We Don't Have A List Or Rules But.. (part 2.)

I introduced the general approach to moderation in my last post on this subject, by saying that everything is taken on a case by case basis. A couple of cases in the last week have prompted me to add a couple of other factors that might result in terse PMs, infractions and even bannings.

First of all, nobody on this forum is ever going to suggest that being a teacher in Thailand EQUALS the proverbial bed of roses. It can even be argued that there is a high staff turnover with in schools in Thailand.

Speaking personally, I spent 6 years working as a teacher in Thailand and for 5 1/2 years I worked in the same place. I am not ashamed to admit, that I burned out. I recognised the fact and moved on. I am however, still happy to recognise the life changing potential that a teaching job in Thailand offers to the newcomer to Thailand, and what they want from this forum is constructive advice on how to go about making the best of this career change.

Ajarn has always done this, and is the best in the business after 9 years. This will continue. We owe it to people who want to be teachers in Thailand, to be positive about this often challenging work environment.

It is also fair to say that we don't paint working here as a 100% bed of roses....it isn't and you need luck and talent to succeed here
long term as an educator.

Let me cut to the chase. There is a certain mentality amongst a certain quarter of persons for whom Thailand TEFLing has not worked out as their THING to become the forum's official detractor of our central aim, to give impartial advice. Reading through the forum, you won't find many who will call TEFLing in Thailand the ultimate career move, but we do want people to feel that there's something worthy about it.

Single issue folks, on a mission to deter people from teaching in Thailand contrary to our central premise to advise people to
how to make the best of it are welcome to a fault, but when it becomes a matter of their every post, then we lose patience. Just recently we banned an individual who copied and pasted a stock answer advising all newbies posting in the Newbie Zone for advice on moving here, not to bother.

We call this "doing a Smeg". This stems from a certain ex-Bournemouth resident who at a more patient time in our moderation history had no less than 6 threads clogging up the Icebox on the subject of deterring foreigners from Thailand.

We realise that we don't want to paint a false picture of the realities, but read the average thread here and it's quite clear to anyone that a career her requires a certain personality and mindset, but a person whose sole posting existence is to be negative to people who see the experience are generally postitive, probably needs to get a life and post elsewhere.

Also, with a growing number of posters meeting each other in real-life (we are somewhat regionally based), there needs to be some kind of separation between online personas and the information others made have about them from meeting in real life...especially 2nd hand info.

This week we have seen references to people's medical conditions and medications referenced in a derogatory way. This is clearly an unacceptable breach of that person's privacy. Judge and comment on the words written here, but if you know of any real world medical conditions, please do not comment on them. They are low blows, and will meet with the disapproval of our fair play moderation policy.

Lastly, we know that moderators like a good banter as much as the next guy. This is because moderators come from the same stock as you...and so do I, we're all just people who are vaguely connected with teaching in Thailand who like talking shite on forums.

However you may not like this next fact, they are the voice of authority on here and if you do get a pm or infraction from the, take it in your stride and don't start warning or infracting us back....it takes a fok of a lot to get on our radars, but once on, please TRY to prove us wrong and change your ways. We don't get ban happy much, but realise the short step between being mildly annoying, and being a moderation burden.

Speaking as somebody who has been banned from forums, I can tell you that many places are far stricter than us, but when we do speak out on posting behaviou you need to listen.

Anyway enough for now.....til the next time...