Here’s my opinion about my experience with the Owner of Gringos.com
So I’ve unfortunately come to learn that expats are a different breed of human. Now I have to preface that I don’t know if they are only like this in Latin America or in other countries too, but I’ve heard complaints from expats, so I know I’m not the only one who feels this way, but the other person was in the Dominion Republic which is close enough.
So far my experience with most (not all) expats in Panama, Costa Rica & Colombia has been negative to the point that I no longer go onto the groups or forums because I like to be around happy people, not bullies. Who wants to go through every day being upset & stressed because of these nasty people?
There is tons of flamming (attacks) that goes on, & they are DEFINITELY online cyber bullies, there’s no other definition for their behavior.
It’s all about who’s right vs. just stating you have a difference of opinion.
They also misconstrue most of what I say & try to read negative things into what I say even though I’m in a great mood when I write it. I find that immature very insecure people online often misconstrue what I say.
They are VERY VERY controlling & most of the owners of these groups & forums are soooo NASTY, that I & others have been banned for no reason at all. We either state an opinion that was contradictory to the owner and/or moderator of the group or forum, or we defend ourselves when attacked in the group or forum. I even had one moderator make fun of me in front of over 3,000 people & lie about me.
They also go online to snoop & try to find negative damaging information about anyone they don’t like. They call people criminals & attack their credibility & while sometimes they are right, I’m sure that often times they aren’t right.
I’ve even been attacked & accused for asking questions when I was researching one of the countries. Oh & they don’t like it when you ask a lot of questions either. If you list a few questions, they suddenly flair up in anger & start bullying.
So I haven’t been on www.gringos.com in a long time as there was no one on it really, but I guess in recent months they suddenly got more members & people were asking about Panama. I posted something & then next thing I know, I’m getting an infraction warning LOL
I didn’t understand the message & so I asked what in the world was wrong with my flags LOL
That’s when I found out that they had created flags, so you had to set up your flags of where you are from, where you are living. Of course I didn’t know about this, & me & Phil (he may or may not be the owner of www.gringos.com) started this back & forth.
Listen, if I do something SERIOUSLY wrong, then I expect a moderator or the owner to tell me about it, but I don’t go around doing things wrong because I’m a respectful person unless I’m attacked. But GIVE ME A BLOODY BREAK. I didn’t have my flags setup because I didn’t know & that’s a reason to insult someone????
I told Phil that I didn’t know about this & I felt insulted. Of course he claims notices were sent out & I didn’t get one apology for his behavior at all.
Well guess what Phil, I have a life. Unlike a lot of expats who sit on the computer all day & gossip & bully people, I don’t do that. I’m busy working. I’m not an angry controlling senior citizen (they are the majority) who have had a clearly terrible life & they bring their anger & controlling nature to the Internet. So I never got the notice or never read it or who knows what the problem was, nor do I care. It was how Phil PHRASED the PM to me which irked me. Like I belonged in jail for his flag requirements. Of course the minute I understood what he was saying, I fixed the problem.
So I told him that he should set it up that a notice appears when you log in telling you to set your flags. It can be done, I’ve seen similar notices before. Was I happy when I stated this, no I wasn’t.
I knew the minute I said that, that he would ban me & I was right.
Tonight my browser reloaded the page that had www.gringos.com on it & sure enough I was supposedly banned by Gene (maybe HE’S the owner of the forum) for having a site in my profile that goes to sex.
Umm, nothing could be further from the truth, it goes to my persoanl site which is very clear, but I knew that the immature bullies on www.gringos.com would have to find a way to kick me off his forum because I disagreed with how they attached me.
And just to be clear, I am on close to 50+ forums all over the place. I’ve been online since 1998 & I know how forums work. With the real forums that AREN’T run by control freaks, if you haven’t done something that needs fixing, someone PMs you nicely & asks you to change it. So I have had that asked of me before, but I am certainly NOT given an infraction over some small petty flag bullshit & I can count on one hand how many times I’ve been banned & each time it’s the same thing. The owner or moderator is a very angry controlling person who attacks or thinks & imagines in his or her head that I’m out to get their forum LOL
So if you are an expat looking to move to Latin America, I’d think twice about moving there & then assume you are going to find happy fun kind expats there. They are the minority, I have to say, & it’s very difficult to live in a country & not have people you can resonate with.
Michelle
