The advice from a moderator in Singapore that stopped me from posting for 6 months

Back in 2022, I was on a forum for expats living in Southeast Asia. We talked about local laws and stuff. A Singapore-based moderator named Wei told me to "tone down the criticism of the government" because the forum was monitored. I thought he was being a paranoid gatekeeper, you know, just flexing his power. So I ignored him and posted a pretty direct piece about media restrictions. Within 48 hours the whole thread was deleted and the forum got blocked by my ISP in Thailand for a week. Wei was right (unfortunately). He wasn't the problem, he was trying to help us avoid a bigger crackdown. Has anyone else gotten advice from a local mod or admin that you blew off, only to see the hammer drop later?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_tara1mo ago

Oh wow, that's rough. I learned that lesson the hard way on a travel forum too.

xenarobinson1mo ago

Got a similar warning from a mod on a motorcycle forum in Vietnam. Told me not to post about a specific bus company that had a bad safety record because the company had friends in local government. Ignored it and posted anyway with photos of a crash scene. Got banned from the forum for three months and the whole thread disappeared like it never existed. Realized later the mod was just trying to keep the site from getting shut down by the local transport authority.