asialife HCMC 1 - AsiaLIFE Magazine

The man behind An Phu Neighbours Google Group shares his
insight on the online community he is Webmaster of.
Photos by Ho Quang.
Tell us about the history of the
APN Neighbours group What
prompted you to become its
Webmaster
The group was started by An
Phu expat residents in August
2007. I inherited it after volunteering
to become its Webmaster
as one of the founders was
leaving. The list was originally
much more focused on the local
An Phu neighbourhood. When
I took over there were 700
members—there are now more
than 2,300 from all over the city.
I am a big believer in communities
and the importance of
helping others. There are very
few ways to bring expat communities
together, and I hope
APN helps to do just that.
Are you surprised by its popularity
I am surprised. I think part of
its success is the low barrier to
entry and the simplicity of a
mailing list format. I often think
whether this is the best format,
and for now I really can't think
of anything that would work
better.
How has your editorial (posting)
policy evolved Do you
struggle with what you can or
not allow to be posted Recently,
for example, animal sales
were banned but information
on outlet sales is available.
How, and where, do you draw
a line
I've tried not to make too many
rules, but it's becoming harder
and harder as the number of
messages increases.
I generally frown on advertising
for businesses. If you're
making money, you can factor
in the cost of advertising in a
publication like AsiaLIFE. Of
course there are exceptions.
For restaurant openings,
clothing sales, and events, I
think about how else they might
inform people, and whether the
community will be interested.
I try to allow informative messages
while frowning on marketing,
but it is a hard balance.
And I don't have the time or a
team to review all messages,
so things slip through that I
wouldn't allow if I was actually
making a decision.
I have my own strong values,
but I did consult the community
about the animal breeders' ban.
They were overwhelmingly on
the side of banning breeders. At
least one other HCM City online
community had already taken
the lead (ha).
In the end, the community
only works when most
members agree with most of
my decisions. If enough people
disagree the community will
fracture.
What, in the time you have
monitored APN, have you
learned about the neighbours
Are there types in the online
community that you can
label—the bored housewife,
the know it all etc
There is incredible diversity
among the neighbours. They do
tend to resist classification.
There are definitely some
people with too much time on
their hands and there are also
clearly some people who are
finding expat life extremely
challenging. Also, some people
don't seem to realise that the
expat community is quite small,
and they burn bridges in spectacular
ways by writing unfair
or inappropriate content. I'm
always amazed at what people
will write on APN in front
of an audience of over 2,000
neighbours when I'm sure they
wouldn't stand up in a theatre
and say the same things.
Are there any discussions/incidents
online which illustrate
"expats behaving badly"
The occasional racism, or xenophobia,
of some expats drives
me crazy.
I really like Vietnam. I've
lived here long enough to see
a lot of people come and go.
I'm sure it's a pretty hard place
to live if you don't want to be
here but it's always important
to remember that bad experiences
are about individuals or
situations, not about Vietnam,
and they can happen anywhere,
in any country.
Describe the funniest/most
ridiculous exchange between
neighbours...
There are certainly some ridiculous
opinionated ones. The most
memorable for me began with
an innocent question from one
home schooling parent looking
for other home schooling
parents. The first response was
a late-night alcohol-induced
rant against home schooling
and it just deteriorated from
there with back and forth arguments
on the pros and cons
of home schooling with many
people sharing their strongly
held opinions. By the end of
the 'debate' I even had one
neighbour accusing me of being
a bad parent for spending time
answering their emails rather
than being with my children
(I'm a stay-at-home dad). When
everything was finally calm it
was revealed that the original
poster had a child with special
needs, so it wasn't even a question
of schooling preferences.
Do you have any plans to venture
into new neighbourhoods
If I was going to change the approach,
I would look for a better
way to deal with the volume of
messages rather than splitting
the city up geographically into
'new neighbourhoods'. Perhaps
a 'market' list for buying and
selling, for example.
Some new neighbourhood
lists (PhuMyHungNeighbours,
SaigonPearlNeighbors, etc)
have been started by other
people in the last year, but what
I often see is the same message
being posted to all the lists.
asialife HCMC 15