Should we let foreigners in as members?

[Soundwarp]

They already do that on other international forums. OzFormers is meant to be an Australasian forum for Australasian fans, and I don't see any problem with keeping it that way.

There are plenty of other board communities which are regionally exclusive such as for Nordic fans, Dutch fans, Transformers New Zealand, Transformers Hong Kong etc. - most Japanese boards have a policy stating that users can only post in Japanese (posts in other languages are expressly disallowed).

If people want to go on a more international community, then there are plenty of international boards out there for them to join.

Ok people i hope your sitting down, I 100% agree with Gok!

What about if it is allowed, but it is recommended against or discouraged unless they really really want to?
And maybe have a maximum quota as well to make sure we keep the discussion local (like 5 or 10% non-local fans)?

What do you think, a quota system, or a vote on each applicant?

Mate i have to say no thanks, if i want to speak with foreigners then i'll post at another site.

As Gok said, there are international board. The reason for this boards existance is an Australian focus.

If someone from (say) Canada has a specific reason for joining a forum with an Australian focus, ie they're looking to migrate, they're an expat or they lived here for a while and have a lot of friends within the Australian fandom, that's different to someone who just wants to join our board.

The person who is joining specifically because of the Australian focus has a case - because their inclusion wont dilute the local content.

I don't think we should say "lets allow 5%". What if that 5% are vocal troublemakers banned from international boards?

As for a vote, I'm happy to leave griffin to make the call. I don't know that calling public vote and having someone publicly voted against is the way to go

Simply put if it opens up to the world then it will not have the appeal that it has for ME now.

[GoktimusPrime]

+1.

There are plenty of international boards out there already, if someone wants to interact with foreign nationals, then go ahead and join an international board. I regularly participate on non-Australian and international boards too - but what attracts me here is the Australian focus.

afaik OzFormers and TAAU are the only boards which are Australia-centric. If we opened ourselves up to becoming an international board, then what would we offer to Transfans that other boards don't? We would essentially be in direct "competition" with the plethora of other international boards out there. Both OzFormers and TAAU are relatively far more civilised places to frequent because they are smaller tight-knit communities that are easier to moderate, and generally better moderated than most international boards. Just look at the amount of anti-social behaviour that's on international boards - it's rife! We've only had a small handful of members who have ever needed to be banned - for every one member who's ever been banned here there would be easily ten times more on international boards!

And all too often admins and mods on these international boards just become slack or give up on moderating members effectively because they feel overwhelmed by the sheer volume of board rule violations and anti-social, hostile and aggressive behaviour which occur on a regular basis.

And I'd like to reinforce what dirge said too, the inclusion of more foreigners would dilute the Australian-focused content of this board. Imposing some kind of "Australasian-relevance" expectation would help to prevent such dilution.

[dirge]

It's not _foreigners_ that bothers me - it's the loss of an Australian focus.

Well, that and the fact that we'd probably get a few troublemakers who have been banned from several international boards registering.

[G1Optimal]

I do agree that it should be localized and at the same time, i feel it might be beneficial to have non-localized fans
so IMO, here is one possible option....

another forum just for this task of catering for the entire Australasia region "This region has so many names?"
"with co-operation with the other forums" and leave this and the other forums the way they are now...
Note: you do not have to participate in this forum if you don't want to..

But what do i know ......
"this is probably why, AUS, and probably NZL if not others, doesn't get noticed by Hasbro"

[GoktimusPrime]

It's not _foreigners_ that bothers me - it's the loss of an Australian focus.

hence why I said "Australasian relevance" - foreigners are more than welcome to participate here if they have some appreciation/understanding for Australian Transfandom.

"this is probably why, AUS, and probably NZL if not others, doesn't get noticed by Hasbro"

*cough.cough* erm... yeah, it's more than that, but that's not something I'm going to discuss on a public forum.

[G1Optimal]

hence why I said "Australasian relevance" - foreigners are more than welcome to participate here if they have some appreciation/understanding for Australian Transfandom.


*cough.cough* erm... yeah, it's more than that, but that's not something I'm going to discuss on a public forum.

[Saintly]

just a thought... if we do let foreigners in, we could potentially be opening the flood gates (ie. no admin to moderate in the weeee hours of the morning).

so I say we keep it local or australasian relevance to keep us unique and "not just another TF board"

[GoktimusPrime]

If non-Australasian fans want to join, they could simply be asked "Why do you wish to join a predominantly Australian Transformers community?" - and their application can be judged on an individual basis based on their answer.

[griffin]

If non-Australasian fans want to join, they could simply be asked "Why do you wish to join a predominantly Australian Transformers community?" - and their application can be judged on an individual basis based on their answer.

This was the reply I got from the recent applicant:

I should have just said YES that I live in Australia or New Zealand
then. I do in fact though help several fans from New Zealand and 1 or
two from australia import items from the US many times throughout the
year.

I don't think he is a toy dealer though, so could be beneficial to AUS fans who need a non-scalper source for toy *trading* (we may not have much stuff here, but occasionally, like Alt Rodimus, we get some stuff they might want) A small number of Americans who are real fans and not toy dealers, would be a good source to offload those toys to, and maybe even be a reliable source for stuff we don't get here, closer to US retail than a toy dealer. Also, it would be good to get some foriegn perspective on issues, instead of just guessing with how fans overseas are seeing things.
What about we have a trial to see if any of the opinions posted happen? I would have to agree with those who think that it would be unlikely that we would be flooded with interest from non-local fans, so allowing in fans who have a reason to want to interact here, and have a stricter adherence to the rules, shouldn't see any change to the local feel to this place.
- The registration page would continue to say that this board is just for fans in the Australasian region of the world.
- Applicants outside of this region who still register would be asked if they are aware of the regional focus of this board, and why they would want to interact here, because unused registrations can be deleted if inactive over a period of time.
- The Applicant mustn't be a toy dealer, who aims to be merely trying to bring in customers to their store.
- Less leniency with the rules and behaviour.
- No foreign topics or discussion that do not relate to us, or wasn't started by a local fan.
- Removal of Applicant if they are inactive for more than a month (if there is little interest in interacting here on *our* issues, then this community wasn't what they wanted anyway).
- If by chance a noticeable number of foreigners start joining up because one has told the others about getting in, I would go back to denying access, and the trial would be over.

If this one applicant (if they still want to join) becomes an asset to our community, and the focus here remains Australasian, making these types of contacts will be useful, especially if anyone goes overseas (like with the example of Taiga, who was actually here, but the links were made that remain today).

I'll probably go with the limited access/exposure trial, because I am one who is most likely to run into these people while in America, and it is always good to have contacts beforehand in places you are going to, plus it also proves we are a friendly bunch by not being overly xenophobic. A small number gives us openness to the global fandom, while still protecting our own 'cultural' identity us fans in Australia and New Zealand have built up over these past 11 years. The restriction on numbers is the compromise to those of us who feel that the appeal here has been because it has an Australasian focus.
Hopefully it is a compromise that people can be okay with.

[Soundwarp]

But dude, if i want a yanks opinion i'll post at TFW.......
Just IMO i don't like it but you are the man.

Oh and i don't count NZ as foreign, if they can get the doll here then they need t oaccept that they are the 8th state :P