36 minutes ago, Poet said:

As it contains the keywords "Thai" and "visa", it put them highest in the search rankings for people who needed that info and, therefore, would also be likely to click on ads for visa agents, hotels, lawyers, realtors etc, earning the owner hefty commissions.

Regular participants rarely earn forums any money, their job is to create fresh content that makes Google more likely to continue ranking the site in the top results.

You mostly make money from the newbie willing to click links and spend money to achieve something specific. He may never visit again, but that one flying visit can generate enough affiliate fees to pay for that month's hosting.

 

Very interesting. Does ASEAN NOW now have to start from scratch building up its search engine ranking?

19 minutes ago, peter0017 said:

Seriously the new font is not ok at all. It hurts my eyes!

Scroll to the bottom of the page and select "Theme" to go back to the old font.

11 minutes ago, John Drake said:

The site didn't carry over auto logins then and it hasn't done so today either.

I had to have a mod who is a personal friend of mine to help. The whole change password option didn't work for me, probably others in the same boat.

W....what happened?

 

Help, Mom, I feel unsafe on the internet.

23 minutes ago, sirineou said:

From the title.

"   "

it reminds me of the artist formerly known as Prince.

He is now known as "The artist formerly known as alive" LOL

He died? The artist formerly known as Prince died and I was given no advance notice? What is the inscription on his grave stone, if any there be?

20 minutes ago, Puccini said:

Very interesting. Does ASEAN NOW now have to start from scratch building up its search engine ranking?

No. If they have set up the forwarding properly, all previously ranked pages will be relisted with the new URL, it will just take some time, probably a few weeks.

In theory, each page will end up with roughly the same rankings but, in reality, you always experience some loss. Google is suspicious of things changing and, in the case of such a big forum, their algorithm could well take the opportunity to lower or delist certain pages (for instant, from certain long past date ranges).

There have certainly been cases where sites have ended with far lower search traffic despite forwarding correctly. Unfortunately, there is no one you can call at Google if your business is impacted.

So, ThaiVisa should be okay, but it is a fundamental change and it sure won't improve their rankings.

In their shoes, I would be more worried about how it affects their word-of-mouth publicity. Expats often recommend forums to other expats they meet, and "ThaiVisa" was in the lucky position of having the highest name recognition among Thai expat forums despite not being among the best -similar to how some people in the UK refer to all vacuum cleaners as hoovers, despite Hoover making terrible vacuum cleaners.

Now, in conversation, most people are going to struggle to remember "AseanNow". Not easy to remember, not immediatly clear how you should pronounce the "Asean" part, and the "Now" part is something you would associate more with some sort of low-grade, tourist resort cable TV station featuring 65% Russian content.

 

32 minutes ago, Puccini said:

He died? The artist formerly known as Prince died and I was given no advance notice? What is the inscription on his grave stone, if any there be?

Well he wanted to call you but unfortunately  no one gave him advance notice either. 

I am sure  on his grave stone it says ''The artist formerly known as alive" 

7 minutes ago, The Cipher said:

W....what happened?

 

Help, Mom, I feel unsafe on the internet.

It was a bit disconcerting. The suddenness. The lack of advance warning. 

4 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

It was a bit disconcerting. The suddenness. The lack of advance warning.

Just a reminder how insignificant we all are.

28 minutes ago, Puccini said:

I take it you're off to the restaurant at the end of the universe.

And 42 is the answer to everything.............

2 minutes ago, Digitalbanana said:

Just a reminder how insignificant we all are.

Yep. It could have been worse. We could have ALL been permanently banned! Those of us that find great value in this forum, whatever it's called, should perhaps not take it's existence for granted.

Just now, Jingthing said:

Yep. It could have been worse. We could have ALL been permanently banned! Those of us that find great value in this forum, whatever it's called, should perhaps not take it's existence for granted.

If it makes  money it  will run forever.

First rule of brand marketing: You do NOT re-brand an already established, extremely well known and successful brand unless there is a very, very, very (and I mean VERY) good reason for it. Expanding to another market is NOT one of them.

21 minutes ago, J Town said:

I had to have a mod who is a personal friend of mine to help. The whole change password option didn't work for me, probably others in the same boat.

Mine worked  ok

Just now, Rampant Rabbit said:

If iot makes  money it  will run forever.

Perhaps but with the social media competition and whatever comes next, making money "forever" is hardly assured. 

Captcha giving error for new sign ups.. Already go error 32 and other problems need to be sorted and the name is awful.

Word of mouth is likely to be Asia Now, not Asean Now.

Just now, Jingthing said:

Yep. It could have been worse. We could have ALL been permanently banned! Those of us that find great value in this forum, whatever it's called, should perhaps not take it's existence for granted.

Being banned just means you can't post, you can still read the forum.

If they did that, why would you want to continue creating free content for them?

 

1 minute ago, Misterwhisper said:

First rule of brand marketing: You do NOT re-brand an already established, extremely well known and successful brand unless there is a very, very, very (and I mean VERY) good reason for it. Expanding to another market is NOT one of them.

That's what the "formerly known as" part is for. 

Also as I said before I think the new name is younger.

1 minute ago, Poet said:

Being banned just means you can't post, you can still read the forum.

If they did that, why would you want to continue creating free content for them?

 

I was alluding to the possibility of the forum being shut down entirely. That would in effect be a BAN on all of us. 

1 minute ago, Jingthing said:

That's what the "formerly known as" part is for. 

Also as I said before I think the new name is younger.

Asean Then was the old  TV   ????

1 minute ago, Thailand said:

Word of mouth is likely to be Asia Now, not Asean Now.

 

Oooooohhhh, very good point!

They just handed a massive gift to the domain speculator who owns AsiaNow.com

Just now, Rampant Rabbit said:

Asean Then was the old  TV   ????

Exactly. 

2 minutes ago, Poet said:

 

Oooooohhhh, very good point!

They just handed a massive gift to the domain speculator who owns AsiaNow.com

That's an interesting point. 

I think the vast majority of expats living in Asean know what Asean means compared to Asia. But if you ask the average American on the street for example, I would presume only a small percentage would have a clue what Asean means. 

5 minutes ago, Misterwhisper said:

First rule of brand marketing: You do NOT re-brand an already established, extremely well known and successful brand unless there is a very, very, very (and I mean VERY) good reason for it. Expanding to another market is NOT one of them.

Morris  Ital.................miserable  failure   , Marathon...........Snickers huh! ......Darkie toothpaste...........pah  Darlie........ Prince, the Artist formerly known as Prince.........parrrrrrrrfetic.

Thai  Visa the website formerly known as "Asean Now" ............well maybe in a  few  months ?

Ha  hahhahaahha ha well if  you type  "Thai  Visa"  into google, nothing copmes up for Thai  Visa  website  now.......:-)

2 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

I would presume only a small percentage would have a clue what Asean means.

Or where it even was...

Just now, Rampant Rabbit said:

Or where it even was...

If you say it verbally, it would sound like an "interesting" pronunciation of Asian to those not in the know. In writing, it might look like a misspelling.

6 hours ago, webfact said:

a wide range of material easily searchable by its members

To imply TV offers this is so blatantly false, even Trump would blush.  The search facility has been broken for years despite endless calls to have it fixed and I hope that if there are new investors involved in this "re-branding" that they insist more expertise is brought to bear on the actual usability of the site.  

Just now, Greenside said:

To imply TV offers this is so blatantly false, even Trump would blush.  The search facility has been broken for years despite endless calls to have it fixed and I hope that if there are new investors involved in this "re-branding" that they insist more expertise is brought to bear on the actual usability of the site.  

True, but it works well using google. 

2 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

If you say it verbally, it would sound like an "interesting" pronunciation of Asian to those not in the know. In writing, it might look like a misspelling.

Is  that Aaron Spellings  daughter?