Update on this. 
I stand corrected. 

Although I haven't done a substantive research project, I checked two random times on the wayback machine for the world news forum here.

The majority of topics were indeed NOT U.S. related topics. Many of course were, but not the majority. 

Sorry for my previous error, now fully acknowledged.

So my previous comment about my perception of the real value of these discussions should now be read as limited to the U.S. topics. 

No opinion on the other ones.

Off-topic post reported and removed.

 

On 4/3/2021 at 1:46 AM, 7by7 said:

From the replies here it seems that more people share my view than yours. So I guess the question is; should the management provide the type of forum the members want? After all, if it doesn't people will go elsewhere. The less traffic the forum receives, the lower the revenue. 

 

555 yeah ok so I guess like 10 people have replied here same as you?

 

So over 200,000 members of ThaiVisa & 10 have agreed with you here....

Your right that is a majority I guess we are doomed as all 10 may leave & ThaiVisa will go belly up? ????

 

Thanks that was good ????

 

Quote

Thaivisa is the world largest forum about Thailand with more than registered 200,000 members and 90,000 unique visitors/day.

 

On 4/3/2021 at 9:20 PM, Jingthing said:

Yeah I get your point in that.

I'm going to assume that the site doesn't want to present as a Cheap Charlie "stealing" those stories from any particular source, even with just links. 

I wasn't even aware that TV did pay for stories. So, I for one, would not have probably noticed the difference, if there had been a seem less transition to unpaid for headlines.

3 hours ago, meechai said:

555 yeah ok so I guess like 10 people have replied here same as you?

 

How many have replied to agree with you?

 

Surely the majority should be a comparison of posts. Can't include non posters.

On 4/3/2021 at 9:51 PM, Scott said:

I believe the providers that Thaivisa was using have raised their prices considerably.   So, I would say that is the primary reason.  Mods and Admin were not given a great deal of insight into the reasoning.  

 

I can understand a business decision.  But can't TV find a different provider?  Or as someone else suggested, let members post articles with only a paragraph or two with link?  I have to admit, World News was probably the most interesting forum on TV.  Sad to see it go.

So now we have the Purge. "World news" no longer appears in the "Forums" list all links to historical posts in "World news" have been purged from TV, Its as if "World News" never existed. Surely such drastic action suggests more than just TV no longer subscribes to Reuters?

6 minutes ago, polpott said:

So now we have the Purge. "World news" no longer appears in the "Forums" list all links to historical posts in "World news" have been purged from TV, Its as if "World News" never existed. Surely such drastic action suggests more than just TV no longer subscribes to Reuters?

That's what the wayback machine is for, innit. 

Reality check.

All the whining here about the world news forum going away ain't gonna amount to Jack Shirt! 

13 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

Reality check.

All the whining here about the world news forum going away ain't gonna amount to Jack Shirt! 

Come on JT.  Sometimes the powers-that-be actually listens to the people.  Sometimes. 

8 hours ago, meechai said:

555 yeah ok so I guess like 10 people have replied here same as you?

 

So over 200,000 members of ThaiVisa & 10 have agreed with you here....

Your right that is a majority I guess we are doomed as all 10 may leave & ThaiVisa will go belly up? ????

 

Thanks that was good ????

 

 

 More people have posted to agree with me than you.

 

Yes, look at the membership list and there are well over 200,000 registered members. But how many are active?

 

On the first page are 24 members; 20 of whom joined more than 10 years ago of whom only 4 have post counts in double figures or above.

 

Most people who join a forum such as this do so for specific information, and when they have that information they never visit again. Yet they remain on the membership list. Everyone does; even banned members!

 

You have quoted "90,000 unique visitors/day" but have not said where that figure came from. Will you now do so?

 

Even if it is that high, from the views, let alone post counts, that the World News forum received, a large proportion of daily visitors reads that forum, even if they didn't post there on each visit, or even at all.

 

As others more knowledgeable than I have said, a large part of a site's ad revenue comes from the number of clicks.

 

That revenue has now been lost as even the archived topics have now been removed.

 

As has the Entertainment News!

 

 

 

 

A pair of posts commenting on fellow forum members have been removed. Please direct your comments to the topic, not to each other.

 

2 hours ago, Jingthing said:

Reality check.

All the whining here about the world news forum going away ain't gonna amount to Jack Shirt! 

The same could be said about the entire forum if it continues down this path.

4 hours ago, Berkshire said:

I can understand a business decision.  But can't TV find a different provider?  Or as someone else suggested, let members post articles with only a paragraph or two with link?  I have to admit, World News was probably the most interesting forum on TV.  Sad to see it go.

I can't give you a definitive answer as to why we couldn't open topics following Fair Use rules, but the idea went no further than being bounced around by the Mods.  

 

I know that FaceBook has encountered legal problems with simply posting links to articles.  This was in Australia, but I suspect some rumblings about a larger issue.  A poster above touched on this:   https://forum.thaivisa.com/topic/1212273-world-news-closed-entertainment-news-still-open/?do=findComment&comment=16364689

 

I suspect the forum could run into problems with providers that were previously paid and are now having their content used for free.  It maybe legal, but it could result in a legal battle.   That, is just my personal guess.  

 

 

 Whoever is driving this however seems either unaware, or simply doesn't care, how it is diminishing the forum. It will turn off a significant number of members, people will no longer visit as regularly, and the advertisers will be aware of that.

tl;dr

 

Ratings on news media and sites all over the world tanked after President Trump was no longer in the news.  World News Forum here was no different and getting rid of it was the smart thing to do.  That forum became very boring after January 20 and I would guess got very few clicks compared to the four previous years.  The decision to jettison it was simply good business sense.

On 4/2/2021 at 4:01 PM, Phoenix Rising said:

With the World News section closed I will visit this forums only if I'm after some specific information only other expats can answer. So from several visits a day I'll probably visit once or twice a month.

Only reason I visited today was to find out what happened to the World News section. Not the smartest decision TVF ever made.

It was a smart move made at exactly the right time.

4 hours ago, polpott said:

So now we have the Purge. "World news" no longer appears in the "Forums" list all links to historical posts in "World news" have been purged from TV, Its as if "World News" never existed. Surely such drastic action suggests more than just TV no longer subscribes to Reuters?

 

what this really means is that there is very little point in participating in discussions, as they can disappear.

forums become more and more alike to facebook post comments which have a very limited life span.

 

15 hours ago, puchooay said:

How many have replied to agree with you?

 

Surely the majority should be a comparison of posts. Can't include non posters.

 

555 that is funny too Thanks

 

But really? You think folks that thought the world news forum was a cesspit would come read a topic about it finally being closed?

Then agree with eh lone poster who just happened by because I saw it in the sidebar ????

 

Yeah sorry no surprises that folks glad to see world news closed are not posting in this thread & I only read it because as I said

I noticed it in sidebar....then noted the sky is falling posts & thought it funny enough to reply ????

 

 

Troll posts reported and removed.

 

10 hours ago, ExpatOK said:

tl;dr

 

Ratings on news media and sites all over the world tanked after President Trump was no longer in the news.  World News Forum here was no different and getting rid of it was the smart thing to do.  That forum became very boring after January 20 and I would guess got very few clicks compared to the four previous years.  The decision to jettison it was simply good business sense.

I think you are right that the election and aftermath was a high point. For me, and I noted for some others, it got tedious when the trump supporters started on the election fraud stuff. That was a turn off. Not talking about you. 

It's not that I came to Thai Visa for the actual news - it was for the opinions. Not sure why Thai visa was good for opinions on news  - may be there were like minded older white guys who like Thailand. After Trump left the scene it was in some ways better as issues rather than personalities could be discussed.  I didn't post much in any case.

For me I probably look at the pub and world news and not much else. They were a good counterpoint to each other - some trivia and fun and then some more serious discussion.

I guess I may have a distorted view of World news importance to this site. When I look at other Thailand topics now I see a huge range of topics and so many long term posters who I never come across otherwise. 

 

 

On 4/2/2021 at 5:00 PM, nkg said:

 

The "World News" was dominated by a small number of "super-posters" who drove new users away with their aggressive, overly-argumentative posts.

 

New users provide ad revenue. 100 posts a day regulars don't.

 

 

Indeed, but the solution is simple: limit the number of posts (5?) that can be made on any one thread. That's enough to make a point and argue the case without dominating the thread. Honour system would be enough but it could done programatically.

On 4/3/2021 at 9:47 AM, tgw said:

still in the nineties! lol

and yes, Reuters has reported in a biaised way against Trump, this is confirmed here:

https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/reuters/

No, it is not confirmed there. It mentions one case where one Reuters reporter made a single solitary comment on his personal Twitter account about Trump that was considered not to meet Reuters standards and for which he apologised. It was not part of a report by Reuters.

 

The actual rating was:

 

Quote

Overall, we rate Reuters Least Biased based on objective reporting and Very High for factual reporting due to proper sourcing of information with minimal bias and a clean fact check record. (7/10/2016) Updated (M. Huitsing 03/10/2021)

 

A number of off topic posts and a comment on moderation post have been removed.

 

This thread is about the closure of TVF's World News forum. Not about U.S. partisan politics, the impartiality or not of news media outlets, etc etc.

 

On 4/5/2021 at 6:05 AM, Jingthing said:

Reality check.

All the whining here about the world news forum going away ain't gonna amount to Jack Shirt! 

 

Yeah it will.  TVF will learn the meaning of "loss leader" when the total click count declines across the board.  Not just in the news section.  They'll lose more in revenue than they saved by not paying for news.

 

The drop in clicks on other sections may seem unrelated to the decision.  Until they come here to read the feedback.

 

12 minutes ago, impulse said:

 

Yeah it will.  TVF will learn the meaning of "loss leader" when the total click count declines across the board.  Not just in the news section.  They'll lose more in revenue than they saved by not paying for news.

 

 

We shall see.

 

Quote

Hope springs eternal in a young man's breast
And he dreams of a better life ahead
Without that dream you are nothing, nothing, nothing
You have to find out for yourself that dream is dead (la la la la)

 

A post was reported and removed.

 

If World News is gone why have the topics listed as favorites on side bar. 

 

The upside of no World News is those with conservative views have a much better chance of not being suspended.

On 4/2/2021 at 4:01 PM, KannikaP said:

With all the News channels available on t'Internet, incl Entertainment, political, sports etc, why would anyone use TV for their news feed. Great for having a banter with other members and finding out say DIY, Visa, Passport problems within Thailand etc, but never for World News. 

Some of us have better things to do than look at various news channels for hours a day. TVF world news provided a glimpse at what was going on in the world, and the opportunity for a bit of debate at the same time, which was as much as I am ( was ) willing to do.

Basically, the world is in a bad way and every news channel just gives a different slant to it. Bad news is bad news however it's dressed up.

 

Far as the closure goes, I have my opinion, but it falls into the category of that which may not be discussed on TVF.

On 4/7/2021 at 4:02 AM, impulse said:

 

Yeah it will.  TVF will learn the meaning of "loss leader" when the total click count declines across the board.  Not just in the news section.  They'll lose more in revenue than they saved by not paying for news.

 

The drop in clicks on other sections may seem unrelated to the decision.  Until they come here to read the feedback.

 

True. I used to mainly look at world news and The Pub, as apparently corona ( or something else ) made all the other sub forums I used to read a lot quite boring. Where to find the best pizza in Pattaya no longer has much appeal for me.

Now that there isn't any world news, that means my time on TVF is correspondingly reduced.