So, guys, the name has changed from Thai Visa to what it is now. How did you get hold of this website? Did anybody recommend it, or did you find it by mistake? I know there is a lot of expats in southeast Asia but how did you find this site? I was in Thailand for many years, and I did not know about this site. My friend relocated to my city (who spend time in Thailand) mentioned to me. So, I connected as well. So, I like to know all people not living in SEA and are not expats why do they know about this site? There are many American or other countries on here who seem to be experts on everything. So again, how did you find this site?

I don't remember how I found it. That was a long time ago, maybe 20 years ago or something like that.

At that time, basically every farang in Thailand knew it. Like you know certain newspapers - they are just well known.

And many years ago this was a vibrant forum... 

I was doing a search for forum/groups, while researching, electric MC.   The YT'er vid/

Bjørn Nyland, was the clincher, along with subscribing, and his MG ZS EV recommendations.  Since already having the ICE version.  Making the decision to upgrade easy.

 

Didn't realize AN was TV, as a member of TV many yrs ago, and rarely posted, as just didn't like it.  Same negatives as now, I'm just more tolerant, plus the format is a lot easier to negotiate now.

 

A couple topics that interest me; solar & EVs.  Got most info I was searching for (THANK YOU), and now just a time killer with the coffee.   Don't have any media/TV service, so get my MSM BS from AN, and the real news from unacceptable sources elsewhere 

 

I find forums keep the brain thinking and working.   Before joining a local forum at Udon Thani, my vocabulary was diminishing to 1 and 2 syllable words 

 

If it didn't involve stocks & charts, that don't talk to you, it wasn't in my vocabulary, and I was starting to sound like a idiot, as best friend and conversationalist, was my 3 yr old daughter.  Intelligent conversations revolved around math & basic English    

 

Internet was for investing, and only media was DVDs, animations and kid movies.  We still did our 3 months of O&As, during school breaks, so not much changed in that aspect.  PURE BLISS

 

She's been replaced by Sniffy the WonderDog.

Was working in India over 10 years ago, and there was a great site for ex-pats called "IndiaMike".  Knowledgeable, old hands helped with valuable advice when I was settling in.  I was also able to help new ex-pats after living there for a few years.  I posted a regular blog on the site about being a new ex-pat in India too.

 

When I moved to Thailand I found ThaiVisa and thought it was an equivalent site to help ex-pats settle in.  Boy was I wrong!

 

My first few posts were met with aggressive negativity.  My early, and quickly abandoned blog was received with sneering replies.  

 

I retreated to a couple of specialist TV forums (Motorcycles and Photography) but both forums slowly faded out.

 

There was a brief period during the Red Shirt occupation of Bangkok when TV became a beacon of valuable information, but that didn't last long.

 

I dipped in now and then over the years, but the sneering negativity was still there.

 

I started to become a little more active after the change to Aseannow, as it looked like most the terminally argumentative members had left or died.

 

It's less negative and argumentative now, but also less active, unless a post refers to Trump, then it kicks off like the old days.

On 2/9/2024 at 12:51 AM, still kicking said:

or did you find it by mistake?

One of those mistakes I regret every single day 😉

Back in the day, Thaivisa was the go-to site for visa related questions and was spread by word of mouth with many expats.

21 minutes ago, bbko said:

Back in the day, Thaivisa was the go-to site for visa related questions and was spread by word of mouth with many expats.

A word of appreciation for our departed friend UbonJoe. For decades he was our immigration expert, super helpful and always accurate. He is missed. 

On 2/9/2024 at 10:50 AM, OneMoreFarang said:

I don't remember how I found it. That was a long time ago, maybe 20 years ago or something like that.

At that time, basically every farang in Thailand knew it. Like you know certain newspapers - they are just well known.

And many years ago this was a vibrant forum... 

Likewise. i just knew about it.

I was active on Thorn Tree then and only joined TVF to warn against a scam on Thong Nai Pan Yai. When Thorn tree got a new owner and a woke bunch of mods I left and settled in at TVF instead.

 

The new mods IMO actually destroyed the Thorn Tree Thailand forum as they drove most of the knowledgeable posters away.

12 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

 

 

The new mods IMO actually destroyed the Thorn Tree Thailand forum as they drove most of the knowledgeable posters away.

It was deranged posting about Israel/Palestine that killed the Politics branch of Thorn Tree. And posting about underaged sex and possible legal problems from that that killed the rest. Tony Wheeler was getting massive headaches but absolutely no revenue from the forum, so that was that.

 

The politics branch lives on with some of the original die hards (of which I was once one) on a forum that may not be named here but could be easily googled. You have to register to view the forum.

 

There's another offshoot forum of posters from the very popular women's branch, which was always about 50/50 gender-wise. That one seems much less active. The Poli one still has about 50 regular posters.

 

I read here for about 20 years before posting. I was a big fan of The Blether -certainly among the greatest internet handles of all time.

 

 

 

 

I just googled "Thai expats", and Kaboom.

Within minutes of logging on, I knew it wasn't for me.

But here we are... Still posting every 6 months.

Word of mouth 20-odd years ago. Most people knew about TV back then as it was the go-to place for visa info not easily accessible. Nowadays the net is swamped with forums. Might have been a bit bitchy (one should don a thicker skin when online), but threads were allowed to run and there were some great characters. 

On 2/11/2024 at 5:43 AM, Prubangboy said:

It was deranged posting about Israel/Palestine that killed the Politics branch of Thorn Tree. And posting about underaged sex and possible legal problems from that that killed the rest.

I never posted on any Thorn Tree political forum. I was a Thailand branch member. There was no posting about under age sex on it while I was there, and it was woke moderation that killed it as a forum to get information about LOS off.

2 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

There was no posting about under age sex 

Not to pull rank, but that's what Tony Wheeler told me.

 

The pedo stuff was in Bali. The poster kept popping on the other alternate boards and getting banned.

On 2/9/2024 at 12:51 AM, still kicking said:

So, guys, the name has changed from Thai Visa to what it is now. How did you get hold of this website? Did anybody recommend it, or did you find it by mistake? I know there is a lot of expats in southeast Asia but how did you find this site? I was in Thailand for many years, and I did not know about this site. My friend relocated to my city (who spend time in Thailand) mentioned to me. So, I connected as well. So, I like to know all people not living in SEA and are not expats why do they know about this site? There are many American or other countries on here who seem to be experts on everything. So again, how did you find this site?

I googled "where do idiots congregate in Thailand" 'Cause you know. misery loves company 

and TVF was the top return, the rest is history. 

 

Who the hell remembers how they found a website  15 years ago? 

 

When folk were thinking about Thailand and visa issues they Googled Thai Visas, then amongst all the things that came up was Thaivisa forum, which most I reckon looked at, I did, I think the Asia Now thing was a big mistake.

Mind you, Ubon Joe was a big draw to the forum, from word of mouth, a no problem member of staff, full of visa knowledge that put himself out for people, a sad loss for this site....😢

On 2/9/2024 at 12:51 AM, still kicking said:

So, guys, the name has changed from Thai Visa to what it is now. How did you get hold of this website? Did anybody recommend it, or did you find it by mistake? I know there is a lot of expats in southeast Asia but how did you find this site? I was in Thailand for many years, and I did not know about this site. My friend relocated to my city (who spend time in Thailand) mentioned to me. So, I connected as well. So, I like to know all people not living in SEA and are not expats why do they know about this site? There are many American or other countries on here who seem to be experts on everything. So again, how did you find this site?

First forum I ever joined. Just popped up somewhere.

On 2/15/2024 at 7:46 AM, daveAustin said:

Word of mouth 20-odd years ago. Most people knew about TV back then as it was the go-to place for visa info not easily accessible. Nowadays the net is swamped with forums. Might have been a bit bitchy (one should don a thicker skin when online), but threads were allowed to run and there were some great characters. 

It was great unitl....

13 hours ago, Prubangboy said:

Not to pull rank, but that's what Tony Wheeler told me.

 

The pedo stuff was in Bali. The poster kept popping on the other alternate boards and getting banned.

Like I said I only posted on the Thailand forum.

I don't see why something on the Bali forum would end the entire thing though. I thought it was because of covid.

The idea of a forum is pretty extinct. Long may this back water stagger on.

On 2/19/2024 at 12:26 PM, Prubangboy said:

The idea of a forum is pretty extinct. Long may this back water stagger on.

It's probably in a unique space, where thousands of retirees live in Thailand and some of them go on here to spend some time. I did it to fill in time.