I'm interested in two things.
1. Did it actually work for you? Did you find anyone to talk to on the day when you posted it ( I doubt it could occur later for most of such topics)?
2. If before posting the discussion you see two or three other people have already posted the same, often with skype id or other details, why don't you contact them? Is it because you don't read others' threads or because you think those people don't suit you for some reason? Mention the reasons, please, if they are not something you would expect yourself to be banned for or something that may be offensive for others (Just say the reason is AAA for those cases). And let's contract the reason "he is not native" to NN))))
Multiple choice suggested by Phil (in case you don't read others' comments)
A:Hey, do you know I found a site where you can talk to foreigners!
B: Really?? Have you talked to them? Did you talk in English? Did you meet anyone from Ammmerica and Engllland??? I love British accent. Man, it sounds sexy!!
A: Yes, it was fun!!
B: Is it like Tinder? Have you talked to girls/boys?
A: Yesss! I talked to a hot girl/guy! Man, I am gonna talk to him/her again. But it's not a dating site like Tinder. BTW, why don't you try?
B: Now, I'll definitely try. What's the site?
A:italki but it's a language exchange site. So you have to find language partner to talk to them. You have to send messages and then you can talk to them through Skype.
B: Got it!
*Signed up done* *clicking on options* *searching for language partner...... where are you Native English speakers.... *
What the heck!? *No one is answering* * Let me see other features*...
Notebook entry-- not interested
Answers-- I don't have any question.
Discussion--- Hmmm, let me ask if anyone wants to talk to me.
Title-- "Hey guys, I am learning Englishhhhhh, let's talk", "Please help me learning english and I will learn you my language" etc etc..
*tried his/her luck for some more days* Come to the conclusion: It's completely rubbish.
This is the story of all those people who come here with a "HOPE" to talk in English(mostly!) and with a dream to meet some beautiful girls/handsome guys. Some give up and some people keep trying their luck... and this is how their hope start creating a mayhem among the people who are here to learn and for making their time productive.
The end!
Oops! The move has NO "the end".
Because if you feel offended by someone's comments or simply don't like the person, you can flag that person and then their account gets deactivated and sometimes italki refuses to reactivate the account but bans the users for good, even if they were popular and many people engaged in their discussions. This week several members got blocked but the most prominent one was Aliph, who bought a lot of lessons here, was an active part of the community and always defended italki (especially when I was criticising it), so it doesn't make sense that she got blocked. George Holz wrote that Aliph got banned for good and shortly after that he was blocked as well... During this year's event called the "April Purge" there were at times 15 to 20 active members of the discussion board banned simultaneously, including teachers, students, who paid for hundreds of lessons and users, who corrected hundreds of notebook entries. Eventually the teachers and paying users were allowed to come back but some of the users who were just active in the discussion board but didn't book lessons, were banned for good.
There were other times. Natalia, Phil, I and many long-term members remember the times when there was a mix of different topics in this section. There were discussions about language and culture related topics. There were discussions just for fun, where users could throw puns at each other. I met my best italki friends via interesting and engaging discussions. Unfortunately many of the long-term members who used to open interesting discussions either left or were banned and that's why the discussion board turned into language exchange partner search board.
