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Last Call - Revive Thai 360


kamui

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KS, you should look into how Stickman can have his site hosted for $60. A year. :stirthepo:surprised::stirthepo

 

Stick doesn't host a forum, which, with it's database, need a different server environment. Nor do I think that Stick just pay 60 USD a year.

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Hi,

 

KS, you should look into how Stickman can have his site hosted for $60. A year. :stirthepo:surprised::stirthepo

 

Plenty of cheap hosting available, but 'you get what you pay for'.

Prices start as low as $25 / year or so, but these companies tend to stick thousands of sites on the same server, which obviously won't help your site's speed.

 

Sanuk!

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Hi,

 

 

 

Plenty of cheap hosting available, but 'you get what you pay for'.

Prices start as low as $25 / year or so, but these companies tend to stick thousands of sites on the same server, which obviously won't help your site's speed.

 

Sanuk!

 

IMHO everything below 5-10 USD a month is crap. Terrible support, maybe outdated software, no guaranteed uptime, e.g.

Even a simple Wordpress blog usually won't run on a 60 USD/year server.

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Ok....I would like to weigh in on the jumpstart. This is what I would do:

 

A.] I would dumb down the forum. Less is more. I would strip every 'module' or 'widget' or 'menu choice' that isn't directly related to posting or reading posts. Calender - Shoutbox - Chat would all be gone. Make it a plain text forum except that users can attach photos or embed videos to posts and there would be a gallery area.

 

B.] Once stripped down to a mainly text based site I would refocus the forum as a mobile forum using jquery: http://jquerymobile.com/demos/1.1.1/ JqueryMobile is very impressive and most of the theming is already done for you. With a small effort you could make this site work like an app and it would still work well on a conventional screen as well. Make a complete conversion to mobile well ahead of other boards that have squeezed into the market.

 

C.] Integrate social media reporting. One example: Let users tweet to a thai360 twitter account and create a real time reporting suite complete with photos...give this a page and cache the results on your server. Start making it easy for users to post photos while on the move.

 

D.] Nightlife - include a kathoey channel/category and open nightlife forums to everyone.

 

E.] Gallery - This needs to be the ONLY non text part of the site.

 

F.] Newsletter - Your board membership is a great demographic. Men who travel to a specific part of the world, with specific goals, who have enough disposable income to do so regularly. This needs to be marketed to outside of the website via a newsletter with specific items that the demographic wants and desires. They all have mobile phones....push notifications and emails from advertisers both local and global. Find an agency to try to outsource this in BKK and start getting local advertisers on board.

 

G.] If at all possible move back to using nanaplaza.com. This gets you thousands of views without spending a dime.

 

H.] Let 'The Galt' start posting to thai360.com under his own name.

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Same same Nanapong (RIP, as this board surely will be within a year)

 

Additional factors:

 

Change of board name was a strategic error, not SEO/advertising friendly;

 

Very dated design - not that much better than Delphi;

 

Changed demography of those who remain in BKK/LOS;

 

The message board was associated originally with a web-site, which was what drew readers in to the message board. It featured bar reviews and what-not. Now plenty of current information available elsewhere but hardly any here (same same Nanapong again) No information = no fresh blood + old blood looking elsewhere.

 

 

I like alot of what you are saying. Things are changing but I think things will change back.. Presently people are spending their time on social media websites ( ie facebook ) which takes alot of their time. Eventually message boards will come back in favor or there will be merge of the ideas. People come here and to other boards to absorb information and listen ; people go Social Media to broadcast information and speak their mind. Soon people will get pissed off of listening to the useless information that people post or tweet and realize they are wasting time and realize more information can be found on message boards. Now if message boards can become less dated and allow for different types of replies ( ie likes) and more pictures it will become better..

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Hi,

 

A.] I would dumb down the forum. Less is more. I would strip every 'module' or 'widget' or 'menu choice' that isn't directly related to posting or reading posts. Calender - Shoutbox - Chat would all be gone. Make it a plain text forum except that users can attach photos or embed videos to posts and there would be a gallery area.

 

I disagree. People expect additional bells and whistles and if I were to remove them you can bet your ass that people would complain that the board is old-fashioned.

 

B.] Once stripped down to a mainly text based site I would refocus the forum as a mobile forum using jquery: http://jquerymobile.com/demos/1.1.1/ JqueryMobile is very impressive and most of the theming is already done for you. With a small effort you could make this site work like an app and it would still work well on a conventional screen as well. Make a complete conversion to mobile well ahead of other boards that have squeezed into the market.

 

Not familiar with this. Will look into it. Thanks.

BTW, I agree that mobile browsing is an important market.

 

C.] Integrate social media reporting. One example: Let users tweet to a thai360 twitter account and create a real time reporting suite complete with photos...give this a page and cache the results on your server. Start making it easy for users to post photos while on the move.

 

I'll be honest and admit that I have no clue about twitter and such. No problem in having a look into this, but is it something people want? Guys, would you use this?

 

D.] Nightlife - include a kathoey channel/category and open nightlife forums to everyone.

 

No katoey channel. I do not mind people discussing them, but I will not create a specific forum for it. Nightlife forums are already opened to guests.

 

F.] Newsletter - Your board membership is a great demographic. Men who travel to a specific part of the world, with specific goals, who have enough disposable income to do so regularly. This needs to be marketed to outside of the website via a newsletter with specific items that the demographic wants and desires. They all have mobile phones....push notifications and emails from advertisers both local and global. Find an agency to try to outsource this in BKK and start getting local advertisers on board.

 

If only it were that easy :)

I have tried getting advertisers in the past and it is very hard. Also tried outsourcing it, nobody was interested. I think you have a wrong impression of the possible revenue involved.

 

And on top of that would people really want to receive ads to their phones? I know I sure wouldn't.

 

G.] If at all possible move back to using nanaplaza.com. This gets you thousands of views without spending a dime.

 

While I admit I probably shouldn't have changed it, changing back again will not help much.

 

Anyway, eventhough I kinda shot down most of your suggestions :), I *do* appreciate you taking the time to come up with these and share them.

 

Sanuk!

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Hi,

 

"Presently people are spending their time on social media websites ( ie facebook ) which takes alot of their time."

 

Agree.

 

"Now if message boards can become less dated and allow for different types of replies ( ie likes) and more pictures it will become better.. "

 

Not sure what you mean with this. You can already post pictures and 'like' posts (use the little + icon in the bottom right of a post).

 

Sanuk!

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