Smiles

If found out (however that may come about) they will probably be fined, thrown out of the country and blacklisted for any further entrance into the country. Bottom line is that is that they are simply taking a chance they will not be discovered or turned in. Not the kind of chance which would be acceptable to most reasonable adults. Good luck to 'em. I guess. Cheers ...

Sure it does, you just have to make sure you copy the << http// >> part. ( http://www.boxertravels.com/airport/index.htm ) Or, use the "create URL" feature above. That works as well. Simply typing out, or copying the www+address will not create a working hyperlink. Cheers ...

Sure you've probably seen this one (anyway, you dudes over here need to lighten up ... seems like too many Mods & Admins hangin' around for much fun to me). I have, but not for quite some time. Stumbled over it once again on a random surf through YouTube the other rainy night. As it did the first time, it brought nothing but a good laugh to my household here (that would be the cat). Hope it does the same for you ... either again, or ~ if you've been on Mars ~ for the first time: Cheers ... PS ... notice the connection to Thailand in the title to keep it here. Nobody reads the other Forums anyway (just like That Other Place).

?? Offer the same guy more. Cheers ...

Just a small point, but it might be helpful if you'd quote just that specific part of the post you are refering to (as above) which you are trying to make a point about ( e.g. hard to know what you're getting at with your phrase " ... I suspect the reason behind this ... " ). Quoting the relevent portion of Gaybutton's post would be a hell of a lot easier on all the readers here ... god knows GB is already getting much more than his fair share of the total messages on this Board. IMHO only of course Cheers ...

. . . certainly no one ever did regarding your commentary (on any Board). But I do agree to a certain extent ... let this thread go on for 1000+ pages and nobody will have a f****** clue as to what's being said. Then ... Gaybutton can close 'er down, and it will be difficult to object. Cheers ... I notice one cannot say "f***" on this Board. A perfectly good, adult, and historical word censored ... for what reason? Don't mind me if I experiment: shit, c***, piss, cocksucker, darn, goddamn, silly, whore, b****, bastard, motherfucker, naughty person. Just trying to evaluate the extent and dramatis to which I may express outrage & objection on any given point.

LOL . . . because " YOUR" moderator made a quite specific statement, i.e.: " ... I think this has gone on long enough ... ". If the thread violates none of "YOUR" guidlelines, what compunction would "YOUR" moderator have to announce such feelings as this, if they have no relevence (vis-a-vis "guidelines") to the topic? I notice the topic has not been cut off . . . so what's the point of a Moderator saying he feels it's gone on long enough? And if he does cut it off ... why? Bcause he feels it's "gone on long enough"? The members of this Board don't need a father (or worse ~ a mother) ... they need a quiet and rarely-heard-from Moderator. Cheerio ...

Why? Who cares? It's gone on 4 pages now (in my view at least) ... why not 24 pages, why not 104 pages, why not 1004? Who cares? Why do you care Gaybutton? Who does it injure? If it's not a violation of the guidelines o this Board, why do you care? Really. I'd like to know. Cheers ...

I have no doubt you meant Monty's Uncharted Butt . . . though I also admit trying to be coy in life as well. But do carry on trying to flog it Monty . . . ( the butt that is ). Cheers & good luck with the Perth Probing ....

Warning! The following are a few 'facts', and some "Best Guesses" of mine. I have not been involved with Sawatdee Forum in any way other than a regular poster for over a year now ( ironically on hiatus as of only a few days ago!! ), but the Board is now down completely and that message you get when clicking on the address is as ominous a sign as I've seen before. This account is temporarily unavailable. Please contact your hosting provider Note that it does say "Temporarily" ... but I'm not holding my breath. FACTS: ~ The owner of Sawatdee ( ElephantSpike / Robert) has been completely missing for at least a month, perhaps a bit longer. No matter the exortations for him to appear (if only to answer the most innocuous technical question) he has not done so. There is a message from the only other Moderator (jinks) on the still-alive EzBoard version of Sawatdee saying that he has not heard from ElephantSpike for weeks. ~ This latest version of Sawatdee Forum was not cheap. ElephantSpike had made a number of posts during the Board's life alluding to the cost. He had put up a voluntary donation option ... and it was reasonably well-used. Sawatdee Forum was never a Pay-to-Post Board and as far as I am aware there was never any intimation that it become so. ~ ElephantSpike had mentioned at least a few times on the Board (vaguely) that he was having trouble affording it, and that the clickable ads on the Board were not paying him much for it's maintenance. When him and I were in discussions regarding him taking over the EZBoard Sawatdee (a few years ago now) I got the impression that he was having monetary problems even back then. I gave him the skinny on the cost of the Board, but he decided to jump into it anyway. ~ When the EZBoard crashed for the umpteenth time he decided to jump over to the PhPbb Board (a software-based Message Board system). That was an expensive option as well. BEST GUESSES:(1) ElephantSpike has run out of money and the only option was to close down Sawatdee Forum. (2) ElephantSpike has run into "other" troubles unrelated to the message board which have left him unable to continue it. What these might "troubles" might be I have no idea . . . but there are numerous issues in one's life which have more importance, or are more troublesome, than figuring out how to keep a message board operating. (3) My best guess would be a combination of those two. This unfortunate ending has nothing whatsoever to do with getting "blocked" in Thailand, although the blocking was not a 'positive' for the Board, as one can well imagine. The real mystery here is why ElephantSpike did not decide discuss the situation with the members of Sawatdee and inform them of the probable ending of the message board. This would have given everyone on the Board the opportunity to make arrangements for keeping up contacts with those members whom they wished to stay connected to. As an example, although I have quite a few Member's email addresses in my personal address book, there were also quite a number who I talked to every so often by Board PM system. That option is now kaput, and therefore I've lost the wherewithall to contact them. (Therefore, if any of those gents who I've talked to over the years strictly by PM, here is my email address. You are quite welcome to use it if you wish: nongkhai@shaw.ca (regular at-home email) or david-away@hotmail.com (while travelling) Frankly, I think that to abruptly walk away from a Board and leave a very large number of long-time posters wondering what the hell is going on is not a particularly classy move. But then again, perhaps ElephantSpike does not even have the wherewithall to use a computer any more. That would certainly explain the complete lack of communications over the last month or so. This predicament actually happened about a year and a half ago (when I was a moderator) . . . so it is not outside the realm of possbilities. So folks, you can take these thoughts anyway you want, but they are some facts I know of, and some thoughts which are simply best guesses. The whole event is just damned unfortunate (whatever the reason ... we may never know for sure), and NOT the way a popular message board (like it or not) should end. Cheers ...

... and I wish I could have been there as well. After Allen decided to discontinue PattayaGay Message Board (in my opinion the best one ever ... even after the entrance of a number of others over the years, including SF) and I ~ with much trepidation ~ started up Sawatdee Forum (the 1st version) he was an incredible help to me. We had ongoing email conversations about, not the technicalities of message boards, but the philosophy of message board administration: yes folks, there is an underlying philosophy which one decides on ~ sometimes over time, and under changing circumstances ~ when entering this difficult fray. It was often Allen's behind-the-scenes wise counsel which gave me pause, and gave me the benefit of sitting back for a Sober Second Thought. I am by nature less "of that place" than he, and his comments and ideas were greatly appreciated. I have never said much of this before, but am quite happy and delighted to do so at this point ... directly after a well-deserved tribute to Allen has taken place. As I said above, I wish I had been able to be there. One small aside . . . . (you may not believe it, but ...) some of the exact same things I said above about Allen can also be said about Mr. GayButton as well, at around the same time, and for the same reasons: I was lookiing fo advice from those who had been there. (GayButton's board at this time was only very sparcely populated ... for various reasons). Alhough the quantity of correspondance was smaller, GayButton and I carried a series of "inner" email conversations which were most helpful in establishing a "place" ~ and again, a "philosophy" ~ for Sawatdee Forum. GayButton's views on message boards in general were at the time very different from mine, but in our conversations we ended up agreeing that in the end the Total Good of ALL the different message boards (and their differing personalities) was what was most important, useful, and entertaining to the gay community in, and visiting, Thailand. So you can add Mr GayButton to this little post of gentle kudos ... for both men. Cheers .... Dave ['smiles']

Let's get it straight . . . . "Smiles" is a Message Board handle (i.e. mine!). L&N (or "N&L" ~ whatever the case may be) are talking about "S M I L I E S " (with an extra "i"). The former is a legitimate (and common) message board pseudonym. The latter is a software/messageboard emotion-expressing image construct totally devoid of human potentialities. FYI ... L&N (nee, N&L) are also a construct (and therefore inhuman) of the GayThailand Member Known As Hedda. The L&N (N&L) construct is commonaly referred to in uneducated circles as a "Hydra Head". Just to set the record straight ... & cheers ...

http://www.thebeach-g-thailand.com/khonkaen.html Cheers ...

Thanks for your explanation Stef, and for adding more replies to a rather mundane thread on Sawatdee. (You could have at least given plug/link to your sojourn on The Den of Iniquity, as I did in my message there). Come on over anytime, but leave some of your Members here, OK. Also thanks for sneaking my handle slyly into your post above, as well as some meds advice for picked-at scalps. Cheers ....