New page layout

[LPCustom69]

I know that the site needs to make money, but I don't like the new layout. There are too many ads and they are actually irritating. Sorry. Even if they are donated ads, I wish I could eliminate them.

:cool:

[lopburi3]

I agree completely.  Not only too many but too close to the scroll bar; almost impossible to not click something.

[Thetyim]

I agree.

The message area is less than half the screen width.

The loading time has increased dramatically recently,

any connection ??

[LPCustom69]

Thanks guys, I was beginning to think I was the only one affected. I've been blaming the slowness on my computer, but now? What I've done is keep my screen on the "normal" setting instead of "maximizing" it. The ONLY site on the web that I'm doing this with!! It seems to help some. I've been to several organizations accidently because of the location of the ads.

:cool:

[Roger13]

I would like to see Two Box Buttons for:

- HOME - Thaivisa.com

- Thailand Expat Forum web board

I suggest :

*****************

HOME - Thaivisa.com

Go here to check Visa

requirements

*****************

To encourage new members to READ the

requirements BEFORE they post (dumb)

questions that can be answered by reading

the info FIRST

Roger

[dazdaz]

The ads are pretty awful.  I liked this forum because it had little internet crap on it, but slowly more and more is being added.

Sorry for strong words, but when you create something special and then trash it, the effect is like toxic waste.

Please do something about them.

Regards

[fester]

For one year we have operated Thaivisda.com under the quiet terms of a contributionware site. It continues to be our goal to raise the quality of material available on Thaivisa.com and to remain an independent site that serves the community. It has been by the generosity of our sponsor members we have not only been able to do that, but have become known net wide as an authoritative source on everything Thailand.

As with any top site that achieves the success on the order that we have, expenses also grow. Dozens of gigabytes of bandwidth per day, multiple servers, legal and business expenses have all grown dramatically in the last year to account for our (just plain) awesome growth.

Our administrators works in shifts online 24/7 without salaries or renumeration.

We are now experimenting with different advertising models, and it's not perfect yet. The page loading speed is currently an issue, and I am working on that now.

We could scrap ads completely if someone comes up with an idea that can generate income to cover the cost. Member donations?

[dazdaz]

I do appreciate that .com business models are tight indeed.

However in this case, I don't get it.  Why add more ads now, if you did'nt need them for the previous 12 months?

If you were running at a loss, then why not advertise higher yeild ads.

Regards

[george]

I do appreciate that .com business models are tight indeed.

However in this case, I don't get it.  Why add more ads now, if you did'nt need them for the previous 12 months?

If you were running at a loss, then why not advertise higher yeild ads.

Regards

We have not added more ads, we have changed a 468x60 banner to a skyscraper one, causing a slower page load. I am working on that now.

We are also doing some work on the dedicated server to speed up the site. We don't want to shut down the site for doing this upgrades, so we have to live with

some experimental issues right now. Be assured we are aware of the problems.

Give me a couple of days and these issues will be reslolved. Thanks for your cooperation and continued support.

[LPCustom69]

Still haven't seen an improvement in the service. Still very slow and diverted to sites I don't want to visit by mistake. Hate to complain as this is one of my favorite sites.

:cool:

[george]

I have a problem to have the code between below to render quicker. Apparently it's our TABLE-tags that is not optimized. If anyone have an idea to solve the problem in the forum template, I would be grateful. An idea is to use the DIV tag:

<div style='float:right'>

but I cant get it work correctly. Someone here with good knowledge of how to make content within TABLE tags load quicker, or altewrnatively use DIV tags? Thanks in advance!

Here is the current forum board templete code:

<HTML>
   <HEAD>
     <TITLE>
        
       <% title %>
- tHAI VISA
     </TITLE>

     <% generator %>

     <% ib css %>

     <% ib javascript %>
     
   </HEAD>

<BODY BGCOLOR='#ffffff' LEFTMARGIN="0" TOPMARGIN="0" MARGINWIDTH="0" MARGINHEIGHT="0" ALINK='#000000' VLINK='#000000'>

<% board header %>

<CENTER>
<TABLE BORDER = "0" CELLPADDING="0">
<TR>
<TD>
<!----><!-- ad 1--------------------> <SMALL><SPAN
STYLE="BACKGROUND-COLOR: RGB(255, 255, 0); FONT-FAMILY: HELVETICA,ARIAL,SANS-SERIF; FONT-WEIGHT: BOLD;"><SMALL><A
HREF="HTTP://WWW.THAIVISA.COM/SUNBELTASIA.0.HTML"
TITLE="dREAM bUSINESSES hERE:" TARGET="_BLANK">dREAM bUSINESSES hERE:<BR>sUNBELT<BR></A></SMALL> </SPAN> </SMALL> <BR>
<!----><!-- ad 2 -------------------> <SMALL><SPAN
STYLE="BACKGROUND-COLOR: RGB(255, 255, 0); FONT-FAMILY: HELVETICA,ARIAL,SANS-SERIF; FONT-WEIGHT: BOLD;"><SMALL><A
HREF="HTTP://WWW.THAIVISA.COM/BANGKOKCHAT.0.HTML"
TITLE="bANGKOK cHAT"
_BLANK="">bANGKOK cHAT</A></SMALL> </SPAN> </SMALL> <BR>
<!----><!-- ad 3 -------------------> <SMALL><SPAN
STYLE="BACKGROUND-COLOR: RGB(255, 255, 0); FONT-FAMILY: HELVETICA,ARIAL,SANS-SERIF; FONT-WEIGHT: BOLD;"><SMALL><A
HREF="HTTP://WWW.KHAOSANROAD.COM"
TITLE="kHAOSANROAD IN bANGKOK - NOT ONLY FOR BACK PACKERS! vISIT THE OFFICIAL kHAO sAN rOAD WEBSITE!"
_BLANK="">kHAOSANROAD.COM</A></SMALL> </SPAN> </SMALL> <BR>

<!----><!-- ad 4 -------------------> <SMALL><SPAN
STYLE="BACKGROUND-COLOR: RGB(255, 255, 0); FONT-FAMILY: HELVETICA,ARIAL,SANS-SERIF; FONT-WEIGHT: BOLD;"><SMALL><A
HREF="HTTP://WWW.THAIVISA.COM/BOOKSHOP.0.HTML"
TITLE="tHAILAND bOOK sHOP" TARGET="_BLANK">tHAILAND bOOK sHOP</A></SMALL> </SPAN> </SMALL>

</TD>
<TD>

<A HREF="HTTP://WWW.RES24.COM/?P=HOTELS.THAIVISA.COM"><IMG SRC="HTTP://FORUM.THAIVISA.COM/PHUKETHOTEL05.GIF" BORDER="0" ALT="bOOK yOUR hOTEL hERE" ALIGN="MIDDLE"></A>




</TD>

<TD>
<A HREF="HTTP://WWW.THAIVISA.COM/353.0.HTML"><IMG SRC="HTTP://FORUM.THAIVISA.COM/FARANG-NEWS-ALERT.GIF" BORDER=0></A>


</TD></TR>
</TABLE>



</CENTER>

<% member bar %> 



<! START PROBLEM CODE !>
<TABLE COLS="2" WIDTH="100%" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0">
<TR>
<TD VALIGN="top">
<% navigation %>

<% ikonboard %>
<% stats %>

</TD>

<TD HEIGHT="600" VALIGN="top">
<BR>
<script TYPE="TEXT/JAVASCRIPT">
<!--
GOOGLE_AD_CLIENT = 'PUB-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx';
GOOGLE_AD_WIDTH = 120;
GOOGLE_AD_HEIGHT = 600;
GOOGLE_AD_FORMAT = '120X600_AS';
// -->
</SCRIPT>
<script TYPE="TEXT/JAVASCRIPT"
 SRC="HTTP://PAGEAD2.GOOGLESYNDICATION.COM/PAGEAD/SHOW_ADS.JS">
</SCRIPT>

</TD>
</TR>

</TABLE>
<! END PROBLEM CODE !>



<CENTER><BR>

<A HREF="HTTP://WWW.PHUKETHOTEL.COM/"><B>tHAILAND hOTELS<BR><BR></B></A>

</CENTER>


<% copyright %>


<CENTER>
<A HREF="HTTP://WWW.KOHSAMUI.ORG/"><IMG SRC="HTTP://WWW.THAIVISA.COM/UPLOADS/PICS/KSBANNERSMALL.GIF"><BR>
<BR>

<A HREF="HTTP://ADS.PORT80.SE/ADCLICK.PHP?N=A76ECB3D"><IMG SRC="HTTP://ADS.PORT80.SE/ADVIEW.PHP?CLIENTID=1&N=A76ECB3D" BORDER="0" ALT=""></A><IMG SRC="CLEAR.GIF" WIDTH=1 HEIGHT=10 BORDER=0><BR><BR>

<!--begin web stat code---->
<script language="JAVASCRIPT1.1"> PAGE="FORUM";</script>
<script language="JAVASCRIPT1.1" SRC="HTTP://TRUEHITS1.GITS.NET.TH/DATA/F0009453.JS"></script>
</CENTER>
<!-- end webstat code -->



</BODY>

</HTML>

Hmmm...the code looks real crappy when displaying it like this. If someone want help out, I could email the source code. Thanks.

[SeaVisionBurma]

Another 2 cents worth...

I use the forum on 2 different computers (depending on whether I can be bothered to walk up between my accomm and my office) and one is a laptop - one is a PC.

The laptop still gives a good screen layout - and I was surprised about the complaints - I certainly dont think the forum is overcrowded with ads - and then I looked again on my PC.

It is a lot tighter on the desktop.

However still nothing overly detrimental.

I'd have to side with the mods here:  we either accept this (now popular and expanded) forum with the ads, or risk the possibility of getting slugged with a charge, or losing the quality.

I'm happy to put up with a few wayward banners as I believe the site content and quality of the posts far outweighs the few ads around.  

Besides - you all have such wonderful, constructive banter (and the occasional off-topic wandering arguments) which often provide much appreciated entertainment...

catch 22.... :cool:

[Dexlowe]

As a very experienced Web surfer (9-years, which when equated to human evolution is about 3 million years, give-or-take an Ice Age or two), I am no longer bothered by ads on pages. So no complaints from me as a newbie to this board. Plus I realise commercial realities and would rather put up with a few ads than lose the service. The only thing I would request of administrators is that they resist all temptations to include those god-awful pop-ups or those hideous things that float across your screen.

Cheers,

Dex-of-muscular-entropy.

[dazdaz]

This is how bad the net has become, we've become too used to all the crap out there, and it is crap, marketing is mostly crap.

Quite simply there is too much of it.

You can filter it out by using a filtering web proxy and I make no apology for that.

Those poor people on modems, like in Bangkok and other third worlds have to wait some time for the pages to load.  Modems are slow no matter how much optimisation you add, and you risk loosing potential users because of it.

Of course the user always looses and marketing always wins, that's just how it is.  Money will justify murder as acceptable for most people, it's just a case of figuring out the amount.

I have stronger feelings regarding this, but will refrain from posting them.

There are easy ways to block pop-ups, but i'm careful not to post the methods in case people use that as a method to find a workaround.

Regards

[Roger13]

I am in Bangkok

Normally I do not experience any delays

I click on a link and the page comes up

either immediately or within 2 or 3 seconds

I have a normal Modem on a phone line

Roger