Should we let foreigners in as members?

[griffin]

Okay, before this degenerates into a racial bitchfest, keep in mind that many of us here are of different racial backgrounds or were born in other countries, so if you generalise, you are bound to include someone here.
And generalising isn't very accurate either, especially when we know from our own experiance how the vocal minority give a bad reputation to an entire community and its quiet minority.
I know a number of American transfans, who are the best people you could ever meet, so it's not fair to label them all as bad. And I wouldn't just let anyone in, I would be processing them first (with the board staff) to make sure it is beneficial for us and them to be here. Plus if there is any unprovoked disruptiveness, they will be removed.
Sure I could just do whatever I want and let in anyone I want here, but if I did that all the time without some sort of consultation first, you guys wouldn't feel like you were really part of this community and be less interested in being here.
I wouldn't be wanting to see more than a few non-locals here anyway, so don't be too worried about there being a domination of this board. You probably won't even notice them much at all.

[GoktimusPrime]

It's got nothing to do with nationality or ethnicity etc, IMO it's about whether they're capable of interacting on an Australian Transformers community without becoming a dilutant.

Hence the importance of asking non-Australians the question of why they want to join our board, and then assessing whether or not they should be allowed to join based on their answer.

If foreigners are to join this board, it should be because they are genuinely interested in interacting with Australian Transfandom - why else would a non-Aussie want to join OzFormers?? And it would also help to deter foreigners who want to join here because they've been banned from other foreign or international boards.

[kup]

I apologize if my previous posts offended anyone here. I did not think that it would be interpreted as discrimination against all US residents but it appears that it has. My posts were meant to be within the context of maintaining the Board's good ambiance by preventing the possibility of bad online behavior by an increase of abroad users as it almost always happens in International forums.

'Real life' discrimination of American people or culture was never intended.

[jaydisc]

why else would a non-Aussie want to join OzFormers??

Based on the seeming lack of a valid answer to this question, I don't understand why this is an issue or even a discussion for that matter.

Does anyone really think a foreigner is going to come here and post Movie Toy Sighting from New York?

Does anyone really think they are going to organize a meet in Pawtucket, Rhode Island?

Does anyone really think we are going to be bombarded with pics of custom George W. Primes?

It seems to me that the ONLY negative contributions that a foreigner could make (e.g. being hostile and abusive, spamming, etc.) are things that aren't permitted from ANYONE on the board, including those-with-Australia-interests, so why is this an issue?

What specific negative contributions are so feared that we have to stop these folk at the gate?!?!?

[autobreadticon]

i agree, the only real contribution is that most foreign memebers will provide an non-aus opinion on this forum. And frankely this isnt why i joined this forum. i am wary of this because global fans 'might' outweigh the local members.

[Soundwarp]

Lame. Saintly's point about mods at night is the only real reason not to let this dude join.

As Griff said, contacts overseas is a good thing.

There are plenty of non Aussie forums for that

We are a local shop for local people, we'll have no trouble here!

+1

Okay, before this degenerates into a racial bitchfest, keep in mind that many of us here are of different racial backgrounds or were born in other countries, so if you generalise, you are bound to include someone here.
And generalising isn't very accurate either, especially when we know from our own experiance how the vocal minority give a bad reputation to an entire community and its quiet minority.
I know a number of American transfans, who are the best people you could ever meet, so it's not fair to label them all as bad. And I wouldn't just let anyone in, I would be processing them first (with the board staff) to make sure it is beneficial for us and them to be here. Plus if there is any unprovoked disruptiveness, they will be removed.
Sure I could just do whatever I want and let in anyone I want here, but if I did that all the time without some sort of consultation first, you guys wouldn't feel like you were really part of this community and be less interested in being here.
I wouldn't be wanting to see more than a few non-locals here anyway, so don't be too worried about there being a domination of this board. You probably won't even notice them much at all.

But we're not an Australian forum anymore then, we arean international one.

I really really don't like where this is headed.

[Kyle]

Just a suggestion:

Let the person know the purpose of this board and what behaviour or contribution is expected from him/her. If the person's ok with it then give him/her a go. If the person's not happy with it then he/she shouldn't be here. If there's any incident and the person receives more than 3 complaints on the same incident then remove him/her.

[GoktimusPrime]

What sets this board (and TAAU) apart from all other TF boards is that it's Australian. As others have said, there are PLENTY of non-Australian boards that people can join if they don't like it.

If we become an international board, then we really just become "just another international TF board," and I suspect that we would get a lot of dregs rejected from other larger international boards like The AllSpark, TFormers/TFans, BWTF boards et al.

What specific negative contributions are so feared that we have to stop these folk at the gate?!?!?

I for one didn't use the word "negative" but the word "dilute." This board does have a very strong Australian focus and theme and a non-Australasian with little to no functional interaction with Australian Transfandom would dilute this atmosphere.

And as you yourself have conceded, opening this board up to becoming a much larger community would lend itself to attracting more trouble makers due to the economy of scale. Keeping it as an Australasian-exclusive themed board keeps that in tabs due to the miniscule population of Australia (our entire population is equivalent to like the number of passengers on a train in Delhi ).

[dirge]

What specific negative contributions are so feared that we have to stop these folk at the gate?!?!?

+ Dilution of local content. It's hard to talk about hunting for TFs in Australia if you've never been here. You'll notice that quite a few of us are happy for fans with an Australian connection to join.

+ Users banned from other boards - let's assume for good reason - joining here because they have burnt their bridges elsewhere. If they're not willing to play nicely on previous boards, why would we want them here? I would expect serial troublemakers to be one of the most likely groups to _want_ to register here without any local connection

+ This is a privately funded board, specifically with Australasia in mind. _I_ respect that and would hope that international fans would do the same. That's not to say we exclude _everyone_, but those who do join would do with a reason - such as Karl's interest in Australian bundle packs.

[jaydisc]

OK, I think I get it now.

I assume that many of the proponents of this International ban fear that there are droves of people just waiting for it to disappear to come pollute our content.



I certainly wouldn't like our intimate village to be adversely hit by the economics of scale. I think we're all in agreeance about that.

I just don't think there are many internationals that even care about us, and why offend the few that do.