The International Schools Review Forum

PsyGuy wrote:

> Well the public forum used to be like that, then the ISs self trashed their
> own names and their lawyers came knocking and the deal worked out is the
> trash talk would go behind a paywall as then its not a public forum but a
> members only forum.

That makes me feel a little better about the folks running this site, but it's still disconcerting. Why not put up a $0 paywall/registration system? At minimum, I'd like to know the schools who called in the lawyers. Name and shame can sometimes be a good thing.

I largely agree with the rest of what you wrote. Sad to see that the "communicative and helpful" routine might be less about genuine placement and more of a larger bait and switch scheme. I did get the sense that some of the other vacancies were really just bait, and the opaque postings were always a red flag. But I'd like to give the benefit of the doubt about the one they contacted me about given the time frame. I told them I had two offers on the table, didn't see any way they'd be able to "process" everything / interview me / make me an offer by the time I had to decide between the other two offers, and they still went ahead and spent an hour interviewing me. Maybe it was a slow week.

@Heliotrope

LOL, Totally not my thing.

@GrumblesMcGee

Because lawyers cost coin. It used to be there was no members forum, but you paid USD$29 to access the evaluations side of the site, you can post a review for free, but reading them you had to be a member. Well then the public forum became an impromptu evaluation site, and we really put the screws to some of the ISs, we trashed ISs with wild abandon. So then the lawyers came a knocking and there were lots of ISs and lots of lawyers and only one ISR, and it costs coin just to respond to a lawsuit, just answering it costs coin, forget about the trial, and pre-trial and appeal work and all the heavy stuff, just the basics of answering and replying to a lawsuit costs coin, multiply that by all the ISs that send cease and desist letters and file complaints and its death by 1000 paper cuts.
Its a lot easier to defend that your members only content really is for a separate class of members because they are paying a non-trivial fee, a lot easier than saying we have a members content area only but we let anyone become a member and it costs nothing is easily interpreted as having nothing more than a second registration system
The actual fee has been around for a long time, it was always to mitigate the costs of the more risky side of the site, so when the member forum rolled out it was just incorporated into the collective of member benefits, since the member forum had the same risk profile as the evaluation side of the site.

Slow week, someone new needed interview practice, or a slow file that someone wanted to show the client that some work and action was happening on it. There are still ESs/ISs offering RMB¥6K/mth and they are surprised they dont have applicants, isnt that what the placement agency is supposed to do find them applicants. There are lots of native Chinese DTs that work for RMB¥3K/mth and they think paying double is a huge salary.