Old Curmudgeon

Is there an information page about how blogs work here? Rules & regulations? Advertising? Etc. Or "coming soon"?

I see the page below on this forum, but no content at all. Am I missing something useful? Or are there simply no blogs on this forum? (After about 22 years, you'd think there would be a few.)

Yes, very weird, indeed. But that's okay ... makes it easy to add to my list of ignored users. Then we have a winner. Any chippy that uses beef tallow is in an entirely different league than those that don't. Thank you, @PizzaBoi for that valuable information.

Thank you to @Highball and @RayWright for their time and effort to post thoughtful suggestions on this thread. Unfortunately, what both are missing ... entirely missing ... is the cultural context. Thais and Westerners simply don't learn in the same ways. The methods that will work for one, won't accomplish much for the other. The study of methods of learning among different cultures is known as psycho-epistemology. It is one of my favorite topics, but it is not the topic of this thread. I'm still hoping someone seeing this thread will post something like, "Here is a video series my Thai wife uses a little every day and her English has improved a lot."

@Red Phoenix - Thank you for that post. This question: Is there any way to mostly avoid the banking system? To keep money out of their clutches -- and move it in to a bank only as needed?

Hello @steven100 - I'm smiling to know that I can bring back good memories for you. I would smile even more if I could bring your focus to the topic, which is Chiang Mai, Thailand. By chance do you happen to know a really fine chippie here?

Personally, I agree 200% with @jij about fried foods. However he is OFF-TOPIC. This topic doesn't ask for advice about what foods to eat. It simply asks where to get really good fish and chips in Chiang Mai. Anyone here have experience at Kelley's near Mae Chok?

Thank you @CharlieH for that suggestion. Having learned Thai myself, starting with the alphabet, rather than language school happy talk, I know the value of building a strong foundation. However, my Thai helper could not even begin to comprehend a grammar video like this, with the teacher speaking only English. What she needs is "repeat after me" style of teaching with explanations in Thai. I'm hoping someone seeing this thread will say, "Here is a video series my wife uses a little every day and her English has improved greatly."

For exactly those views he is one of my heroes. His early and strong warnings about the vaccines, alerted me to avoid the jab. I just wish I had some ideas how to avoid the coming bank "troubles".

What video can a Thai use to learn everyday English at a basic level? Anything on YouTube, Rumble, Bitchute that your wife/girl friend has used successfully? At no cost or very lost cost? One of my Thai helpers is diligently trying to learn English. (Local woman, 45 years old, just basic education.) She paid 350 baht for access to this series of videos. So what did she learn to say today? "I am always growing and evolving." ! ! ! She is a housemaid. Needs common, everyday words for things around the house, at the market, etc. Not this "new-age" nonsense. I had a brief look through the lessons. All of them are like that. And the lessons are delivered in a sing-song voice (English) that sounds like a church sermon, not real-life conversation. Suggestions, please for where she can find practical English training videos, without spending much money. (Going to an English school is not an option.) Thank you.

I predict this is coming to Thailand. Posted today by Dr. Vernon Coleman https://www.vernoncoleman.com/yourbank3.htm ... All the horrifying details at the link above. Bad enough it should happen at our home-town bank, but out here, on the other side of the Earth, in a foreign language? Oh, my!

For my fellow North American, expat, breakfast-eaters, maple syrup can be an essential food element. So, I want to clear up any confusion about that. Waitrose brand name maple syrup (100% pure Canadian) is sold at TOPS "Food Hall" supermarkets in Thailand. But no guarantee that it will be in stock at all times. And smaller TOPS, such as "Daily" are not likely to carry expensive farang food like Canadian maple syrup ... only the much cheaper "Imperial" brand chemical sludge. Suggestions: For a very tasty beverage, I put 2 Tablespoons of maple syrup in a glass with very cold, plain soda water. Gives a delicious "cream soda" with none of the artificial chemicals in "Hales" syrup. For an even more delicious "ice cream soda" substitute, put on top of that about 1/2 cup of heavy cream. Returning to breakfast topic: For North American expats here who remember church pancake suppers, the pancakes at Bucoliq restaurant out in San Sai are very close to that taste and texture. Not 100%, but very close.

This topic is just about "done". Almost every topic here, when it gets past 2 pages of posts, the life has been wrung out of it. This topic has just flipped over to page 3. I don't expect much more useful discussion on this topic here.

I have ignored about 80-90% of the most frequent posters; many hundreds of users. On the Chiang Mai forum: over 90%.

@atpeace's comments have helped crystalize the idea that ignored users and trolls are not the same. Can be a lot of overlap, yes, but not necessarily. The focus on this thread is NOT who is or isn't a troll. Rather the focus is on how to use the ignore user function ... for trolls or anyone you don't want to bother with. I may host a PM group topic on how we can most effectively select "ignored" users. Not actually "who", but "how" to select who. I have five explicit criteria, and am looking for more. But that topic sure won't appear here on the open forum.

Correct, on both points. That list is NOT accusing all those as trolls. It is merely an example of how much my screen has been cleaned up by using the "ignore" function. I'd considered "fuzzying" the actual names, but didn't do it.

To illustrate the point I'm making in the original post, after applying the four tactics described above, below is a screen shot example of what I see on this thread. So much more pleasant to read than a wide-open sewer of troll effluent. And, yes, that ratio of 1:9 is typical for my arrangement here. __________________________________________________ And before going to all the effort of "ignore user" one by one by one, I did look into and actually tested using AI to clean up the swamp. But AI is still too cumbersome to do that. Would be nice, but still years of development needed.

Well, that's working well. "Somebody" just reacted to that post about the little icons in the bottom right corner. And I see NONE of the reactions. Yes! Goodbye to all that clutter from trolls.

Well said, @billd766. Thank you. Very good point, and you have me wondering: Is the decline in this forum a result of: 1 - changes in ownership? 2 - changes in the character of expats in Thailand? 3 - changes in Western culture that are merely reflected here? 4 - something else, deeply hidden and sinister, which I dare not mention? Again, well said. My premise is that we expats need some channel of communication. (Something better than the bar stool conversations of 20 years ago.) So why are so many on this forum spending so much time trying to pollute a perfectly suitable channel like this? Unless ... unless ... unless they are paid or otherwise compensated to ruin it?

Careful, careful: NOT allowed to even mention mods here, neither in a positive way nor any other way. The whole purpose of this thread is asking what individuals can do (without involving mods or anyone else) to make this forum a more pleasant experience. I do it by "pulling the plug" ... "ignore user".

Wrong conclusion. "Disagree" is not a factor here. (I will not presume to lecture you on what is important.) Thank you again @atpeace for your thoughtful and detailed counter-points on this topic. You seem to have a knack for doing that really well, and I appreciate your posts.

Wrong conclusion. I'm not specifying any price point. OP mentioned I don't care about price. But, yes, I could have been more clear about that.

Thanks for your thoughtful counter-point, @atpeace. However, I never threaten anyone. I just do it. Same with the "report" function. I report about trolling, personal attack, off topic, etc. Usually on threads I start, trying to keep them clear of troll graffiti. Is there a better way? Well, yes, there is one more thing to make the forum more pleasant: I have removed the little icons in the lower, right corner of every post. Not only my posts, but every post: I don't care what other people think about posts. Especially, I don't care what anonymous people think. I'm capable of forming my own opinions. So I've removed all of those, from every post, on every thread. Using web browser add-on, uBlock Origin. Not a big thing, but makes reading easier, more efficient, less cluttered.

Thanks, @bokningar for that comment. That's how I started, too, just ignoring the worst of them. This forum improved for me. Then I ignored more and more, a lot really. And the forum improved even more! Now, I estimate that I see only about one post out of 10-20. That's all. Much more pleasant experience reading here. I can't comment about who did what, because I don't know the facts. But traffic, plenty of traffic, is essential for advertising revenue. And no advertising revenue ... no forum! My goal is to make the reading here pleasant, useful, and efficient -- within that situation. Suggestions, please, how to do that.

Very helpful post. Clear, specific details. And directly on topic. Thank you, @Paul Catton (I wish more posters here would follow your writing style.)