Mining for “diamonds” on Thai Visa forum

[RLAretired]

 

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Plenty of valuable information here on Thai Visa forum, but a huge amount of “over burden” covering it.  I'm working on ways  to quickly extract the value and ignore the rest.

Thai Visa forum is the largest repository of information for expats in Thailand.  Nowhere else even comes close.  I'm posting this topic to exchange ideas with others interested in a “mining” approach to this forum.   I think of it as, “mining for diamonds”.   (This is just a small, personal project: nothing for sale.)

In order to invite comments, here are a few methods I'm already using or developing.  And I'm looking for new ideas, too.  (Of course, some techniques must not be mentioned.)

The most powerful method is the “ignore” function already built in to this forum software.  It works smoothly.  But entering user names is time consuming and awkward, and that discourages using the function.  So I've created a one-key method using keyboard macros.  Result is 10x improvement in speed when adding names to my ignore list.

Next is the “follow member” function.  It works, but rather inefficient.  So, I've moved my “follow” list into the browser, and then use a plug-in to highlight new postings in a bright color.   To read the full topic, still just one click.

Now starting to create a method to sort posts within a topic.  The forum presents posts in time sequence:  #1, #2, #3, etc.  But a more refined sequence would sort the “diamonds” to the top.  First, at the top, posts from members I follow.  After that, posts from others.  And all posts from my ignore list simply disappear.

In line with that, I'm looking for “filters” of value.  As an example, short posts of only one sentence rarely have any value.  And one-sentence posts that have little picture icons (???????????? ) never have any value.  I'm looking for more ways to filter like that.

Another way to find “diamonds” here is to search thru history for a given subject; to go back 1,2, 5, maybe even 10 years and then “rank” those old posts by relevance.  I've bought a “data mining” program which maps text by relevance.  Plus, it creates a brief “digest”, so a 10 page thread appears as a one page condensed summary.  It works surprisingly well, but I'm still refining the link to the forum.

I invite comments and critique on any of this.  And I'm looking for a few others interested on working on this together and trading ideas.  (Again, not a business in any way -- just a hobby project.)

Thank you for reading.
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Edited June 24, 2019 by RLAretired
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[CharlieH]

Far too much time on your hands! ????

[ezzra]

And beware of fake "diamonds"... lots of time wasters with frivolous, nonsensical posts...

[colinneil]

OP you certainly need a hobby, or a woman to occupy your time, so you will stop dreaming up nonsense.

[johng]

I'd be happy-ish if the bloody search function worked  and the "content I posted in"  function showed all the posts not just for the last 2 days !!!!     both have been broken for ages now...searching for diamonds isn't easy.

[Fruit Trader]

1 hour ago, johng said:

I'd be happy-ish if the bloody search function worked  and the "content I posted in"  function showed all the posts not just for the last 2 days !!!!     both have been broken for ages now...searching for diamonds isn't easy.

Accurate searches use large amounts of system resources which is why many sites limit search scope.

 

To search forum.thaivisa.com its best to use Googles huge index via advanced search.

 

search terms site:forum.thaivisa.com

 

or https://www.google.com/advanced_search

[marcusarelus]

The ignore function limits the amount of life saving information you might get based on silly preferences.  A guy who ignored me later needed my input on an important function that could have saved him thousands of baht.  He missed out.  Another suffered greatly based on a wrong diagnosis that I might have helped him change.  But like they say, "Up to you."  Ignore to your hearts content and your pocketbook and healths detriment. 

[ThaiBunny]

9 minutes ago, marcusarelus said:

The ignore function limits the amount of life saving information you might get based on silly preferences.  A guy who ignored me later needed my input on an important function that could have saved him thousands of baht.  He missed out.  Another suffered greatly based on a wrong diagnosis that I might have helped him change.  But like they say, "Up to you."  Ignore to your hearts content and your pocketbook and healths detriment. 

Conversely I have someone on ignore because IMO he's full of himself and is factually wrong on certain issues about which he expounds at length.  However I once saw him quoted in a post by someone else and felt the thrill of schadenfreude to see he'd made a god-almighty cock-up of something a few years previously and was seeking advice about how it might be rectified

[marcusarelus]

2 minutes ago, ThaiBunny said:

Conversely I have someone on ignore because IMO he's full of himself and is factually wrong on certain issues about which he expounds at length.  However I once saw him quoted in a post by someone else and felt the thrill of schadenfreude to see he'd made a god-almighty cock-up of something a few years previously and was seeking advice about how it might be rectified

We all could help.  The mods can't do it all.  Eliminating the flames and grammar nazi's would cut down on non essential information at least 20%.  Yesterday there were 20 posts about spelling of Jomtien on a thread devoted to visa information.  It's just time wasting nonsense.  Then there is the retirement extension vs retirement visa discussions which take up 20% of every thread on extensions.  

[CharlieH]

A post with oversized emoticons removed.

 

Also a post by "grammar" police

[canuckamuck]

So the idea is to limit the amount of posts you see to the people that you know and agree with already. And from there you will limit the comments to even tighter parameters to learn things you don't already know. Be wary of the echo.

[ThaiBunny]

1 minute ago, canuckamuck said:

So the idea is to limit the amount of posts you see to the people that you know and agree with already.

Rather a long bow