What Topics Do You Prefer Reading?

[Guest fountainhall]

When thaiworthy recently posted a photo and vdo of a young Korean singer, within a day the number of views went ballistic in comparison to other posts. Whether this was due to interest in the singer, in Korean pop in general or in external views prompted by the thread getting high up on the google lists, I have zero idea. But I was curious.

 

Looking through the new threads over the last nine months, though, some seem somewhat remarkable for their high readership. Here is a purely random sampling of various types of thread (start dates in brackets and threads shown in reverse chronological order) –

 

Gay Thailand

Coming to Bangkok for the very first time (3 October) – 1,403

Welcome to Lookme Spa – 14 August ) – 4,454

Thai Guys in Tight Jeans (5 August) – 3,175

Silom Complex Closure (20 November) – 2,389

Hotels for Boystown or Sunnee – Ideas (18 October) – 1,295

Le Meridien Bangkok Dinner Promotion (29 August) – 1,019

How much do you tip Taxi Drivers (7 August) – 1,158

My Thai Boyfriend (28 July) – 1,658

Anyone Used the Samsung S II Yet? (6 July) – 1,332

 

The Beer Bar

Jin Akinishi (2 February) – 1,099

Kevin Spacey to Perform Richard III in Singapore (7 June) – 943

Good and Evil (13 September) – 1,596

Black Boxes (1 July) – 1,451

Canon S100 Compact Camera (17 September) - 788

A Question about Booze (11 August) – 1,036

Shanghai-Beijing fast train undergoes second power failure in three days (13 July) - 838

 

My selection deliberately avoids those sites where there was considerable controversy – as these tend to boost readership!

 

But it got me thinking about a poll to find out what sort of threads most readers – and, hopefully also, potential readers – enjoy and want to see more of. Back in October there was a poll about where readers live, and the results were pretty close to 50% within Thailand and 50% elsewhere. So there should inevitably be quite a lot of differing views.

 

Having seen so many polls in various Boards that leave a lot of possible answers out, I have tried to keep the wording as general as possible so that what you might especially like to read will fit in somewhere.

 

I also realise that some information may be contentious – as was the case in a recent thread about visas. Posters can only provide their own experiences, or refer to more informative sites (even though official government sites may not provide the precise information required by officials on the ground. Such is life in Thailand!)

 

So for this, my first effort at a poll, there are 16 selections. Tick as many as you wish. If one or two end up way ahead of all the others, I may do another poll to break that down into more specific details.

 

If you select “Other”, do please post a short note describing what you mean by “other”.

[Rogie]

I quite like Polls, so that's why I ticked 'other'.

 

Also photos, especially travel or festival-related in any of the following groups:

 

General travel experiences (not necessarily gay-related)

Interesting events, festivals, happenings etc. in Thailand

Interesting events, festivals, happenings etc. in nearby countries

[Guest thaiworthy]

I voted on more than half of the offered options. The ones I didn't vote for were mostly because they are cross-posted among all of the other forums, i.e., venue openings and discounts, festivals, etc. I also agree with Rogie. More Fountainesque photo-related travelogues from other Asian destinations, which should have been a category to itself, but omitted no doubt due to a certain humility from the OP. Sometimes I think this board should be renamed Fountainhall.com, (owners, take note for your next round of changes.)

 

Good poll. But it's going to be be tough to narrow it down to just a few. I can already see how far spread most of the votes are, but it's still early.

[Guest]

Presumably some of these threads are popular as a result of non-members hitting on them after google searches?

 

Bar promotions are of less interest, as I'm not usually there to benefit from them & when I am on holiday, promotions don't influence decision making much. For such a short trip, I prefer to choose the best bars, rather than chase 10% off deals.

 

Ultimately, I'll read anything that's useful or interesting. Particularly anything about places to go, places to stay, things to do.

On the other hand, Gayromeo has cropped up so many times there's often nothing new in threads on the subject.

 

A particular favourite is gay-related travel about nearby countries. Obviously gay Thailand is covered extensively.

However finding out if there's any gay scene in some of the other East Asian countries is difficult, so travel articles on that are interesting.

Also Fountainhall regularly posts some excellent travel photos, complete with general travel articles.

[pong]

3. final note. I use webshops here in TH. I read first if there is some interesting thing-log only in when I start responding. It gets more and more of a drag to do that-you get a complete other program, with my ''kindoffacebook'' with friends etc and for anyone who wants to know: I never ever look at that. Complete waste of time and trouble and cyberspace. and now getting boring too.

1. agree with z909 above-same idea sprang to my mind-hence that Meridien-maybe this board is now noted among all managers-who-are-forced-to-look into reviews of that chain. to explain some high nrs of hits.
   
2. as I studied (among others) questionnaires, sampling, statistics etc-I'll keep the results for myself-and am hypercritical about how they are set up.
   

[Guest fountainhall]

I agree with k pong about the objectives of a poll and how it is set up. I have also been critical in the past, and am sure others see problems with the one I posted. But it is not intended to be scientific or definitive; merely seeking views. For the future, though, I certainly would like to hear k pong's thoughts on the key points to note when setting up a poll.

 

As to the 800+ hits in one day for the Korean singer thread, it would indeed be interesting to see what sparked the interest. On some Boards I have heard of posters repeatedly hitting their own posts. In this case, that makes no sense - and it has not happened before, as far as I can tell, even when there was once a thread about a Taiwan (or Japanese - can't recall now) pop singer.

[Guest]

As to the 800+ hits in one day for the Korean singer thread

Search google for "Jin Akanishi" & or site doesn't not figure in the first few pages.

Add the word "gay" to that & we're half way down the first page.

I don't know if anyone would run that particular search, but perhaps there is some other common search term where this site would be quite high in the search rankings.

[Guest fountainhall]

I don't know if anyone would run that particular search

 

Given that there seems to be a great deal of speculation about his sexuality amongst his very large fan base, I suspect quite a number of them, girls and boys, run a routine daily search for bits of gossip. Word would then quickly get around some when his name turns up as the thread title on a "gay" website.

[Guest thaiworthy]

I googled gay Fountainhall just now and all sorts of gay dating sites came up. Fourth from the top, it said:

 

Fountainhall Dating from ABC Dating is the premier online dating service for people looking for relationships, long-term or casual adult contacts, straight or gay.

 

Well, when you got it, you got it . . .

[Guest fountainhall]

Aha! But that's not all. If you had looked at the second from the top, you'd have seen -

 

Fountainhall Single Gay Men

 

- along with details of 'my' gay dating site!! Shoot! Now my profession has been revealed

 

http://gay.date.com/...untainhall5.htm

[Rogie]

Fountainhall Single Gay Men

 

'Your' site looks very tasteful FH.

 

Whilst on the subject of dating sites, I wonder just how many there are? They seem to have really taken off. How many years ago would it have been, 5 or 10, when they first got going?

 

Option #9 in the poll asks: Experiences of gay networking sites re Thailand – e.g. gayromeo

 

So far only 3 out of 15 members have ticked that option. I don't want to start analysing the poll, that's best left to its setter, FH, but it is tempting to ask why such a low level of interest. Could it be everybody already knows everything there is to know about the subject, or are most members genuinely not that interested, or if they are don't particularly want to read about it?

[Guest fountainhall]

The poll has been on the Board for more than 2 weeks, and the number of responses has not increased for several days. So I assume interest has died.

 

It was not a scientific poll, but I had hoped that a lot more than 21 would have responded. As it stands, it's impossible to draw any conclusions, partly because of the small response and partly because of the narrow voting range - all but 2 questions received between 6 and 12 votes. I can only assume that those who responded have a fairly wide variety of interests!

[Guest]

It was not a scientific poll, but I had hoped that a lot more than 21 would have responded.

There are probably no more than 21 people actively posting here at present, so that's not a bad result.

Perhaps bumping the thread up may get a few other people to vote.

[kokopelli]

I think there were just too many options to get conclusive results? My interpretation is that readers are intersted in most of the items listed in the poll. I do see that you left out the Israeli-Palestine and other such political issues which seem to dominate on one of the other forums which does not use Gay in their name.

[Guest fountainhall]

I do see that you left out the Israeli-Palestine and other such political issues

 

Now if that's an invitation . . .! Oops, I can see the rotten tomatoes flying my way

[kokopelli]

Now if that's an invitation . . .! Oops, I can see the rotten tomatoes flying my way