Board History ... Wondering about a wandering Sawatdee owner

[Smiles]

Sawatdee (AKA: Sawatdee Forum; Sawatdee Board; Gay Sawatdee; [Just Plain] Sawatdee; Sawatdee Gay Thailand) was founded in 2001 ~ insofar as I can correctly remember.

The message board has had five Owner/Admins: Smiles; Elephantspike; Neal (That Cunt); Surfcrest; and the present Owner, Moses.

I can account for 4 of them:

• Smiles (2001-2006. Eventually got good and tired of it, gave it away to Elephantspike)
• Elephantspike (2006-2011. Sold it to Neal (That Cunt)
• Neal (2011-2012. Sold it to Surfcrest after just about destroying the place)
• Surfcrest (2012-2015? Sold it to Moses, don't know why.)
• Moses (2016-present. Future unknown.)

Where are they now:

• Smiles is still here posting like the board whore he always has been, no regrets there.
• Neal (That Cunt) ate himself to death on a plane, thus giving "Snakes on a Plane" a run for their money.
• Surfcrest still posts here once in awhile ~ usually to get the unknown, known ~ but seems to be happily ensconced in Vancouver or Machu Pichu. Changed the board to the vBulletin platform.
• Moses is an unknown entity. Probably well known in Russian mafia circles. Avoids baht busses but plays Hi Stakes Internet Poker.

And then there's Elephantspike. What happened to him? The Wandering Ex Owner. He and I had numerous phone calls (I in BC and him in Massachusetts) during the process of him getting to know the innards of the early EZBoard Sawatdee. He eventually changed the board over to the phpBB platform.
I recall being somewhat disappointed that he chose the road of monetizing the board, mainly with ads. How naively innocent I was back then, I'd never given that route a second thought. I loved the simplicity of the stark, posts-only-boys look of the place (Gaybutton has the only message board ~ probably in the world! ~ which has a no-ads philosophy).
But Elephantspike (Robert), besides a few posts right after he sold it, never returned and disappeared into the ether. Apparently there was gossip that he had some financial problems but I'm certainly not sure about that. It remains nothing but gossip.
Does anyone here know what happened to Elephantspike?


PS ... I could be slightly off on the above new-owner dates. Definitely ball park figures guided by a rather iffy memory at the best of times.

[frequent]

Does anyone here know what happened to Elephantspike?

No but like you I am curious. I did sub him the odd $100 via Western Union when he was having financial difficulties keeping the site registered or paying his dues; in my opinion the first two owners were the best and it's gone downhill ever since

[scottish-guy]

Downhill since The Cunt? Downhill from rock bottom? (You'll notice I've given Neal the designation of The Cunt rather than just "That Cunt". Smiles is obviously more tolerant that me.

I'd suggest that's just not possible to have gone downhill from that point - although having soared under Surfcrest we are currently hovering at around 50% of maximum cuntiness.

All that's needed is a couple of death threats against members and we'll be at CUNTCON1

[frequent]

Downhill since The Cunt? Downhill from rock bottom? (You'll notice I've given Neal the designation of The Cunt rather than just "That Cunt". Smiles is obviously more tolerant that me.

My post said downhill after the first two owners ie. Smiles himself and Elephantspike. I've remarked on several occasions I didn't find much to choose between Surfcrest and Neal, and Moses is just another Neal in my opinion (I wonder how many demerit points I'll get for that)

[arsenal]

I'm curious Smiles. Was it always the dog pit it is now or did the board have a more genteel time in the past?

[frequent]

I'm curious Smiles. Was it always the dog pit it is now or did the board have a more genteel time in the past?

Tell him about Hedda and the hydras, Smiles. a447 would have been in his element

[Marsilius]

...and don't forget Boygeenyus (spelling?) who was, in his time, another of the great figures of hate in this board's history.

[arsenal]

I see. So it was always thus.

[Brad the Impala]

No, not always thus. Back in the days of Smiles and Spike we barely had one moderator, let alone three! The moderators that we did have actually understood that's it's the posters who keep a forum going, and treated them accordingly.

[arsenal]