NEW Message Board for gay Thailand planned

[PattayaMale]

Please note that this post is NOT about THIS GAYTHAILAND site!!

The term Gay Thailand is used to explain the subject. It has no affiliation with this site. BUT the owners are free to put links and advertise FOR FREE

 

New Thailand forum in the works

I want to announce that I will be putting up a NEW forum (message board) about gay Thailand in the near future. I have a company working on it now but there are some things I must tell them first so the website can be created. I have talked to GayButton who has given me some really good pointers. The first one was

[Guest fountainhall]

Good luck with the new venture. But I'm wondering where the posting base will come from as we already saw a decline in posts on this site after GB started up his Board. I can't speak for any other site as I rarely, if ever, look at them. I also wonder how different the site will be, given that many of the topics you want to feature - as well as a lot you don't want to feature! - are already covered on other sites.

 

As to name, why confuse people with names which are far too similar to this and sawatdee-gay-thailand? It's surely not difficult to come up with something original which will nicely sum up what you plan to do with the site?

[PattayaMale]

Good luck with the new venture. But I'm wondering where the posting base will come from as we already saw a decline in posts on this site after GB started up his Board. I can't speak for any other site as I rarely, if ever, look at them. I also wonder how different the site will be, given that many of the topics you want to feature - as well as a lot you don't want to feature! - are already covered on other sites.

 

As to name, why confuse people with names which are far too similar to this and sawatdee-gay-thailand? It's surely not difficult to come up with something original which will nicely sum up what you plan to do with the site?

 

Thanks and let me think about what you said. Maybe you can come up with a better name for me. I can see if it is available.

 

I understand about what you say about posting numbers. My hope is that the free ad to let say GAYTHAILAND forums will help the numbers on this and other sites,

 

There is so much more to Thailand than Bangkok (which I think this Board)and GAYBUTTONTHAI (which seems Pattaya) and SGT (which I find as more of an attack poster site).

 

Even though I have thought about this along time, what made me think of doing it now is the interest in GAY PRIDE that came up. How to attract a more global group? Even many expats do NOT go on the Boards. So what we see on each Board may not really be a true view of people outside of the small number of posters that seem to like a certain board or forum. (I think you made that point about polls) On this post you commented that you rarely looks at other boards. Which is true of most.

 

I am NOT trying to be a competitor with the existing boards. Just like the old GAYPATTAYA and GAYBUTTON were boards that tried to compliment each other. I hope to find a completely different group.

 

I am not trying to promote my own bar as the new owner owner of one forum is interested in. I am not trying to make money off the site by charging for membership or ads. I simply want to see if it is possible to gain a broader audience. I want to see if I have ideas, can get ideas from others and then LEARN the skills to make it useful.

 

Will you help with an idea or two........other than don't try. I have that idea all ready

[Moses]

I am NOT trying to be a competitor with the existing boards.

 

You can't "not trying". Coz you have idea to work in the same format.

 

Another design, another name - it will not help: your board will be "just another gay board about Thailand"

 

You have to have ideas before start:

- "Why people will come to my new board?",

- "How it can attract posters and visitors?",

- "what will be benefit for users to come, to register and to post?"

 

Forums and boards - are the hardest projects to start.

[Guest fountainhall]

what made me think of doing it now is the interest in GAY PRIDE that came up. How to attract a more global group? Even many expats do NOT go on the Boards. So what we see on each Board may not really be a true view of people outside of the small number of posters that seem to like a certain board or forum.

There has been an interesting discussion on Gay Pride events on GBT. My view about the Taipei Parade is that it succeeds so well precisely because it is not commercial. Bars, saunas and clubs helped with advertising etc., but the Parade had zero commercial elements apart from a few pieces of merchandising. It is purely 30,000+ gay guys and gals coming out one afternoon to show their part of the world that being gay can involve deal of fun and that gays are no threat to society at large. It also served the more serious purpose to remind the population that discrimination has still not been tackled in Taiwan as promised by the incumbent President.

 

Bangkok and Phuket used to have Parades, but they were very commercial by comparison, with bars and other establishments prominently featured. I believe they failed, partly due to lousy organisation, but also because the powers-that-be in this country do not want commercial establishments enhancing the sex tourism image for which the country is already known. The GBT discussion seems generally to agree that any PRIDE type event in Thailand has to be organised and managed by Thais themselves. Frankly, I cannot see that happening! And for the same reason, sadly I cannot see many Thais who are not part of the sex industry here contributing to your site - or for that matter most other sites. I truly wish I were wrong, but I think I am not! The younger middle- and upper-class Thai gay scene is a world away from what we as expats know as the Thai gay scene!

 

The present group of sites certainly cater only for a smallish number of expats. I haven't the faintest idea how to get more to contribute. If I did, then I'd try and bring more into gaythailand.com.

 

But interestingly, one site which does seem to manage to combine local (in this case the Chinese diaspora) with western is fridae.com - a paid site. It is Chinese run and managed, but draws in quite a western crowd. It imparts a great deal of information about events and happenings, in addition to gay and other general news. And it is, from my experience, a great hook-up site. You might consider it worth a look.

 

As to name, since you are looking into the spreading of information, how about -

 

Infothaigay

gayeventsthailand

thailandgayhappenings

 

Just thoughts!

[Guest kjun12]

Frankly, if you are looking to Gaybotton for advice I see trouble already. The way he runs his board is controlling to say the leas and it is not the kind of place I enjoy. Also, while I can understand the excitement on your part to do something like this, I join the several other posters who question if there is enough interest in gay Thai boards to get it going. But just the same, good luck.

[Guest fountainhall]

The other point I forgot to mention as I was rushing out for dinner is that there is now quite a number of sites in Thai specifically for the Thai market and which seem to be doing what essentially you are also planning to do. I have seen several that publish lots of information of what's on locally, lists of bars and saunas etc. as well as having a lot of discussion forums - all in Thai, of course. I have an unfortunate feeling that it will be easier getting farang on to those sites than it will getting Thais on to your new one.

 

But I admire your pluck.

[TotallyOz]

A few comments:

 

1. Do you know what you are getting into? It is a hard job.

2. If you need any advice, let me know.

3. A section for people "going at it" is a horrible idea. Don't open yourself up to libel and just the idea of that area strikes fear in me. It will either get you in trouble or it will eat up all your free time trying to be peacemaker.

4. Why did you never volunteer as a Moderator of one of the current boards to help them get better as you seem to have a problem with the way they are run? If the answer is you want to do it your way and your way alone, I understand that as well.

5. Good luck! I really do mean this as I hope it is a great success for you. Running a board like this is a lot of fun but also a lot of work.

[Guest]

There are already at least 5 forums covering Gay Thailand and another one with a gay section.

 

One gets a lot of custom, two get an adequate amount and two seem to get barely enough posts to keep things going.

 

There are also subtle differences to the type of debate, when comparing the existing forums.

 

You need to offer something different if fragmenting the market further. Maybe a more broad Gay Asia forum might do it.

[Guest]

]Frankly, if you are looking to Gaybutton for advice I see trouble already. The way he runs his board is controlling to say the least and it is not the kind of place I enjoy.

Many people do enjoy his forum, which is free from personal attacks. Also in some respects, he's very liberal with his moderating. If you don't like it, there other forums.

Also, if you want to propose some changes of policy, the best way to do it is on the same board, rather than posting criticism on other boards.

I find his forum is well managed & in the small areas where I think a change is required, it seems he's quite open to posts that raise the issue in a reasonable way.

That's much more constructive than using one board to criticise another.

[PattayaMale]

Thanks for all the replies and suggestions. I see you all have put time into your thoughts and appreciate it very much

 

The reason I decide to go it alone (not on the technical end) is that I don;t want others to put time and energy into this project and then I decide you all were right, and I walk away. If I do it on my own, I have not lost anything, and will have learned something.

 

Again thanks

[Bob]

I wish you well with your new venture. Good luck.

 

That being said, I cannot fathom the need for another message board about "gay Thailand." There are already several boards and two out of three of the "reasonable" ones have slowed down quite a bit over the years. It's my view (just my opinion) that the gay Thailand message boards are slowly dying out for a variety of reasons, some of it due to the oldtimers, expats and tourists, getting bored with the whole deal and some of it being due to a lack of new members (or, perhaps, younger potential members simply not being interested). And maybe some of it's due to Thailand simply becoming less of a magnet for gay travelers.

 

As to running a board, I imagine you'd have to be willing to expend a whole lot of personal time and also have the patience of Job. While I admire the guys who have done it over the years, there's not a large enough caliber gun to make me even think about it.

[kokopelli]

Whatever you do PM, don't copycat or incorporate any names from existing forums into your forum's name. Call it PattayaMale or whatever else.

[kokopelli]

I amend my above comment to allow use of GAY in any form name. Get more hits that way.

[baobao]

Getting input from other forum owners isn't a bad idea at all, and I didn't get the feeling from what he said here that PattayaMale is looking to copy an existing site. I enjoy Gaybutton's site, but there are those who don't care for it because he doesn't want to allow abuse (which is a good thing, I think) or because he comments himself too often. Nothing wrong with that, either, to my way of thinking - it keeps the discussion moving.

 

I'd hope PattayaMale would also prevent flooders, flamers and the likes from spoiling things yet again.

 

Keeping advertising off the site also allows it to remain independent and not bogged down by the owner's club or his friend's clubs or comments that may be made by a member and raising that "just because they pay for an ad" nonsense.

 

I didn't see PattayaMale saying anywhere that he wanted the #1 board, only that there might be room for another - and I certainly agree. I got sick of the nonsense on the forums and started my own blog. It's smaller, but like some other things it's not the size, it's how you can use it.

 

As far as a name goes I'd suggest something like Gay Asia Forum, to be inclusive of Cambodia, Viet Nam, Laos, Myanmar, Indonesia, Singapore and the rest. Gaybutton himself wishes more posts would be made about something away from the immediate Pattaya area, and there IS room for that space on a forum.

 

PattayaMale, best of luck to you.

[ChristianPFC]

Let me quote what I wrote on gaybuttonthai on this subject:

 

I strongly advice against naming it Sawatdee-GayThailand (due to similarity to an existing board), the other two suggestions (GayThailandinfo, GayThailandguys) are ok.

 

Pattayamale wrote: It will be limited to ideas and discussion of venues (pro and con), restaurants, side trip ideas, trip reports, politics and NEW news.

 

All this can be discussed on the existing boards. My opinion is that there are already too many boards about gay thailand (I read in no particular order: gaybuttonthai, sawatdee-gay-thailand, gaythailand, baht-stop, gaytingtong, if I missed any please let me know). Don't let me discourage you, but I see absolutely no point in opening a further board.

 

Now that it has been mentioned here, of course GayThailandinfo, GayThailandguys can give rise to confusion with this board, so I advise against these names as well. The fact that a name that is not similar to one of the existing boards is difficult to find is an indication that there are enough boards.

[Guest fountainhall]

The more I think about your idea of a bitching section, I have to say the less I like it - for two reasons. Michael has mentioned one - the possibility of libel/slander. The other is the likelihood that some posters from that section will be extremely tempted to spread their vitriol into other sections of the site. You will have to watch them like a hawk!

 

Also, my own view is that if two people want to have a go at each other, why do they have to bore others with their childish bullying comments? Why give them the 'anonymity' of a Board when they should just get together at the back of a bar and have a real go at each other? Besides, isn't there enough of that on other sites? My guess is you will just attract exactly the same bitchers that presently inhabit those other boards and give them yet another outlet for their venom.

 

Also, don't you think one reason more Thais and expats do not participate in some Boards is precisely because of that bitchiness? Others will correct me if I'm wrong, but my view of most Asian societies is that this type of public bitching is contrary to the norms of those societies. So, even if it is a separate part of the Board, you will immediately turn probably quite a number of people off before you start! Just my view.

[Guest thaiworthy]

I would suggest gaymalethai.com. It is short and simple. It has the word "gay" in it. It has "male" from your PattayaMale moniker included and "thai" which defines the scope of the board geographically.

 

PattayaMale, you live in Pattaya. I hope the board is not going to be Pattaya-concentric, and would be surprised if it didn't turn out that way. How much more can be said about Pattaya, anyway?

 

I agree with Michael that a bitch-fight area is a terrible idea for the reasons he already mentioned.

 

I like movies. Can there be a movie review section? Are enough films released theatrically in Thailand to warrant such a forum? I have always wondered why gay boards hardly discuss entertainment venues other than bars and saunas.

 

Next, you are a very likable and popular guy in Sunee. Everyone loves you and I'm sure you have many friends. Say goodbye to that, because you will lose some of those friends when they don't get their way on your board. Conversely, people will use you and your board to gain favor and you won't always be aware they are doing it. I know it's easy for me to say, especially when I have never run a board. But you did ask.

 

I also agree with Bob. I am getting tired of these boards and don't want to be confronted with sarcastic ridicule as I have been on another board. Quite frankly, there are other things I want to pursue in my life that are more worthwhile than defending my feelings and views.

 

But you asked for comments, so this my two cents. I wish you good luck and hope you reconsider. T'is a fate worse than death and you will be doing the work of the devil. There will be little satisfaction, no appreciation other than a guaranteed spot in the dunking booth for your new favorite charity.

 

I don't think you're on a power trip, I really believe you have admirable intentions. You sorta remind me of Sidney Poiter in "Lilies of the Field," by building a Chapel, all for the sake of good will and harmony (as it turned out). Unfortunately, there aren't too many nuns running around Sunee Plaza.

 

I hope you come to your senses. Although I'm sure Sidney felt better for it, mebbe you will, too.

[pong]

I am NOT trying to be a competitor with the existing boards.

From me also all the best-never spoil a chance on new info. But as to this quote: did you realise-after years of reading the eternal strife and squibbling on these boards-that THEY may quite well look at your new idea as a potential big competitor, to be chased away ASAP (after all-they need paid ads). Except most likely dear GB-he is much nicer as his avatar seems to suggest.

I would give a tip from normal tourist forums, like f.e. TA=tripadvisor (as I have to read all these-well most from time to time- for job to keep uptodate for Thai news); TA stands out as they have dedicated and always polite (me gets tired and bored after 2-3 same Qs from totally ignorant ozzies too lazy too open up a guidebook) people who can answer most Qs as they have the knowledge-unbiased. And they delete anything that is too commercial-but you could simple move it to the free ads, nah?

For me personal: I think any good has its bad-so for a balanced review of any place, not just gay shops or hotels, I would like to see the negative as well as positive. I simply do not believe that some place can only get positive feedback.

[KhorTose]

Many people do enjoy his forum, which is free from personal attacks. Also in some respects, he's very liberal with his moderating. If you don't like it, there other forums.

Also, if you want to propose some changes of policy, the best way to do it is on the same board, rather than posting criticism on other boards.

I find his forum is well managed & in the small areas where I think a change is required, it seems he's quite open to posts that raise the issue in a reasonable way.

That's much more constructive than using one board to criticise another.

 

 

 

With all due respect, BULLSHIT. Gaybutton is not now or has ever been open to any kind of criticism on his board. He considers any criticism an attack and he immediately deletes all such post. It is only when he asks for advice is anything allowed and then he points everyone to where he wants to to anyway. I have no idea what board you have been reading but it is surely not GaybuttonThai where you are instructed to post all criticisms in a PM, or get the "Iron Fist" Give me a break Z It is nice of you to defend your friend, but reality is far from the way you describe it.

[KhorTose]

Whatever you do PM, don't copycat or incorporate any names from existing forums into your forum's name. Call it PattayaMale or whatever else.

 

 

I too think there are too many msg boards all ready but, if you are going to start one, I do like Kokopelli's idea to call it Pattayamale.

 

You are well known as a good poster and moderator and I think your name on the board would be an attraction. I do wish you the best of luck.

[Gaybutton]

using one board to criticise another.

With all due respect, BULLSHIT. Gaybutton is not now or has ever been open to any kind of criticism on his board. He considers any criticism an attack and he immediately deletes all such post.

Especially posts such as yours. I'm glad to see we're not going to use one board to criticize another.

 

 

You are well known as a good poster and moderator

Is that so? Pray tell, on which board is Pattayamale a moderator? I must have missed it.

[TotallyOz]

With all due respect, BULLSHIT. Gaybutton is not now or has ever been open to any kind of criticism on his board. He considers any criticism an attack and he immediately deletes all such post. It is only when he asks for advice is anything allowed and then he points everyone to where he wants to to anyway. I have no idea what board you have been reading but it is surely not GaybuttonThai where you are instructed to post all criticisms in a PM, or get the "Iron Fist" Give me a break Z It is nice of you to defend your friend, but reality is far from the way you describe it.

 

Gaybutton runs his board the way he sees fit. It is his board and if you don't like his rules don't go there. I have never understood why anyone would have a problem with that. You know up front what he is, what he expects and to be shown the door the instant you cause a problem. He tells you this up front. He is clear in his objectives. It is his board. He is the owner and he makes all the calls. He says this. No one should get upset with him on his board for doing what he tells you he is going to do. It isn't rocket science. He is in control. He has an Iron Fist. If he doesn't like your posts he will delete them without question. Knowing this at the onset, no one should ever get upset with their posts on his site.

[Gaybutton]

Gaybutton runs his board the way he sees fit.

Thank you for that, but I hope this thread will stay focused on Pattayamale's idea about starting a new board. That's what I thought this thread is supposed to be about.

 

I doubt anyone is going to come up with anything new in their attacks directed at me that hasn't already been said a million times anyway. I would suggest keeping this thread on topic and let those who want to turn it into an "I Hate Gaybutton" thread simply start a new topic and post their attacks there.

[TotallyOz]

I doubt anyone is going to come up with anything new in their attacks directed at me that hasn't already been said a million times anyway.

 

I hear you were born on April 2; a day too late!

 

jk