Nirish above refers ~ tongue in cheek ~ to the concept of a "Gay Mafia" conspiracy regarding the administration of Sawatdee, and the owner of 'GaylifeinThailand' uses the word 'cabal' to describe some kind of Inner Circle ... i.e. yet another conspiracy theory. So stupidly paranoid. So completely wrong.

So Herein a Short History of Sawatdee (the dates are partnered with the word 'around' because I simply forget the precise dates, so the best I can do is in yearly terms):

(1) 2002 ~ 2005 The message board known as 'Sawatdee' was started by myself 'around' late 2002, early 2003. It was named ~ all through my ownership ~ as Sawatdee Forum and began life as a 'Tree-style' Message board. That lasted a short time until I found a much better system called EZBoard, a visual style which lives on to this day. At the time Gaybutton had his board, as did PattayaGay. THe PattayaGay board was an excellent one, but by the beginning of 2003 Gay Pattaya had pretty-well had it and decided to shut it down. The news that that would happen soon was the main trigger which prodded me to start up a full-bore message board named Sawatdee Forum.
From 'around' late 2002 until 'around' late 2005 I was the sole owner and moderator, and stayed that way until I passed it over to Elephantspike 'around' late 2005.

(2) 2006 ~ 2012 Elephantspike took over the board (it was given to him, not sold.)
At that time Sawatdee Forum was very much like Gaybutton and PattayaGay ... none of which had any advertising. Elephantspike saw some potential in the board (it had greatly expanded it's membership since 2002) and went the 'add-route'. Sawatdee continued to get busier.
I continued on Sawatdee (now name-changed to Sawatdee Gay Thailand) for about a year as a Moderator (along with jinks) and helped Elephantspike with the technicalities of the old EZBoard. Some time later ElephantSpike ('Robert') changed message board hosts to the phpBBB system, and it remains that to this day. After I left as moderator, jinks stayed on ... and in fact did so almost until his death in 2014.
2006 was also the Year of Hedda (a nasty piece of work) and the Board Wars ... which I believe accounts for some of the 'conspiracy theories' which are still levelled at Gay Thailand message boards every so often: (see above introduction).

(3) 2012 ~ 2013 The lowest point in Sawatdee's history: Robert sold (?) the board to Neal. In hindsight, an almost disastrous accomplishment.
Jinks stayed on as moderator for as long as he could stomach it, and I believe that Scottish-Guy helped out with moderation as well ... but he also finished with Neal after putting up with much histrionics, back stabbing, and lying on the part of the new owner.
I quit Sawatdee completely for about 2 years vowing never to enter the cesspool Neal made of the board until he had (hopefully) passed Sawatdee onto someone else. So no more about that ghastly Interregnum.

(4) Early 2014 ~ to present Neal sells Sawatdee to Surfcrest and he begins a badly-needed renovation. Jinks returned as a moderator and I believe Surfcrest also had some tech support from a friend of his (of who's name I know not).
Sawatdee came though well enough, and continues on as the board which has been around continuously for the longest time of any of the boards. (Gaybutton has been around the longest as continuous owner, but his first board went into a long hiatus, then changed names, and now flourishes.)


So ~ and this is particularly aimed square at the owner of GaylifeinThailand ~ the 'cabals' and the 'conspiracies' regarding Sawatdee never happened. They are myths only, beloved of those who are gullible, paranoid and stupid enough to believe them.
From 2002 to the present Sawatdee has had 4 owner/Admins ... 1 long-term moderator ... and 2 short-term moderators.
Ah yes, what a nefarious cabal they make.