A blog that disparages expats

[mr bill]

For whatever Doug's sins have been over these many years and there have been so, so many points many of us wished we could contest/refute/correct/obliterate thank heaven we are not in Arizona and that dimes don't work in the phones here.

Lo que pasa that although DavidR's initial post was a mas o menos an open letter to Doug who is, as far as I know, still a member of the other group formerly known as blahdeblahgroupgtolist (I can't recall the full URL at this hour) the real issue (God I hate that word) is what happened when DavidR's post went up:

It was censored/axed/removed/obliterated. And not by Doug!

Doug has a right to his free speech.
He uses his blog to exercise it. Of course it?s disappointing that after he says/writes something and exposes those thoughts in a public venue like his blog he is unwilling to accept feedback. We know that he is sensitive to the volume of the potential feedback* but I guess that's his right as real owner of that blog whether we agree with him or not to deny feedback.

On the other hand when someone creates a public forum that inevitably takes on its own unique community dynamic as members enroll and contribute some contributing members find their work throttled by the group?s authoritarian ?owner?. That's another matter. We all, as educated, civilized, cultured adult members of that group (well, I was never admitted as a member - long story there and better reserved for PM's if I?m in the mood), have to question why we would belong/contribute anything to a blog/list/group harbored under such a repressive umbrella.

I, Bill Byrnes (aka Mr Bill), really do 'own' www.gtolist.com. This is not a ?free? googlegroup. That means I'm paying the freight for the domain name and the hosting space in Thailand [under $25 bucks/year for the whole deal]. ?Ownership? stops as the check clears. This board was founded to be an open community asset/resource. I hope others will overwhelmingly agree that this is the place to be in GTO.

Finally - Doug, sorry for the collateral damage. I don't think anyone has a dime handy and, as I mentioned earlier even if they did, they don't work in the phones here.

Mr. Bill

* I think the inability to ? or actually the ability to, at some time in the past, ? offer feedback that was then zapped frustrated/exasperated/inflamed those who commented thus the vigor expressed in their comments that could go ?public? went on verbal steroids. The ?death threats?stuff? Well, I think the more the details change in the taxi-on-fire story you need to check your imagination as it seems to have a tumor growing out of control. Relax, you need to calm down.