Silom Soi 4 now has own website

Balcony Pub advises:

Silom Soi 4 now has its own website: www.silomsoi4.net (http://www.silomsoi4.net) It is best viewed using a broadband connection.
The English website is now live and the translated Thai site will be coming in a couple of weeks. Please take a look and see the variety of venues and entertainment available in Soi 4 plus information about the area, links to other websites, news, Soi 4 charity donations, photos and lots more.

Best Regards
The Balcony
86-88 Silom Soi 4
Bangkok 10500

Quality food and entertainment, they're all yours at Silom Soi 4!

It is best viewed using a broadband connection.

Never a truer word spoken. I have 8 Mbps broadband and the site took over 50 seconds to load - it's not much good when you eventually get there anyway !

[bkkguy]

It is best viewed using a broadband connection


and dark glasses, ear plugs and keep you epileptic fit meds handy - I had hoped that designers were starting to get over their obsession with excessive movement and noise!

and from reading the descriptions there is only one gay venue in the soi - Telephone - so why is this in the "gay thailand" forum?

bkkguy

so why is this in the "gay thailand" forum?

http://upload7.postimage.org/261506/SGT.jpg (http://upload7.postimage.org/261506/photo_hosting.html)

About all things Thai

[Smiles]

.... and after 6 minutes of waiting (making coffee ... fluff the duvet (no rude comments please) ... unload dishwasher ... open windows ... read email) this is what I was (still) looking at:


http://www.photodump.com/direct/sawatdee/loading.jpg


Needs some work :cherry:

Cheers ...

Didn't take long to load for me but the music is a nuissance and is presumably the main reason for the wait. Didn't learn much I didn't know already.

and dark glasses, ear plugs and keep you epileptic fit meds handy - I had hoped that designers were starting to get over their obsession with excessive movement and noise!

and from reading the descriptions there is only one gay venue in the soi - Telephone - so why is this in the "gay thailand" forum?

bkkguy

Oh Dear! Is dreadedned upset about not getting the contract?

What doesn't make you angry? Why in the world would you care what other people do/have? And WHY would you think it matters to us what you care about? Get a life and of course we want you to get that life outside of LOS>

opened the page quite quick here in UK but the flash graphics take forever to load. they should host in outside of thailand.

opened the page quite quick here in UK but the flash graphics take forever to load. they should host in outside of thailand.
As a result of this comment I tried again (see my previous post above) - I too am in UK. This time it took 2 minutes 43 seconds to load. It's just not worth it as when you do manage to get there it is sparse on information and looks more like a web-designer's promo piece.

unload dishwasher

Sorry to get off topic,but i really hate it when people have dishwashers,im not sure how many people are in SMILES S household but if you are by yourself its much quicker to wash the dishes in the sink ,by the time you have loaded the dishwasher.This makes me extremely angry,does it make anyone else angry?
these dishwashers have taken over and decieving people in thinking they are saving time.

Hmm yes it does make me angry, in our environmentally friendly soi we use cheap labour to wash the dishes, it saves on water. Only on their day off do I load the washer, and only if I have cooked myself and its fish, I never use the rinse function first.

Is this sight for real, I mean it looks a bit unappetising, though I have to admit to only having had enough patience for the first "girl on lap" picture to partially download until I hit the close the window zapper. Then again maybe she was a lady boy.

[Balcony]

Thanks to all who have made constructive comments.

The Silom Soi 4 website is the webmasterтАЩs first job since graduating. He is a young Thai lad who is a regular customer at The Balcony, Telephone and Sphinx and knows Soi 4 very well. It is our policy to encourage young talent and he did point out to us that inclusion of graphics and music would slow the loading process. Please donтАЩt be too harsh on him; the addition of the flash graphics and the music was my choice, decided upon when I saw the effectiveness of these elements in the excellent Tapas http://www.tapasroom.net/and Luminous http://www.luminousbar.com/websites. If their inclusion detracts from the effectiveness of the Soi 4 site then they will be altered in due course.

The Thai translation has now been completed and will be incorporated soon. The website is a work in progress so please check back at http://www.silomsoi4.net/ from time to time.
Stuart

Thanks to all who have made constructive comments.

The Silom Soi 4 website is the webmasterтАЩs first job since graduating. He is a young Thai lad who is a regular customer at The Balcony, Telephone and Sphinx and knows Soi 4 very well. It is our policy to encourage young talent and he did point out to us that inclusion of graphics and music would slow the loading process. Please donтАЩt be too harsh on him; the addition of the flash graphics and the music was my choice

As I said above, the web site looks more like a demo piece for some web-designer touting for business!
Why do you need flash graphics and music anyway, they add nothing to the use of the site other than annoyance? At least your guy was honest and told you it would slow down the loading process - maybe you should have listened to him !

You can produce a stylish and information orientated web-site without such effects which slow it down and put people off - after all people are visiting for information not entertainment! As it stands at the moment, you are deterring people from returning to the site or recommending it to others and first time viewers, as you can gather from the comments here, are giving up before the site has loaded because of the time it takes.

Maybe a complete rethink is in order rather than 'work in progress'. Ditch the fancy graphics and music and concentrate on providing quickly accessible information !

[bao-bao]

Thanks to all who have made constructive comments.

The Silom Soi 4 website is the webmasterтАЩs first job since graduating. He is a young Thai lad who is a regular customer at The Balcony, Telephone and Sphinx and knows Soi 4 very well. It is our policy to encourage young talent and he did point out to us that inclusion of graphics and music would slow the loading process. Please donтАЩt be too harsh on him; the addition of the flash graphics and the music was my choice

Maybe a complete rethink is in order rather than 'work in progress'. Ditch the fancy graphics and music and concentrate on providing quickly accessible information !

The web site is a little slow to load; maybe oogleman's suggestion to host it outside of LOS is a workable one. If not, I'm guessing the young webmaster would be able to find the code for a "skip into" or a "non-flash version" button and give visitors an option.

I suppose to appease some visitors he might also want to include a "Gratuitous Nudity" button that'd take them directly to where they really want to be. :cheers:

I suppose to appease some visitors he might also want to include a "Gratuitous Nudity" button that'd take them directly to where they really want to beI assume you mean the GMC button (Give Me Cock)

[TrongpaiExpat]

Thanks to all who have made constructive comments.
..........................
.......Tapas http://www.tapasroom.net/and Luminous http://www.luminousbar.com/websites. If their inclusion detracts from the effectiveness of the Soi 4 site then they will be altered in due course.


I wish you could get Luminous to either turn down the music or play the same as Balcony, very annoying.

[elephantspike]

Hi, Balcony. Thanks for posting. If I may, I'd like to make a few constructive suggestions:

-Offer an HTML alternate choice, for example, on the intro page when that flash is loading, have a link to "view HTML" version.

-Don't have the music load automatically upon page loading. Have it triggered by the OnClick command.

- break those pictures up into individual image files on the photo page and thumbnail link them to full size blow-ups of each image. That lovely jagged-edge border effect can be achieved just as well by using layers.

-Provide an emai link on the "Contact Us" page that actually sends an email to whoever is in charge of the website.

-Add a links exchange page where you just link back to sites that appeal to a similar demographic (like this one for example) in exchange for linking back to you on their links page.

In a pure design sense, it's a lovely job. It would make a super printed brochure. I think if a few minor issues of web functionality are addressed, it will be nearly perfect.

(IMHO)

-

[Dick]

hadn't side tracked so many into make a very valid comment regarding our impatience, I'm sure many will have thought to congratulate on the great idea. Map of the Soi all laid out and labelled, and a link in a separate window to take you to the website (if available) of any venue you click, and added bonus, some of those have their own links to other gay establishments too. So if anyone wasn't aware quite precisely what lay behind a set of doors in Soi 4, here's an easy way to find out.

To my way of thinking the site is let down by the venues who don't yet have a web page that comes up when we click on the map. I think that needs sorting PDQ, if only to put up a basic page with information. The quality of the websites already up there will I'm sure encourage improvements in time.

If you make allowance for the agonisingly slow loading which I understand will be promptly addressed, I think the new 'Soisite' achieves what it sets out to do... its informative, it helps those unfamiliar navigate, and generally advertises Soi4 as a cool place to be.

Well Done!

[Bob]

Sawatdee krab.

Nice of you to post some comments on this board.

I have a 5 megabite cable modem line and I (in USA) still can't get the website to load (although I quit trying
after about 30 minutes). Just thought you might want to know. Good luck in resolving the issue.

There is way too much motion on the front page. Just the header alone, which appears on all pages, has two different sets of motion in *different directions* (left-to-right, and a clockwise spinning graphic) ... YIKES!! The impression is that it was written by someone with little experience who is trying to impress someone with all the things s/he knows.

On the "Soi 4 News" page, the text block is full-justified and too wide to read easily. Either use a narrower container for the text, or use columns ... and make it left-justified (or even center-justified).

On a technical point: There should be a separate style sheet (e.g. style.css) rather than laying down the style tags on each and every page. More efficient (faster loading) if the style page is loaded only once, with smaller-sized individual pages.

The "calendar" and "area info" pages are very well laid out and easy to read.

The "charities" page is also well laid out. Perhaps add some captions to the three pics?

The "venues" page nicely laid out, but the red text in the last column needs white space ... padding/margins around it would be good.

Very nice layout on the "contact us" page, but the links appear to be grey on a white background. Not very visible/readable.

The site is not optimized for search engine placement (SEO).

Overall, it's a good site, it just needs to tone down the motion/noises and tweak formatting here and there.

[bucknaway]

Here is a silom soi 2 trailer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQ95eI35xPo

[Smiles]

" ... Offer an HTML alternate choice, for example, on the intro page when that flash is loading, have a link to "view HTML" version. ... "
Excellent suggestion. Almost every fancy flash opening page I've ever come across has a link somewhere close which says something like "Skip Intro" . . . which I always do, and wouldn't be surprised if most folks do as well. It's an especially good feature for returnees ... those who have already visited the site before and have no need to leap through burning hoops and special effects every time they go back.

Cheers ...

Well it is a step in the right direction and it loaded in no time for me and I am in Laos. I was a little annoyed by the bells and whistles and as I keep saying to bar and pub owners 'it really isn't necessary' if your place is welcoming and comfortable people will come and stay and return. Of course I turn off the infuriating music, but that may say more about whoever pays for the site rather than the designer or webmaster.

It's a good effort and should have been done a long time ago, perhaps some tweaking is needed.

[Dboy]

Please have Tendo create a link to opt-out of the Flash presentation. This is pretty much a standard practice in web design. I'm on a fast connection in the US and the site is not loading. Remember the general rule that a user will bale out of a site that does not load in 7 seconds or less. I'm sure the site will improve with time.

Dboy