That "other" Forum

03/23/2010 - 12:08

The childishness of the disputes and name-calling on this forum led me to give up using the site for a number of months. When I checked back again to see if things had calmed down, I discovered that there had been a split and some users had set up an alternative "Italia Uncovered" forum. Well, having no particular axe to grind, I registered with the other site. After all, there could be useful or interesting information to exchange. I hadn't actually posted any comments -- the opportunity hadn't arisen -- but then, last week I discovered that I couldn't log in. The list of users is visible, and sure enough, I'm not there any more. So I used the 'Contact' link to send a message. Surely some sort of technical glitch. But no reply. OK, I'll register with a new identity and ask what's wrong. "Registration is disabled by the administrator". The only conclusion I can come to is that the Italia Uncovered forums are going down the tubes. (Or alternatively, that I'm personally persona non grata, but I'm really a very inoffensive chap.) Just thought some people here might want to know.

Topic

Society

Comment

Hi Steve, There was a reply to your note on this Forum today on the Italia Uncovered site which I thought I would post here in case you hadn't seen it: Hello Steve. I saw your above quoted post OTR and as I am not a member there I can only reply to you here. I have no idea what happened to your original registration and I clearly remember activating it. I'm also sure that I've received no "contact us" email from you whatsoever, but you are correct in saying that the registration has been disabled by the Admin. I closed the registration shortly after yet another little flurry of malcontents tried to set up dubious accounts here and certainly not because we are going down the tubes or because you are a 'persona non grata' (you very well may be - time will tell). Should you read this post and still wish to participate here, please let me know by using the "CONTACT US" button, which I have re-checked and can verify as working perfectly. If you still receive no reply then assume I still have not received any email contact from you and please just put up another post on this site- it's great publicity for us. Thanks.

I have tried to register on this new forum. As soon as I started, I got an immediate message saying: "Sorry, registration has been disabled by the administrator." I am sure it's great to have the publicity, but not much good if it is not possible to register!

Iv tried numerous times to register, and have never succeeded. Ive written to the administrator and never received a reply.... the spirit is willing but......

I only heard about the new forum last week, and reading this thread yesterday was curious to have a look....I spotted a few familiar names and had not realised where they had disappeared to. But I was quite shocked to read some of the content (this is probably giving the new site even more publicity!!), bad language, abusive to other members and the administrators (of Italymag) and just seems to be a competition for who can criticise Italymag with the wittiest post...nothing much relevant to life in Italy. I find it hard to understand such an acrimonious split over what should be a friendly information website. Am I wrong? Perhaps I should not even join in the debate here or encourage it, I think everyone has more important things to talk about... Charlotte Oliver

Hi, Iv'e not read this other forum so I cant personally speak from experience but if the content is so unpleasant we should all avoid it!!! I do think that " Our" forum is so useful and all the people here are very helpful. Surely being nice & helpful is the whole idea!!

Did look at other forum and agree with Charlotte. Forums do provide people with much needed and appreciated help and advice, shame some people cant just 'live and let live'.

The last thing I wanted to do was to stir up things between both Forums. I was simply responding to Steve Graham's post that he was unable to access the other site and letting him know he should try again if he was so inclined. From what I understand after several years of reading posts, there is enough blame to go around for all concerned parties. Unkind comments have been made on both fronts so the cycle continues. It would be great if there could be a moratorium by all involved to see if civility could be returned. After all, we all are united by a common bond, our interest in Italy. I am a member of this site, Italia Uncovered and Expats in Italy and have received helpful information from others on all of the Forums and have only been treated with kindness.

Again, I have no wish to take sides, and I thank Lisa for copying the message over. It just seemed to me that a forum which apparently cancels registration without warning, doesn't respond to queries and is shut to new users probably isn't working properly. But maybe it's a quirk of the technology, not the people. No offence intended!

Hi Steve, I believe that there was a technological glitch that has now been fixed. Try to register again. There is a message for you on a thread with your name on it of someone else on that Forum who is able to help if you encounter any difficulty.

Can't help but think that all of this could have been sorted out by way of private messaging. Do we really need to know if someone is having trouble logging on to some other site? Or what the solution is? The effect of this can only be to reignite smouldering animosities and to turn people off participating in sharing their love of Italy through forums such as these. There's sensitivities on many sides about the previous history of Italymag Forum and people need to take that into account. I'm not suggesting censorship but, overall, positivity should be encouraged over negativity and therefore sometimes there are topics and tone that should rightly be avoided so that everyone has the chance to move on. Can we just park this boring rivalry and all enjoy la bella italia and a bit of friendly banter? PS: Lisa - I don't doubt for a moment your honourable motives.

Postmac is right, this should have been sorted out by the pm system, it has no relevance to this forum.

to my knowledge their unique interest is to register and re-register here with other disguise... maybe somebody gives them tips about how to do it.. who knows..

Angie and Postmac, I agree about parking the rivalry and have written to both site administrators about this some time back. However, the reason for my initial post, instead of a private e-mail, in response to Steve's query was to clarify not only to him but the rest of the members what was going on with the other site and the tech problems, since it HAD already been posted here. I thought this would serve to clear up any confusion there might have been. Having said that, I think this should be the end of the thread as there's really nothing more to say and it's getting rather tiresome. I, for one, do not wish to keep fanning the flames.