Lev
All very to ban Carlito's posts as he has also made five others today but this whole tendency is your own creation as you demand 30 posts to gain access to your seamier night crawlers section so really you are victim to your own very successful ploys to increase activity on your website.its a great website but you are becoming stalinistic in your approach to control activity and it does you no real credit.I do not doubt that hits have increased by at least 100 per cent since you introduced your new rules for access so you also have to accept that you have diluted the the excellent content that used to pervade on this website.I last crossed swords with you 2 years ago over your photo section but you have rested on your laurels too long.London lounge photo even shows a date of December 2003 and we are about to move into 2006.Over to you mate
Regards Digger
Victim of your own success
I have to agree with Digger. I have been a member of this site for about two years and although I have a house in HH I live most of the time in the UK, so I don't have that much to contribute at the moment. But the site is very useful to keep me in touch with what's going on in HH.
I can live without access to what is effectively a 'super members' section but I consider that it does no credit to the organisers of the board as it smacks of elitism. In due course more posters will reach the 30 post limit, what will you do then raise the bar to 50?
If you are going to have a board that offers an information exchange to members, then make it available to all members, if the the sort of information being posted is not fit to print then don't print it at all.
There, thats my opinion.
I can live without access to what is effectively a 'super members' section but I consider that it does no credit to the organisers of the board as it smacks of elitism. In due course more posters will reach the 30 post limit, what will you do then raise the bar to 50?
If you are going to have a board that offers an information exchange to members, then make it available to all members, if the the sort of information being posted is not fit to print then don't print it at all.
There, thats my opinion.
Moving this to Suggestions.
I totally agree with the both of you in regard to the dilution of the board by spoof posts in an effort to access the private area. Maybe we should up the limit which was imposed in the first place to deter the unusually high number of lurkers (non posters) we have on this site.
While updating the photo section has not been our priority we have, if you notice, increased our number of general content pages three fold in the last year or so. I always maintain that anyone, including yourselves, are welcome to submit photos to us. We are considering installing a fully interactive gallery in the new year where members can apply for access and upload their own images.
I totally agree with the both of you in regard to the dilution of the board by spoof posts in an effort to access the private area. Maybe we should up the limit which was imposed in the first place to deter the unusually high number of lurkers (non posters) we have on this site.
While updating the photo section has not been our priority we have, if you notice, increased our number of general content pages three fold in the last year or so. I always maintain that anyone, including yourselves, are welcome to submit photos to us. We are considering installing a fully interactive gallery in the new year where members can apply for access and upload their own images.
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dr dave soul monsta
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Its not necessarily 'super members' or “eliteâ€Dougal
PostPosted: Fri Dec 23, 2005 5:46 am Post subject:
I have to agree with Digger. I have been a member of this site for about two years and although I have a house in HH I live most of the time in the UK, so I don't have that much to contribute at the moment. But the site is very useful to keep me in touch with what's going on in HH.
I can live without access to what is effectively a 'super members' section but I consider that it does no credit to the organisers of the board as it smacks of elitism. In due course more posters will reach the 30 post limit, what will you do then raise the bar to 50?
If you are going to have a board that offers an information exchange to members, then make it available to all members, if the the sort of information being posted is not fit to print then don't print it at all.
There, thats my opinion.
Digger
PostPosted: Fri Dec 23, 2005 3:53 am Post subject: Victim of your own success
Lev
All very to ban Carlito's posts as he has also made five others today but this whole tendency is your own creation as you demand 30 posts to gain access to your seamier night crawlers section so really you are victim to your own very successful ploys to increase activity on your website.its a great website but you are becoming stalinistic in your approach to control activity and it does you no real credit.I do not doubt that hits have increased by at least 100 per cent since you introduced your new rules for access so you also have to accept that you have diluted the the excellent content that used to pervade on this website.I last crossed swords with you 2 years ago over your photo section but you have rested on your laurels too long.London lounge photo even shows a date of December 2003 and we are about to move into 2006.Over to you mate
Regards Digger
"I don't often agree with the RSPCA as i believe it is an animals duty to be on my plate at supper time"
I appreciate your reply.
I would not personally have used the phrase 'stalinist', I feel that is going a bit over the top, but I stand by my suggestion that introducing a restricted section in this manner is going to be seen as elitist.
The site is after all called 'Hua Hin After Dark' which by it's very name suggests activities other than playing beach volley ball - and is it not inconsistent to have a section entitled 'After Dark' with a sub text stating "if you wish to discuss or ask about nocturnal activities, do not post them here."
And lastly as a potential future advertiser I am surprised by your comment "and the ones that are just lurkers would maybe loose (sic) interest and go away" sorry Dave but I think you may be misreading the audience that your advertisers are trying to reach.
I would not personally have used the phrase 'stalinist', I feel that is going a bit over the top, but I stand by my suggestion that introducing a restricted section in this manner is going to be seen as elitist.
The site is after all called 'Hua Hin After Dark' which by it's very name suggests activities other than playing beach volley ball - and is it not inconsistent to have a section entitled 'After Dark' with a sub text stating "if you wish to discuss or ask about nocturnal activities, do not post them here."
And lastly as a potential future advertiser I am surprised by your comment "and the ones that are just lurkers would maybe loose (sic) interest and go away" sorry Dave but I think you may be misreading the audience that your advertisers are trying to reach.
Well, good luck guys and gals!!!Dougal wrote:I appreciate your reply.
And lastly as a potential future advertiser I am surprised by your comment "and the ones that are just lurkers would maybe loose (sic) interest and go away" sorry Dave but I think you may be misreading the audience that your advertisers are trying to reach.
There seems to be a conflict here in that the site is now trying to reach two types of audience (for want of a better word) and possibly in the process, alienating some of its audience and sponsors, irrespective of what route it chooses to take.
I was first intrigued by the name of the the site - oh okay, saw the potential for a bit of titilation (sic -again!!) and also a wee wary, but checking it out in private, expecting the best/worst, was pleased to see it had a broader remit than the name at first suggested (honest!).
I think your future plans are sound. The difficulty is that you now have a brand, in every sense of the word, that at first indicates one thing but often delivers another. Possibly losing and gaining potential posters and I guess sponsors in equal numbers - as detailed in the last post?
I wish you luck in taking it to the next level.
Talk is cheap
I agree with the moderators on this one.
I also live elsewhere than Hua Hin and I'm also buying a house there, but the seedy side of the Town does not interest me in the slightest.
Reading between the lines, the restricted area might be for those with other interests than myself, but if anyone is interested in this forum and interested in Hua Hin, then let them take part in the general forums before they get access to the restricted areas.
I would also suggest that if 30 x 1 line posts of rubbish is posted then the onus is back onto the moderators to decide whether the poster should be admitted or not.
The restricted area should be a privilige earned and not a right for every fly by night poster.
I also live elsewhere than Hua Hin and I'm also buying a house there, but the seedy side of the Town does not interest me in the slightest.
Reading between the lines, the restricted area might be for those with other interests than myself, but if anyone is interested in this forum and interested in Hua Hin, then let them take part in the general forums before they get access to the restricted areas.
I would also suggest that if 30 x 1 line posts of rubbish is posted then the onus is back onto the moderators to decide whether the poster should be admitted or not.
The restricted area should be a privilige earned and not a right for every fly by night poster.
To understand what Admin and the mods were trying to achieve with this board three years ago and what we're tying to do now, it helps to understand how HH has evolved over the years. (I appreciate that many of you know this already).
When we started out it was simply an experiment based on the knowledge that town had been and was continuing to attract increasingly large numbers of visitors. More and more people were also making HH their home, either to run a business or to retire.
Sure, at the start, the name HHAD was chosen to try to "spice" the potential nature of the board up, but to be honest we never got that many questions about the nightlife here in those days. It's only relatively recently that people have been asking for information on these matters as HH is promoted around the world as a serious alternative to Phuket, Pattaya, the islands etc.
Over the years, the type of visitor to town has changed enormously. Of couse, there will always be the drinkers and those looking for nightlife. Good luck to them. It's all part of life in Thailand and 99% of the time everyone's well behaved and gets on well with the locals and "family" holidaymakers.
But there's no escaping the fact the HH has been promoted hard by the tourist board in Thailand as an upmarket, family oriented destination for years. To a greater degree, this has been successful.
As a result, the board must evolve as well and after finding we were getting more and more negative comments about the "seedier" side of things, it was felt necessary to try to segregate this area - hence nightcrawlers.
Any forum board will always get lurkers. By introducing the 30 post rule to NCs, we were trying to keep voyeurs out. It was never meant to be elitist. We were trying to keep the quality of visitor to the site as high as possible. Potential and existing sponsors stand to benefit much more from 10-15 new members who post regularly and get involved in the site than 100 lurkers who are just trying to find tittilation. Sure, we could have given a sort of "parental warning" to the NC's section, but we would never have achieved our objective.
Other successful boards in Thailand open this type of section up to a poster when they've reached 500 posts. You won't even know that the section exists until you make the required number and you're then invited to take part in discussions of a more controversial nature.
NCs was never introduced along the lines of "poster A has made 42 posts and seems to be a level headed sort of person, shall we invite him/her to take part in the new section?" That would have been elitist, an invitation being necessary. We decided against that, and tried to reach a compromise situation where eveyone knew what was necessary to get entry and we had the opportunity to weed the timewasters/idiots out first. Personally, I can think of better things to do with my time than issuing warnings to people who are not posting responsibly. And it does take us quite a bit of combined effort to keep this chaotic forum on the right lines. The time and effort necessary will only increase as time goes by.
Still we all enjoy it and hope our readers and sponsors feel they are getting something out of it too. We're human and make mistakes, but we are trying to improve things. Hence this discussion. Bear in mind that other boards in this country will not tolerate any discussion of moderation or board rules at all. Transgressors do so at their own risk and find themselves quickly banned for a year, if not life.
Now that's dictatorial. At least we welcome construstive critism and I hope this post has gone some way to explaining what we're trying to achieve for all.
Have a good festive season everyone. I know I'm going to!!
When we started out it was simply an experiment based on the knowledge that town had been and was continuing to attract increasingly large numbers of visitors. More and more people were also making HH their home, either to run a business or to retire.
Sure, at the start, the name HHAD was chosen to try to "spice" the potential nature of the board up, but to be honest we never got that many questions about the nightlife here in those days. It's only relatively recently that people have been asking for information on these matters as HH is promoted around the world as a serious alternative to Phuket, Pattaya, the islands etc.
Over the years, the type of visitor to town has changed enormously. Of couse, there will always be the drinkers and those looking for nightlife. Good luck to them. It's all part of life in Thailand and 99% of the time everyone's well behaved and gets on well with the locals and "family" holidaymakers.
But there's no escaping the fact the HH has been promoted hard by the tourist board in Thailand as an upmarket, family oriented destination for years. To a greater degree, this has been successful.
As a result, the board must evolve as well and after finding we were getting more and more negative comments about the "seedier" side of things, it was felt necessary to try to segregate this area - hence nightcrawlers.
Any forum board will always get lurkers. By introducing the 30 post rule to NCs, we were trying to keep voyeurs out. It was never meant to be elitist. We were trying to keep the quality of visitor to the site as high as possible. Potential and existing sponsors stand to benefit much more from 10-15 new members who post regularly and get involved in the site than 100 lurkers who are just trying to find tittilation. Sure, we could have given a sort of "parental warning" to the NC's section, but we would never have achieved our objective.
Other successful boards in Thailand open this type of section up to a poster when they've reached 500 posts. You won't even know that the section exists until you make the required number and you're then invited to take part in discussions of a more controversial nature.
NCs was never introduced along the lines of "poster A has made 42 posts and seems to be a level headed sort of person, shall we invite him/her to take part in the new section?" That would have been elitist, an invitation being necessary. We decided against that, and tried to reach a compromise situation where eveyone knew what was necessary to get entry and we had the opportunity to weed the timewasters/idiots out first. Personally, I can think of better things to do with my time than issuing warnings to people who are not posting responsibly. And it does take us quite a bit of combined effort to keep this chaotic forum on the right lines. The time and effort necessary will only increase as time goes by.
Still we all enjoy it and hope our readers and sponsors feel they are getting something out of it too. We're human and make mistakes, but we are trying to improve things. Hence this discussion. Bear in mind that other boards in this country will not tolerate any discussion of moderation or board rules at all. Transgressors do so at their own risk and find themselves quickly banned for a year, if not life.
Now that's dictatorial. At least we welcome construstive critism and I hope this post has gone some way to explaining what we're trying to achieve for all.
Have a good festive season everyone. I know I'm going to!!
Thanks lomu, I couldnt have said it better myself.Dougal wrote: And lastly as a potential future advertiser I am surprised by your comment "and the ones that are just lurkers would maybe loose (sic) interest and go away" sorry Dave but I think you may be misreading the audience that your advertisers are trying to reach.
Dougal, if you seriously have any doubts and grievences about the quality and performance of this site feel free to PM me to discuss them.
We are fully aware of our readership and the level of sponsorship we can currently attain, we are growing and evolving, just as Hua Hin is. We are by no means elitist, just trying to offer a few benefits to our more loyal members, theres nothing wrong in that.
And on that note, happy christmas, get off this board today and get into your food and drink and be very merry!
For better or worse, I have re-read all of the above whilst waiting for the bird to bloody well cook!!!!! If I could fit the damn thing in the microwave I would - trust me!
It just strikes me what a difficult balancing job admin and the mods have, not only with spammers and trolls (I'm easily confused) but also, as has been noticed, the rather perverse sight of potential sponsors not trying to put their money on the table but using the site for their own advantage in other ways.
I guess I have visited and viewed with most estate agents in town, or those I could understand and where I couldn't, the g/f could, especially on quiet back roads with tiny sales offices and no English speakers (that always struck me as odd, if aiming for the european/Nth American/Anzac market)
But the one agent I refused to approach was the one a while ago who appeared to use lots of novice 1st time posters with identical ISP's as I recall, although I was originally taken in by such posts.
So it seems to me that admin/mods also have a degree of responsibility to protect their members who otherwise could get taken for a ride (there, I'm being polite) as well as looking after sponsors - might be worth considering splitting that role instead of/as well as looking after certain forums?
As I said before, I wish them every success in the ongoing development of this site!
And if the aforementioned company is now a sponsor, I'll call in and see you in April....!
Now, wheres my drink gone? Hang on, what was I drinking...?
It just strikes me what a difficult balancing job admin and the mods have, not only with spammers and trolls (I'm easily confused) but also, as has been noticed, the rather perverse sight of potential sponsors not trying to put their money on the table but using the site for their own advantage in other ways.
I guess I have visited and viewed with most estate agents in town, or those I could understand and where I couldn't, the g/f could, especially on quiet back roads with tiny sales offices and no English speakers (that always struck me as odd, if aiming for the european/Nth American/Anzac market)
But the one agent I refused to approach was the one a while ago who appeared to use lots of novice 1st time posters with identical ISP's as I recall, although I was originally taken in by such posts.
So it seems to me that admin/mods also have a degree of responsibility to protect their members who otherwise could get taken for a ride (there, I'm being polite) as well as looking after sponsors - might be worth considering splitting that role instead of/as well as looking after certain forums?
As I said before, I wish them every success in the ongoing development of this site!
And if the aforementioned company is now a sponsor, I'll call in and see you in April....!
Now, wheres my drink gone? Hang on, what was I drinking...?
Talk is cheap
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Guess
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Brilliant explanation Lomu with good reply from caller. It all makes good sense to me and shows reponsible judgement.lomuamart wrote: At least we welcome construstive critism and I hope this post has gone some way to explaining what we're trying to achieve for all.
Have a good festive season everyone. I know I'm going to!!
[color=blue][size=134]Care in the community success story.[/size][/color]
hi there,
can i ask, what is discussed in this private section that are so secret that us "normal" people cannot see?
Just courious, im not interessed in being part of the private section if what you discuss is "where to buy the best girls etc etc. (im one of those people that don't like prostition and don't like people talk about girls from thailand like they all the girls can be bought) but that is another discussion
can i ask, what is discussed in this private section that are so secret that us "normal" people cannot see?
Just courious, im not interessed in being part of the private section if what you discuss is "where to buy the best girls etc etc. (im one of those people that don't like prostition and don't like people talk about girls from thailand like they all the girls can be bought) but that is another discussion
You've answered your own question - so best avoid it then!!!Morten wrote:hi there,
can i ask, what is discussed in this private section that are so secret that us "normal" people cannot see?
Just courious, im not interessed in being part of the private section if what you discuss is "where to buy the best girls etc etc. (im one of those people that don't like prostition and don't like people talk about girls from thailand like they all the girls can be bought) but that is another discussion
Talk is cheap
Hi Morten.Morten wrote:hi there,
can i ask, what is discussed in this private section that are so secret that us "normal" people cannot see?
don't like people talk about girls from thailand like they all the girls can be bought) but that is another discussion
Most of us living here have a thaiwife /gf.
Do you really think we have no respect for the girls here?
I think you will find a lot of letters about this subject here on HHAD if you do a little research. I somehow think this forum is one of the greatest defenders of thai women in general.
I intend to live forever - so far so good.