Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Ya-ta Boy]

Did you ever decide to change classes a day or two late? I did a few times and it was always an uncomfortable situation. Every time I spent the term feeling like I missed something important; always a half-step behind.

Sometimes I feel like that here on this board.

There seem to be �unwritten rules� that everyone is supposed to know, but no one ever told me. Why not? Why are they unwritten? What other unwritten rules are out there that I violate or am about to violate that no one ever told me about?

There was the recent episode of Spinoza�s hate mail. I learned that I am not supposed to post private messages. That was news to me. Jerks who send hateful messages have more right to privacy than I have to respect and my privacy. Who made this rule? It seems to me the jerks did. Why didn�t I get to vote when the unwritten rule was decided?

There seems to be another unwritten rule: don�t tell personal stories unless you are complaining about bosses or the country in general. Or something like that. It isn�t clear. Most recently this came up when another regular poster wrote an interesting story about a dating experience. Some posters claim this is forbidden. I don�t get it.

Sometimes I post stories that are personal. Some people like them but some people are insulting. They tell me that particular style is not �allowed� on this kind of board. It�s bad form. During the shawner thread, some people claimed he �deserved� the cyber stalking because he posted his personal story. Who decided this?

Excuse me for asking, but
a) What kinds of posts are OK and what are �bad form� for this kind of forum?
b) What are the other unwritten rules?

[mateomiguel]

unwritten rule #1: Don't stand too close to a naked man.

[ChopChaeJoe]

Kind of a zen thing, isn't it?


Here's one: never eat spinach with a stranger.

[rockstarsmooth]

don't post too much personal info. someone will turn around and throw it at you later.
rss



right now i'm listening to: red hot chili peppers - party on your *beep*

[poet13]

unwritten rule #371

Never fart when there isn't anybody else around to blame.

[leebumlik69]

[Satori]

[Ya-ta Boy]

While I appreciated the levity of the responses, I was serious about my question.

[rockstarsmooth]

[Corporal]

[flotsam]

Rule #2

Never get so soft and sensitive in your old age that you start writing weepy-sappy messages about the unwritten rules of the forum.

P.S. ^^

[tomato]

I have wondered the same thing.
Usually, any message which says anything favorable about Korea brings a flurry of hate mail from the whiners.
But here is a thread in which the OP says something favorable about Korea:

http://www.eslcafe.com/forums/korea/viewtopic.php?p=959701#959701

but for some reason, the OP manages to scare away all the whiners.

[cbclark4]

On farts

Dude it's the Lactose trust me.

Also easy on the eggs they just ain't fresh enough.

cbc

[sock]

People don't write them out because half the time they make them up as they go along.

Somebody writes something that can't be flamed in the regular way, so somebody else shouts out, hey, you can't do that! It was in violation of our secret, unwritten code that clearly YOU don't know about. Then everybody else jumps on the bandwagon, saying, yeah, that was SO inappropriate. It's not so much like joining the class late as it is like when the popular kids suddenly deciding they don't like your shirt for whatever arbitrary reason and suddenly you're the outcast of the day. They have to define what's cool in order for them to maintain their king-of-the-mountain status. The non-cool kids never really get that it was never about them (or their posts).

Anyway, take a lesson from the Korean kids. Do whatever the hell you want, and if somebody doesn't like it, just ignore them and continue on your merry way. I can imagine if certain posters had posted hateful pms, and gotten reprimanded for it, they probably wouldn't have cared about whatever repercussions happened to come out of it, and just continued on being themselves. They tend to do whatever they can get away with, just shy of actually getting banned.

Your posts are fine, in fact, I'd say they're great. Doesn't matter what you post, some people will appreciate it, some people will get all worked up over it, and everyone else will be too self-absorbed to really get what you're saying.

Don't worry, Ya-Ta. We still like you, and your posts.

[Demophobe]

There is probably an ancient ESL curse on those who write them.

Things that affect the status of the unwritten rule:

~ Weather
~ Time
~ Day
~ Mood
~ Health
~ Beliefs/Values/Morals
~ Everything

They are too nebulous to pin down.

I think the posting of PMs is generally uncool, simply by definition.