With all due respects to the webmasters of GoKunming, and I do say this will all sincerity since I do very much enjoy your free website and find it a good watering hole to discuss various subjects from a foreigner's perspective with my fellow expats. However, I disagree with Matthew when he said, "On the grounds that original post on this thread should have gone in the reviews section, we're locking this thread. We can't see the discussion developing in a useful manner from here."

I think it is very relevant and useful for expats to share their experiences with different language schools since that is one of the major activity in Kunming. While the original comment should have been in a review section, it has morphed into a major discussion of how a school responds to negative review, an good indication of the friendliness of the learning environment. On the contrary, I do not think it would be appropriate to have this discussion on the review section since the rest of use aren't really providing a personal experience of the said school, only of our views of their reaction.

The preceeding was only my opinion, I leave it to the discreation of the webmasters on how the want their forum to be run. If you think I am out of line please feel free to lock this thread as well.

Happy belated Chinese new years!

i'm guessing the real reason that the thread has been locked is that Keats is a paying advertiser on this website. I do agree with you r post though.

yes being a paying advertiser seems to allow you to threaten your customers without having to take any responsibility, even this appear to be a minor situation ... pathetic

it's not the first time this kind of weird situation happen on this "respectful" website and it is regrettable

considering their advertising is a lie !
i think Keats School should see its advertising be banned for 15 or 30 days !

I agree with the previous posts on this thread, KEATS school seemingly threatened a former student on a public forum and all of a sudden that thread disappears.

Talk about stifling dissent.

Their actions are counter productive and unneceassry. I've heard stories about this school before.

I agree with the original poster's opinion.

I am the poster who began the thread about KEATS.

I am simply sharing my views about the school. Now I have been threatened with a lawsuit by the same school, which is laughable because it has no grounds. Additionally, I will certainly exercise my legal right to criticise KEATS online, even from a foreign country until the cows come home, if they attempt to sue me.

The fact that the owner has responded in this way demonstrates my point about her personality - dictatorial and dismissive.

I agree with the webmaster on this one. James put his bad review in the wrong place, it should have been in the reviews section. If I was running the site, I would have moved it to the reviews section with a zero star rating and locked the thread. Why? Not because he is insulting a paying advertiser, because the forums is not the place to write a review.

This highlights a clash between western and Chinese culture and (I think) is a good indication of something bad about western culture. We seem to think we have a god given right to scream obscenities about anything we want to anyone we want... after all nobody has to listen to us. Even though our own countries have laws against this (libel and slander defamation laws), we still seem to think its OK. The internet just exacerbates this by making our statements more anonymous. A case in my country recently saw someone sued for libel over a twitter post. You might think thats ridiculous but the person was successfully prosecuted and rightly so - they made factually incorrect statements about a person which adversely affected the victim.

This creates a problem when it comes to reviews as well - only people that feel extremely bad or good about something will generally post a review on it. While over time you will get an averaged idea about a place/product, looking at a single review will likely tell you a single persons opinion. Which is the same in this case. Looking at the original post and other forum posts about Keats, there are other people that have had good experiences with the school... and it seems some of James original facts may be questionable.

From a Chinese perspective, James is directly attacking their business by posting questionable statements on a site many of their potential clients visit. Chinese culture, laws and attitudes are completely different to those in the west and anyone coming to China needs (and probably does) understand this. This site is a western style site but with many Chinese readers and businesses advertising on it. James has made questionable statements in the wrong place and is claiming that continuing to do so is his right. Well, in China this has legal ramifications and is generally bad form anyhow. I also sense a personality clash which tends to make people exaggerate issues.

I am sure if you had posted your review in the proper place it would not have received the same response from them. Not taking the time to figure out how to post a review isn't a good excuse I am sorry. You may be stretching it a bit by saying "I don't know how" as you are obviously a smart person so should be able to figure it out pretty quickly.

I think the site management acted reasonably.

The thread was not deleted.
It was locked.

All can see the communication between James and Keats. Nothing has been hidden. You can put away the conspiracy theories.

Threads like that, and this one, can easily go down hill. WHEN threads do go down hill it serves nobody. It does goKunming no good, it does no good to the affected parties, and it doesn't do the community on here any good. The only people who can get anything out of it are the trolls.

Two and a half years!!! Why take so long to germinate? Is it because "James" is now in a country other than China so now does not fear he has to legally answer for his remarks?

Also - - we know all about who one side is - Keats School - - but the "other side" is just "James." How about both sides out in the open - - who are you - James?

Cheers - - JJ

I am contemplating studying at Keats and would be interested in reading Jame's complaints but can't seem to find his original post, has it been deleted? if not could someone please provide a link? or just outline what his complaints were?

Thanks in advance!

I tried the Keats on-line test a few days ago. It has errors in it that even I could spot. Did not give me a feeling of confidence! On the other hand, I wonder if anybody has bothered to report the errors to them so they can fix it.