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What make khmer440.com Cambodia forum so infamous?

Posted: Thu Jul 16, 2015 10:37 pm
by Samouth
What i heard about khmer440 rather bad than good. Late share your experiences as a poster in khmer440.

Re: What make khmer440 so infamous ?

Posted: Thu Jul 16, 2015 11:40 pm
by AE86
My first week of posting I was called a twat and cunt and was quickly gained up on. I'm not necessarily a nice poster I'll admit, so I understand, but it really detracted me from wanting to post further. Not sure why I kept at it honestly.

Re: What make khmer440 so infamous ?

Posted: Thu Jul 16, 2015 11:57 pm
by TheGrinchSR
The trouble with K440 is that it's a clique. Homogeneity of opinion is all that's valued there. Give it a few years without very careful work from the mods - CEO will be the same. It's the nature of social networks.

It goes from disagreement to "how dare you disagree with me" and when there are enough voices backing the latter... the clique is in place and ruling the roost. Valuing diversity of thought is difficult for people; evidence suggests that even when confronted with overwhelming factual evidence that contradicts someone's strongly held beliefs - they'll continue to grasp on to that belief rather than surrender to reason.

Unfortunately, in Cambodia... the expat community is not particularly coherent - there's not much MNC work here (whatever the delusional would like to believe). It's not a great place to retire (no medical facilities). It's a lousy place to teach (no real schools and terrible pay by and large). For every expat businessman here succeeding, there are 10 drunks failing by inching degrees. For every valuable NGO there are 20 sets of charlatans. And so on... this tends to lead to extreme individualists, content with a low standard of life as long as they can do what they feel like, as the main thrust of the expat population. And sadly, most of them have far too much time on their hands without a proper job or relationship to constrain them... thus their consensus tends to be full of self-admiration and rather lacking in self-critical thought. That drives a certain sense of belief in "time served" = "valuable opinion". And there's K440...

Re: What make khmer440 so infamous ?

Posted: Fri Jul 17, 2015 12:06 am
by StroppyChops
TheGrinchSR wrote:...there's not much MNC work here...
What's MNC work?

Re: What make khmer440 so infamous ?

Posted: Fri Jul 17, 2015 12:26 am
by John Bingham
Samouth wrote:What i heard about khmer440 rather bad than good. Late share your experiences as a poster in khmer440.
That's hardly surprising. This site was started by people who didn't like 440 and decided to set up an alternative. Sometimes this was due to differences in political opinions, other times personal arguments.
Khmer440 is the longest-running and most popular forum in Cambodia. Personally I was very reluctant to post anything on there at first. Posters there could seem very rude sometimes, but I don't think it's so bad nowadays. There have been a whole lot of different types posting on there over the years. Those who kept posting crazy stuff or constantly boasted about themselves and putting down Cambodia would eventually get called out for it. At the same time, a lot of what is posted there is just joking around, and could easily be misinterpreted.
Many people complain about it, but a huge number of those people still read it regularly. It is a great source for information about Cambodia because many of the contributors have a lot of experience in Cambodia and are well clued-in about the place. I can't count the amount of times that news stories have first broken on there and later been reported in the press. That's going back a long time too, way before social media became so prevalent here.

TheGrinchSR wrote: Unfortunately, in Cambodia... the expat community is not particularly coherent - there's not much MNC work here (whatever the delusional would like to believe). It's not a great place to retire (no medical facilities). It's a lousy place to teach (no real schools and terrible pay by and large). For every expat businessman here succeeding, there are 10 drunks failing by inching degrees. For every valuable NGO there are 20 sets of charlatans. And so on... this tends to lead to extreme individualists, content with a low standard of life as long as they can do what they feel like, as the main thrust of the expat population. And sadly, most of them have far too much time on their hands without a proper job or relationship to constrain them... thus their consensus tends to be full of self-admiration and rather lacking in self-critical thought. That drives a certain sense of belief in "time served" = "valuable opinion".
That seems more like a general critique of Cambodia and it's foreign residents rather than an answer to the question. You're not like them though - you're different. :? :roll:

Re: What make khmer440 so infamous ?

Posted: Fri Jul 17, 2015 6:04 am
by TheGrinchSR
StroppyChops wrote:
TheGrinchSR wrote:...there's not much MNC work here...
What's MNC work?
Multi-National Company

Re: What make khmer440 so infamous ?

Posted: Fri Jul 17, 2015 7:07 am
by vladimir
440 is OK, but you have a few of the chosen few who have inveigled themselves into positions of influence.

If they can learn to tolerate discussion of political points other than the small select group, it will be great.

It's still an OK site with a lot of potential, hopefully it will be run in an even-handed manner by scobienz and with less regard to Le Club in future.

Tip for safe posting: don't criticise unfettered capitalism, genocidal governments, or question the claim that this is the greatest country in the world to live in. Stroke the egos of the chosen, and thou wilt be cool, perhaps one day you can even aspire to an induction.

And who can deny the unparalleled glory of that?

Re: What make khmer440 so infamous ?

Posted: Fri Jul 17, 2015 7:36 am
by phuketrichard
I still enjoy reading there and it does have some great info an the posters have ( some ) decades of Cambodian experiences but I post less an less, now that they are accepting google adwords its lost its edge

But than same here, seems past month the site has lost traffic and anything of interest (at least to me)

could be cause its summer
could be cause threads just don't interest me

Re: What make khmer440 so infamous ?

Posted: Fri Jul 17, 2015 7:40 am
by hanno
I enjoy both sites; I have had problems with just one poster on Khmer440 (whom I blocked), and I believe in the old German adage: "Wie man in den Wald hineinruft, so schallt es heraus" (what goes around, comes around).

Re: What make khmer440 so infamous ?

Posted: Fri Jul 17, 2015 8:55 am
by AE86
^^Is that how they say in German? It seems so long compared to the English version.