Squaters in Negril Removed...

[Westenders]

Booger - your personal attack was irrelevant to this post. You detracted from the issue being discussed without commenting on the issue, so your contribution wasn't relevant either.
In fact the only relevance I can find for you is the association between your name and something green and crusty dragged from a facial orifice.
The fact that you post on another website about boardies on here being caught up in negativity and causing problems in negril, is intriguing to me. A man with two faces has no integrity to me, so your personal attack would only mean something to me if it was from someone with character.

Flip- I have never registered on this site before. I stand by my own comments and don't need to rebrand and post under another name. I haven't come on here and puffed up my chest. I have expressed an opinion that is what this site is for. Nowhere does it says it's a tourist site. In fact the only person puffing up his chest is you and your posy exposing you chest guts and everything to the world.!
I don't refer to myself as a local, to the contrary I think that's what you do...
This is a board that should welcome open discussion and debate on issues we want to comment about. If you attacked people in the workplace or a Uni for expressing opinions you don't agree with you would be kicked out.
Google etiquette on debate.
Assumptions about how often I'm there are way off, but go ahead and have fun being wrong..

Lola thank you for you reasonable post. I'm not sure where all this idea that I am a past member came from.

I think the term of squatters is generally different in Jamaica to our countries, my original points come from a place of having empathy for people faced with living in challenging circumstances. I don't make a judgement, just felt really bad for their situation. If you want to spend time chugging away at criticisms go ahead. I don't agree, but I'm not the bullys that some of you are.

Rob I find your post unethical and disgusting. Just to clarify the point I made about red ground is that the government wouldn't dare go in there with a bulldozer, and my thoughts although not made clear I meant that they were cowards for choosing a small scale settlement as a quick win.
To be honest for you to just show my comments to people, without the chance for me to redress shows you to be unprofessional.
I hope others 'boardies' will now think twice about registering or making comments, as for you to parade them around in Jamaica and give an impression of people is disgusting.
I would do the same but don't want to be a stirrer of the ****. The next time I come there I may come and have a face to face discussion though, but I don't mean that in any sense of a threat. It is easy for you to be the big I am on here.
I certainly did not set out to drag anyone down in red ground, I have good friends and links there. You have twisted my comments to interpret what you want so you can be right.

Rob there are people on other boards who say they have left this board because of clashes with you. I can now see why.
Good job you've got the groupies to keep posting and keep your business alive. Maybe a lot of the lurkers on your site stay lurkers for fear of bullying from the clones.

Anyways, stand by my points, I feel sad for these people, and even sadder for people with no compassion.

[Flipadelphia26]

Google etiquette on debate.[/B]

[Rob]

....Nowhere does it says it's a tourist site. In fact the only person puffing up his chest is you and your posy exposing you chest guts and everything to the world.!
I don't refer to myself as a local, to the contrary I think that's what you do...
This is a board that should welcome open discussion and debate on issues we want to comment about. If you attacked people in the workplace or a Uni for expressing opinions you don't agree with you would be kicked out.
Google etiquette on debate.
Assumptions about how often I'm there are way off, but go ahead and have fun being wrong...

...I think the term of squatters is generally different in Jamaica to our countries, my original points come from a place of having empathy for people faced with living in challenging circumstances. I don't make a judgement, just felt really bad for their situation. If you want to spend time chugging away at criticisms go ahead. I don't agree, but I'm not the bullys that some of you are.

Rob I find your post unethical and disgusting. Just to clarify the point I made about red ground is that the government wouldn't dare go in there with a bulldozer, and my thoughts although not made clear I meant that they were cowards for choosing a small scale settlement as a quick win.
To be honest for you to just show my comments to people, without the chance for me to redress shows you to be unprofessional.
I hope others 'boardies' will now think twice about registering or making comments, as for you to parade them around in Jamaica and give an impression of people is disgusting.
I would do the same but don't want to be a stirrer of the ****. The next time I come there I may come and have a face to face discussion though, but I don't mean that in any sense of a threat. It is easy for you to be the big I am on here.
I certainly did not set out to drag anyone down in red ground, I have good friends and links there. You have twisted my comments to interpret what you want so you can be right.

Rob there are people on other boards who say they have left this board because of clashes with you. I can now see why.
Good job you've got the groupies to keep posting and keep your business alive. Maybe a lot of the lurkers on your site stay lurkers for fear of bullying from the clones.

Anyways, stand by my points, I feel sad for these people, and even sadder for people with no compassion.

Westender,

I always find it strange that some people only believe what they want to believe regardless of the facts. I created Negril.com in 1995 - 19 years ago, as a way to promote tourism for Negril! This is a tourism focused website. When you registered, you agreed to abide by the guidelines. Here is guideline #1:

"1) Since this is the Negril Message Board, we would like the topics to try and reflect Negril and Jamaica tourism. This is meant to be a rather common sense guideline."

This board's only obligation is to provide the best information possible for our visitors to make their stay in Negril and Jamaica the most fun possible. It is not a free-for-all message board - but the Negril Message Board. There are literally hundreds of thousands of other places you can post anything you want, but the Negril Message Board is not one of them.

Yes, there have been others in the past that would not abide by this simple concept and some actually demanded that it be changed. But we have been here for 19 years with these guidelines and plan to be here a lot longer. We had over half a million unique visitors to the site last year, our busiest year ever, so we are doing something right.

The way you talk about Jamaica. "I think the term of squatters is generally different in Jamaica to our countries" gives me an insight to how you see Jamaica. I see those faces of people who have to deal with living in challenging circumstances every single day. Many I consider friends. And I live by the idea that it is better to teach a man to fish so they can feed themselves for a lifetime, and not simply give them a fish for a day. One is a cure, the other is a band-aid.

And while you find my posts unethical and disgusting, I find your posts made about Red Ground on this public message board that has readers who live in Red Ground equally unethical and disgusting. You are publicly posting negative, untrue comments about an entire area - many of whom are also my friends. To not allow the residents of this area to know that someone is publicly posting these misleading comments about them would be equally unethical and disgusting.

You say my behaviour is unprofessional because you cannot "redress" the folks at Red Dragon who saw your post, yet how are you allowing them to redress your comment? Wouldnt they need to see your comment first? It is okay for you to make your comment publicly, but it is not okay for them to see it?

You talk with your husband about these residents, yet I am not allowed to speak with these residents? And what makes you think that some of the residents of Red Ground are not reading this thread? I have personally helped dozens of them get online with their computers, phones and tablets and showed them how to access the Negril Message Board here on Negril.com so they can better understand how tourists think and view their country.

This is the Negril Message Board, owned and operated by myself as well as born Jamaicans. I do not hide behind some fake name, my name is right on this post and virtually everyone in town knows me and what Negril.com is and does. In fact, my girlfriend and I cannot go anywhere in Negril without someone calling to us.

As with anything in life, not everything is perfect and there has been clashes here on the Board in the past. Some posters would try to dominate and respond to every single comment made. Some posters would continually post rumor and speculation regardless of whom they may harm by these untrue comments and others posted highly private, inappropriate and/or illegal matters that had no business being discussed in a public forum. And of course you get the cliques that form that I go out of my way to prevent as cliques by their very nature are exclusionary, making it an us vs. them mentality.

And I find it amusing that you think I have or would want to have "groupies". If you actually think that, you dont know me at all.

I did not create Negril.com nor have I spent nearly 20 years working daily on this site as a popularity contest. There is not even an "About Us" link on Negril.com that says who I am. But as a former tourist who has been given the extraordinary advantage of living full time in Jamaica for 21 years now, this allows me to see tourism from both sides. And this forum does allow me to give a voice to what many of my local Jamaican friends would like to say, but are restrained due to the risk to their jobs and livelihood.

I am always up for a face to face meeting, but out of all the times that I have heard people say that, less than 2% have ever done that. It is interesting how powerful people feel when they are anonymous on the internet. I am not anonymous - when you get to Negril, ask anyone where Rob with the internet can be found...

[Packrat]

Wow, this has gotten rowdy. I believe we all know and care about people in Negril &/or in Jamaica somewhere and regardless of ones financial situation, squatting is a very harmful and unethical way of conducting ones personal business. The only way to resolve any squatting situation is to handle it immediately, the longer the it festers, like an infection, the worse it gets and that is where the entitlement comes in, individuals or groups feel they have earned the right to be there based on time and theoretical improvements they have made. The safety factor alone should be enough to enforce the law, but the almighty dollar gets in the way. The JPSC (Jamaican Public Service Co) is lobbying the Govt as we speak to allow squatters to obtain electrical service. Current Ja regulations forbids JPSC from supplying power to a potential customer without them having documentation showing rightful occupancy. Since so many people are squatting in Ja, the theft of electricity is astronomical and the power company is missing out on that revenue and wants their piece and the Govt wants the taxes collected on the supplied power. It's a lose-lose all the way around.

Whether it be an individual setting up camp or a complete Shanty Town, squatting diminishes the integrity of any community. I have a heavy heart for the disadvantaged, whether it be their fault or not and I understand many do not have the resources to buy land and build homes, but there has to be a better way. Squatter lands are not a physically or emotionally safe to be, for adults or children nor do they benefit anyone in the community.

[Packrat]

Westenders, I post because of my love of Negril and I am thankful there is a forum to do so. I have never been a "groupie" nor plan to be one, of Rob or anyone else and take great exception to being categorized as such because I choose to participate on this forum.

[jojo p]

Omg, omg, flip, I'm laughing so hard at work I spit out my water!!!!!!

[Westenders]

Pack rat, my apologies. I refer to a few not the majority to clear that up.
Your post was informative, and thank you for your that.

I for one am now very dubious and concerned about how rob protects the personal information we provide when signing up on the forum, and his integrity, or lack of.
Never have I seen an administrator act in such an unprofessional manner. To present an idea in the community that I or others who don't share his point are therefore critisizing Jamaicans or business owners there is very dangerous.
I referred to no business owners or individuals rob, but hay ho as long as you feel this proves your right!

I'll leave others to play with rob competing as to who is the most Jamaican

[TizzyATX]

You're FUNNY!!!!!!!

(westenders)

[TAH]

Just stop already. You are being extremely obtuse, and naive (similar to the "subs" discussion a couple weeks ago).

Edit: obviously this was intended for Westenders above, not the lovely miss Tizzy...

[Westenders]

Regular as clockwork TAH, lol