John,

I have tried to keep an open mind regarding your postings, which is certainly NOT EASY! As I have stated numerous times in various postings, I came to this discussion forum after witnessing far too much Kill The Messenger going on over at Daves ESL Caf China Job-related discussion forum. So often when some unsuspecting and trusting newcomer came to China and found that they had been grossly misled, tricked, or even conned, a few hard-core skeptics (the infamous poster Roger comes to mind with over 9000 postings!!!) were ready to pounce on the person. Of course their retorts came not from first-hand knowledge, but from their own sense self-righteousness and their demand that the poster pass their own special acid test. Little or no empathy or sympathy was ever expressed.

I agree with you that FTs warning postings can sometimes be fraught with lack of details, or worse, selective memory. Most of us at this forum are not stupid, we can easily figure out who these people are (but they are rare). Did you ever stop and think about the emotional and confused state-of-mind some poor FT might be in at the time of their outcry?

The one time I posted a very dire warning about a school, I felt I was truly running for my life. The boss at the school had promised to hunt me down like a dog. Despite this state of affairs, I managed to post a very detailed account of what had taken place. Nevertheless, the self-appointed pouncers came yappin at my heels, accusing me of things they knew absolutely NOTHING about! In fact, the first one to jump me was the very foreign teacher who blatantly lied to me over the phone about the conditions at the school. For example, he told me the apartment was off-campus (it wasnt), he told me it was decent (it wasnt!), and he failed to mention three other critical things regarding the apartment:

1) the teacher who lived in the apartment before me had fled

2) he had never actually seen the apartment himself; and

3) he lived off-campus with his wife

And that was only the issues with the living situation at the school Ill spare you the nightmarish conditions of the job itself. He was pouncing on me because HE was losing face with the crooked school and the crooked boss and had been in cahoots with him to lure trusting FTs to reduce his workload!

Why on earth would most posters take the time to post blatantly false claims about a terrible experience(s) at a school? What would be the point, the benefit?

In your latest posting you include: Why is it you make no complaint about the increasing numbers of postings being made by Frank, who searches the job offers looking for what he thinks are suspect offers and then offers his often sarcastic comments. Where is his justification for doing this? Has he been to or had any dealings with any of the schools he highlights? The answer is no - but Frank is one of you and as such, in your eyes, he can say no wrong. I don't see him checking on teachers' resumes either - there are a good many suspect cases in those too, but clearly you guys are consumed only with damaging schools and not those teachers who also deserve similar treatment. It is little wonder that you save loads of venom for me and because you are so obviously biased against schools, your response to my postings is largely negated.

I am one of them??? What in the world does that mean???

Perhaps they dont challenge my job ad postings for numerous reasons:

1) they get it; in that they understand I am trying to offer a bit a levity amidst all the breast-beating going around here;

2) they understand that I am trying to point out the constant poor English employed by these employers or agents. John, would YOU trust these people???

3) they think my ad commentaries are stupid, boring, and unfunny, and simply not worth the time to respond.

Whatever the reason, my increasing numbers of postings dont provoke the kind of response that yours obviously do!

As for your few detractors, I now join the club, in which the membership is rising rapidly.

Here are a "few" highlights from some of your few detractors:

From Adam: John Makes a very presumptuous post, instead of asking questions he makes conclusions without answers.

From Richard Prouty: John, you make a lot of assumptions. This school has a notorious reputation in Guandong. We should thank the original posters for their information. And by the way you are absolutely incorrect about the guest lecture status for F visa. . . As far as everything else you wrote, you make a lot of long-winded off topic assumptions. People like you do not add quality to these boards but more noise that newbies have to sift through.

From Yi: . . . invitations were received (John this is where you begin make your incorrect assertions), and in a later post: Are you for real? Get a life! You waste so much time and nonsense and your posts are ridiculous i doubt you are any kind of professional. As several other posters commented outside of this topic, your observations are lacking and long winded. you should relegate yourself to what you do best (lurking).

From Wally: Wow John must have ESP to be able to recreate such a scenario without knowing anything about the place, people or time.

From Raoul Duke: If you look at John's posting history, mostly over on the Reviews side, it's hard not to notice that John seems to exist for one thing and one thing only: to try and shoot down any complaint that any foreign teacher makes about any school. He puts a lot of work into making it look as if any problem that happens in China is entirely the fault of the foreign teacher.
He jumps readily into situations where even he admits he has no knowledge and no connection. He posits a bunch of rather condescending and cowardly after-the-fact hindsight. He uses small and often irrelevant details to try and cover over tales of the most blatant thievery and malfeasance on the part of the schools.
The one thing he DOESN'T tell us is why he expends so much effort on this campaign to exonerate the schools and make all of us look bad. I can think of only 2 possibilities:
1) He's trying to ingratiate himself, at the expense of all of us, with some group of school owners or aducation administrators. Boo, hiss!
2, and my money's on this one) He's ego-fluffing. By making all of us look stupid and superficial and a bit dodgy, he must be better than all of us, right?

From Ginger Grant: You know, John, after reading your responses to the reviews here for some time now; I have something to state here and youll most likely either give me a long response or a short retort; let me also add that Raoul Duke may have a point.
You obviously devote a great deal of time and effort dissecting from all angles, as you put it, these school reviews, but it's also very noticeable to me that your efforts tend to ignore very crucial details in some of the reviews, and maybe you see those ignored details as irrelevant especially if they dont coincide with your argumentative strategy. You tend to make a particular attempt to either discredit the poster's review altogether or certain aspects of that review, and if another poster doesn't agree with your views, you do get a little snippity, and long winded yourself.

Thanks John, for making ESL Teachers Board Discussion Forum more and more like Daves ESL Kill The Messenger forum! Perhaps the frequency of my postings will decrease. Congratulations! Mission accomplished!