Good News For Expats!

[george]

Dear Thaivisa member,

Thaivisa and The Nation launched an SMS service for the expat community today, called "GOOD NEWS FOR EXPATS".

Stay informed on breaking news in Thailand, the latest visa updates and information that keeps you informed and up to date on life in Thailand with our service.

With "GOOD NEWS FOR EXPATS' you will be the first to know!

To subscribe to the 14 day free trial please dial *424010011. After the 14 days, the service charges only 49 baht a month. You can unsubscribe any time and we promise, no spam!

We value your feedback on our service so would appreciate it if you, as a valued Thaivisa member, could test this service and let us know what you think.

Kind regards,

The Nation & Thaivisa.com Team

------------

PRESS RELEASE:

"GOOD NEWS FOR EXPATS"

Thaivisa.com and The Nation launched a new SMS service

BANGKOK: -- Thaivisa.com and Nation Multimedia Public Co., Ltd., have launched a new breaking news SMS service targeting the interests of the expatriate community in Thailand.

"We want to offer a different SMS service for the expat community", saya Pana Janviroj, COO of Nation Multimedia. "We have hundreds of thousands of foreigners living in Thailand, and we will provide them with Thailand related news content from a foreigners prospective."

Together with Thaivisa.com, the Nation plans to provide news that is important for foreigners living in Thailand. Breaking news, natural disasters and other important issues will be sent by SMS and in the afternoon odd or interesting news will be provided to the customer.

Free trial

The service offers a 14 day free trial and costs 49 Baht per month after that. The service is available to AIS, One-2-Call, DTAC and TRUE Move and works both for prepaid and postpaid Thai mobile numbers.

Spam free news direct in your mobile

"We hope to offer the best English SMS service available in Thailand, with no spam and easy to unsubscribe from. We plan to send out breaking news that is of interest to expats as well as one or two selected "Todays best thread" from the Thaivisa forum, says Barry Main, marketing director at Thaivisa.com

To subscribe just dial *424010011 and you will recieve a SMS confirmation shortly.

If you want to contact our SMS support, the email is [email protected]

-- The Nation 2009-11-02

[xminator]

Is this the answer to Thaksins SMS-service?

[neverdie]

Sorry George,

NO THANKS .I'd rather be hit by a bus than have my phone constantly beeping at me with dribbly thai news.

Knowing my luck I will probably get hit by the bus now

[babuhavas]

i have few sms services,can you assure in writing that this will be in 100% english?if yes then only i will apply.or else thanks but no thanks

[sbk]

Only a few SMS a day, no constant beeping planned.

Unless of course, there is major breaking news then there will be an immediate update.

[Nowhereman60]

Good news for expats would be that the service is free.

[bkkjames]

My concern would be that it would consist of so called breaking news such as:

Red Shirt plans rally on Dec...

Red Shirt cancels rally on Dec...

Saxena's airplane to arrive at 7pm

Saxena to be transferred by police...

Anyways, I don't see this being a winner to be honest. With everyone so connected to the web via traditional computers, mobiles, pda and so on, unless it was news that the world is gonna end in 2 hours, can't see the need.

Good luck with it anyway.

More useful would be to follow the route of the other english newspaper and make mobile editions of TV and the Nation.

[givenall]

Sorry George,

NO THANKS .I'd rather be hit by a bus than have my phone constantly beeping at me with dribbly thai news.

Knowing my luck I will probably get hit by the bus now

If anything, this should be free since I spend some times reading Nation’s crap

[JetsetBkk]

Since the "good news" - in fact "all news" - will appear here anyway, no thanks. I'd be interested to know how many Thaivisa members sign up for this.

[BanTamo]

THB49/month might as well be free...

[bdenner]

A quick look shows 80% total rejection, as above NO THANKS! George, try running a POLL to get your results.

[bkkjames]

While I think many of us can appreciate the 'service minded' approach of this, truth be told I think the last thing we want is additional spam type (news) sms flying in throughout the day and night.

Perhaps if you came up with a way to allow us to filter the types of news we get (eg, don't send me any political crap), it might make it more appealing.

I agree with the previous poster who mentioned polling the membership to get a consensus on what if anything they would like to see in such a service.

[sedeflonga]

I wonder how to unsubscribe to this service if no longer wanted?

[neverdie]

Only a few SMS a day, no constant beeping planned.

Unless of course, there is major breaking news then there will be an immediate update.

Sorry SBK, youve obviously got no idea about all the beeping that goes on inside my head daily.....then theres those voices

Sorry George,

NO THANKS .I'd rather be hit by a bus than have my phone constantly beeping at me with dribbly thai news.

Knowing my luck I will probably get hit by the bus now

If anything, this should be free since I spend some times reading Nation's crap

Absolute rubish givenall.....as you know mate, nothing decent is free in this world , on second thoughts you may have an argument there afterall

[Thailand]

I thought the "good news for expats" headline would be something like the 90 day reporting no longer required. You can sms me when that happens but I won't hold my breath.

[h90]

A quick look shows 80% total rejection, as above NO THANKS! George, try running a POLL to get your results.

But 20 % are still a lot people!

[toybits]

No thanks. It feels like someone is looking over my shoulder. Creepy! Waiting a few hours to read about it online or hear about it on the television or radio would not make THAT much of a difference - unless it was about the last ticket to a Michael Jackson concert (if he was alive)....

Edited November 2, 2009 by toybits

[neverdie]

A quick look shows 80% total rejection, as above NO THANKS! George, try running a POLL to get your results.

But 20 % are still a lot people!

@ the time that was posted there had only been 11 posts, including the OP. So are you still calling 20% of 10 votes alot of people?

[h90]

A quick look shows 80% total rejection, as above NO THANKS! George, try running a POLL to get your results.

But 20 % are still a lot people!

@ the time that was posted there had only been 11 posts, including the OP. So are you still calling 20% of 10 votes alot of people?

I don't need it but if 5 % of the TV member are interested it is a lot of people.

[JimsKnight]

Being a bit over ambitious on this one I think.

Why would any expat need to be told on his phone what's going on in Thailand when they can find it out for themselves using other media or by simply getting out there and seeing for themselves.

Good god George, where or indeed when will the over-commercialisation of this place stop!

Am I the only one seeing this?

Edited November 2, 2009 by JimsKnight

[Stumbo]

Would have to agree with the consensus here. I don't even waste time reading the biased rubbish The Nation offends readers with for free online. Can't imagine why anyone would actually pay for yet more repetitive anti-Taksin/Red rants. I'll also pass.

[Jdietz]

Yeah a hole in the market no doubt..

Without the use of not-to-be-mentioned blockers, this site is totally unusable already, competing with commercial site-squatters and spamvertizers for the amount of flashing crap thrown on your screen.

But.... not all is lost:

Now we can PAY to have more of this stuff sent direct to our mobiles...

The Nation already announced they are going to change format again dropping the free publication as well per the first, so probably this is one more harebrained scheme to milk us for the last couple of drops before the whole thing comes crashing down.

Given the amount of foreigners around the last year, it is obvious that two English newspapers is at least one too many...

The forum masters seem to forget that we are not the mindless masses you use as numbers to sell your crap to, like a television audience (NEVER confuse yourself as being the consumer there) but in fact we CREATE all the actual CONTENT on this site and our WORK (need a permit?) is being used to sell ads, and not in a small way to keep the site running but HUGE, FLASHING, INTRUSIVE ads all over the place with some hidden content in between.

This of course will only continue until the next best thing comes around and people refuse to post anymore. Running a small site like this is not expensive at all so better be prepared for it when it happens.

I wonder how long until we have to pay to post here... or be a paid up member "sponsor" to get less ads.. but let's not give them ideas..

[sniffdog]

Pay 49 baht and get more commercial crap on your phone .... no, thanks!

[mca]

Looks like you're onto a winner here George.

[tominbkk]

I made the dreadful mistake of signing up for the nation new updates a while back, and it comes to me as KOMnews, in Thai (the ad for it was in English, go figure). And there are about 10 a day, and for the life of me I don't know how to unsubscribe. If somebody has an idea how to stop this madness, please let me know. I have a great RSS reader on my iphone, and subscribe to plenty of good news sites. All I need.

[Artisi]

Just what's needed, an urgent news flash everytime Thaksin takes a dump.

TV must be joking as it isn't 1st April as yet.

[ThaiLife]

Can any one enlighten me one the part shown in Red ..?

TL

[bkkjames]

Can any one enlighten me one the part shown in Red ..?

TL

Those would be topics started by well know posters such MCA, Ian Forbes and Bendix

[mca]

Excellent! So my " Does your toaster speak to you?", "Where's the best place to buy Tesco Lotus products?" and " I believe my neighbour's granny is a Terminator T-1000. Should I inform the puu yai bahn?" threads that I'm planning will get the recognition and exposure they so richly deserve

Edited November 3, 2009 by mca

[ThaiLife]

Excellent! So my " Does your toaster speak to you?", "Where's the best place to buy Tesco Lotus products?" and " I believe my neighbour's granny is a Terminator T-1000. Should I inform the puu yai bahn?" threads that I'm planning will get the recognition and exposure they so richly deserve