Problems at AjarnForum
Admin Update 11/8/06: It appears as though the admin of Ajarn Forum has come back and is beginning to make positive changes. As I said in this article, It is my hope that Ajarn Forum continues to be the teaching community in Thailand’s home on the internet. Some kudos go to LDMA for his concern for the teaching community in Thailand and his tireless work to improve Ajarn Forum. Thanks.
There seems to be some serious problems over at AjarnForum over the last couple of weeks. This is not to be confused with Ajarn.com. Ajarn.com is a great teaching resource with jobs, news and information for the TEFL community. Ajarn Forum is a separate entity from Ajarn.com. It turns out that the admins of the forum have been incommunicado internet wise and those left in charge have no sense of the character of the forum. A few long time users have been banned in the last two weeks for petty charges, mainly because they have stated the obvious. Trolls are taking over threads and making the forum semi-unreadable in some cases. The current mod team at AjarnForum is in need of serious overhaul at this stage and a major crackdown needs to take place.
Why? Ajarn Forum is a community for TEFL teachers in Thailand. As such, it represents teachers and provides a service for teachers, in my view, no more and no less. Now, I currently view that the Ajarn Forum is not representative of teachers in Thailand and as it stands now, it is not a community for teachers in Thailand. My hope is that LDMA can take control of the situation at Ajarn, welcome back long term users who have been pushed out, and remove the trolls from the mod team. On the positive side, LDMA has promised to take care of the situation and assured me that he is not behind the most recent purge. Whether or not he can take care of is the question now. If he can not do this, then Ajarn Forum will not be a site for teachers in Thailand. If that is the case, TEFLWatch will step up to the plate and provide a service for teachers in Thailand. I would prefer that we wouldn’t, I would prefer that Ajarn Forum return to its previous state as a community for TEFL teachers in Thailand.