Where is everyone?

[Sugargrandpa]

...In any case, there is a Singapore-based chat room with vastly more members and threads that include extensive information about Thailand and all parts of Asia...

And as a final note, I am not breaking any Board rule when I say I wrote to sglad early on in his correspondence to inform him I'd be in Chiang Mai and would happily meet him to show him around. Since it was a PM I can not reveal what he replied. But no meeting - not even for a quick coffee or drink - took place. That of course proves nothing - but suggests a great deal! After all, Beachlover also turned down every offer to meet up, even for a free dinner with Michael who owned gaythailand at that time.

I don't find any of the forums repetitive or boring. I don't post much but I enjoy reading the forums and thank all who contribute. If I see something I don't like, I simply move on.

Fountainhall, could you tell us more about these Singapore-based forums with "extensive information about Thailand and all parts of Asia"? A few links would be helpful. They might be useful to us too if not directly relevant. More information is always good, especially from the perspective of Asians which I find seriously lacking. Asians speaking for themselves.

I enjoyed reading sglad's posts but I think it's bad manners for him to stand Fountainhall up like that particularly as Fountainhall had gone all the way up to Chiang Mai to show him around. Quite disappointing.

[Surfcrest]

Members,

Sugargrandpa and sglad have been banned as they are one and the same poster...or a hydra.
As you know, I don't ban members very often and certainly not without violating any of our few posted rules.
Having two user names though is enough to be banned...not that I believe this poster, or any other is Beachlover.

Surfcrest

[fountainhall]

Sugargrandpa and sglad have been banned as they are one and the same poster...or a hydra.
As you know, I don't ban members very often and certainly not without violating any of our few posted rules.
Having two user names though is enough to be banned.

Surfcrest

Thank you. And my apologies to christianpfc, rollingstone2 and the others members who had sglad tagged as a troll/hydra some time before I saw through him.

Interesting that Sugargrandpa's first post on November 12 was somewhat similar to that of sglad -

I'm looking for recommendations for a good school to learn Thai in Pattaya, preferably some place where you have personal experience with. I already speak enough Thai to get by but would like to improve myself and perhaps take up reading and writing.

This is so obviously at odds with one of sglad's earlier lists in January when he alleged he was studying in Chiang Mai -

I've never been to Pattaya - my Thai friends are always telling me not to bother

This is not intended as criticism in any way, but given that sglad was marked out to the owners as a troll of sorts and that this Board is said to have very sophisticated technology, how did it take so long to,finger the two acting as a hydra? I'm just curious.

[a447]

Having two user names though is enough to be banned.

Then how come Kommentariat - aka Beachbunny, homintern, lurker, Brisbaneguy, sooty, frequent, (ricondog?) etc, etc- wasn't banned? For a long while he was posting as Kommie, Brisbaneguy and sooty simultaneously.

Often, he was talking to himself. In one thread i remember he came on as "lurker" and called Kommie a "comic genius". (Lol) The same 'lurker" in the same thread posted that "Kommie has spoken", referring us to a thread where Kommie had expressed his definitive opinion for all us mortals to read.

Such behaviour makes a mockery of the board and probably discourages others from posting.

Your access to ISPs and that map showing where members are posting from would tell you. So what other handles has he used?

And does said technology not allow you to see what posters at the moment are using multiple handles?

Perhaps now is the time to have a general clean-up. It would be interesting to see how many of us would be left.

[fountainhall]

With all respect to the owners who had been told some time ago about sglad being a troll-like figure, I suspect I managed to flush him out with this post which he did not answer -

And if that's the basis on which you base your conclusion, you have totally blown it. Note the language you use, sglad, and the references you as an alleged student make. It's all just blowing wind!

So a few days later I repeated it. Again no response. I then made a post about young Singaporeans being far more likely to check about things gay in Thailand on one of the much larger and more active Singapore chat rooms. The fictitious sglad hadn't a clue what I was talking about. Thus his alter ego sugargrandpa had to ask the question above which sglad dared not for fear of giving the game away.

The largest Singapore chat room is named BlowingWind!

But as a447 asks, how is it that trolls/hydras etc. are still able to access the site, become members and then start trashing other members?

[BonTong]

I'll stay out of the troll debate except I've never been to Pattaya, and went to Phuket once 17 years ago with no wish to return. Is that enough to prove I'm not Beachlover?

I now scan the forum every now and then and might occasionally add a comment in one of the very rare threads on Chiang Mai or Northern Thailand. Just doesn't seem to be much interest in those subjects anymore.

Some of the BKK threads are of marginal interest, but decreasingly so as my enthusiasm diminishes every time I visit. And the Tarntawan: never stayed there but it was always a good place to get a last beer and breakfast at around 5 a.m after a good night out. Always amused by the looks of envy disguised as disgust we used to get from the early rising Germans ("we" typically being me and more than one good looking boy LOL - all suitably inebriated or worse). All credit to the Tarntawan, back in the day you could have walked in with a buffalo and they'd have just pulled up another chair and poured more beer.

[christianpfc]

Has the rapid increase in the number of websites giving details of gay activities in Thailand reduced the need for personal information from members of chat rooms?

What websites are you talking about? There is travelgayasia which does a good job, but everywhere else is incomplete or outdated.
Full overview of websites about gay SEA here: http://christianpfc.blogspot.de/2015/02/gay-forums-blogs-guides-and-encounters.html

I think this board was more entertaining with posters like LMTU, Kommentariat or Tim...

(Tim = Timmberty and possible furthers identities) Yes indeed, and let's not forget Bruce_NYC. All four of them valuable contributors in my opinion, not necessarily for facts, but at least entertaining.

[bobsaigon2]

Sorry to disagree, but IMHO: LMTU was just annoying, if you could ever figure out his grammar. Kommentariat and Timberty were unabashedly vile personas. Bruce was/is a charlatan.

[fountainhall]

Sorry to disagree, but IMHO: LMTU was just annoying, if you could ever figure out his grammar. Kommentariat and Timberty were unabashedly vile personas.

The reason LMTU and his other incarnation were annoying is that he knew perfect English and had been an English teacher. To write continuously in such a childish manner was just pathetic IMO. The other two were destructive. One or possibly both became a regulars on one or more of the odious bitchboards.

[BonTong]

What websites are you talking about? There is travelgayasia which does a good job, but everywhere else is incomplete or outdated.
Full overview of websites about gay SEA here: http://christianpfc.blogspot.de/2015/02/gay-forums-blogs-guides-and-encounters.html

Well, I can think of a couple of websites about Chiang Mai that are very up to date - indeed, more so than Travelgayasia, which only really seems to be interested in flogging Hotel rooms. Not that I'm biased of course