Board History ... Wondering about a wandering Sawatdee owner

[Smiles]

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.

Regarding the history: The 'Smiles' years were in fact one Owner/Admin/Moderator ... i.e. myself. I felt there was no need for extra mods as those were the easy days and basically left to go where a topic will go where it went to go.
When Spike owned the board in the beginning Smiles and jinks became moderators simply to help him out. I let it go after about a year, but jinks stayed as moderator to the end, until Neal become the owner and did it his way ... which turned out to be the worst way.

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?

Sawatdee was never a dog pit. It was definitely edgy, definitely ready to let the members go where they wished to go rather than bothering about editing spelling and grammar, or being moderating in the "Because-I-Can" philosophy. And absolutely Sawatdee was never genteel! Thank christ.

The main difference between Sawatdee then and now is the number of participating members. Then the regular participation rate was measured in the hundreds or more. Now Sawatdee has a participation rate measured in less than dozens.
The overall membership may well be larger now, but the number of members posting on a regular basis is much smaller: a dog pit under any other name.

[Khor tose]

a dog pit under any other name.

Talk about sugar coating. Take these off and try again.

[arsenal]

We have few regular posters here these days and of those not many actually visit Thailand much and of those only a handful post about it. There is a bitterness within many of the members here, perhaps due to their age, health, financial situation etc. This seems to be their outlet for their frustrations. Perfect mods won't change your life Brad.

[Smiles]

Tell him about Hedda and the hydras, Smiles.

Yes, an interesting time for sure.
Is Hedda dead or alive? I've heard he spends his days curled up in the fetal position in some derelict gogo bar's dark corner ... along with The Glums, MFAS and Khortose, for company.
'The Hydra Conundrum' was his pet neurosis. The original Fake News.

[Surfcrest]

• Surfcrest (2012-2015? Sold it to Moses, don't know why.)
  

Where are they now:

• 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.
  

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?

Just a few corrections.....LOL

I gave the site to my friend Moses, perhaps for the same reason you gave it to elephantspike. I'm good with change, but not so good with complacency. I'd rather be one of the kids than the babysitter.

I just retired and yes, Vancouver is my main focus now. I've got two amazing bf's here that I share my time with, making life the most perfect of perfect.

I have only good things to say about elephantspike, he helped out greatly in the early days. Unfortunately there is no money to be made with a site like this and money was his main motivator for being here, so the relationship was short lived. I think he still follows us on Twitter and he should be quite easy to find.

Surfcrest

[frequent]

Unfortunately there is no money to be made with a site like this ...

Yep, it's a vanity project

[arsenal]

There is zero cash to be made from this place. In fact, it costs money to own/run. Members should probably remember that before launching one.of their attacks because the place isn't exactly how they think it should be.

And Surfcrest. Two boyfriends in the same city. Greedy. Haha.

[frequent]

There is zero cash to be made from this place.

From the Forum itself - certainly. Whether Moses makes enough from the rest of the site that acts as a vehicle for his Siam Roads business only he would know. The publicly-available guesstimates say it probably generates $15/day. Clearly Moses values site "eyeballs" as he gave that as his reason for not reinstituting RSS feeds from the Forum. Those of us who come straight to the Forum, by-passing the Home page, miss all of that advertising, but the fact that we visit would show up in the site hits, on which advertising rates are generally based

[Surfcrest]

And Surfcrest. Two boyfriends in the same city. Greedy. Haha.

One loves my cock, the other loves my ass...I call it sharing.

[frequent]

One loves my cock, the other loves my ass...I call it sharing.

"Division of labour" surely? There's never a demarcation dispute?