Dear friends:
This morning, I received the following message from the Expat Forum:
As you can see here, I spent the last hours of my life, poking fun at the censorship of the Expat Forum moderators. My last visitor message, that I put up while Europe slept, was this:
This was after a series of visitor messages (all deleted). I take pride, though, in only having one infraction, for putting up a French post (in the Nanaimo Cookie thread) which is a violation of Rule #6. Moderators can’t read foreign languages so they have a strict zero tolerance for them.
Here are the admittedly abusive messages that I wrote in my visitor messages (as you know, the Tax Forum where I was a frequent contributer is now closed), all of which were deleted by JoJo or siobhanwf :
“A stitch in time saves nine.”
“Give me liberty or give me death.” Patrick Henry
In Canada a knit cap is called a tuque; an Eskimo is called an “Inuit”.
“How do you catch a squirrel? Climb a tree and act like a nut.”
Once there was an Expat Forum Moderator whose husband, on his way to work, said, “Look, over there is a can of paint, please paint the living room.” She said, “I don’t know how to paint.” So he says, “Look, just follow the instructions on the side of the can.” So he comes home and she is painting away, but he notices that she has her parka and her fur coat on, sweating and getting paint all over her beautiful coat. So her husband says, “Why are you wearing your parka and your fur coat.” “Because,” she says, “The paint can says ‘best if applied with two coats’”.
Why did the Expat Forum Moderator cross the road? An Expat Forum Moderator doesn’t have to explain her actions.
How many Expat Forum Moderators does it take to change a light bulb? THAT’S NOT FUNNY!
We started a Nainamo cookie recipe thread, but it was smothered in a heavy helping of censorship. They took down that thread. Meanwhile, I think the last straw was my complaints in private messages to siobhanwf about the ban of French language. Sure they have rule #6, but I am Canadien writing in Canada, don’t I have the right to write in French? No, said he. You agreed to rule #6 when you signed up to the Expat Forum. So I responded thus,
HI Mr. siobhanwf: It may be true that the Expat Forum has a rule #6, but I am writing from Canada. Therefore, je crois (I believe) that French language rights trump your rule. I suggest if you want to do further business in Canada that you realize that it is improper to sanction a person in Canada who choses to use the French language. It can lead to bad dreams in which Pierre Trudeau visits you and speaks only French.
In any case, I was wondering how many points I can actually get before my account is suspended. I mean, if I get points on against my drivers license I could lose the privilege to drive. It seems that I have no longer any right to put up visitor messages, because all my visitor messages have been erased by either you or JoJokins. Just let me know.
Thanks,
PetrosResearch
I don’t know whether they feared the Trudeau curse, or whether they didn’t like my affectionate name for JoJo. Perhaps it was my company name, my old ID at the Expat Forum, which was subject to ban after two months, because it violated Rule #11. Apparently my flaunting of Rule #11 in a private message is the straw that broke the camel’s back.
Hey folks, I’m cut up about this. Really. Please light a candle for me when you say your prayers.
This may well come back to bite him. As word gets out about the Isaac Brock Society, it will receive all the traffic that had been coming to the Canadian expat tax issues section of Boss Bob’s site. Inevitably the fact that he banned you from the forum will circulate. It will look like yet another example of Americans trying to control the global conversation. It certainly won’t hurt what we are trying to do here.
Google search Bob Sheth. Now anyone who looks for his name on the internet will know how he has treated me and all the other contributors to the Expat Tax Forum.
Do not understand how getting banned will promote our cause or help restore the Expat Tax Forum
Do you think that the Expat Forum will ban others because of what I have done? What sort of people would punish others because I’ve been cheeky or recalcitrant?
Let me just add that my intention in this was to make light of an absurd situation. Obviously, the folks at the Expat Forum will buck no criticism.
Actually….i cannot find the “Expat Tax” discussions anywhere on the expat forum…also i now find that I cannot post ANY responses to ANY posts…..
Expat Forum is back online. I originally thought that it had been deleted or that we were supposed to use the Canada page again. Then I discovered the existence of this blog and what had been going on. Thank you indeed for creating this resource!
Anyway, they really buried the location though and the only way that I could find it I think is to click on “All Expat Forums”. It is then listed as a sub-forum under the “General Expat Discussions Forum”. Here is a direct link to it:
http://www.expatforum.com/expats/
Best
Sorry, that was the wrong link obviously! Here it is:
http://www.expatforum.com/expats/expat-tax/
response to Petros, Mach7
We have already been punished for the actions of a few– we lost our forum
I started a thread “renunciation” on the main site
it has already been closed reason: “renunciation threads are off topic”
rivka88 – I saw your post about 20 minutes ago in the Canada forum and now it is nowhere to be seen…You could try to post it again in the newly moved Expat Tax forum (See my posts above) and see what happens?
I was just testing the system to see if we could infiltrate our discusiion back in. I found the site
thanks for locating it for us
I posted a redirect in the Canada forum with the link to the Expat Tax Forum. Hopefully this helps people find the forum again.
If the Forum is reopened, I must caution folks about using it. It is hostile to not just cheeky folks like me. The censorship will continue in my view.
I just got an email that rivka88 had posted to the thread “Renunciation”, and when I clicked on the link in the email, it went to a message that said “invalid thread”.
Then I went onto the FATCA/FBAR thread on the expat tax forum and posted a message ‘Is this thread open again?” and it was posted.
Something strange is going on, maybe they are playing with it and sometimes it’s on and sometimes not.
Don Pomodoro just replied to that post. Looks like it is live again.
Here’s the link.
http://www.expatforum.com/expats/expat-tax/
I did. My post count was more. 40 before the forum was moved. It is less than 30. posts and threads are being systematically deleted
Same for me.
I had a private message exchange with a moderator: renunciation is a off topic as “political issue”
Bev posted the new rules which are not subject to discussion as the thread is closed at one post: http://www.expatforum.com/expats/expat-tax/99892-welcome-tax-section-all-expats.html
This note in Bev’s new rules particularly offends me since I did not renounce to avoid or evade taxes — I NEVER owed taxes! “We reserve the right to remove posts advocating extreme measures to avoid or evade taxation (such as renunciation), any illegal advice or suggestions and any political discussions of specific tax laws or procedures.”
Hi all,
I do not recommend using this forum anymore. They do not have any interest in allowing a free discussion and have even removed my post on the Canada forum which simply listed a link to the expat tax forum. I guess thatit must have been “off topic” and “unreasonable” to simply tell people where the new forum was located since they have neglected to tell anyone of the move.
Then it gets worse. Remember the HUGE renunciation thread? Well that’s gone now. Not closed. Simply disappeared. Why? Because a new forum rule means that you can’t talk about renunciations as it is “extreme”. Read the disgusting new guidelines here:
http://www.expatforum.com/expats/expat-tax/99892-welcome-tax-section-all-expats.html
I posted the link in the Canada forum as a bit of a “censorship test”, but WOW. Petros hit the nail on the head I am afraid and I think that the forum there is now totally useless. I read about the possibility of getting a forum or open question thread over here and allow me to add my voice towards that becoming a reality, since I see no further point of using the Expat Forum websites anymore.
I wanted to post a directly link from a US Gov site to answer a question on http://www.expatforum.com/expats/expat-tax/99670-my-kids-arent-american-right.html but it is closed. I sincerely hope that the expatforum does not do more harm than good now…
Woah – just noticed that EVERY single thread is closed. Power trip? Or are they funded by the US Gov?
Hi all,
Have you seen the intro stickynote for the new, improved Expat Tax thread, now with extra whitewashing power to eliminate unpleasant discussion and harmful realities? Here it is:
**********
Bevdeforges
Moderator
Welcome to the Tax Section – for ALL expats
Death and taxes – they are said to be the only two things we can’t evade in this life. And things definitely get more complicated in both areas when we choose to take on the Expat Life. This section is available for those who need to ask questions pertaining to their tax obligations as expats. We expect the posters in this section to respect that taxation is a serious matter and to help everyone stay on topic, we’ve got a few special rules for participation in this section that we expect everyone to read and respect.
Please include the name of the country whose tax rules you are discussing in the title of any new threads you start.
Please limit your discussions to practical issues involving the tax laws that actually affect expats. We reserve the right to remove posts advocating extreme measures to avoid or evade taxation (such as renunciation), any illegal advice or suggestions and any political discussions of specific tax laws or procedures.
Particularly in reference to US tax laws (because of their unique scope), if you are primarily interested in changing the law or their application, we ask you to contact one of the US Expat organizations that regularly lobbies the US Congress (AARO or ACA) or to contact your US Congressional Representatives directly.
We may move individual posts or threads from the country forums into this area, if it is felt that they have an interest for the “general” expat community as related to taxation.
Forum members involved in expat tax counseling or preparation may participate in discussions here, but please do not tout for business or suggest meeting via PM or “offline.” All the regular forum rules about advertising, copyright, user name and signature links will be fully enforced.
**********
This is now about on par with the internet “freedoms” enjoyed by the average Chinese citizen. You can discuss anything, as long as it doesn’t insult the Communist Party or question its policies.
Ironic that Bev suggests checking out ACA as they have also made it clear they don’t want to hear any traitorous talk about relinquishment or renunciation.
Time to move on and focus entirely on growing this site and fostering an environment where intelligent, healthy conversation and information can be shared. I’m so glad we got on this lifeboat before the ship went under.
OMG…Every old post is “closed” as well. You can’t even add anything to the old discussions in the forum. Why don’t they just delete the whole thing then. I mean, what is the point of having the charade of a “forum” when you can’t even discuss the topic at hand? Disgusting.
I just created a topic in the forum entitled “Request: Close this forum”. Here is what I wrote in case it doesn’t last the night:
“Topic title.
This forum is now pointless. Why not just cut down on the moderators’ workload and simply nix it? Trying to moderate the new rules will be a nightmare, and not being able to discuss every relevant topic is equally frustrating for users. Why not just ban discussions about taxes and citizenship on this website? Less work for you and less worrying if we are breaking the rules for us.
Kind Regards. “