And they’re at it again…
Seems they continue to make a habit of deleting pots that offer and alternative viewpoint than their own… A thread was recently created for a dinner meetup at a Japanese restaurant, one which they (the administrators) described as “the best in Buenos Aires”. A member posted an opinion that a different Japanese restaurant was actually the best in BA… a post which lasted as long as it took the administrators to see it and delete it.
Guys, if people can’t post different opinions than yours on the forum then please add that to your terms & conditions, and that way everyone knows ahead of time.
And second… if you are being paid by a restaurant to promote it, then the ethical way to do so would be to be open and honest with that, write that they are “sponsoring” baexpats or similar, and that you are organising a dinner there as a result. At present your underhanded way of conducting these kind of “meetups” is two faced and ethically questionable, though from a search online it seems that’s the way you run the site, however much you claim that it’s there to “help” BA expats. Let’s see if it stopped earning money how long you’d be around to “help” the community.
They’re a libelous bunch over at baexpats.org it seems
So seemingly not happy with banning members without reason, Igor/baexpats.org are also happy to libel them without the right of reply too: baexpats.org/expat-life/17917-david-rooney-banned-here-why.html (you can also download a PDF screenshot of the entire thread, just in case baexpats decide to remove the thread once they realise they may just have left themselves legally open – see below).
First of all I must say I feel quite honoured that I would have an entire thread created by the administrator(s) of baexpats.org just for me! I really didn’t think that one person’s comments within the depths of the Internet would be worthy of such attention, but seems they are. I wonder why?
But now, let’s shine a little light onto the accusations within the post, just to see how much truth v libel it contains
Accusation #1: I began the issue as some sort of “publicity stunt” for a new website.
“Basically, if you just start a commercial site and say I am going to sell you stuff just like a dozen of other sites do, nobody is going to get very excited. You need to create some kind of a publicity stunt. So, at some point when a splitter thinks he has sufficient roots in the community, he just intentionally goes for direct confrontation. It is inevitable, it is a part of the game.
“Apparently a lot of work was done on his site long time before all this story happened.
“…and on top of that I am pretty sure that he had an idea to open the restaurant across the road from the very beginning.”
Fact: I have copies of the emails asking why I was banned dated August 17, 2011. Easily verifiable nowadays as all emails travel via a number of web servers between the sender and recipient. It’s not something you can fake. Then by following this link here (or using any domain whois site) you can see that the domain name baexpathub.com was registered on August 26, 2011. That’s 9 days after being banned from baexpats. Just enough time for my initial surprise and humour to turn into anger, and then subsequently into the goal of creating something better and open to all users, not just those selected by those who run the site.
Accusation #2: Igor (baexpats.org administrator) communicated to me that they have numerous dinners, and the next one will be cheaper
“In this case we had another “please rsvp” dinner thread on top of our forum and David started to post complains that it is too expensive to him. I tried to explain that this thread is for rsvps only, that we have different types of meetings and he can go to next one that is going to be cheaper, I offered him to organize a dinner himself, so that he has a chance to make it better. I said that we have a poll on our site discussing dinner prices and he can address his concerns there. Nope. I guess by this point everything was already predetermined.”
Fact: Igor did write that the thread was for RSVPs only, however that’s the only fragment of truth in that paragraph. He didn’t mention anything about the next dinner being cheaper, nor about any poll on the site. If he published the full transcript of our messaged discussions it would be there for the world to see. Come on Igor, publish it all!
Accusation #3: I wrote “several” very negative posts about baexpats.org
“David has written several very negative posts about baexpats lately, registering new blogs for this with free blogging providers. Each time he emailed me his post in advance basically saying “Do what I say, or I am going to publish it”. Well, there is nothing new about SEO blackmail. It may have done wonders for him before, but this is definitely not going to work with us.”
Fact: (Again, verifiable by dates that are archived on the Internet) After not getting any response from Igor/baexpats from numerous emails (all archived for future reference) I created one post, this one, which as you can see is asking basically what I was asking in my email, why? Is there anything negative in that post about baexpats? I guess if you regard banning someone without explanation negative you could say yes, but mostly it’s just a cry for a reason from the only method left at my disposal after emails had been ignored.
And further idiocy…
Between all the libel and name calling in that thread, you may notice one voice of reason from one of the members:
“Sounds a bit harsh and of course you are only posting one side. Maybe people should hear both sides before jumping to conclusions. That would seem rational and fair to me.”
That member? Banned by baexpats after that comment.
And the final factor I guarantee they haven’t considered (and hence we’ll see how long that thread exists once they realise)… their domain name is registered, and their website is hosted, in the US. The country which is king of libel cases and awards. As I said, there are verifiable dates and archives of all that has gone on, everything is recorded on the web nowadays, great for court cases of this type. I wonder if it would be worth my while… I could think of a number of charities that could use an injection of additional capital awarded for libel. Hmm…
Banned by BA Expats… why?
So seems that the folk at baexpats.org – or is it just the one person, Igor? – are not open to email conversations about their decisions or policies. Which for someone promoting themselves as a website for the Buenos Aires expat “community” seems a little wrong to me. But let me lay out the situation and you can decide for yourself.
A recent post in the “expat events” forum promoted a night out at Crizia restaurant in Palermo, Buenos Aires. At 200 pesos for dinner (as written in the post by Igor), this is certainly in the upmarket category for Buenos Aires.To give you some comparison, you could have 3 or 4 very decent steak dinner for that price in a variety of other good restaurants. As another member (fred mertz) posted:
“$200.00 for a dinner, plus drinks (?) plus tip? Plus taxi fare. WOW !”
Anyway, a couple of us posted this viewpoint, mostly to do with the fact that we would love to meet up with folk but not at a 200 pesos for dinner place. A few minutes later I discovered that these two posts had been deleted. I created a post asking why. Minutes later this was also deleted, but I did receive a subsequent email from Igor, the website administrator.
“The thread is for RSVPs only”, he stated. “If you have no intention to attend, why do you even bother writing anything there?”
Well, because I’m really disappointed that it’s at a place that’s so expensive, and would like to convey that information to you in the hope that future events can be more affordable for more of us. I’m sure fred mertz had the same objective. You can ignore my input if you choose, and others happy enough to attend Crizia’s can do so no probs, but I am simply voicing an opinion on a public web forum. Quite politely I would have thought.
Igor’s reply was that maybe I should seek out other non-moderated forums. My emailed reply was that I supported moderated forums, as there are too many faceless forum users who like to troll forums simply to create trouble (I for one always have my website’s listed in my profile, I’m not a big fan of faceless forum members). However I wrote that this seemed more like censorship than moderation. Again, privately via email, and stating my viewpoint plainly, no abuse or anything untoward.
A few minutes later I return to baexpats.org to find myself banned, “forever” according to the message shown. No more emails from Igor, no further information about why this has occurred.
Overreaction? Is this the way a “community” website should be run? What do you think? Igor, are you out there? Care to respond so the world of Google can list your response for the world to see?
