No, not length, width, or girth, we’re talking sheer size in number here. It’s an obvious matter of quantity over quality. And these days, there are just too many forums covering gay Thailand. Since the last came on board this last year, there’s too few posters and too many forums available for them to post on.
And I’m just talking the English language forums. The forums coming out of Singapore and Malaysia, as well as others, even when written in English are a different story. They have a totally different readership and a totally different feel to them.
It used to be Sawatdee was the forum of choice for the majority of posters. There was always a lively group of participants. Sure it had a name for being exceptionally abusive, but that was half the fun. In addition to the non-stop flame wars, you routinely found posts updating the scene in Thailand or cluing you into things or places you’d not yet experienced while in the Kingdom.
Then the Pattaya-based Gay Button came along and a good number of Pattaya fans and expats switched over. But GB, the dictator moderator decreed no flamming. So it started getting boring. And then well-meaning (meaning for their own welfare) bar owners stated using the forum to promote events are their bars and the forum stated taking on the look of advertisers’s marketplace. Plus, if you aren’t interested in Pattaya . . . well, over there it’s like the rest of the country doesn’t exist.
GB’s entry into the forum world also further reduced the frequency of posts on both Ting & Tong’s and Gay Thailand. Perhaps not a bad thing for the former as that forum has always seemed to rely on a constant stream of original posts generated by the moderators.
And Baht Stop. Well, they weren’t effected as they’ve always been a fairly small closed off community full of inbreeding anyway.
The result of the too many forum issue means you almost have to click in to every one of them. Unfortunately, the rabid posters re-post their dribble on each of the forums, too. So now you get to shuffle through the chaff to boot.
Each of the forums always had a separate identity and feel to them. Not quite so much these days. Maybe, not unlike GB’s forum, each needs to cover a specific area or theme instead of trying to be a be all sort of proposition. Because it really isn’t the quantity that is the problem but the similarity between them. There is a definite lack of focus that perhaps could be tightened up to everyone’s benefit.
But then maybe I’m just looking for something to bitch about and miss all the old colorful posters who use to make frequent appearances on Sawatdee. To be honest, this over saturation may have even benefited one board. I’ve notice Gay Thailand seems to have a lot more posts of interest lately, still only good for maybe one visit a week, but there’s always several topics worth browsing when you do stop by.
Jimmy said:
Baht-Stop keeps trying to reinvent itself, when the owner decides to stop allowing free speech rather than loose face changing the rules he says he is moving on and giving the blog away,then another two months down the line when he decides to start banning posters and deleting posts he announces another change in ownership,its still the same owner from day one but who is afraid to loose face by making policy changes.
The most recent best laugh at baht-stop was when the owner said it was closed down for a couple of weeks as someone was trying to hack the blog,LOL fact was that the owner was in hospital and closed the board in fear some folk would make posts he did not like.
It seems Baht-stop and Button now sing from the same hymn book.
dropdeadguys said:
True Jimmy, but Baht Stop does serve to keep the crazies (well, one version of them) off the other boards.