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khunsanuk
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Could have been the Thai visa before Thai visa as it was the first Thai board as sanuk fun in Thailand. Poorly run and moderated is the reason it died, blaming social media is just an excuse. Being involved in advertisers extorting posters and attempting to did not help of course, that sort of thing does tend to put people off!

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1 hour ago, paul101 said:

Could have been the Thai visa before Thai visa as it was the first Thai board as sanuk fun in Thailand. Poorly run and moderated is the reason it died, blaming social media is just an excuse. Being involved in advertisers extorting posters and attempting to did not help of course, that sort of thing does tend to put people off!

 

No, that's complete nonsense that it is poorly run and moderated. I'd actually say it is far and away the best moderated board.

Social media changed things a lot, and the mix and profile of expats in Thailand has changed markedly too.

 

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Yet a board like TV that many regard as over moderated survived and flourished and is now the most valuable  Thai forum in an era where they have been subjected to the same competition from social media. Allowing an advertiser to extort posters is not good moderation. Also, the board owner who knew all about what had gone on, eventually at least, expressed his regret when the poster involved in blackmail said he was leaving. When I say blackmail that was the opinion of the Police at the Beaumont Leys Station Leics UK who examined all the documents. Not surprising this board died when several other major mistakes were made, including losing the Nanaplaza name. The payment membership section was a non starter with no input and not enough work or imagination put into developing the site. It could have been great but it turned out not to be and that is down to the people who ran it, nobody and nothing else. Even that mad house teak door has done better than here, so if this is an example of how to do things I have to disagree.

Just to add the only people here that were any help over this incredibly stressful period were Stick who I will always to grateful to and Belgian Boy who urged me not to pay up. I did so in the end as the Mrs had been threatened, and although she knew nothing about it had told me she had been followed off the bus and a bloke had gone around her condo block asking for her room, strange co incidence if it was.

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Hi,

Were mistakes made during the running of this site, absolutely. Was changing the name one of them? If you look at it from the point of attracting new members and name recognition, then definitely.

However, that is just one aspect. Trying to monetize a website it not easy, and if that website's main focus is nightlife and is named after a big brothel area then that becomes even harder. Google at the time was actively checking that its ads were not on adult content (we lost 75% of our monthly Google AdSense income in a matter of months), and virtually no respectable business will advertise on a site called Nanaplaza.Com.

On top of that there were personal reasons. When I started this I was single and working for an insignificant company. Running a site called Nanaplaza.Com was not an issue. Several years later though my personal and professional situation had changed though and being associated with a site called Nanaplaza.Com would have been a lot more problematic.

Furthermore, running a popular / busy forum takes a lot of work, so at one point I had to decide how to preoceed. Growing it would have meant spending even more time dealing with, perhaps as much as working on it full-time. Which of course would have meant I would not have been able to work anywhere else and the site should be able to fully support me and my family.

At that point, I ran the numbers and I could not see any viable way for me to make even close to enough money of it. Combine that with it having to piss off my wife by spending a lot more time with BKK's nightlife and not being able to get a work permit, and the choice became pretty easy.

As to why TV did flourish, this is of course speculation, but I guess it has something to do with their name and the fact they did not allow any discussions on nightlife. The first meant a steady stream of tourists finding the site (all looking for info on Thai visas) and the 2nd that it was 'safe' to browse at work and without being labeled a 'sexpat/sex tourist'.
Once it had the numbers, momentum pretty much kept it going.

And finally, the blackmail issue. You will have to enlighten me on this, as I have honestly no recollection of it.

Sanuk!

 

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I don't recollect anyone of the paul101 moniker.

I will however say that KS is one the more honourable and honest fellows, I've ever met and he has more integrity that any 7 other people .

The history this board is what it is and TVisa is not the most wonderful thing in the world. I'd have to see an audited set of accounts to be convinced that TVisa is profitable.

Regarding the accusations of Paul101 in regard to extortion or blackmail. The only occurrence of this kind of thing as it relates to this board that I recollect, is the time when two mad c*nts had some huge issues with each other and chose this board, as a venue to to air their grievances. Paul101 may be one of those mad c*nts.

But then what do I know, a bunch nom de plumes, having hissy fits, in cyberspace, is hardly a recipe for validity.

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One hopes this board will continue as is. Though I am not an active participant, I drop in on occasion just to see how things are going on. Many old names are long gone, I remember their posts with a sense of nostalgia. Part of the reason the board is the way it is is that many of the board members have actually met up socially. I did attend a couple of get togethers at that Aussie place; Stick walked in a bit later and Coss had just had his teeth done.. Though I did spend more time contributing to Stick's website, and did meet up with other contributors through the get-together and also the short-lived Schoocher's website.

As KS infers, situations have changed as have priorities - though I am still in Thailand I am seldom in the capital for any length of time any more. Family also tends to take precedence over social outings. I, for one, would not like to see the board go the way of the dodo, so please keep it the way it is.

(Would have posted earlier but couldn't remember my password - it came to me at 2:30 a.m. last night)

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One week in August 2011 I did not visit the forum due to being unconscious. My sincerest apologies. Apart from this particular week I guess I visited every single day since it started in the  90´s and learned a lot about the Kingdom. Fortunately did not obey all the warnings, spent a lot of money everywhere, had a great time and it still goes on. Unforgettable are the Delphi-times. Last night I read " Wedding in Buriram" for the 200th time and collapsed with laughter. All went wrong for man from Norway.

The TV is tecnically big but to me offers nothing but boredom. A bunch of falangs who claim to know that  all Thais are idiots.

 

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I have a hard time imagining that a locked-down version would make any sense - you'd be better off, or as well off, starting a new board with a locked-down vision, I feel like there's just not much appetite in the crowd here for something more restrictive - the motivation for the restricted approach is, I assume, for nude photos and stuff like that?  That's not attractive to me - just seems to exploitative and it mars by preferred vision of what's going on with the girl scene in Thailand, I'd prefer to see it from a less warts-and-all approach... let me live with my delusions... plus, there's boards like that with monster membership already, not likely to give them a run for their money.

I've had great times on this board over the years, really.  I've tried out some of the others now and again (sorry KS!) but while they may have higher traffic and numbers, or more explicit content, they just have never offered me the value and interest that this one did in its prime, not even close..  TV... blech.  Pattaya boards a bit too heavy on content-less content, just numbers of posts sometimes, without many folks who care to put in some thoughtful responses based on experience and care in the country and scene - not uniformly the case, but there's a lot of dross to get through to find the good stuff.  I feel like my best years here, it was really a great forum for people to be working out some of the complexity and contradiction and unadulterated fun of the scene - I'm not sure I ever met anyone in flesh and blood from the board, at least not knowingly, but I certainly felt like a had a certain shared understanding, sympatico with a number of posters.  Respected a number too, even if what we were posting about was sometimes ludicrous.  

I think the reality is regrettably that we benefited from riding the wave of a certain technology at a certain time, and hit a sweet spot that is unfortunately temporary.  The market has matured, FB and Twitter and whatever else have found better ways to dominate and monetize our screen time, and the tendency has been to move as quickly as possible away from content and text in particular, towards clicks and images and high page turnover with associated ad-viewing etc.  It was a good thing while it lasted, and maybe it will keep lasting a while a longer in a reduced form, or even as an archive and record of our sometimes-great times and talks, but it's not a question of tweaking this direction or that at this point... things have likely moved past the sweet spot we enjoyed.  I wasn't ever a 'big player' on the board, but I somehow seem to have accumulated a couple thousand posts with my intermittent participation, and I had a lot of fun in the process.  My absolute thanks to KS for that, and to the members who made it worthwhile and entertaining!  

I guess my preference would be to keep the board and archive of it up and available, aim to benefit from incremental improvements to search functions for those interested in looking into the past, and keep the forum open for continued involvement of those who choose to.  I'd definitely feel a pang of regret and loss if it was to just disappear one day, all that time and thoughtfulness and humour disappeared into the ether... 

YimSiam

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Can't believe I would say this, but the degree to which people actually listened and responded to each other on this board during its hey-day is something that sets it apart from others I've seen, which are just kind of shotgun posting, or squabbles.  Back in the day, this one was much more about exchange and appreciation.  Cheers to that.  

 

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