British Expat Newsletter: November 2018
Hello, and welcome to those of you who have recently signed up.
In this issue
- This month: British Expat update
- Write for British Expat
- British Expat Amazon Shopping
- How to subscribe
This month
Two pieces of big news this month – one about Brexit, one from us.
Notice for BE Forum Premium Members
It’s with great sadness I must now announce that we (the BE Forum Admin Team – Dave, Graeme, Mark – and I) have decided to close down most of the BE forum. We say a huge thanks to all our regulars and supporters over the last decade and a half since this version of the forum was first implemented. (Does anyone remember the clunky Bravenet version which preceded it? I know Mike K-H will.) We’d never have made it this far without you and we appreciate all you’ve done for the community. However, the simple truth is that social media, Facebook in particular, have killed off a lot of traditional discussion forums. We tried to keep going but sadly BE did not escape the death blow.
The number of postings dwindled over time until the place became very quiet. That might have been manageable. But concurrently it also became a magnet for people attempting to promote all kinds of undesirable goods and services. Frankly, keeping the place clean became quite a hassle and we had to assess whether it was worth the effort for a handful of people to post occasionally. We’ve already stopped any new registrations and the next step is to shut down all the public areas. It’s a big job but we’re working on it.
These public forums will still be viewable as archived pages but no one will be able to post anything new on them.
The forums we plan to keep open include the Malta Premium Lounge and the General Premium Lounge. This means that Premium Members will still be able to use these places to ask for help or to socialise. It’ll be a smaller community but the vast majority of helpful people were Premium Members anyway and those private forums were where nearly all the most useful info was exchanged.
Given the reduced level of service, I now propose to award current Premium Members (and those who’ve earned the rank of Supporter) free Premium Membership for the remaining lifetime of the forum. In other words, you’ll still be a Premium Member for as long as the forum continues, without having to pay anything again. It’s a pity we have to do this because half of our membership fees were donated to Gozo SPCA, but things change. And we have to accept and move with the changing times.
Please don’t send me “please cancel my forum account” messages. Chances are you’ve paid for your membership via PayPal. In which case, if you wish to cancel future payments then the best way to do it is to go into your own PayPal account and do so. It’s not for me to give instructions to your PayPal account. Thanks for your understanding.
If you’re not currently a forum Premium Member then you’ll still be able to access and read the archived information but will not be able to post anywhere.
If anyone has questions or comments about this issue, feel free to contact me via my email address if you have it, or via the BE contact form, which is linked to below.
Once again, many thanks to all who’ve contributed to the forums in any way over the years. I hope we can remain friends in one way or another.
With sincere best wishes, Kay and the Admin Team.
PS: BritishExpat.com started off as a magazine site more than 18 years ago and is still being regularly updated as such. Perhaps we’ve come the full circle. The BE forum is only one part of BE and its closure doesn’t affect the rest of the website. You’ll still be able to read and comment on our articles, contribute articles, and join in the community. I also hope you’ll stay subscribed to the BE email newsletter to keep in touch with us and the BE website. If you’ve never ventured beyond the forum before, please do come over to the main site now and explore the wealth of information, articles, and trivia fun which is all freely available.
Brexit
You’ve probably heard the big news about Brexit, which is that the deal has been agreed between all 28 EU governments (including the UK) and the Commission. Theresa May is talking it up as a massive achievement – and in fairness, it has been a major undertaking. Few people expected her to last as long as she has.
The next step is for her to sell the deal to Parliament in time for the “meaningful vote” on it, which has been put into the diary for 11 December. This looks like an uphill battle, with the BBC reckoning she will fall several tens of votes short. The problem is, there’s no majority in Parliament for any one course of action now, whether to support the deal as it is, vote for a second referendum, or even have a vote of no confidence and trigger a general election. But there’s legislation on the statute book that commits the UK to leaving the EU at 2300 GMT on 29 March 2019, no matter what. So unless MPs can rally round a single course of action sharpish, it’s a no-deal Brexit. Urgh.
Our latest Pic of the Week has a festive theme – it’s a festive tree beside the Sukiennice (Cloth Hall) in Kraków in southern Poland. So it’s Christmas, Kraków. See what we did there?
This month’s Quick Quiz is likewise about Poland. And yes, there’s a pianist and composer of international renown featured in one of the questions. But no, it’s not Chopin.
Are you ever flummoxed by fancy foodie words, mystified by menus, or confused by culinary terms? Then head on over to Scoffopedia.com and become enlightened by our quirky A-Z of food. And it’s got cartoons in it! Don’t forget to tell all your friends about it too.
Write for British Expat
Would you like to write for British Expat? Sorry, we don’t pay for articles but if you have a website we’ll link to it in the author’s blurb below any of your articles we publish. We use all sorts of content as long as it’s useful and/or interesting to our readership.
Besides articles, we also publish quick trivia quizzes—five questions about any subject. So, if you’d like to write for us but don’t feel like producing a literary masterpiece, then why not try writing a quickie quiz about your city, country, or even your hobby? Please use our contact form to get in touch.
British Expat Amazon Shopping
Amazon don’t just do books, you know. We’ve teamed up with them to bring you the ultimate in online shopping—from a micro SD card to a garden shed! A great way to do your shopping online, especially if the shops aren’t up to much in your part of the world.
BE Amazon Shop: UK & EU | BE Amazon Shop: non-EU
So there’s a round-up of all that’s been going on. Come on over and see for yourself! Don’t forget…
Visit the BE website and join in with our lively community!
Till next time…
Happy surfing!
Kay
Editor
British Expat—the definitive home for British expats
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