Bangkok Informed: What It’s Like Moderating an Expat Facebook Group [Season 3, Episode 58]

Most of us have used one type of expat group or another, so you know that they’re often a chaotic mix of helpful advice, strange questions, and angry debates. Helpful? Sometimes. Boring? Never.

On this episode, Greg interviews Blake Sibbitt, the creator of a relatively new Facebook group called Bangkok Informed, who talks about what goes on behind the scenes. Blake explains the basic goal behind his forum: to split the difference between highly curated forums where participants must follow a strict set of rules and wild west style forums that quickly devolve into vulgar nastiness. According to Blake, most people want something in the middle, and that’s the service he is trying to provide.

Greg and Blake discuss some of the common problems - trolls, how to define ‘offensive’, and members who are determined to be offended no matter what they read. Blakes overall advice is simple - members should focus on just posting content they would like to see, causing the forum to naturally head in the direction they would like.

Although he’s had to deal with a few problematic members, Blake maintains quite a Zen attitude and refuses to be bothered by the troublemakers. As all of us need to be reminded now and again, the Internet is not the real world, and there’s no reason to to get too bent out of shape. :)

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