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Internet Forums

So you arrive in Jakarta with nothing but the bags you carry and hope in your heart for what’s to come. Then you encounter Jakarta - the big, stinking behemoth that she is - and you stop, GULP and wonder: Is this really what has happened to my life? Yes, Sir/Madam, it is, and you shouldn’t take things at face value. Jakarta may be a big stinking beast, but she has a beautiful heart and soul.

One of the things that has helped me most, both in terms of business and my personal life has been the use of Internet forums. This is where you see Indonesia’s foreign residents, short-term visitors, expatriates and some local residents’ soul light up and come alive. Random people come together and form a spirit not unlike the "Blitz Spirit" (in the U.K.) during the Second World War. I’m not suggesting for a moment, grandfather, that we are facing the same hardships, but collective thumbing of our noses is good for the morale in a world that often mystifies and bemuses us.

Jakarta's English-language forums

A lot of Internet forums can be elitist and unwelcoming to newbies, but this is where the English-language forums in Jakarta differ. There is very little animosity, very few petty squabbles - the whole community seems to exist entirely for mutual amusement. The potential to make genuine offline friends is immense.

There are two main English-language forums for people based in and around Jakarta - and several more for Bali’s foreign resident community - each with its own idiosyncrasies, rules and regulations. However, they vary in taste and membership and have their own peculiar weltanschauungs.

JakChat.com

JakChat.com is a free-wheeling forum for Indonesia's English-speaking community; not merely an expatriate site. It's very user-friendly with everything to help even the most Internet-phobic person make new friends and have fun. It can be lewd, as can be many of the foreign residents and short-timers one meets in Indonesia, but it has a fairly decent moderation system, so help is never far away. It is a little bit like children trading insults in the playground, but with a loving feeling at the core. Indonesians do join and have some time getting used to the ways of the 'bule' (caucasians) but overall there is a sense of inclusion that is lacking in the other forums. There is a strict anti-spam and anti-porn code, and the mood is generally playful and banterish.

livinginindonesiaforum.org

livinginindonesiaforum.org is not related to this Web site, despite the name.  It is quite a practical place, which is fantastic if you want to buy or sell stuff, rent an apartment, discuss politics on shallow level or other news bits, but feels somewhat humorless and dry, as if the site is trying to homogenize different strands of humor, which is understandable as many folks around the world often have trouble with irony or sarcasm.  It is more oriented toward "expatriates" as opposed to foreign residents, but it is very conservative, with "family safe" moderation.

Contributor: Mark Moloney

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