How to Keep Track of Useful Tips?

[Guest fountainhall]

Throughout this site, there is a wealth of practical up-to-date information from posters about bars, bar etiquette, saunas, restaurants, cafes, hotels and other accommodation, concerts, musicals, exhibitions, interesting things to do in Pattaya, Chiang Mai and Bangkok, how to get to them, trip reports from around Thailand and other countries - and a whole lot of other extremely useful advice. Yet, once a thread disappears off the first page it tends to get lost and perhaps mostly forgotten. But this information can continue to be of use to regular posters and newcomers to the Board alike for quite some time.

 

My question is therefore: how can that information be kept on the front burner - collated and edited so that it remains visible in some thread, not merely as a list, but as a link to a series of members' actual experiences and recommendations?

 

Two things. First, I realise that there is a whole series of listings on the site's first page and that this is about to be updated. But this information is essentially a link to an establishment’s website – not a positive or negative recommendation from a member who has been there. Second, I also realise that there is the Search button. But how does, say, a newcomer, know what to search for if he himself is not sure what that is?

 

So it seems to me that the site would benefit from a simple Glossary with names linked to specific threads and posts.

 

I just think it’s a pity that so much good advice generally lasts only a few days. Does anyone else think it is worth keeping, if only as a reference? If so, how would you go about getting it up and running – assuming the Board owner is in agreement with the idea?

[Rogie]

My question is therefore: how can that information be kept on the front burner - collated and edited so that it remains visible in some thread, not merely as a list, but as a link to a series of members' actual experiences and recommendations?

 

Archiving: is that what you have in mind FH? Making info. more accessible and retrievable.

 

Not sure what you mean there exactly FH. Something along the lines of a link within a members post. Like this one? (taken from the wiki Thailand page)

 

After the fall of Ayutthaya in 1767 to the Burmese, King Taksin the Great moved the capital of Thailand to Thonburi for approximately 15 years. The current Rattanakosin era of Thai history began in 1782, following the establishment of Bangkok as capital of the Chakri dynasty under King Rama I the Great. According to Encyclopædia Britannica, "A quarter to a third of the population of some areas of Thailand and Burma were slaves in the 17th through the 19th centuries.

 

Does anyone else think it is worth keeping, if only as a reference? If so, how would you go about getting it up and running – assuming the Board owner is in agreement with the idea?

 

I have no idea how one could implement linking certain key words within a current thread to an earlier one. Maybe that's not what you had in mind.

 

I think we have to be careful trying to be too sophisticated, although there's nothing wrong in that and some people enjoy a challenge, that's how we get innovative ideas up and running after all.

 

Certain topics - bars comes to mind as an obvious one - need up-to-date info. So to take one example, although I agree some of the reminiscing about bars specifically, and Thailand in general, in days gone by can be interesting, they are not critical, and I suspect few new readers are going to even think of it, they want current on-the-ground info. preferably written by a member who's recently visited - that's one of this Board's strengths.

 

Established members and frequent visitors to the site can use the search function which I find usually works quite well, although it helps to have a good idea what it is you are searching for, so entering 'Thailand bars' is going to throw up far too many previous topics to be manageable, 133 to be exact. With experience it seems to work best by narrowing it down to one or more key words.

 

Another problem comes to mind. We don't want to get too carried away because some areas are a bit of a Bermuda triangle. Most first-time visitors cannot wait to get to Phuket and the surrounding area, as well as the islands such as Samui. There is very little info on this Board about those places because experienced visitors and ex-pats rarely go there.

 

This is a big area and needs careful consideration, but these are my initial thoughts. I see the Articles about Thailand forum is currently a work in progress. Why not wait until it is unvelied and see if it can answer some of the issues raised? For example, to take a recent thread Bangkok Cheap Accommodation, that could be added to the Bangkok listing, so that general topics are filed there as well as more specific places such as Babylon Hotel, Malaysia Hotel etc. Ditto listings for Pattaya, Chiang Mai etc.

[ChristianPFC]

If you read these forums for a while, you notice that the same subjects are discussed again and again. Examples are: how much do you tip, SIM-cards, Saranrom park, and many others.

[Guest thaiworthy]

If you read these forums for a while, you notice that the same subjects are discussed again and again. Examples are: how much do you tip, SIM-cards, Saranrom park, and many others.

 

Christian, I don't think this thread will really interest you. I kinda thought it was about what to do with all that foreskin after a circumcision. Now scroll up and read the subject title again.

[Guest fountainhall]

Christian is quite correct. Many of the same topics come round again from time to time. But as we have been seeing recently, not every reader is a regular here. Many dip in for their first post with a specific request for information which has almost certainly been covered earlier.

 

What I am suggesting is a very simple glossary, the same as you will find at the end of many books. I've just been reading SImon Napier Bell's hugely amusing and authoritative book on the history of the British Pop Industry and how it was driven by drugs - "Black Vinyl White Powder". If I want to refer back to a paragraph I had earlier read about Dusty Springfield, I don't have to flip back through every single page until I find it. All I have to do is go to the Glossary at the back, look up Dusty Springfield, and that gives me the 14 or so pages where she is mentioned.

 

So, for example, if outdoor cruising is your thing, all you need do is check the 'Glossary' under 'Outdoor Cruising'. That then directs you to a thread or series of posts where that subject has been discussed and views of posters given. Same with say 'Go-go bars in Bangkok' or 'Pattaya Bars: how much to tip?' etc.

 

So it is merely an alphabetical, easy-to-read list of what has actually been discussed. I agree the Search function does some of this. But we know from posts that many people do not use the search function, especially first timers. One problem is that the Search function depends on words/phrases actually appearing in thread titles or the text.

 

I just searched for "Bangkok Outdoor Cruising". Three threads came up - and not one post on Saranrom Park! But when I type "Bangkok+outdoor+cruising" I get 102 threads! That's because the search function does not link all three. It throws up all threads with either Bangkok or outdoor or cruising! Very confusing to have "An F1 Race for Bangkok" or "Reasonably priced one-way flight Berlin to Bangkok" when you are looking for Bangkok outdoor cruising! Also, how would most newcomers to Thailand know to type in Saranrom Park if they have never been to Bangkok before? Hence a simple A-Z Glossary would be quite a help.

 

Another problem will be that some info becomes out of date quite quickly. But we have to give readers some credit. A simple warning that recent threads will be more up-to-date should surely be enough.

[Rogie]

After I'd written post #2 I remembered some Message Boards have a list of similar topics to the one being discussed at the bottom of the page. These will be old posts going back as far as the inception of that particular Board, so in the case of GT that'll be from 2006 I think. So if the topic under discussion is our old friend Saranrom Park any previous topics covering this will feature. Ditto Dusty Springfield or any other name. There must be a way to prevent common words triggering this however, so that a list of all earlier posts where the word Bangkok, bar, boy, etc featured would be unhelpful as it'd throw up too many and be far too general.

[Guest snapshot]

Forum's are good for mass user generated info on very specific or frequently changing information but not the right platform for creating a nice neat encyclopaedia of relatively static tips and hints etc...

 

 

I'm surprised no one's created a wiki for this whole Thailand gay prostitution for foreigners in community yet.

 

A wiki would be the best platform for that and tends to be one of the best things to add onto community sites like these. It'd be the best thing to make all the info on the ins and outs of all the bars opening and closing, amenities, procedures, cultural stuff, day trips etc. accessible in a concise structure that makes sense.

 

Without a wiki, what you can do to adapt a forum to making these more substantial tips and hints threads more visible and accessible is have a "featured posts" page or pages where you manually display threads worth having a quick link to. But this is only viable if you have moderators keen enough to maintain this, continually removing out of date stuff and adding new stuff.

[Guest fountainhall]

The point is not to keep an encyclopedia. Nor is it to keep "a wiki for this whole Thailand gay prostitution for foreigners in community" - your words (Oh, my goodness! How very typical of Beachlover's often stated views and even terminology!)

 

I am suggesting merely a list with each entry having a few words with links to threads in this forum - all manner of threads.

[Guest snapshot]

I am suggesting merely a list with each entry having a few words with links to threads in this forum - all manner of threads.

I agree with that but you need to have a pro-active moderator/editor to maintain that. Usually you get someone who is interested in the subject matter to voluntarily do it out of interest.

 

Why don't you volunteer? You're the most consistent member and if you ever need to take a holiday, just get PeterRT to fill in. 

[Guest]

If you read these forums for a while, you notice that the same subjects are discussed again and again. Examples are: how much do you tip, SIM-cards, Saranrom park, and many others.

Things that change need to be discussed again and again.  For example, a few years ago most of us would be content using a SIM carf for making phone calls.  Now with a smart phone, a 3G internet connection is a desirable feature for the SIM card.  Then tariffs change.

 

Then whilst everyone is using that smartphone for GayRomeo dating, it seems fair to question the current scene at Sanrom (for those who are interested).