HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU ALL

[jinks]

Today December 1st is the official birthday of this site.

It's also World Aids day... spare a thought for the needy on our Birthday.

[bucknaway]

Hey! Your signature avatar is stretching the windows and forcing us to scroll from side to side to read a post. SHAME ON YOU! :geek:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO JINKS AND ELEPHANTSPIKE

AN OCCASION WHEN IT'S APPROPRIATE TO SHOUT

Lets all clap hands in celebration and blow a candle.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v27/wowpow/fourarmedpunk.jpg

I'm as happy as a dog with two dicks

[elephantspike]

:occasion5: :occasion9: :cool: :wave:

Thanks, Guys!!!

:occasion4:
:wav:

[jinks]

Hey! Your signature avatar is stretching the windows and forcing us to scroll from side to side to read a post. SHAME ON YOU! :geek:

If this is so, you must have a small one :clown:

Funny...I thought this forum was pronounced dead some years ago!

Funny...I thought this forum was pronounced dead some years ago!

Consider the source. :blah5:

[Smiles]

Congratulations Bob (Elephantspike) and jinks (jinks) :bounce:

But in fact, Sawatdee Forum has been around a lot longer than that: the "original" Sawatdee Forum was founded on November 10, 2002

It has had two different "owners" but in fact only 3 Moderators in all that time (and two of those were the Owners).

If you will remember it was originally a very simple lnear style Board wherein the topics and replies were all listed in a long lineup down the page and you had to click on each reply to be able to read. That incarnation was setup when the Dreaded Ned Board closed . . . and probably would have never been started up if DN had not of shut down his board.

At the time the DN Board closed down the only other alternatives were the terrific and highly successful PattayaGay Board and the ever-slowing-down GayButton Board with it's highly moderated ~ and ultimately destructive ~ philosophy.

Sawatdee Forum morphed into the EZBoard version when Gay Pattayan decided he had had enough and shut his Board down for good. It was owned for awhile by the original founder, but he had always said it was meant to be temporary ... if someone else would come out from the woodwork and either take it over, or even start up a brand new Board. If the latter had happened, Sawatdee Forum would have been toast at that point.

But in fact, what happened was that Bob (ElephantSpike) offered to "take over" Sawatdee Forum himself: and that he did sometime in 2004 (if I can recall correctly). The EzBoard version of Sawatdee Forum was a hectic, crazy, free, open, anarchic (and expensive) Board which was highly successful, and lots of fun.
But it was regularly plagued by extreme technical instability . . . the Board went down at least 3 times, the last being a gigantic meltdown wherein thousands of posts were lost, Board admin control was lost etc etc etc. It was a disaster.

It was at that point (and probably before) that ElephantSpike started searching around to an alternative board provider to the EZBoard system.
He decided on the phpBB Board system sometime in late summer or early fall of 2005. He actually started it up (though invisible) in the fall, and after the testing process was completed, this brand new spanking version of Sawatdee Forum was rolled out in December 2005.

The ground has changed somewhat in this last year. The GayThailand website (with it's Message Board: www.gaythailand.com/forums/index.php (http://www.gaythailand.com/forums/index.php) ) started up, as did a Board named Baht-Stop. Each has it's own flaws and successes (as does Sawatdee), and it's own philosophy. GayThailand is now owned by a guy who (unlike ElephantSpike) takes a very large role in starting and answering topics. Mr GayButton has a role as Moderator in that Board as well ... (who can tell where that will lead :blackeye: ). Baht-Stop ( www.baht-stop.com (http://www.baht-stop.com) ) is a gentleman's Board with a high degree of regulation and general tight-assed-ness and of course it is bst known as the second lair (the first being The Bog) of our dear departed Hedda who pronounces on all things worldly and invites mere mortals to comment. Baht-Stop has about a dozen posters who take part on a regular basis.

But, the more the merrier as far as I'm concerned. No matter the upheavals of he Board Wars (summer, 2005), or the introduction of two new Boards into the mix, in December of 2006 Sawatdee Forum is still (arguably) the 'Board of Record' for information, stories, gossip, lies, photos, laughs restaurant reviews, etc etc etc on gay Thailand.

3 CHEERS TO ELEPHANTSPIKE & JINKS