Thai School Watch

[Gluestick]

What if the admin and site was outside of Thailand? Would it be immune from legal actions?

TSW was a great idea. Too bad some lamers got butt hurt that their schools got some bad publicity.

[Reg Young]

Not immune, but rather more resistant, I'd say. A school crying libel would have to prove it was libel, and a disclaimer on the front page ought to protect anyone in a more rule-of-law oriented country. And it'd be easier to maintain a certain measure of anonymity when you're on the far side of the world.
- Reg

[Covertjay]

I give Watchman absolute respect for what he tried (and to some extent suceeded in) doing for a time.

Here, here! I for one you WM!

[IsaanAlex]

especialy if the admin lives in Thailand.

The key point, IMHO.

When I'm out of here I'd be willing to do it; except I don't know jack about computers and websites. :sad:

[Ijustwannateach]

For those who want to give helpful hints, there's still my "Schools I Would Not Recommend To A Friend" thread over on Thaivisa:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=31430

Just the names, no details and no arguments, and if you want more info you can pm the poster. The sky ain't falling over there, neither.

"Steven"

Added after 1 minutes:

Not immune, but rather more resistant, I'd say. A school crying libel would have to prove it was libel, and a disclaimer on the front page ought to protect anyone in a more rule-of-law oriented country. And it'd be easier to maintain a certain measure of anonymity when you're on the far side of the world.
- Reg

And if it became TOO effective in punishing the schools which deserved it, no doubt the actual response would be to put the school on all the censoring filters for Thai Internet servers.

"Steven"

[Covertjay]

And if it became TOO effective in punishing the schools which deserved it, no doubt the actual response would be to put the school on all the censoring filters for Thai Internet servers.

I'm suprised this hasn't happened to several sites yet. Guess it's the plus of living in a disorganised dictatorship.

[jonny danger]

If we all contributed there'd be no one person to threaten. What could they do, kill us all?

[LDMA]

It's the admins that shoulder the blame eventually, maybe Watchman's character was too prominent.

If anyone starts something like this in the future they should be very careful to be outside of Thailand.

Also perhaps a transcript of Thai libel codes should be posted first and foremost.

If anyone wants to take up Watchman's mantle, we will of course give you a link here on Ajarn Forum.....just be careful.

[Pinky]

Also perhaps a transcript of Thai libel codes should be posted first and foremost.

"Libel" (or the acccusation thereof) in Thailand is, first and foremost, a criminal offense. Proceed with caution from that starting point

As for the Internet - recent decisions in Australia and the UK have now shown cross-jurisidictional basis for libel: for example, if I live in the US and post in the US, but libel someone in the UK, I cannot rely on a defence that my actions where not libelious (sp?) in the US, and therefore I am not guilt of libel - as the courts would use the test for libel in the UK.

Previous to this, it had always been assumed that the test for libel would be the country in which the website was hosted, but that is no longer the case [and if anyone knows the website SCT, they'll no doubt know about this].

All in all then, you had better be sure of what you are talking about, or proceed with caution. Unfortunately, the Internet has had an effect where people seem to think they can say whatever they want and get away with it.

As for Watchman's site, I couldn't read it with all that black background. But I did wonder why he would want to put his neck out for a bunch of TEFL teachers with a proven track record of not being particularly grateful when others try and make life easier for them - I mean, it was hardly likely to get the type of advertizing Louise and Phil have put together for this place! After all, Text & Talk will pretty much advertise anywhere - and even they seemed to have given this one a miss

[watchman]

Dear Ajarn and TSW Posters

I am pleased to announce that I have been in touch with a TSW poster who has asked if he could continue the TSW project.

I have agreed to give this person the domain for free and they will re-open for posting again shortly. All previous content has now been irreversably destroyed.

All legal notices I received have been complied with, and any other threads that were consdered problematic are now gone

I will have no control over this new forum whatsoever and no keys to it's admin or moderating controls. That's the way I want it.

All management queries should be directed via PM to the new adminsitrator as and when it makes it's presence known.

I wish the new TSW, management the best of luck with the forum.
Stay safe, and stay unknown.

I think I've passed on some valuable lessons from my adminship, and the new version should be a lot harder to budge.

This REALLY is when Watchman takes his final bow, and resumes his life as a common or garden poster.

Goodbye

The Watchman

[bulldog]

glad to hear that :chug:

[tazmanian]

So I see TSW is now closed. I'd like to thank Watchman for putting up the site.

Although I came out in support of one school (could it be the same school that began to make threats?) I fully supported the idea of letting teachers list their good and bad experiences.

I notice on another thread people are talking about a new TSW site run from outside Thailand. I think this is a great idea. Although libel has been discussed, the honest reality is that a school from Thailand that is bad enough to create complaints from teachers is hardly likely to have the time, money, resources, or will to track down an overseas web master and bring an international lawsuit against him/her. It just wouldn't happen.

[ben bradley]

make up your mind already .

[Ijustwannateach]

Yes, I'm assuming the new, upcoming webmaster is overseas... that will be a bitter pill for the evil headmasters here to swallow.

Regarding the illegal personal proclivities of staff: surely this is a criminal matter and one which is outside the scope of warning teachers about the managerial style of a school? If anyone truly has REAL evidence and is willing to risk his own reputation by filing a complaint, then he should do so. Using a site designed to warn teachers of failings in schools to spread vague, unsubstantiated rumours about alleged outside criminal behavior of persons there is hopelessly muddying the waters. I would welcome a site which did not encourage such dangerous gossip.

Now, if someone were verifiably molesting students *AT* a school and the school did nothing about it, that might be something to talk about- but I don't think there are any schools that insane even in Thailand.

"Steven"

[Thai School Watch]

http://www.hostingphpbb.com/forum/in...?mforum=tswmk2

The Thai School Watch web site is back open.

The temporary link is above.

The normal thaischoolwatch.com link will be re-enabled very soon.

http://www.hostingphpbb.com/forum/in...?mforum=tswmk2