she doesn’t need to. Her contributions are appreciated and acknowledged by a lot of Expat Groups, Clubs, Schools and individuals. She does a very good job and earns respect that’s rightfully hers. I am simply putting my own views forward.

Regards.

Nina