the events are getting less and less here. long term expats rely on wechat public accounts because they've been knowing venues for long, but certainly the new comer misses a lot by simply relying on GoKM.
Can you at least repost events organised by the Elephant book store and Nordica. this is really the least...

the maps that show where places and events are located are always missing pieces so they are unusable (at least on my mac computer and samsung android phone)

By the way, Alien and others, shouting fire in a crowded theatre is one of the most dishonest phrases ever uttered. It was used by Oliver Wendell Holmes to uphold the jailing of a US Socialist Party leader Charles Schenk who had called for resistance to the draft during WW1. Changing the analogy slightly, Schenk was trying to put out a fire started by the warmonger and segregationist Woodrow Wilson.

ignoring,,that means 'not responding' to trolls,, is one way to combat them
actively pushing them down the forum list by responding to other genuine posts is another,, but twice this morning two bone fide forum members just couldn't resist providing oxygen to an identified disruptor,,it's unbelievably thoughtless.

the last 'clever' response to the troll pushed then all the way back to the top of the forum.
now a third has joined the fray,,yyyyy!

You are assuming they want to combat them, hence lies the problem.

You cut off one head and two more takes its place.

I appreciate Adrian's explanation, although I don't think more management of the forums is necessary. However, if you're going to do it, at least give us a working definition of 'troll', 'troll-like behaviour', etc.
@cloudtrapezer: didn't know the history of the phrase, what I meant was the literal act - i.e., real incitement to physically dangerous panic in the face of a phony threat. My sympathies are with Schenk & co., of course - my understanding is that millions of people wound up seriously disliking WWI, but that many who had opposed it had had their practical freedom of speech seriously impaired by others who were quite sure who the real bad guys were (i.e.: those other guys).

Then again, maybe they had been trolling.

tyranny of the majority vs tyranny of the minority? being the judge, jury and prosecutor the new trinity? I guess.

I will not make a noise. I just sit in the corner enjoy my pint. I love pub fights. hahahhahhah

@GoK Management

Please give Patrick Scally a big raise for his hard work throughout the years evident in the archives... or at least a big 月饼, not the cheap ones from 嘉华, preferably with ice cream filling from Häagen-Dazs or DQ.

Responding to various posts by @alienew:

Regarding your advocacy of J.S. Mill-style principles about the value of understanding others' perspectives through the free exchange of ideas and so forth, I don't disagree with a word of these arguments on their own terms. Nor does there seem to be much objection in principle from other members -- I think you are preaching to the choir.

The question is their domain of applicability.

Given that this is a small expat community in the remote southwest of a nationalistic big-eks era China, it just seems absurd to suppose that free speech principles should apply here without exception. I say "without exception" because I do think we should apply them whenever possible, and that that should be in the overwhelming majority of cases.

You already pay some heed to the local setting in making an exception for the "external Overminders". It doesn't seem such a stretch to extend that to threads which risk needlessly antagonizing local people (e.g., various posts in the "Which Chinese insults do you find most offensive?" thread) or cast the expat community in an exceptionally bad light (e.g., "Beware neo-nazi pornography laowei").

I don't recall any other threads in recent years that would violate the above standards apart from those few by Miyamoto, so it seems like an awful lot of objection is being raised in defense of an exceedingly small and noxious sliver of opinion. (As annoying as James Callis can be, his posts to date would not qualify for moderation under these standards -- in fact, the responses to his invective have been quite measured and thus I think are a credit to forum members.)

There's a Yiddish phrase "a schande vor de goyim", meaning a shame in front of / before Gentiles. That is to say, something done by a Jew that reflects badly on the Jewish community in the eyes of Gentiles. The implication, drawing on millennia of Jews living as "expats" of a sort, is that such things are to be avoided as they harm the community's interests. I think this idea is applicable here.

Storm in a teacup, perhaps? At any rate I think the storm, although instigated by Miyamoto, was not difficult to respond to but was increased by posts which responded to him irrelevantly - to which he responded irrelevantly (off his own point) - to which responses were made that were irrelevant... etc. ad nauseum. Now it's become what Americans used to call 'a Federal issue', and the nature and extent of moderators' responsibilities are all a big question. Slippery slope.
Suggest we all make sure our heads are screwed on. Me too - too much blather all around - we do tend to like to hear our own voices.
My sympathies, Pat.