Announcements

[Giotto]

Greetings Everyone,

I closed The Traveler’s Kindergarten thread and will delete it in near future. Let me give you a statement about what I have learned in the past few weeks:

The Traveler’s technique and strategy of generating serious and disturbing discussions has not changed over the last few years. I know this discussions since I became member of the ISG. It always starts with picking an issue, e.g. a report of another poster or simply an opinion, and argue against it. Then reports with questions are posted. If answers are provided those answers are again commented, arguments which do match his opinion are ignored or discarded, or even worse, the poster is insulted as “liar”, and more reports with more questions appear. If the questions are not answered it is assumed that his (The Traveler's) opinion is confirmed, or the writer is insulted as “wimp” – because he did not answer. It is common-sense that NOBODY HAS TO ANSWER a question in an internet forum – but obviously not for The Traveler.

Whatever one does, whether one answers or not – things get worse and worse, the argumentation gets more extreme, provocations to get a response follow – and more insults. There is no limit to his argumentation. If one does not stop the series of reports will never end.

I was quite happy to see that many of the regular writers of this forum have learned from the past and either did not respond at all, or responded to just build bridges / offer olive branches for The Traveler or joking a bit to ease things up. One member even described The Traveler’s strategies and warned others not to engage, to simply let it go. The only one who obviously has not learned in the past, and has proven to not be interested in a de-escalation of such a report sequence is The Traveler himself.

I come to the conclusion that it was a mistake to create that thread. I gave him the platform to roll out the discussion, and the attention in my forum was completely drawn away from the main “Giotto’s Lodge in Bangkok” and the other threads. This forum shall provide information about Livingstone’s Lodge, the business we are running here, the activities and events at the Lodge, and it shall provide an information exchange platform for ISG members who have stayed here, to keep good memories alive and answer questions of future [new] guests. Then I write stories sometimes, stories to provide an insight of this business or the life here in Thailand. Last but not least - besides all this more serious reasons to run this forum - we all want to have a bit fun in here, fun in our daily life, which contains mainly serious work for many of us – a joke here, a reference to a good memory there, even the “childish” chit-chat sequences about complete nonsense…why not?

This forum is for you, our customers and future customers, and antagonistic discussions like the one in “The Traveler’s Kindergarten” thread are simply not appreciated in this forum.

I remember exactly that I could not even stop the debate with my comment that this discussion most likely hurts the business here. Livingstone’s Lodge is mainly a hotel for business and leisure travellers, and with writing here I target a specific customer group. If I am accused of being a pimp some people might really take this seriously, and the image a new reader might get is that Livingstone’s Lodge is something like a brothel – and that is definitely not the case! I remember the time when I travelled a lot - running some other businesses. I would of course stay in a hotel with a connected bar, but I would NEVER stay in a brothel. For that this discussion of the Kindergarten thread can [and most likely has] hurt the business – it can create reluctance for new customers to try this hotel out on one of their future journeys to Bangkok.

I made the following decisions:

1.) All reports from The Traveler in this forum will be monitored from now on. If there is anything antagonistic in a post it will be deleted without further notice. Reports quoting deleted posts will either be modified or deleted, too.

2.) I will use my forum moderator rights much faster and more effective from now on. Up to now I was obviously too reluctant in deleting / modifying reports if they could lead to mind-boggling discussions – this will change from now on.

I apologize to everybody who felt affected or offended by this discussion. Besides The Traveler it is me who is responsible for the unpleasant development in that thread – I could and should have deleted all the reports related to this issue on the day of their appearance.

You live and learn.

Thanks,


Giotto

[Giotto]

I created a new thread "Giotto's Lodge Website: Proposals, Ideas, Problems".

This thread is meant to concentrate reports about possible improvements and actual problems with our website

http://www.livingstones.co.th .

Up to now those reports were posted in the main thread. Due to the importance of this issue it makes sense to provide a separate thread for this.

The thread will be open for replies.


Giotto

[Giotto]

I created a new thread "Rookies Questions about Bangkok".

Target of this thread is to allow newbies to ask questions for which they would usually receive a RTFF in the Bangkok thread. We from Livingstone's will answer all questions as good as we can.

The thread will be open for replies. RTFF answers or any reports indicating a misuse of this thread will be deleted by the thread administration without giving any explanation.


Giotto

[Giotto]

I created a new thread "Stickman / NotStickman".

There is an interesting story ongoing here in Bangkok, around the WebSite of a socalled Bangkok Commentator Stickman. Discussions about this story please in the thread.

The thread will be open for replies.


Giotto

[Giotto]

I created a new thread "Mongers Outing: I supported a Thai Bar Girl".

The idea came up after reading a story from a good hearted member today. Why not writing about stories which (in my opinion) many of us living in Thailand or visititing Thailand on a regular basis have experienced already, in one way or the other...

Please take the title "Outing" as it is meant: humerous! If somebody has a better title - appreciated, please write a letter to the moderator.

It will be interesting whether some others will write about their own experiences - let's have some fun in there. Please note - if this thread will be misused for attacking those who are writing their stories in there I will delete those offensive reports without further notice.

The thread will be open for replies.


Giotto

[Giotto]

I created a new thread "Thai Culture and Customs".

This thread is meant to collect specific information about cultural issues, customs and general behavior useful for first-time Thailand travelers. In-depth background information is appreciated.

The thread will be open for replies.


Giotto

[Giotto]

I decided to rename the thread "Complaints about the Moderator" to "Letters to the Moderator". The reason is that of course nobody will ever complain about the moderator anyway...

I will clean the thread up within the next few days, move some reports elsewhere - if somebody disagrees please let me know via PM or a report in that thread.

Thanks


Giotto

[Giotto]

I created a new thread "Thai Stock Market".

Let's try something different. This thread is meant to collect opinions about the activities and development of the SET - Stock Exchange of Thailand.

The thread will be open for replies.


Giotto

[Giotto]

I created a new thread "Giotto's Stories".

This thread contains all stories which I write sometimes about incidents here in Livingstone's, my experiences or - whatever. A list of all those reports can be found in the Forum Index, Chapter 7.

Target for this new thread is to separate this stories and the following discussions from the "Giotto's Lodge in Bangkok" thread, which shall be the main communication thread for all issues in and around Livingstone's Lodge.

The thread will be open for replies.


Giotto

[Giotto]

I created a new thread "Livingstone's Lodge: News and Events".

This thread basically contains information from the Management of Livingstone’s Lodge about it’s development and upcoming events (Swimming Pool Parties, Maids Parties, news from the construction site etc.).

The thread will be open for replies.


Giotto

[Giotto]

I created a new thread "Livingstone's Lodge: General Information".

This thread should contain the general information about Livingstone’s Lodge in Bangkok, as it can now be found via the following chapters of the Thread Index:

1.) General Information
2.) Prices
3.) Pictures
4.) Feedbacks [Index]

It should give an interested hotel guest the option to get a fast overview about Livingstone’s Lodge, with all necessary information.

The thread will be closed and stick to the top of the thread list.


Giotto

[Giotto]

I created a new thread "Reports of Distinction".

The thread will contain only links to interesting reports or report sequences of this forum, and a short introducing text. All posts which do not contain a link will be deleted without further notice.

It does not matter whether the linked report is a standard report about experiences, a persiflage, a good joke, a funny sequence of chit chat, or even someones imagination ran riot - but the reports linked to that thread should be exceptional and/or gives us a break for a good laugh.

Everybody is invited to post links to good reports in there.

The thread will stick to the top of the forums thread list.

Thanks,


Giotto

[Giotto]

Friends, Bestards and Readers,

I created a new thread "Forum Index".

The thread will contain only one report: The "Livingstone's Lodge: Thread Index" post from the "Giotto's Lodge in Bangkok" thread. The thread is closed, nobody except the moderator(s) can post there. The thread will stick to the top of the forums thread list.

Thanks,


Giotto

[Giotto]

Bestards, Friends and Readers,

I created a new thread "Complaints about the Moderator (Giotto)". Its purpose should be clear.

I then checked the moderator options with the help of Piper1:

- I edited a post from Piper1.
- Piper1 then edited my modifications.
- I blocked the post from being edited again.
- I added another note to that post.
- I deleted the text from another post and left a note.

I want to clearly point out that this was for fun and for learning how to work with this moderator functionity. And I hope that I will never have to use this functions!

I will leave these two reports in there, but for the future the "Giotto's Note" in red will of course not be used for funny remarks in texts - it would be inappropriate and undermine its purpose for cases in which moderation might be necessary.

Thanks,


Giotto

[Giotto]

Thread Starter