Bulgaria - British Expat Forum

Hey, i am a new member on this site and on reading the postings and being a member for 2 or 3 weeks i have made some interesting observations which do not bode well.
The first is that it appears British so called " expats " have no interest in helping each other.
I have posted 2 questions on this site asking for the help and advice of other members and all i have got is a measly 2 replies. This is of course from over 90 viewings of my comments on one question and 33 of the other .
I thought this site was here for expats and potential expats to help each other and show some community spirit ! Mean spirited i would say .
Looking through all the other blogs, questions or comments it seems i am not alone. Whilst the numbers of people looking at this site are fairly high it seems nobody wants to put themselves forward to help others on here with a free bit of advice and information.
In fact it seems there are a few individuals who have a lot to say about certain other individuals of a very bitchy nature.
I am truly wondering what this site was really set up to do ?
I am struggling to get any useful or practical advice because it seems people aren't interested, and as i said looking through the numbers it seems i am not alone !
Come on guys, if you're really patriotic then do your bit it by helping others to find places, services and whatever in Bulgaria.
And to those that did take the time to answer my posting, i say thank you so much... i hope others will follow your lead !
Oh and one last little mention.... seems some people think it's a bad thing to buy a property in an area which has a lot of expats. I have to say that if i buy a place in Bulgaria i will enjoy meeting other British folk. being English or British is something we should all be proud of..... not ashamed !

Well, I'm sorry you don't like our forum but I'm afraid that we, the owners, have very little control over other people's behaviour. Sure, we can delete their spam but we can't change their motives.

If you look at our Malta forum, for example, you'll see a thriving community of people helping each other in any and every way they can. Sadly, the Brits in Bulgaria don't seem to be like that. Most of them only post here if they see a way to tout for your business. There's not a lot we can do to stop them being so selfish.

We work hard to keep this a spam-free environment. Otherwise the forum users would have to wade through a quagmire of self-promotional posts.

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I thought this site was here for expats and potential expats to help each other and show some community spirit ! Mean spirited i would say .

It is. But if that's what most Brits in Bulgaria are like then ask yourself if you really do want to go and live there.

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I am truly wondering what this site was really set up to do ?

This site is owned by British Expat Ltd, a private company which owns many websites. It is part of that business. It's quite normal and usual for forums to be owned by businesses. Our main competitor, for example, is owned by a US publicly listed major corporation.

Many forums start off as back-bedroom hobbyist places and if they're any good they get bought up by the big boys. Believe me I have had several offers for BE but have resisted so far because we still want to be involved. It's harder to feel that loyalty to our visitors when one the one side we get people touting for business and on the other side we get complaints from users who say the place isn't useful.

It would be useful if people participated in the community rather than just trying to take what they can get or score free adverts.

Why does it cost money to advertise on here?

Because we have bills to pay too, and we spend a lot of time keeping this place clean.

Because if we did allow self-promotion this place would be swarming with the odious types who want to part you from your money, regardless of any benefit you may or may not gain from their "help".

Why is no one helping you?

Most likely because they're being frustrated in their attempts to tout their business to you.

Just think about it for a minute. Someone shows up and pretends to befriend you. Next minute they're recommending their business to you. Do you think that's a friendly and helpful person or perhaps someone who wants your money.

I'm sorry but there's nothing I can do to change the selfish nature of people who behave in that way. All I can do is a bit of deleting the self-promotion which the forum rules state clearly that we don't allow.

Hi,
I fully appreciate what you have said but i think that therin lies the problem. This site is owned and run by you so your only interest is a commercial one. Maybe if this site were owned and run by the expats themselves then there would probably be alot more response and comradery.
I would guess that any expat with a business interest would feel it fair game to promote their business to other expats . It seems there is a fair bit of animosity showing through here and i would say it's a fair bet that is reflected in the low numbers of Brits in Bulgaria who actually use this site.
I guess you're in between a rock and a hard place but as i said your interest is surely only a commercial one so i guess you're never going to win.
I will look at your Malta forum out of interest to see what goes on there.
Regards.

OK, thanks for your response. You can try our competitors (I'm sure you know who they are). I expect that you'll find that any of them with any info which might be worth having are owned by major corporations.

Yes, Malta is our flagship forum, which we're very proud of, and we have a 50% profit share on there with a local voluntary organisation. So, despite the various accusations we get thrown at us (not by you) we are trying to run a socially responsible and useful business. My interest is not only a commercial one. I spend many hours here and on other places trying to help people.

By the way, I am an expat although not in Bulgaria, unlike our main competitor who is a large US corporation. It's insulting to suggest that my only interest is a commercial one. I spend a lot of hours for no financial reward nor even thanks trying to keep this place on an even keel, and so do our voluntary moderators.

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Maybe if this site were owned and run by the expats themselves then there would probably be alot more response and comradery.

And then who would pay for the domain renewal, website hosting, development, forum maintenance, updates, back-ups, time to keep it clean, etc? We do all that - for what? It sure as heck doesn't seem like a good business/commercial proposition to me, but we persevere.

It's a question of attitude. The members in Malta have embraced this place and made it their own. It's their community now. They made it that way. The members in Bulgaria have mostly just tried to crap on us and take what they can get.

I can't change that. Can I?

Have you ever contributed anything to our kitty? Bought anything using our links? Looked around the rest of our site? Or did you just expect that the reason for our existence is to provide you with a free service?

We are a very small business competing against some really big companies. You could help us rather than criticising us for running a business.

ok , now i see why you have " Rottweiler " beside your name ! lol. only joking. I do understand the point you are making and am aware that there are costs involved in keeping a website. To be honest i cannot understand why expats aren't using it more , despite the fact that they have to pay an annual subscription. I don't think it's a great deal of money just once a year. Perhaps they simply don't think they need to communicate or look for help. Maybe thats why they wanted to get away from England in the first place, so that they wouldn't have to deal with English people any more ! lol.
I think it's a shame because if i do manage to get out to Bulgaria ( not a certainty ! ) it would be useful to have a site where you can connect with others.
I am still considering other countries to be honest. I just want a nice place somewhere as a retreat. Can't afford expensive prices thats why Bulgaria seems attractive ! Also some great scenery and peaceful countryside.
Any other places you know where you can buy a place very cheap, with a low cost of living and you can get by without speaking the language ? I am very much open to suggestion just as long as you can fly there !

The vast majority of the info we offer is free. We only ask for money when it comes to advertising or 'recommendations'.

Why aren't expats in Bulgaria using our place more? Well, I have my own theory but you can figure it out for yourself.

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Any other places you know where you can buy a place very cheap, with a low cost of living and you can get by without speaking the language ?

Yes, there are lots of places where you can do that, but often the info from people in the know is to rent rather than buy a property.

Some of us have been expats for a long time, so don't dismiss our knowledge. Most of the people who post regularly on here actually are expats. We do try to help newbies but they're kinda hard to help sometimes. 8)

Kay wrote: Quote: Any other places you know where you can buy a place very cheap, with a low cost of living and you can get by without speaking the language ? Yes, there are lots of places where you can do that, but often the info from people in the know is to rent rather than buy a property.

Definitely rent for a while first before buying, if it's somewhere you're not familiar with.

As Kay says, there are places where you can buy very cheaply, the cost of living's low and you can get by without learning the local language.

There are downsides, of course. The sort of places that are cheap to live in don't have a great deal of money available for local or central government, so law is poorly enforced, healthcare is likely to be either poor or expensive, infrastructure is shaky and supplies of basics and utilities are erratic.

thank you all for your advice. it is appreciated.

It's very hard to recommend places to look without knowing more about your personality, preferences and how resilient or intrepid you might be. Also, my experience is mostly in SE Asia which might not appeal to you. Here goes anyway.

Malaysia is very popular. They even have a programme to encourage people to make it their second home. Our online 'colleague' and friend Andy Davison runs a site "Malaysia My Second Home" (MM2H)
http://www.mm2h.com/

I wouldn't like to live in Malaysia because it's relatively expensive for the region, plus it's a Muslim country and you can only get pork in a few places. However, it's very modern and English is very widely spoken. English is the usual medium of education (which is causing some dissent from people who want the country's own language to be used instead).

Thailand is cheap, but the laws change every five minutes and the governments tend to be a bit xenophobic about having long-stay farangs (foreigners). It can be done, especially if you're over 50 but be prepared for a lot of red-tape and being messed around. English is not widely spoken but you can get by.

Cambodia is quite up and coming. But there's not a lot there. Even so, if you're fairly intrepid you might like it. English is spoken a bit in the main tourist areas.

I could go on with more countries but you're probably getting the gist of it, and maybe you have no interest in moving to SE Asia anyway. At least it's nearly always warm! 8)

Perhaps someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but I very much got the impression that Bulgaria (and indeed Spain) were the really "in" places a few years ago but much less so now. But, hey, there's a whole big world out there.

hi just read your post, sorry your having a hard time. i am new to this forum so not sure what its all about yet. but i do go on others which offer lots of help and advise. personnally i would rent in bulgaria for at least a couple of months before you buy if at all possible. i really like bulgaria but its not to everyones taste and i know as many who dont like it as do. good luck with wherever you choose

Thanks and welcome (again).

It's great to have a new member who doesn't appear to be here for their own selfish purposes. This is a constant battle we seem to have on our Bulgaria forum which we don't see nearly as much on our other forums.

If we could only attract a few helpful members then that would make a heck of a lot of difference. 8)