Here's the place to put critiques (or compliments), discuss or vent about all things GoKunming.

Well done GoKunming.
MM might think that he is indeed a valuable contributor to this site because he created 5 pages of responses. Well he isn’t. Closing off his neo-nazi porn laowei thread is indeed your responsibility. Indeed the responses where to what this website is about and not about what his trolling threads are about.
Please from now on don’t anybody react to his future posts!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OK took half a day, but that left everybody to have their say, but this nonsense is over. Good to see that GoKunming is self-cleansing.
(Refering to : www.gokunming.com/[...]

Some threads you know instantly are going to go downhill and those should be locked IMHO.
My observation is that it is usually the newbies. Us old timers don't got time for these games.

@GoKunming
well done for taking action. I'm sure the extra traffic didn't hurt... every cloud has a silver lining, right?
how about IP blocks/bans? I'm sure you've thought of that but thought I'd suggest it anyway.

mm wouldn't have been a problem if regular contributors had reacted intelligently,, ignore trolls,, to hell with trying to understand them and reason with them. think of all those notification emails you received with those toxic keywords in the title,, what are the data miners going to make of that? gokm has to broaden its appeal and not let itself be dominated by 'power users' that make it their own fiefdom where they feel they've got the right to pounce on each and every thread and take it over,, always,,always turnin it round to their own pet subjects
sticky threads of relevant down to earth information concerning daily life,,problems,, solutions,,bargains,, how to's,, how I overcame x problem,,what fresh fruit, veg, food is available today and ......how to cook it

As it is,,it seems sterile and monotonous,,certainly not a site to bookmark as it stands

Here is an honest assessment instead of the biting criticism I often heap. By my count, the current management is at least the third, (possibility the fourth by the change in writing style and tone from a few years ago) and I give them kudos for keeping the website operational.

All the suggestions given in the previous thread were good ones, but would be useless without active moderation which is sorely lacking. I don't know the inner workings of GoKunming and what is happening behind the scenes but to make this site worthwhile to contribute to rather than being used for personal entertainment, you really need to get proactive and actually provide a service to Kunming expats and the locals rather than treat it as a repository of "user-generated content".

Perhaps its not fair to level such charges nor have such expectations but I have not found GoKunming to be of any relevance to my needs as an expat. What little factual information I do occasionally find in the articles are

factoids I can do without, nice to know, but not really useful. I haven't found anything useful in a long time, but I am sure there are others the disagree, but this is one perspective, others will provide theirs for you to consider.

But at the end of the day, it is up to you to decide whether expanding such efforts and resources are worth the rewards, quite possibility not. It may be that after setting up the proper network and contacts to be able to write up to date articles you will not generate a wider audience nor attract more advertisers. No one said it would be easy.

There are many examples of forums that moderate, and don't rely on some form of self censorship or self control on the part of the wider world. Why are there signs, Do Not Walk On The Grass? Because people do. Why do we have advice like, ' do not feed the troll', because people do, without malice or forethought. Blaming the people who get sucked in is letting the troll off, without consequences. One consequence of which is that the rest of us suffer.

Why do countries have laws, and police forces, to protect the majority from the minority? Because it makes sense.
Wanting to see some order on the forum is not about building fiefdoms

(which I have been accused of in the past), it is about civility and respect for other users.

There are lots of forums on the internet that allow thread shitting, flame wars, general abuse, and anarchy. If people want that they can go there and play to their hearts content.

In honesty, at the moment, I would not direct local people to Gokunming, unless I knew that specific information was on here. I certainly could not point young adults here to use it as a resource for English learning.

On a different topic.
The recent articles based on things to see around Kunming and Kunming's Metro lines have been of great interest. Perhaps encouraging people to explore the city they live in.

I have lived here for years, and I am guilty of only visiting the 'usual places'. I now have information about other places I need to visit.

My two cents on not giving trolls the time of day:

When you focus your attention on negativity via reading & writing in the form of thoughts, you are in essence physically rewiring your brain. New synaptic connections are created for this unhealthy neural path led by said trolls. Such neuroplasticity has been proven in forefront neuroscience studies.

So don't let unhappy folks mess around with your brain plasticity. This goes for not just on GoK, but everything online, and also in real life. Be more selective in the interactions for your own well-being.

Here's an intelligible HuffPo article on this subject:

www.huffingtonpost.com/[...]