Good News For Expats!

[sedeflonga]

I wonder what all that flaming and ridiculing here is about. If you not like the service, just DON'T apply for it.

One thing George forgot was to tell us how to unsubscribe. More user will check the service

if they know how to unsubscribe too.

>

>To start your 14 day free trial please dial *424010011 after the 14 day trial you will be charged 49 baht a month.

>You can unsubscribe any time by dialing *424010099. The service works with True, AIS, 12call, DTAC, both pre and post paid accounts.

>

cheers!

Edited November 3, 2009 by sedeflonga

[Jingthing]

Thanks for the info on unsubscribing. When someone actually tries to unsubscribe, can they report back and tell us if it is really easy to do, or not?

I am also wondering why not offer a free option that includes ads peppered in the text? You would get a lot more takers that way so perhaps more income.

Good luck with the new service.

Edited November 3, 2009 by Jingthing

[Changian]

I am also wondering why not offer a free option that includes ads peppered in the text?

You think the paid for version won't have ads peppered into the text?

I think the 49 Baht/month charge will go to paying to employ one native English speaking sub editor. Otherwise, you may end up with the COO of The Nation looking a bit of an idiot, for example, as in the official press release for this service which no-one bothered to proofread:

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

Is The Nation good for anything other than a few laughs at typos and state approved news?

[george]

No ads, no spam in the SMS. It's a 100% guarantee from me.

[David006]

MMM...for what? Already get those "news" updates on email from TV?

One useful public service might be to SMS severe weather or Tsunami warnings I guess but I think we all get enough marketing sms messages ( usually in Thai).... how long before these "news" sms' will include the plethora of mm ads/popups per TV? Sorry no takers here..

Good luck anyways...

[neverdie]

No ads, no spam in the SMS. It's a 100% guarantee from me.

George, does it also come with a set of free steak knifes?

[taxexile]

"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

i can hardly contain my indifference.

[norwayeagle]

Looks like you're onto a winner here George.

.... ... ....

[DocHolliday]

"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

i can hardly contain my indifference.

then you better shouldn't post. Are you sure someone will take notice about your indifference...?

[DocHolliday]

Some critics might haven't even tried that service. Complaining in advance is not a good attitude and in MHO more than unfair.

Would you like to read an article from a journalist i.e. about an an event he had never attended...?

[neverdie]

"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

i can hardly contain my indifference.

then you better shouldn't post. Are you sure someone will take notice about your indifference...?

Some critics might haven't even tried that service. Complaining in advance is not a good attitude and in MHO more than unfair.

Would you like to read an article from a journalist i.e. about an an event he had never attended...?

Ohhh goodie goodie, just what thai visa needs, another alleged newbie reading out the riot act.

which previously banned member are you, or perhaps your someone that just forgot your main password temporarily?? who are you really docholiday?

[onnut]

Well George, here is a positive post for you. I will try it as I think it's a good idea and I have already subscribed. Thank you.

No ads, no spam in the SMS. It's a 100% guarantee from me.

[taxexile]

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

..... its just what the world needs, yet another service purporting to provide users with so called "must have" breaking news and quotes, as if there arent enough news services boring the pants off us already with sensationalised trivia, bigged up non events and the latest weather forecasts for uzbekhistan.

for those who just cant stop fiddling endlessly with their silly phones.

[Flow]

A big NO from me. Sorry, George.

[simon43]

I've worked since 1999 on the development of these types of SMS services. Sorry George, but according to the rules about premium SMS services on the Thai mobile networks, (yes, there are rules!), your service needs to support the 'STOP' keyword whereby a user can unsubscribe from the service by texting the word STOP to the advertised shortcode number.

All promotions/advertisements also need to give the details of this unsubscribe method, as does the confirmation text message when you join the service.

The reason why many content providers do not give such details, or make the details un-neccessarily complex, is to try to ensure that you forget how to unsubscribe

Simon

[WinnieTheKhwai]

..I'm not terribly likely to be tempted to subscribe to anything that originates at The Nation..

And then: SMS.... That's so 10 years ago.

[DocHolliday]

..I'm not terribly likely to be tempted to subscribe to anything that originates at The Nation..

And then: SMS.... That's so 10 years ago.

I think you are very with your statement "that's so 10 years ago"

Some facts -

in 2007 about 50 billion SMS messages were sent per month in the US alone.

quote -

Text messaging is most often used between private mobile phone users, as a substitute for voice calls in situations where voice communication is impossible or undesirable. In some regions, text messaging is significantly cheaper than placing a phone call to another mobile phone; elsewhere, text messaging is popular despite the negligible cost of voice calls.

Short message services are developing very rapidly throughout the world. In 2000, just 17 billion SMS messages were sent; in 2001, the number was up to 250 billion, and 500 billion SMS messages in 2004, which represents close to 100 text messages for every person in the world.[citation needed] At an average cost of USD 0.10 per message,[citation needed] this generates revenues in excess of $50 billion for mobile telephone operators.

SMS is particularly popular in the Europe, Asia (excluding Japan; see below), Australia and New Zealand. Popularity has grown to a sufficient extent that the term texting (used as a verb meaning the act of mobile phone users sending short messages back and forth) has entered the common lexicon. Young Asians consider SMS as the most popular mobile phone application.[3]

In China, SMS is very popular, and has brought service providers significant profit (18 billion short messages were sent in 2001).[4] It is a very influential and powerful tool in the Philippines, where the average user sends 10-12 text messages a day. The Philippines alone sends on the average 400 million text messages a day or approximately 142 billion text messages sent a year,[5] more than the annual average SMS volume of the countries in Europe, and even China and India. It is said that the Philippines is the "texting capital of the world". SMS is hugely popular in India, where youngsters often exchange lots of text messages, and companies provide alerts, infotainment, news, cricket scores update, railway/airline booking, mobile billing, and banking services on SMS.

In 2001, text messaging played an important role in deposing former Philippine president Joseph Estrada. Similarly, in 2008, text messaging played a primary role in the implication of former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick in an SMS sex scandal.[6]

Text messaging has become so popular that advertising agencies and advertisers are now jumping into the text message business.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Text_messaging

[junkofdavid2]

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.

For real?

Funny thing about the Nation website, is that everything is labeled either as HOT, MUST READ, LATEST, URGENT, BREAKING... etc. and yes, complete with the big red capitalized letters; and then when you finally open it, the news was much ado about nothing. Kinda like the boy who cried wolf.

I'm not saying it's bad... if it sells and other readers find it more entertaining that way, then I guess it's good.

[WinnieTheKhwai]

I think you are very with your statement "that's so 10 years ago"

Some facts -

in 2007 about 50 billion SMS messages were sent per month in the US alone.

Oh, wait, not disputing that. I meant: As a way of disseminating information. That's what RSS and Twitter are for. Plus those aren't hidden money making schemes; typically parties that want to send you SMS do it because they make money off it. (% kickback from the network operator)

[taxexile]

if it sells and other readers find it more entertaining that way, then I guess it's good.

like taking candy from a baby eh george ?

if its to do with phones and messaging people will buy anything, useful or useless, they just gotta have it, they cant do without it, they gotta be fiddling with buttons and features, they cant stop "entertaining" themselves, theres one born every minute.

sign the suckers up and start counting the readies.

wish i had your business acumen !!

[WinnieTheKhwai]

Well that would have kept this place a lot cleaner.

[basjke]

which previously banned member are you, or perhaps your someone that just forgot your main password temporarily?? who are you really docholiday?

I guess his last name betrayed him. Holliday

[junkofdavid2]

Okay, a question for those of you who did subscribe to the Nation's SMS news alerts:

Any feedback?

Is the news worthy of being SMS-sent to you?

I'm considering subscribing, but I just wana know if they really send only the pertinent informative breaking stuff (as Thaivisa said they would) without any "constant beeping", or if they also include non-breaking useless propaganda beeps like "Dubai Financial Debacle to Make Thaksin More Desperate", and stuff like that...