Comments on: Good Dave, Bad Dave

By: garydenness

garydenness — Mon, 14 May 2012 19:50:26 +0000

Another happy Bad Dave ex-user! Why am I not surprised they are still censoring any opinion that could offend their advertisers? They’ll be basing their servers in China before you know it, to let the Great Firewall do their job for them.

By: Jason Schroeder

Jason Schroeder — Mon, 14 May 2012 12:13:33 +0000

i got banned for mentioning the China-Philippines conflict. I was warned that was a forbidden topic. The pro-communist Chinese (Lobster and others) only reply that the West is evil and China should just invade the Philippines. It is now my job to write complain letters to anyone I can to make him lose his lucrative income. Post anything to not show China as the perfect society and you will be banned.

By: Chris

Chris — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 06:15:39 +0000

Beware the ides of March! I got banned March 15, 2011, for no other reason than stating “the moderator has gone nuts & is locking threads left, right & center”, & “has been heavy handed with the mod edit, enough to give Pravda a run for their money!” After the earthquake & tsunami, Kalgukshi went around locking any thread that even mentioned any of the 3 topics: earthquake, tsunami or the Fukushima nuclear reactor. After getting a “this thread is locked 3 or 4 times” (for 3-4 different threads) & being extremely concerned about unofficial reports of a radiation cloud reaching Korea that afternoon, I was justifiably annoyed that Mr Kalgukshi, (no doubt safely ensconced in a comfortable office in California), would deliberately endanger peoples lives by locking a thread on possible radiation reaching Korea, that has almost nothing to do with Japan, well maybe only in a very tangential way. The radiation scare was later exposed as a hoax or over reaction by a panicky Korean populace. The thread he was moving stuff to was heavily riddled with ‘MOD EDIT’ & no longer made much sense to try & read & recall prior comments in their entirety. For example, my comment “The previous post appears to have been deleted, but…”; became “MOD EDIT, but…” To me, this is excessive moderation. An entire thread on Korean school-kids reaction to the tsunami simply disappeared. And such double standards! Another poster still there as far as I know, called me nuts but was neither warned, reprimanded or banned.

By: garydenness

garydenness — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 03:03:06 +0000

Another happy Dave’s ESL camper!

What Dave Sperling does have on his side, that will probably prevent the collapse of his evil empire any time soon, is the fact that he has a very high page rank with Google, and heads the list with all the search engines for common search terms.

That means that whilst lots of disaffected users will leave, new ones will step in and keep the site busy.

Two things to note about that: firstly, the replacement of old and experienced for new and exploring means the quality of the site’s content will deteriorate.

Secondly – that won’t bother Dave. His site is primarily about traffic and advertising. Newbies keep both going nicely.

By: Steve_C

Steve_C — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 05:29:10 +0000

I’ve been a member of Dave’s ESL user since 2006 when I began to consider teaching in Taiwan. While I enjoyed reading others’ experiences there, I have to admit that I’ve found much more useful information at other forums such as Tealit and Forumosa. Since coming to Taiwan in 2008 I’ve visited Dave’s less and less, the main reason being the heavy-handed abuse of power wielded by Kalguski. With all the edits, deletions, and bannings, I sometimes feel I’m reading a North Korean message board.

Now, I myself have never been warned or threaten by Kalguski; however, because of their policies I’ve decided to stop using Dave’s. Of course, I could never post this sentiment there because it would be immediately deleted and I would be banned. And that is exactly the reason I’m making a quiet exit.

To Zipper: I have read your posts on Dave’s ESL and can confirm you’ve always added interesting and useful information in a reasonable way. But, after reading Kalgukshi’s mod edits and ban threats, it doesn’t surprise me that you got banned for simply questioning their policies. I just wonder if these Police State tactics of Dave’s ESL Cafe will cause their ultimate demise?

By: garydenness

garydenness — Sun, 19 Sep 2010 05:48:34 +0000

That’s pretty much the Kaglukshi we all know and…erm…dislike?

By: Zipper

Zipper — Sun, 19 Sep 2010 03:10:31 +0000

I was banned yesterday from Dave’s Cafe, because I questioned Mr. Kalgukshi about why posters could talk about Taiwan in the Koreans forum, and posters couldn’t talk about Korea on the Taiwan forum. Double standard? Then I was banned. I never used foul language and always shared my experience and knowledge of living in China, Taiwan, South Korea, Thailand and the Philippines. I never expressed myself no lighter or harsher than anyone else. I was banned because I dared to directly question Mr. Kalgukshi’s policies. What an asshole.

By: Zipper

Zipper — Sun, 19 Sep 2010 03:07:35 +0000

I was banned yesterday from Dave’s Cafe, because I questioned Mr. Kalgukshi about why posters couldn’t talk about Taiwan in the Koreans forum, and posters couldn’t talk about Korea on the Taiwan forum. Double standard? Then I was banned. I never used foul language and always shared my experience and knowledge of living in China, Taiwan, South Korea, Thailand and the Philippines. I never expressed myself no lighter or harsher than anyone else. I was banned because I dared to directly question Mr. Kalgukshi’s policies. What an asshole.

By: garydenness

garydenness — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 18:17:29 +0000

Money talks, ethics walks. The Dave Philosophy. Such is life.

By: Kate

Kate — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 07:09:50 +0000

Dave is too concerned with money to be bothered with ethics.

It’s business as usual for him.

His money ultimately comes from exploitative companies who underpay vulnerable teachers and overcharge vulnerable customers…

hope it gets shut down one day. But this is how the world appears to work. I will no longer go to that site.