Pattaya One News

[Loosescrew]

I've long been a devoted viewer and always have a chat with presenter Howard Miller on my infrequent visits to Walking Street. Their new website is pretty nice.

http://www.pattayaone.net/news.html

[Digger]

Excellent - took me 5 minutes to load the front page, and then I gave up. Superb news service, just chuck a load of flash on the front and lose everybody before it loads.

Maybe I am not so much of a convert but who really lets these Thais lose with this stuff without actually thinking not everyone is on an 2Gig connection - I can load the Daily Mail and Telegraph home pages in seconds which is when I want to look at news - then I go to this page and look at flash crap and no news - no brainer to me.

[djinn]

Excellent - took me 5 minutes to load the front page, and then I gave up. Superb news service, just chuck a load of flash on the front and lose everybody before it loads.

Maybe I am not so much of a convert but who really lets these Thais lose with this stuff without actually thinking not everyone is on an 2Gig connection - I can load the Daily Mail and Telegraph home pages in seconds which is when I want to look at news - then I go to this page and look at flash crap and no news - no brainer to me.

Second you fully digger.I deleted their site from my bookmarks.

[lemel]

Excellent - took me 5 minutes to load the front page, and then I gave up. Superb news service, just chuck a load of flash on the front and lose everybody before it loads.

Maybe I am not so much of a convert but who really lets these Thais lose with this stuff without actually thinking not everyone is on an 2Gig connection - I can load the Daily Mail and Telegraph home pages in seconds which is when I want to look at news - then I go to this page and look at flash crap and no news - no brainer to me.

Second you fully digger.I deleted their site from my bookmarks.

I agree, a waste of bandwidth!!!

[hm1973]

Excellent - took me 5 minutes to load the front page, and then I gave up. Superb news service, just chuck a load of flash on the front and lose everybody before it loads.

Maybe I am not so much of a convert but who really lets these Thais lose with this stuff without actually thinking not everyone is on an 2Gig connection - I can load the Daily Mail and Telegraph home pages in seconds which is when I want to look at news - then I go to this page and look at flash crap and no news - no brainer to me.

Second you fully digger.I deleted their site from my bookmarks.

That's a bit dramatic!!!!

Anyway, it is me to blame for the flash intro, I was just trying it out. It took me a long time to make it, however, I have now taken it off and the front page opens with the home page now.

Sorry for trying to be a bit creative and forgeting that not everyone has a fast speed connection

Howard

Edited May 29, 2008 by hm1973

[dsfbrit]

Sorry Howard, but like the others I think this is a poor website.

This morning on my slow old 56Kbit link (runs at about 36Kbit), I have read the Daily Telegraph, Daily Mail, The times and the Guardian without any problems at all.

I then tried you website and it flashed around for a while then displayed slowly and then I got 'Problem loading page'

In my 'previous' life I was a software developer and 'piloting' a release was very important.

I don't mean to be rude, just helpful criticism I hope, but why dontyou set up a 'pilot' PC that runs on a slow link like many of us Expats still endure, so you can see what it looks like for us.

Mabe also set up a PC that runs Mozilla etc as well to see if it works.

Also, and I expect you will kick me in the nether regions for this next comment, but we used to believe in KISS when we developed user interfaces (Keep It Simple Stupid).

Hey Look how simple and succesful Google is. Even look at the UK News sites I mention above.

Good Luck mate - hope the new venture goes well

[HenryLongfellow]

To me the whole website looks and feels very amateurish. I think it would be much nicer (and easier for you to maintain ) if you looked at using a content management system. There are quite a few available for free download that have really good News modules either built in or supplied as add-on modules. I think the top 3 would be Xoops, Drupal and Joomla.

[chakatee]

Having Hutch as ISP I was never able to open the articles from PattayaCityNews, I couldn't get past the homepage at all. To read the articles, I usually did this when I was somewhere with a HotSpot.

The new one I didn't try yet but reading the above comments, I fear for the worst.

[djinn]

Excellent - took me 5 minutes to load the front page, and then I gave up. Superb news service, just chuck a load of flash on the front and lose everybody before it loads.

Maybe I am not so much of a convert but who really lets these Thais lose with this stuff without actually thinking not everyone is on an 2Gig connection - I can load the Daily Mail and Telegraph home pages in seconds which is when I want to look at news - then I go to this page and look at flash crap and no news - no brainer to me.

Second you fully digger.I deleted their site from my bookmarks.

That's a bit dramatic!!!!

Anyway, it is me to blame for the flash intro, I was just trying it out. It took me a long time to make it, however, I have now taken it off and the front page opens with the home page now.

Sorry for trying to be a bit creative and forgeting that not everyone has a fast speed connection

Howard

Gave you a second chance Howard.Ok now load even faster than before IF

I push the "stop loading this page" button on your frontpage.So don't have to wait your banners .If I don't do it the other pages don't open in other windows

But don't say it to you advertisers.......

[farangtingtong]

Maybe the Pattaya City News/One website isn't professional, looks amateuristic, takes a long time to load, and and and, BUT what counts is the content. And the news contains short info on events, accidents, criminal activities and their outcomes and that's what counts.

I think it's far better than the Pattaya Mail, Pattaya Today and Pattaya People websites, who look professional, streaming and newspaper-alike, but there is only a brief headline and a (paid) link to the rest of the story.

I think hm1973 is doing a nice job in bringing the news on tv, radio and the web.

[hm1973]

To me the whole website looks and feels very amateurish. I think it would be much nicer (and easier for you to maintain ) if you looked at using a content management system. There are quite a few available for free download that have really good News modules either built in or supplied as add-on modules. I think the top 3 would be Xoops, Drupal and Joomla.

The website is really a sort of hobby for me and I don't run it as a business (i probably should though as two days ago we had over 250,000 hits!!!!). I can generate a small amount of money through the google ads which covers the cost of the server. I made everything myself and I would be the first to admit that my website building skills are limited. However I do listen to crticism and I have changed some things on the website based on emails received over the last few days. If I had loads of money I would employ a professional wed designer to make me a new website, however with the change of program and new office plus new computers, my finances are very limited at the moment.

I looked at CMS systems however I did not understand how to install them so decided not to use it. I think the main thing to remember is that we are the only Pattaya based website to provide DAILY updated LOCAL stories. Others update with international stories lifted from other sites, we keep it LOCAL.

Let me get the TV show back up and see how the finances look in a couple of months....I may then update the website then.

Please keep the comments coming in.

Howard

[Gary A]

Well Howard, I'll have to buck the popular opinion. I use a GPRS EDGE connection and I think the page loads pretty fast. I'm using Firefox 3 and it is working well.

[hm1973]

Well Howard, I'll have to buck the popular opinion. I use a GPRS EDGE connection and I think the page loads pretty fast. I'm using Firefox 3 and it is working well.

Thanks Gary,

I have some good news for those on dial-up......I have just removed two flash blocks from each page whcih will now dramatically imrpove the loading speed for each page. Each file was over 1mb in size, which would have taken the slower connections an eternity to load!!!!!! Sorry I did not spot it sooner.

Howard

[dsfbrit]

Sorry Howard, I did not realise you are the guy on the TV that runs the News channel. I used to like your news broadcasts, much better than other news channel in my opinion.

I understand now that setting up of the new News channel is taking up much of your time. I am impressed you find enough hours in the day to keep the web site up to date at all.

Good luck to you and I have just tried your web page again and it loaded a lot faster.

[hm1973]

Pattaya One News starts on Monday on Sophon Cable TV, we have taken the old slots taken by Pattaya City News. We are in the process of setting up a new 24 hours channel in direct partnership with Sophon Cable. This should be ready within the next 2 months. When it is, Pattaya One News will move to the channel. For now we will be on Sophon Movie Channel 4 (Ch14) at Midday and 23.00 and on Movie Channel 5 (Ch27) at 10.00, 16.00, and 20.00

[scooterboy]

Hey - just had a peek at the website!

I'm using a dial-up (and f'ing SLOW!) connection, but I found the page to load pleasantly fast.

Seeing as the website hasn't been up too long, it looks real GOOD! Don't doubt that it'll get better as time goes by. Hopefully Howard will later consider including a Sophon tv guide for the coming days - the available ones are often (terribly!) outdated.

Good luck with ya website!

[Pdaz]

Sorry Howard, I did not realise you are the guy on the TV that runs the News channel. I used to like your news broadcasts, much better than other news channel in my opinion.

I understand now that setting up of the new News channel is taking up much of your time. I am impressed you find enough hours in the day to keep the web site up to date at all.

Don't tell me you thought he spent all his time hanging around in walking Street in his 'rentaplod' outfit

[MisterFingers]

Let me get the TV show back up and see how the finances look in a couple of months....I may then update the website then.

Please keep the comments coming in.

Howard

If you could improve your website by providing links to video footage of the news stories that the website covers, that would be the best possible improvement I could think of.

I know it's certainly not impossible because almost every major new organization such as CNN and BBC do this.

[Fonz]

Up in 3seconds ,and everything working just fine.

[Meg_2003]

In my opinion, Pattaya City News/Pattaya One has the best TV/website for news reports in Pattaya...

I did get used to the old website and liked how easy it was, but the new website is also looking good and just needs some getting used to..

Well done and keep up the good work!

[sloopy]

I work in an office with other Farang. Virtually, the first thing they do every day is check Pattaya 1 website for news. The story that caught everyone’s attention yesterday and was a topic of conversation for most of the morning was “City council officer secretly filmed collecting money.” Congratulations for the exposé.

[sungod]

Pattaya One News starts on Monday on Sophon Cable TV, we have taken the old slots taken by Pattaya City News. We are in the process of setting up a new 24 hours channel in direct partnership with Sophon Cable. This should be ready within the next 2 months. When it is, Pattaya One News will move to the channel. For now we will be on Sophon Movie Channel 4 (Ch14) at Midday and 23.00 and on Movie Channel 5 (Ch27) at 10.00, 16.00, and 20.00

Can't find you on the local cable, are you up and running yet?

[hm1973]

Pattaya One News starts on Monday on Sophon Cable TV, we have taken the old slots taken by Pattaya City News. We are in the process of setting up a new 24 hours channel in direct partnership with Sophon Cable. This should be ready within the next 2 months. When it is, Pattaya One News will move to the channel. For now we will be on Sophon Movie Channel 4 (Ch14) at Midday and 23.00 and on Movie Channel 5 (Ch27) at 10.00, 16.00, and 20.00

Can't find you on the local cable, are you up and running yet?

Click here

[bkkmick]

Been in the web business a long time and for a site like this to receive 250,000 hits in one day is highly unlikely. If you did receive that many hits then it could explain why your site was slow to load (unless of course you're on your own dedicated server...even then I can't see 250,000 hits being accurate).

[hm1973]

Been in the web business a long time and for a site like this to receive 250,000 hits in one day is highly unlikely. If you did receive that many hits then it could explain why your site was slow to load (unless of course you're on your own dedicated server...even then I can't see 250,000 hits being accurate).

Here is the proof.

[wcr]

Been in the web business a long time and for a site like this to receive 250,000 hits in one day is highly unlikely. If you did receive that many hits then it could explain why your site was slow to load (unless of course you're on your own dedicated server...even then I can't see 250,000 hits being accurate).

Here is the proof.

Hits and visitors are separate things. The important stat is the number of UNIQUE visitors you get. Your daily visitors are around 2000, not bad for a start up site. You need to get your google ranking at at least a 3 then you can charge reasonable amounts for advertising. Presently your site hasn't been ranked by google.

[redman]

Howard, take my hat off to you for replying to both critiscms and kudos alike. You seems to be a nicer guy than your fellow policeman and Northern European rival. I used to wonder how you kept your figure as it seemed you spent all your time in restaurants. It must be burning the late night oil on websites and catching criminals that keeps you fit

[bkkmick]

Yea, like wcr says, 2000 for a day is great for a new site. Bots will (hopefully for you) account for some. Not sure if that free hit counter allows you to break down what are unique visitors. Doubt at this early stage that your site is being found via search engines. Start getting back links to your site that have useful keywords in them e.g. "Pattaya News" etc. Keep the content fresh (easy enough with a news site) but watch out for duplication as Google will penalise duplicate content.

Most of all Good luck.

Edited June 3, 2008 by bkkmick

[hm1973]

Yea, like wcr says, 2000 for a day is great for a new site. Bots will (hopefully for you) account for some. Not sure if that free hit counter allows you to break down what are unique visitors. Doubt at this early stage that your site is being found via search engines. Start getting back links to your site that have useful keywords in them e.g. "Pattaya News" etc. Keep the content fresh (easy enough with a news site) but watch out for duplication as Google will penalise duplicate content.

Most of all Good luck.

I think we are on the search engines already. If you put in Pattaya News, we are already on Page 2 of google. To be honest I don't really understand the concept behind web site optimization yet, but I am learning. I don't really intend to commercialize the site at this time and I am happy just to make money from the google ads for now. However if the stats improve, I may consider selling banners on the site.

Thanks for the nice comments!!!

[chakatee]

Never happened on the old site, but now since the adjustments on the new site: I can actually open the articles with my Hutch connection.

Good one hm1973! (and good luck!)