Sawatdee Network is For Sale

[Smiles]

A couple of pertinent questions for Surfcrest:

~ Has a new Moderator been chosen yet (and agreed to do it)?

~ And if so has he/she taken the helm yet?

~ If you get no reasonable offers at all, and/or fail to persuade someone to pay a price, do you intend to turn off Sawatdee's lights.

~ Or, in light of that above would you opt to simply let the new Mod run the joint for the foreseeable future?

[Surfcrest]

I asked two members if they would be moderators and one declined after contemplating it for a bit, the other member began the assignment but then vacated it due to how one of our threads turned out. Not a worry, I am looking after it again...as you can probably see.

I have indeed had some interest in the site, or the package deal that I am offering. I hope to move this along in the very near future. There would be no reason in the world that I can think of for turning out the lights.

The forum needs a new direction to stay relevant. The phpBB software is outdated and doesn't provide the platform to attract more interest than what we have here already. The WP front end software was just a bad idea from the get go. Without the technical knowledge or aptitude, I was stuck with what Bob wanted to work with rather than the software I purchased when I bought the Board and that has never been used. The server idea was to generate a little income for Bob, as I wasn't able to keep him on as a paid employee given the size of this venture. Unfortunately, that has made us quite top heavy in terms of our monthly expenses and without reliable help, unable to keep up with the pace of technology. That has been the most truly frustrating thing about being the administer here, my own inability to give the membership what they want. The longer this goes on like this, the less relevant we are becoming in this small landscape of Gay Thailand Forums.

I still think, given the right person you could easily turn this into an income generating business easy enough. I receive emails from people who want to advertise that I have to send away because our phpBB ad software is corrupted. This Board still has a lot of history in the community, especially the Bangkok, Pattaya and Chiang Mai community and the opinions here are both respected and feared somewhat by the businesses at large. I've been in other parts of the world theses past few years and was unable to leverage that myself, but I'm sure someone else easily could.

There is a tremendous amount of history locked up in the pages of this Forum that everyone as a member here has been a part of and I think I can say, speaking for all of us that we'd like to see that information and history looked after by the next administrator.

Surfcrest

[lego]

I don't get your point, not interested in putting in the least of effort to. Actually running the Board has been a piece of cake, even better if it weren't for the ulcers here...like specifically you and kommie. If you're detecting something more than that pal, perhaps it's because I have a heck of a lot more going on than just this. Leave the psychotherapy to the professions, not the patients!

Surfcrest

I wasn't around yet when Neal was still running the show, but that's kind of how I imagine him reacting to posts that are mildly critical of his views. If you have to resort to insulting your members, that again just proves my point and I'm happy to leave it there.

But better don't add fuel to the fire: Running this board has been a piece of cake, you say, yet the simplest of technical issues haven't been fixed in years. Running a successful message board isn't just about managing the membership, and since you've mentioned leaving things to professionals, let me just agree with you this one time.

[Smiles]

Thanks Surfcrest for your quick reply to the questions. Clear in my mind.

[a447]

I wasn't around yet when Neal was still running the show, but that's kind of how I imagine him reacting to posts that are mildly critical of his views.

No, that's not how he would have reacted. First, you'd get a barrage of vile, threatening PM's. Then you'd be banned.

[scottish-guy]

True a447 - then you'd have him PM'ing other members to try to find out if they knew your Name, Address, Phone Number, personal/work email, Employment, and other personal details or photographs they might have had

[lego]

Fair enough, Neal was the devil. I find it unlikely that his threats would have intimidated me, but I cannot tell with certainty, as I wasn't here. I live a pretty open and squeaky clean life in Bangkok, so there's little potential for blackmail or threats of outing me etc., but I do realize that things can be much different for someone in a less fortunate situation.

[scottish-guy]

Even now I don't think you fully appreciate the extent of the vindictiveness - we are not talking about mere threats of "outing" or "blackmail".

We are talking about threats of physical violence up to and including death, Solicitors letters/emails threatening to have you arrested on charges of libel the minute you set foot in Thailand, constant telephone calls 24/7, and publishing of photographs of members (surreptitiously scoured from social media).

All this just for disagreeing with him, and telling others how he REALLY was.

[fountainhall]

The question has been asked before тАУ many times: is there really any need for a Board like this? We know the number of Boards has fallen in recent years and the variety of content on those which remain has narrowed. Overall figures for memberships and readership may be reasonable but the number of regular posters surely is not.

Topics not unnaturally centre on bars and boys, along with requests for info on accommodations, a few on travel issues and less than a handful on political and other issues. The Boards that remain are generally Pattaya-centric with some posts about Bangkok, yet little info occasionally on the rest of the country. Of course times inevitably change especially in the age of the internet, and people change too. Sadly two of the most interesting and informative individual sites - Shamelessmack and BangkokBois тАУ have long since disappeared. Christian manfully gives a wide variety of information in his own blog тАУ but generally it does appear that interest in obtaining information from internet sites is very much on the wane.

I sometimes have a look at the Singapore site Blowing Wind and am quite amazed at how different this is тАУ blowingwind.org. Discount the fact that almost all Singaporeans speak English and so language is not the barrier to such a site as it definitely is here in Thailand where an English language board will rarely attract other than a small number of native English speakers, most of them in the upper age range. Even though Blowing Wind has only 30,000 registered members it permits posting by non-members. Consequently there is a huge active readership and posting base along with a very wide range of topics. Looking at its statistics, as of 12 noon here today there had been 69 posts made within the previous hour! ThatтАЩs almost more than this board sees in one week! And this is the middle of the day when many readers would be working or taking lunch!

Discount, too, the fact that there are flamers and a fair amount of immaturity in the posts since the general age of the membership seems to me to be around 30 and so lots in the teens and 20s bracket, certainly way lower than any similar gay Thailand English board тАУ again for obvious reasons. But sift through the dross and there is quite a bit on that site that really does provide info on quite a number of issues other than just saunas and bars, as well as a wide-ranging TravellerтАЩs Hut section with 24 specific countries/cities as well as general discussion threads. As a regular traveller this has given me quite a number of extremely useful tips.

Blowing Wind does have some advertising and gay-related promotions, but it seems not many. How they run and finance the site, I have no idea. But it surely illustrates once again a point I have occasionally made over the years on this and another Board. Unless an internet site like this can obtain and keep a much larger membership, readership and contributor base, itтАЩs success will depend solely on one person тАУ the owner, and for how long he is prepared to put in the time and effort. Once the novelty or whatever wears off, itтАЩs likely to go down the tubes, sadly, just like those which have gone before.

[Tobi]

...but generally it does appear that interest in obtaining information from internet sites is very much on the wane.

I disagree. It's more that in the last few years specialised sites have become much more inclusive and now cover topics and places of interest to the lgbt community. You can find reviews for gay bars and short time hotels on Trip Advisor. Likewise, if I want travel info. flight comparisons, reward schemes or "best" airlines, then I'll go to a site that focuses specifically on that. There's also the general lgbt travel review sites like Gay Cities.

From my own limited experience, the visible sex industry worldwide appears to be undergoing a sea change, contracting to become more of a tourist attraction than anything else, just something a bit naughty to be visited once during a fortnight's holiday. There's also the cost, what with entrance fees, drinks, off fees and tips, I noticed the total price in Bangkok easily reaches $100, more if you're paying for short time accommodation as well. The hookup apps not only provide better value, you also don't have to wait for a noisy smokey bar to open. I also imagine that for many people the pricing nowadays means there's less incentive to travel half-way-around-the-world when $100 will buy you an hour-or-two a lot closer to home.

I guess these changes means there's less to "discuss" on a board such as this.

I enjoyed my time in Thailand, and will returning for a short visit shortly. However, I didn't find anything unique that made me feel I'd want to become a regular visitor, let alone live there. I felt I'd probably missed that vibe by 20 years or more.

Sorry!