2 hours ago, transam said:

Perhaps you are him, you know a lot, but are a new member, strange that, eh...

New member, 81.4thousand posts.

1 hour ago, ravip said:

granddads... new generations ...

The generation gap is huge now, I guess most of the granddads cannot keep up? 😜

I can keep up just fine, IMO it's the younger generations who seem to have been  behind the door when respect for facts and logic were handed out.

Maybe it's the teaching they get, I've seen people on here who claim to teach  English who can't even spell.

On 10/28/2023 at 5:24 PM, VocalNeal said:

Here is an example of what is happening to this forum. 

 

https://aseannow.com/topic/1310478-did-you-get-the-easy-way-in-life-or-the-hard-way/#comment-18456757

 

Not even remotely related to Thailand or S.E.A.

Disagree.  Have a look now - every response is interesting and thought provoking and it's interesting sometimes to think how that life path may lead to Thailand. 

3 minutes ago, Lacessit said:

I can keep up just fine, IMO it's the younger generations who seem to have been  behind the door when respect for facts and logic were handed out.

Maybe it's the teaching they get, I've seen people on here who claim to teach  English who can't even spell.

 

OK, English teaching quality is often questionable on several fronts. This item seems to refer to comprehension or understanding.

 

But 'understanding' or 'comprehension' can be questionable in many subjects and redardless of whether its a local language speaking teaching or an 'imported' teacher.

 

When I was reaching business I always took the time to ask the students 'what does that sentence actually mean?' and actively listen to any / all the answers then give a clear/speific answer and explain what it really means and the impact / value it might have on marketing, usage, etc. 

 

Often enough several / many students would show in the reactions on their faces that their own initial understand of what it meant was quite different to the real meaning.

 

An example could be 'competitive advantage' which to naive students might be initially interpreted in quite different / incorrect ways.

2 minutes ago, scorecard said:

 

OK, English teaching quality is often questionable on several fronts. This item seems to refer to comprehension or understanding.

 

But 'understanding' or 'comprehension' can be questionable in many subjects and redardless of whether its a local language speaking teaching or an 'imported' teacher.

 

When I was reaching business I always took the time to ask the students 'what does that sentence actually mean?' and actively listen to any / all the answers then give a clear/speific answer and explain what it really means and the impact / value it might have on marketing, usage, etc. 

 

Often enough several / many students would show in the reactions on their faces that their own initial understand of what it meant was quite different to the real meaning.

 

An example could be 'competitive advantage' which to naive students might be initially interpreted in quite different / incorrect ways.

I sometimes wonder if we don't discard useful knowledge, and replace it with something of less utility. Venn diagrams were not taught in my time.. How many present-day students have read "Straight and Crooked Thinking " , by R H Thouless?

 

There are three spelling errors in your post, which tends to prove my point. I'll give you a reluctant pass on understand, although IMO it's the verb, understanding is the noun.

 

49 minutes ago, scorecard said:

New member, 81.4thousand posts.

Eh...?

Old story now: go woke go broke, it's happening all over the world. Ask the people at Bud Light. Same with AN.

1 hour ago, nobodysfriend said:

I said I do not like killing of animals ... You called me a woke leftist ...

I did that?

I don't think so.

59 minutes ago, scorecard said:

When I was reaching business I always took the time to ask the students 'what does that sentence actually mean?' and actively listen to any / all the answers then give a clear/speific answer and explain what it really means and the impact / value it might have on marketing, usage, etc. 

 

Often enough several / many students would show in the reactions on their faces that their own initial understand of what it meant was quite different to the real meaning.

It seems you defined what the real meaning was/is and you were so nice to let other utter their opinion.

How generous of you.

25 minutes ago, retarius said:

go woke go broke

 

     I woke at 5.00am! Do you think I'll have a problem??? 

10 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

It seems you defined what the real meaning was/is and you were so nice to let other utter their opinion.

How generous of you.

 

Well when I was lecturing and with my wn Thai son, I have always emphasied that fact is different to opinion.

 

But I was always taught that no matter how 'good' your explanation is someone will take a different interpretaions.

 

I was a radio news kid (before TV).

 

We had 2 late afternoon newspapers delivered to the house every day. We listened to the radio news after dinner and my parents read associated artcles from the 2 newspapers.

 

Dad and mum also emphahised that news reports were laced with  opinion and the opinion would probably change according to the media owners personal opinions / alegances / opportunity for revenue etc.

 

This pushed to always remember that some students would take away a certain understanding and others a different understanding / opinion.

 

Hence I always gave them an opportunity to express their opinions and I always took an additional 10 - 15 minutes to bring another student back into the discussion 'do you agree with what student XX said?' etc.

 

This highlighted to me and other students that quite possibly there were misunderstandings, and on some occasions I quickly turned what had been discussed into a 1 page / 2 page quick hand in assignment. 

16 minutes ago, 2baht said:

44 minutes ago, retarius said:

go woke go broke

 

     I woke at 5.00am! Do you think I'll have a problem??? 

Are you broke?

If not, don't worry.

On 10/21/2023 at 7:07 PM, OneMoreFarang said:

All together there were enough interesting members and topics to keep going.

 

The larger number of posters in the past included more of the interesting posters amid more of the idiots, trolls, bashers, know-it-alls, doomsters, and clowns. Most threads except on technical, factual points were still full of nonsense.

 

I sometimes used to go back to old threads, before I was threatened not to quote old posts, though there's no rule against doing so. I then remembered how good many of those old posters were and how I miss them today.

 

On 10/21/2023 at 7:07 PM, OneMoreFarang said:

It seems to me that many long-term members are not here anymore. 

 

True, for various reasons. On occasion I notice one or two lurking. They probably find it not worth taking time to post and deal with the blowback. An exception is a hit-and-run basher who gets up early to post as soon as thread goes up. But then he disappears. 🙂 Gets a high reputation count that way.

 

On 10/21/2023 at 7:07 PM, OneMoreFarang said:

And some (new) members try to beat each other about how many useless posts they can publish in a day.

 

In the pub, certainly. The phrase "personality disorder" comes to mind. We had a super troll dominating the Pattaya forum for about a year, but the unimaginable COVID recovery did him in, fortunately, as it did other doomsters. I think it's actually better than it used to be. Most of the "fun" is had in directing the bigotry towards Chinese, Russians, and Indians rather than just Thais. We have a few men-about-town reporting on the bar and cheap resto scene. Still have a large number of Driving Instructors and Traffic Accident Investigators. And TAT: ANF, CSI: ANF, DSI: ANF for BiB infractions, the ANF Pattaya Urban Development Board, just as we've always had.

 

Edited October 29, 20232 yr by BigStar

7 hours ago, atpeace said:

Moderation is slippery slope

I have to agree,

My Mom always said "everything in moderation" and look where that got me 

1 hour ago, BigStar said:

 

 An exception is a hit-and-run basher who gets up early to post as soon as thread goes up. But then he disappears. 🙂 Gets a high reputation count that way.

 

This is over my head.  How does bashing people before everybody sleeps help their reptation count?  I just saw the reputation count a couple days ago and don't have a clue how it is determined.

3 minutes ago, atpeace said:

This is over my head.  How does bashing people before everybody sleeps help their reptation count?  I just saw the reputation count a couple days ago and don't have a clue how it is determined.

 

I mean bashing early before a lot of people wake up or get on the forum to read and reply to threads. So his posts are among the first after the OP. Gets the most views, readers (who may have short attention spans anyway) needn't even scroll down.

 

And gets rep points because so many like to read shrewd curmudgeonly bashing of Thais, the Thai gov't, TAT, Russians, Chinese, Indians, Trump, rosy real estate projections, BiB, naifs who dare suggest buying a condo, motorbike riders who died without having worn a helmet--all the fave and usual targets.

 

Gets in before the chorus then ignores any questions or blowback from the few more objective members.

 

2 minutes ago, BigStar said:

 

I mean bashing early before a lot of people wake up or get on the forum to read and reply to threads. So his posts are among the first after the OP. Gets the most views, readers (who may have short attention spans anyway) needn't even scroll down.

 

And gets rep points because so many like to read shrewd curmudgeonly bashing of Thais, the Thai gov't, TAT, Russians, Chinese, Indians, Trump, rosy real estate projections, BiB, naifs who dare suggest buying a condo, motorbike riders who died without having worn a helmet--all the fave and usual targets.

 

Gets in before the chorus then ignores any questions or blowback from the few more objective members.

 

Strange.  My rating is excellent.  I've been suspended multiple time the last year and assume that was because many disliked my comments.  Does anyone have a less than excellent rating?

A good number of posters like to counter others with presumptions, half-truths, or even insults because they want to 'prove that they are always right', and others always wrong, if they report different experiences, or if they have other opinions. This is a development not just here, but all over social media. Sadly, it also discounts the reliability of the visa- and living-in-Thailand advice that once was so helpful and reliable here. - Nowadays, not last due to these reasons, I do not use Asean Now as my main source of visa information and -advice anymore, but only as one source, which I verify via Google and other websites. 

Edited October 29, 20232 yr by StayinThailand2much

On 10/23/2023 at 12:46 PM, Mike Lister said:

Agreed, I liken it to the 12 year old going through puberty and discovering what their penis can do.

Mine still surprises me from time to time.

 

_{“My dear Frodo!’ exclaimed Gandalf. ‘Hobbits really are amazing creatures, as I have said before. You can learn all that there is to know about their ways in a month, and yet after a hundred years they can still surprise you at a pinch.”}

1 minute ago, atpeace said:

Strange.  My rating is excellent.  I've been suspended multiple time the last year and assume that was because many disliked my comments.  Does anyone have a less than excellent rating?

Ha! One of the best posters here (witty, fast, very intelligent) IMO has been suspended multiple times and often threatened.🙂 He doesn't have a high reputation because he doesn't appeal to the peanut gallery. On the other hand, some I regarded as the worst got themselves banned fairly rapidly. But the sly, disingenuous trolls never quite violate the forum rules and linger until they finally get bored, I guess.

 

Rep points reflect popularity with the mob, which could be regarded as excellent or rather the opposite. Reminds me of Groucho Marx's line about "I would never join a club that would accept me as a member".  Two POTY I recall were notably vacuous. One posted a lot of inane low Brit witticisms mostly directed at Thais, Thai news, and Thai culture. The other was an ingratiating fraud. But then, to admit exceptions, Nancy won POTY one year, and she was informative, helpful, and really just all-around admirable.

 

 

15 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Why can't we discuss the specifics of prostitution, given it's the reason many of us are in LOS in the first place? It's not a family forum.

 

The reason is because 1. Google does not react well to such topics, and 2. Google pays the forum owner money to place adverts on this site.

 

If you get 1. wrong then Google reduces or stops paying to place adverts on the site.

 

This is a commercial site with considerable overheads. Nobody here can afford to bite the hand that feeds it.

4 hours ago, blackcab said:

 

The reason is because 1. Google does not react well to such topics, and 2. Google pays the forum owner money to place adverts on this site.

 

If you get 1. wrong then Google reduces or stops paying to place adverts on the site.

 

This is a commercial site with considerable overheads. Nobody here can afford to bite the hand that feeds it.

Says it all - it's about the bottom line, clear and simple. 

Yesterday notifications were half working it seemed, today nothing, not one, can't even access that page

On 10/24/2023 at 11:09 PM, Adumbration said:

 

....  Too many ads....too many fake members posting nonsense...

 

 

 

I have to agree, depending on what browser you're using and even if you’re using an ad blocker the amount of pop-ups, banners, videos auto-starting makes it a painful experience at times,

To the point it literally covers the content you're trying to read until it forces you to close it, 

I understand it is a business and must generate some income to pay for servers, bandwidth and all the other expenses that go along with hosting a forum but the ad saturation seems excessive.

 

I also agree many of the posts may be AI Bot driven to bolster traffic but who knows,

I for one will stick around until "URL not found...” lol

 

 

21 hours ago, OneMoreFarang said:

Why do you care about that at all.

It's like a dog barking across the street. It's a dog barking, just ignore it. 

Ah, normally I would ignore it but it was when some mods started saying that we couldn't post laughs without a comment, so I PMd a mod about the poster that was stalking me and putting laughs on every post I made to see what would happen and, I was told that it was OK for him as he was a long term poster and had lots of posts. 

Need I say more?

10 hours ago, blackcab said:

 

The reason is because 1. Google does not react well to such topics, and 2. Google pays the forum owner money to place adverts on this site.

 

If you get 1. wrong then Google reduces or stops paying to place adverts on the site.

 

This is a commercial site with considerable overheads. Nobody here can afford to bite the hand that feeds it.

Thanks for the explanation.

5 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Ah, normally I would ignore it but it was when some mods started saying that we couldn't post laughs without a comment, so I PMd a mod about the poster that was stalking me and putting laughs on every post I made to see what would happen and, I was told that it was OK for him as he was a long term poster and had lots of posts. 

Need I say more?

I think you are overly sensitive about emojis, there are far greater things to worry about in this world than stupid emojis. ☹️😀😂🤣

On 10/29/2023 at 6:04 AM, thaibeachlovers said:

I agree with that, but IMO there are not enough interesting threads, as seems any of the interesting ones get shut down. Why can't we discuss the specifics of prostitution, given it's the reason many of us are in LOS in the first place? It's not a family forum.

 

  Aren't you abroad and unable to afford to move to Thailand and thus you aren't in Thailand ?

Some guys not in Thailand do not have any sex at all and they just come to these forums to talk about sex with prostitutes  , they do it for their own titillation , for them its a bit like reading those erotic stories in Playboy

There are obviously a lot of "feelings" about the direction of the forum as seen by so many posts in such a short time.

A lot of what I am annoyed about I can't say on here, though I have informed admin of my opinions, not that anything changed because of it.

 

If the forum dies, for any reason it'll be a shame as the information sub forums are a vital resource for people living in LOS, as compared to the , shall I say "opinions" subforums like world news.

 

Can I live without it? Yes, but after so many years, it's a part of my life which I'll regret losing. However, as I like to say, everything ends, and nothing gets better in this brave new world that we unfortunately find ourselves.

 

BTW, some comments about how the forum isn't "fun" anymore, but that is true of life today. All the fun things of my youth have vanished in an onslaught of social media ( my pet hate ), PC and wokeness.

I can't even remember the last time I had a really good laugh at anything. Humanity sold its soul for greed, and we are all the worse off for it.

There are some gems. I'm no farmer but I found the multi year long threads on rubber and pig farming fascinating. You felt part of the story as posters told of their early travails. Where else would I have become an aficionado on the difference between cup and mat rubber or the economics of raising and butchering your own pigs as compared to growing on contract for the feed monoliths