Quality Of The Forum

[keestha]

August 25 at about 23h.30 I kicked in this post already, and a bit more than one hour later there were already I believe four reactions, all of them positive. August 26 at about 11h. I was astonished to see the post and all reactions to it were deleted. I guess it is some kind of a mistake or just a technical hiccup, so I am simply throwing in the post again. In case it was not a mistake and the post is deleted again, I politely request the responsible moderator or administrator to PM me with an explaination.

So here we go again:

As readers can see, I joined this forum May 2003, when there were still less then 1800 members, now it is over 12000. At the time quite a few expats/regular visitors that I know were very grateful when I pointed them the way to this forum, often they were disappointed with another well known forum wich primarily deals with nightlife, insiders will know which forum I am talking about. Aforementioned forum still exists, and some of the posts in there are real jewels…..but it takes too much time rummaging through the garbage (heaps of senseless posts) to dig them out.

Unfortunately Thaivisa seems to be heading the same way now. Why cant people refrain from posting unless they really have something to say? It happens too often that somebody quotes a post in its entirety, and than adds a one liner like “excellent post” or “you’re an arrogant <deleted> who knows nothing”. This doesn’t contribute anything to the conversation.

I believe that it is one of the forum rules that posters should refrain from flaming….but all too often now I see a poster vitriolically attacking another poster, sometimes stepping outside the thread trying to use things against him he has said in other threads.

Too quickly people are accused of being trolls. To give an example, all old Thailand hands know you have to be cautious handling requests for financial assistance coming from a newly acquired Thai girlfriend, but this guy who is new on the scene and who maybe is a little bit in love because finally a female seems to be paying attention to him still doesn’t know so well, OK?

One more thing….it happens frequently that posters who are still quite new are kicking in enormous numbers of posts, like close to 200 in less than a month. Mostly these people are only commenting on other peoples posts, they rarely come with facts or with their own experiences, there is not much indicating they live in Thailand for a somewhat longer period or are frequent visitors, or at least have a Thai partner. I have never been to Brazil and I have never known any Brazilians, but that way I could quickly become one of the best known posters on a Brazil related forum without contributing anything constructive.

Maybe posters should be restricted to say three posts a day, and maybe moderators should play a somewhat more active role in general? Over to you.

[wolf5370]

I agree that a lot of silly new threads are posted - same in any forum though I'm afraid. It also lightens the forum a little (at least it does when it is a rare occurance) - it does get irritating when the first three pages are mostly non forum related. I think the mods/admins catered well for this (following BC's banning for these kinds of threads) by creating non-LOS forum (and bear pit previously) - a thankless job.

Like you I am a long time member (in the scheme of things) and I still have a lot less the a thousand posts - some have several thousand after a few months!

Flaming is rife though. I once was called a w*nker because I had the audacity to be in the IT world! Its best to bite your tongue, ciorrect their mistakes first time round, then ignore them.

I think if a limit was imposed it should be weekly/monthly rather than daily. I tend to hit lots of threads at one go, then nothing for a week - simply don't have time to logon continuously. 3 daily posts would probably stop me participating.

[ThaiPauly]

Although I am a relative newcomer to the forum I agree that there is to much slagging off of one persons opinion by other people and quite a lot of totally useless posts, take the one about the Thai Girl who has posted that she is happy because her boyfreind is coming back to LOS, this subject has lead to five completely useless pages devoted to it. (Mainly memebers arguing with each other)It was a completely useless post and has no place on this forum, but it has sure wasted a lot of peoples time. Sometimes the site feels like a TV Soap (Oooh how is he/she going to react to that statement) etc, "tune in next week folks for the next exiting episode of Thai Visa.com"

I have to admit that sometimes I get a bit uptight when people start talking rubbish that I chip in my two pennyworth, and that is something that I will refrain from doing in future. (let them get on with it-if that is their opinion fair enough)

However I feel that the forum is excellent and I for one have certainly got a lot of very useful information out of it.

Perhaps all posts should go through the moderators before they hit the site (apart from the jokes) the Moderators have enough experience to decide if a post is going to be useful or helpful, but I do not know how much time this would take or if it is feesable or not.

Anyway I am sure that there a lot more people who have been using the site for a lot longer than I have who can suggest ways of keeping it simple and to the point.

[Yohan]

I also was ready to reply to that thread, but later on, I could not find it anymore. Yes, there were some 3 or 4 replies already....no idea, why it could be deleted. I cannot see anything wrong with it.

Some what you wrote, I agree....to some other points, I do not.

1- Thaivisa does not have 12000 members. Remove people, who do not post anything for a longer time (maybe 18 months, This would be my idea) - remove all, who are banned, remove all, who you identify to use several usernames, remove trolls, which make ONLY senseless one-liners

how many users might be left?

I do not know, but for sure much much less than 12000.....

2- Thaivisa makes a living out of advertisements, important is therefore, how many users are logging in....it is not a question of QUALITY postings.... and what is your standard to define, if a posting is a quality posting or not?

Quite difficult, I think....

Censorship is another question out of it.... so if you do not like that subject, is it then still for you a quality posting?

3-

Accused to be a troll..... I think, such posters are themselves responsible for being mistaken for a troll, because they fail, to introduce themselves as a newcomer in a way, that makes it clear to the others that they are not trolls, but have the intention to ask about problems in a serious way.

Some information in the user-guideline for singing up as a new member might be considered.

-----

Let me say, many here on this forum do not like some of my postings, but NEVER anybody told me, I am a troll posting with different user-names.....

All in all, I think, Thaivisa is still a good place with a lot of information about Thailand, and not bad at all..... take a look, how other forums look like...

Improvements? You can cut down on the members and their way of postings - what you might consider as quality improvement, might cause on the other side however advertisement sponsers quickly to reduce their advertisements, as the site is getting smaller, less well-known and somewhat meaningless....considerable less postings, then osing attraction... and finally out of business....

I think, it is not bad, as it is done now ...not so easy to make it better for the administrators - what can they really do?.... not much indeed: Removing complete-idiot-postings, edit insulting postings - and keep otherwise a certain wide tolerance level to all and everything....

[konangrit]

Sorry, posted way too many drunk posts today. Instead of a limit of 3 posts/day how about a penalty of -50 posts from your stats for posting irrelevant or flaming posts? Even better put me back to newbie status.

Do understand where you're coming from though, but should this not be in a different section such as forum support?

[wolf5370]

Often I'll come back to a thread, or see a thread, that I think may be interesting only to find it has another 15 pages or so of responses - guaranteed I will not read it and will miss the post. Shame really.

See Mods, we appreciate your effort really guys.

[ThaiGirlTeen]

Keestha, you are boring.

Most of the posts that are lively are in the Pub section, its light hearted only, i suggest you start your own forum for totally boring people, you can admin it if you want.

[Totster]

I read the post just before it was deleted.... there were some good replies but then someone had to take it too far...

totster

[Darknight]

i guess he's dissapeared also totster, can't pm him anymore

[samran]

I was suprised to see the post was deleted too. Strange. Still agree with everything that was said though..and still do.

Still worried that too many people are asking questions that can simply be answered by a quick search.

[Harry Palmer]

i'm all in favour of keestha being limited to 3 posts per week, if this is the best he/ she can do

[ovenman]

I think if a limit was imposed it should be weekly/monthly rather than daily. I tend to hit lots of threads at one go, then nothing for a week - simply don't have time to logon continuously. 3 daily posts would probably stop me participating.

I also have days where I'll make upwards of twenty posts and then go for stretches where my daily count is zero. If limited to three posts/day, I'd be less apt to make any given post as I wouldn't want something to count against my daily quota.

[keestha]

Harry,

Sure you can say that this post of mine is no good, but if you do so, you also have to say why. Oh and by the way I am a he.

[fatter than harry]

Harry Palmer wrote:

I've never been anywhere near a vagina.

Fair enough.

Good points all, especially keestha and [gulp] Yohan.

[Totster]

Harry Palmer wrote:

I've never been anywhere near a vagina.

He he he .... that explains why he post so aggressively...

[Yohan]

A limit of postings maybe per day of 8 or 10 sounds me more realistic, as many members are not posting every day. - 3 postings per day is not enough for them.

This can be easily done in the settings of the software per day.

However I am not sure, if there is any possibility to fix such limits per week.

The size of the posting can also be limited, to avoid too long postings (was a thread a while ago) - This also can be fixed easily in the settings of the software.

I think, maybe 20 lines, including a possible quote, might be acceptable for everybody.

And thank you, FTH, for your co-operation....

[meemiathai]

Everyone has different tastes. And can have different choices.

If you don't like a particular thread, just don't read it.(like what I do) There is someone who does! If not, it simply goes down the page! I don't see where the problem is. Same sorts of problems some farangs facing/complaining in Thailand?

Lucky I know enough English words not to make it only a one-liner. Not all here are English-speaking people!

[RamdomChances]

I dont think there should be a limit on the number of posts, or how long they are.

I read the forum every day, but don't always post, when I do it is'nt in every thread, but the one's that I'm interested in or feel I have something to say.

There Is a subject title on all the threads, if you feel you are not interested in

"can I realy trust my bar girl", dont click on the thread simple.

I feel that posts fall into different catogaries,

The simple question, how to do something, where to buy ect, these usually get few replies and die quite quickly, as once they are answered thers no where else to go.

The poll/light hearted stuff, what films do you like, wheres your fav beach ect, these can go on for a while, and are usually pretty inoffensive.

The biggest prob is in the "what do you think about/shall I do" type threads, as everyone will have an opinion, and will happily argue with everyone adout it indefinatly, obviously with the "bar girl topics having the most responce"

There are enough different branches on the forum, for everyone to have a place to air their views, mabye the MOD's should be a bit more free in moving topics i.e if its about bars, BG"s ect move it to the pub forum, other no thai related stuff to hong klaay kriat.

Then people with no intrest in these will not have to sift through loads of posts.

At the end of the day though read the TOPIC TITLE, if you are'nt interested in it DONT CLICK ON IT.

There are 12000 members now all with different life styles, intrests ect, thats why we have different branches of the forum.

Cheers RC

[Begs]

Now Keestha is moaning about a forum he can choose to come to, or choose not to come to!

And is trying to set limits on when members can and cannot post is not really practical is it. Keestha, stop moaning and try to see some humour in one liners, i am guessing that you are not English or Australian.

Many of the posts with one liners and a bit of flaming are English and Aussies, hence the sense of humour.

Are you German?

[Limbo]

Everyone has different tastes. And can have different choices.

Absolutely right. You also might have added a different mind-set and a different intellectual capacity.

It is not an inforceble regulation, otherwise I would propose that membership would be reserved for contribuants with an IQ of at least 110, the momentary average score.

And concerning the moderators some minimum requirements would also be in place. Among which the above mentioned

[duke69]

I KNOW IT'S SILLY .......

DO you want to know how to reduce the number of posts and increase the quality of the Forum???

JUST DELETE THE N. OF MESSAGES NEAR THE NICK NAME you can leave the "senior member" or other definition, BUT WIPE OFF THE COUNTER, and you will see less people writing useless posts only to gain positions.

[ThaiGirlTeen]

and you will see less people writing useless posts

Like This one?

[duke69]

THAN WE SHOULD THINK TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT 50 YEARS OLD ENGLISH w a n k e r s using the Nick name like "ThaigirlTeen" in order to Beg some attention.

But this is more difficoult, since apart of the stink of cheap beer, it's very difficoult to detect them all

[Bulldog]

THAN WE SHOULD THINK TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT 50 YEARS OLD ENGLISH w a n k e r s using the Nick name like "ThaigirlTeen" in order to Beg some attention.

Sounds like fighting talk to me.

Do you have no sense of humour at all?

[duke69]

THAN WE SHOULD THINK TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT 50 YEARS OLD ENGLISH w a n k e r s using the Nick name like "ThaigirlTeen" in order to Beg some attention.

Sounds like fighting talk to me.

Do you have no sense of humour at all?

sorry no!! I was born like that.

But you can teach me some, indeed from your nick you should be THE ONE for teaching humor to everybody.

Finally we've got also the CLOWN in this ZOO

[ThaiPauly]

THere you go there's the Duke and TTG going at it- completely pointless especially when the topic of this particular post is "Quality of The Forum"

[Bulldog]

THere you go there's the Duke and TTG going at it- completely pointless especially when the topic of this particular post is "Quality of The Forum"

WILL YOU LOT STOP <deleted> MOANING!!!!!!!!

Jesus H Christ, what is it with you lot?

[Wolfie]

Thread locked - off topic.

If you guys wanna flame each other and argue, take it to the bear pit or do it with private mails.

If you think this topic has been locked unnecessarily - PM me.

[dr_Pat_Pong]

THere you go there's the Duke and TTG going at it- completely pointless especially when the topic of this particular post is "Quality of The Forum"

WILL YOU LOT STOP <deleted> MOANING!!!!!!!!

Jesus H Christ, what is it with you lot?

Dunno ... there's a full moon in a bit over two weeks. Might it be down to some sort of premature whatever ?