With 2013 being one of the worst years in the history of SGT along with 2012 and the whole period of Neal's awful tenure here, wouldn't it be an ideal time to draw a line in the sand with regards to the patchy life of the New SGT in 2013 and use 2014 to get this Board back to the highs it had before Neal was involved?
I think all it needs are a few of the long-time members to get back to regular posting here and get some momentum going, the past year where posting members have simply got "out of the habit" and become apathetic only needs a bit of a kick-start to the year to get things going and SGT could easily achieve the potential it should have had when Surfcrest first took over.
I don't however think Neal and some of the old stuff should be entirely forgotten, there should be a place on the Board where members can go to vent frustrations, but more importantly "set the record straight" regarding comments and claims made on TBB that are untrue, inaccurate or false. The Flaming Room was ideal for that, and don't know to this day why it was terminated. The Holding Room, according to the Board description, is different to what the Flaming Room achieved but that would be the next best place to have all Neal or TBB threads/ posts deposited. Not locked, not archived......just put where they can be read and posted to and any new posts started. Even if it was only one thread simply called "Neal and TBB" with all relevant posts/threads remaining there. A small corner of SGT.
There are till outstanding issues with regard to Neal, TBB, the owner/management here and some SGT members, this could certainly be dealt with in the Holding Room without any real impact on the main purpose of the Board. The splitting of threads which have gone out of control, been argumentative or seriously off topic could still go there so that all extreme elements that make up this diverse Board can be managed and accommodated to the exclusion of none.
On that theme wouldn't it be a good start to have a Timmberty amnesty so he could return if he so wished, (I know many don't care for his attitude but we are only dealing with words on a page after all) and his, along with any other posts the management doesn't 'care-for' instead of censorship, deletion and banning simply move these 'contributions' to Holding Room or re-introduce a Flaming Forum. There should be no reason for any members to voice any complaints about posts and posters if they are moved from the main Forum.
This year has started with a positive quantity of posts, I know there are many long time posters who do want to get back to regular posting, some who have good information and experiences outside the sex-for-sale areas of Pattaya and Bkk. The Pattaya/Bkk posts about boys and the sex trade are still the main topics for posts and one of the main reasons many come to SGT and that is perfectly fine. The bulk of my own posting contributions over the years are mainly trip reports about these areas, but it would be good to see a more wide-ranging array of topics in general appearing long side them.
I don't believe for a second there has been any so-called "natural decline" of the actual members who posted, I can only recall a handful of prominent posters who have passed-away over the last 2 years.......the readers and views are still there so therefore the potential posters must be too, it just needs motivation to get them all back on board. We have got rid of most of the snipers responsible for members not posting what may be seen as "run-of -the-mill" "nothing exciting" "mundane" posts such as my own non-pattaya/Bkk one's where these type of posts were subject to ridicule and abuse from a very, very small element in the past who declared their attacks on these posts and posters as 'fun' and more laughingly 'banter'.
The one most prominent in this category of trouble-makers has toned down dramatically over the past few months since members across all the gay Thailand boards made their feelings clear that his crap is unacceptable, and if it were not for his crawling up the arse of owners and moderators would have faced a more concerted response here too. Some excellent members who posted superb info and experiences simply left....they still read but post no more, I would dearly like to see some of these guys back.
The move by Surfcrest to sort-out the True Move issue where members had to use proxies has greatly helped the chances of some of these expat and long term posting members hopefully returning. If Surfcrest can keep the snapping attack-lapdog on a tight leash no reason why they won't return if things 'get going' The re-vamp of the 'look' of the Board along with Spike's return have also been a boost for the Board. It just needs to get the posting quantity back up to match it's potential.
All IMHO of course, and whatever you think of those opinions, you have to agree it would be great to see SGT back to the highs enjoyed pre-Neal's near fatal 'influence' and involvement and make visits to SGT far more worthwhile. I hope, time allowing, to try to dig up a few posts outwith Pattaya/Bkk (as well as some on them), how about some trip reports from members in Thailand over the last few weeks and start with some recent updates? There must be a few members there now with some valuable info. Even Sooty (not one prone to verbose outbursts) has already got the ball rolling.
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Originally Posted by scottish-guy
