SPICE! Magazine's new cover disclosed; issue out this week

[Gaypattayan]

Hi, Guys,

The new owner - publisher of Spice! Magazine,, formerly Sticky Rice and before that Thai Guys, has now provided a copy of the new cover, and the cover model sure seems spectacular to me.

http://www.pattayagay.com/spice_cover_jun06.jpg

We have belatedly added an item to the Weekly Report on Thailand for the week of June 18, 2006 about the new issue of Spice! Magazine, and we will review it in next week's Report, after we get a copy of the new issue ourselves from a local venue.

You can go to the full article on the new model and the magazine's development at http://www.pattayagay.com/weeklyreport.html and click on June 18, 2006.

I hope you enjoy the new model as much as I do. I look forward to the full issue out ths week.

Allen (G.P.)

[bucknaway]

So far, I have no use at all for the spice website. There is no interaction and no feeling of it being truly a Thai Board.

It is not easy to navigate in my opinion. Sure there are tabs at the top but once you click on a tab you have to search to see if a picture is an advertisement or if it was put there as if it were a laid-back item to click on... And if you have nothing to do and a lot of time to do it in, then this is the site you need to be at.

The site should be intuitive and once you click on a tab, you should not have to search for the information that the tab promises. If your on a slow link, you can go crazy clicking link after slow link to find what you need. As it stands, Spice is not on my list when I want to read something about the land of gay smiles.

I am sure the printed publication is very nice... but I if I had to grade the website I would give it a "D".

DELETED

[wowpow]

"So far, I have no use at all for the spice website" bucknaway

I suggest that you write to Darika and ask how to decrease excessive negativity. How anyone can complain about a bright new site just opened and improving by the minute is beond me - but the so many whingeing comments are. It's hard being as nice as me.

Make up you own mind at www.spicemag.net (http://www.spicemag.net)

[quote="TeePee
I suggest that you write to Darika and ask how to decrease excessive negativity. How anyone can complain about a bright new site just opened and improving by the minute is beond me [/quote]

The problem with the site is that it will not improve until such times as it can attract more visitors.

The site statistics show that on average over the past month the site has attracted 107 page views a day, that is not unique visitors but the total average daily views made of all pages combined.

Even for a site that has been up and running for only one month that is a pretty poor traffic volume. When you look at the traffic analysis you find that much of that originates from one visitor in Austria.

How can it attract more visitors? Probably by making the site easier to navigate and improving the actual content so that when you click on a link it actually takes you direct to where it says it will. Unless the site traffic improves any advertiser is going to have second thoughts about spalshing out cash for advertising space and unless contents improves then traffic will decrease.

Any good Webmaster or website owner should be able to see what the statistics show and be able to take action to reverse the trend.

[orson]

i'am a bit confused about the article "a glutton for erawan tearoom". it gives a warning about not having a heavy lunch or expect to have dinner after the tea. but the pics only shows a measly amount of food. the author even complained about the shared mango and sticky rice.

afternoon teas are new to me, is this an eat all you can affair? or you only get what's on the picture?

[GWMinUS]

For me what is missing is the Photo Galleries.

They are still on Sticky Rice and contiune to add more Profiles.
Now admittedly, many of the Guys posting are Pinoy.
But I like Pinoy!!!

Would like to see a similar feature on on Spice and sent a request to the Contract address.

DELETED

... Spice Mag' is an instant grab and read and then read again at your leisure. I do agree with the comment from Mr Botting about the need for 'white space' in the mag, as I mentioned on a previous post, the excessive use of coloured pages backgrounding text is, for some of us, not only distracting but makes the text extremely difficult to read.

As for the website, I came down firmly on the side of Naughty But Nice and Bucknaway on my first visits to the site. I found the website has improved from the times I visited when the easy click on links at the top of the page would take you to blank sections. Again, it is not my first choice for information as much of it appears to just replicate what is already in the magazine and I find Sawatdee Gay Thailland, Dreaded Ned and Thaiguys much better sources for me. However, any additional and improving site is welcome.

the excessive use of coloured pages backgrounding text is, for some of us, not only distracting but makes the text extremely difficult to read.

Do you find red type on dark green or green on red the worst? Some of us are red-and-green color-blind and may not even know it--There's the tip-off--and often getting into arguements over the color of something, usually dark or pastel shade.
I let all my magazine subscriptions expire when they all started insisting on doing that crap.
I know Spice if free but they make money on advertising and how well they do usually depends on circulation.