it might be nice to have a way to block certain members from reading your posts. as an example, i don't really want to share information with some members. that is the primary reason that i don't do trip reports anymore. if i could block a couple people from reading them, then i would post alot more. i could write a report every month.

if this was initiated, some people might find that they don't have alot of trip reports available to them.

Buick, that is a brilliant idea. I'm all for that one!

I wouldn’t want to create an environment where only a handful of users were able to read a particular report. maybe put a limit on the number of blocks, say 3 maybe 5 users, and only block trip reports. And make sure those users know who has them on block. No secrets. If you want to get off block send the blocker a PM and see what the issue is. Maybe you can get off block status, maybe not.

portege, the following statement is hard to understand: "If you feel so offended by a report where you have to personally attack the author then simply don't read it". (note i changed 'than' to 'then' for proper english).

don't i have to read a report in order to get offended and then launch the attack ? dude....

that faux pas aside, take priew's report as an example. a few guys took some offense. priew could simply block them from that report and any future reports he wants to post. some guys might find they don't get to read trip reports because their behavior is not appropriate. seems like a pretty reasonable way to go.

this board is nothing like it used to be a few years ago. maybe it is the economy and not enough $$ flowing for everyone. but i see posts here and there that imply people are traveling and not posting reports. there is a reason and blocking certain people would likely increase the number of trip reports.

I hear what you are saying. I think if we just had a gentleman's agreement not to launch personal attacks and to moderate our own comments than the forum can become a nicer place.

Blocking a few readers from certain trip reports is actually a fairly simple task and could be done immediately. This is available for future reports, not reports already posted, and the block would affect the report itself only, not comments that followed.

To submit a trip report in this manner, the report needs to be emailed to us at support@clubhombre.com rather than posted directly, and the block requests must be specified. The report would probably go up in 1-3 days depending on the size of the report to allow time for formatting. Adding the block itself is quick.

If it's the same individuals always receiving block requests, then there might be a simpler solution.

Should be not allowing guys to respond not take away the right to read it altogether. Maybe guys with at least 20 reports should be exempt.

that is some good news. i realize there are two issues, one is having more privacy for a report and the other is having a method to reduce the unwanted commentary. so it seems the 'privacy' option can be handled. but the other is still an open issue. i think the problem is we've had a gentlemen's agreement for years to try and avoid 'getting of track'. it is kind of like seeing a $100 bill laying in the street, you move to grab it w/o thinking. that is what happens here, people can't control themselves and have to comment and sometimes they may feel the comment is not really offensive or unwanted - and then find out that it is. so being able to block someone after they've made an unwanted comment would be superior to continuing with the old way that hasn't worked real well over the years.

I thought some more about the trip report block. As an example, I’ve been trying to explore patpong in bkk (looking for ladies, not ladyboys). I’ve been through cowboy and nana so many times that this creature of habit has actually made a minor effort to check out some new stuff. I have drafted a report on patpong but feel it needs more content to be worthwhile.

Let’s say I identify two bars that seem to be somewhat on par with those in nana and cowboy (so far I haven’t identified any that meet this criteria but one is close). Then I provide girls names and numbers (not phone number but say #24 from [bar name]). The trip report is blocked but the comments aren’t so someone might reply “boy do I love #24 from [bar name]”. so some of the info gets ‘leaked’. I’m not suggesting that my info is super fantastic and/or that the ‘leak’ would ruin the bar and I’d never find #24 again as she’d be full up with dates. But there are members that live in or frequent bkk and don’t provide any info. I’d prefer to leave those members out of the trip report and the comments. In a sense, if you are in a mongering area frequently and don’t contribute then you don’t access the trip report. On the flip side, I would include guys that don’t get to travel much for various reasons but have an interest in Thailand.

The same could apply to phuket. Guys went last year (I went twice) but there isn’t a single report (I could have missed one, not positive). If members realized there were reports they were missing because they didn’t provide any reports, it might motivate them to write one and improve the quality of the site.

I’m as guilty as anyone on this topic, just explaining how I feel. I’m selfish, stubborn, and kind of a jackass so keep that in mind if you think I’m getting a little carried away. Currently I’m of the mindset that not many are sharing so why should i.

Interestingly perhaps, I too had trip reports/mini-guides half written for Patpong and for Bali, but lost motivation as I thought about the inevitable "where are your photos" replies (I generally don't post them for my own personal reasons), as well as my general distaste for a relatively small sub-section of members here who I really don't want to share information with, and in some instances frankly fear what they would do with it (a concern heightened by any thought about my posting pictures).

When I first started using the board, it seemed to have a good mixture of information and entertaining trip reports. Both are important but for my money the information about locales and particular locations is paramount irrespective of whether pictures are included. This is not to say pictures don't provide information--in many cases they do by showing what you can get for how much in a particular locale--but they are not necessary information if what one is looking for is guidance as to addresses, prices, mode of operation, and so forth regarding P4P places throughout the world.

One way I deal with all this is to use Treeview to post tidbits of information about particular places rather than submit full-blown trip reports. Although I am having some difficulty in sorting out the overlapping functions of treeview and venues, hopefully this site will evolve in such a way to, or evolve back to (depending on one's point of view), a place where information posted about less covered places is valued, encouraged, and easily accessible.

I would therefore suggest Hombre think about ways to create an environment where information alone is valued, and those of us who are disinclined (for whatever reason) to post our trophy pictures are not thereby discouraged from contributing.

(Message edited by laguy on January 25, 2012)

What would they do with the pictures? Would they print out the pictures and go find the ladies from the report? Would they masturbate to the pictures? If you are flying halfway around the world to look for the ladies in the report or are masturbating to the pictures on here, well, you need to rethink...seriously.

The thing about blocking people from viewing a report is what if there is fictional information in the report or important details left out. There have been false reports placed up here in this forum before which were caught by astute hombres. There have also been critical details left out of reports. Some folks do base their first trip from these reports. What if a first time Hombre stumbles into a place where details about safety were left out of the report or were the reporter said the area was safe, but the area has a big criminal history? Therefore, a little critical commentary should always be welcomed so the report can be properly qualified.

If you want only a few people to view your report than there are other ways to do it like sharing through email or creating a private blog. You can go on Hushmail which is a little more private than services such as gmail to send out updates to a few people.

i think my intent was to block only a few people. there would be enough vets to provide commentary if something was not quite right. i do want new members to have the benefit of reading reports.

as i recall, the portege pattaya report contained a few inaccuracies which required commentary such that newbies would not get the wrong idea. one that comes to mind is 'no one speaks english here'. when in reality, it is one of the most english friendly cities in the world (when the native language is not english).

>>Would they print out the pictures and go find the ladies from the report?<<

Yes, it happens more often than you "think." There have been significant instances of hombres (and men on other boards) having had a psycho show girls pictures of them others posted on the internet, thereby creating all sorts of problems for the poster. Or given the girls passwords so they could enter sites such as this one.

Buick,

Like I said, there is no one Pattaya. Pattaya is different depending on the reporter and where they stay. Priew's reports seem to be much different than anyone else's for example. It looks like he has the best looking women. You see him driving around on a motorcycle and living out of fancy condos. Whereas other mongers have a different experience of cheap hotel, beer bar girls and baht bus.

Here was my experience. The majority of the time the English that was spoken to me was broken English with phrases used such as "Same same" and "Go and come back". I couldnt have a real conversation with the majority of Thai there. There was one time where a beer bar woman was reading English phrases to me out of some small book. I once ordered a cup of coffee and they brought a Singha beer. There was one Thai woman who I met up with who knew perfect English that went to a local university. However, the rest of the women seemed to know broken English at best and conversation was difficult. I noticed in the tourist areas there was a lot of English signs, but when I left those areas and went out into the countryside it was all Thai.

In a different report here on the Dominican Republic, the reporter goes on to say that Sousa is a safe place and he had no experience of getting approached. He also had no experience with crime in Colombia. However, my experience was totally different and I can show you a dozen or so articles on crime in the DR and Colombia. They have news shows on Youtube of people laying in the street murdered. Last year there were quite a few murders of tourists there. I know a little bit about crime filled neighborhoods and spotting shady people. I believe my reporting on the DR was accurate in that regard. If there is some disagreement than you can go ahead and walk down some of those streets at night and report back to me what you find.

So we all have different perceptions of the places we visit. We see what we want to see. If someone is standing in front of me struggling with English saying things like "same same" I believe they probably don't know English that well and thats how I report it. You might have visited a different part of Pattaya where everyone knew perfect English. However, the parts I visited the Thai seemed to struggle with it.

Dude, Portege, you seriously need to work on your reading comprehension. Portege is talking about me when he talks about a reporter saying Sosua is a safe place and that I have no experience with crime in Colombia. Anyone can refer to chapter 3 of my Sosua report to see how he misconstrues my words. What I said was that his statement that people get aggressively hassled no matter where they go was bizarre and contrary to my experience. I also made a fleeting reference that Sosua was safer than many other places I've been, and from that he concludes that I'm saying everyplace, including Colombia, is safe.

Portege, are you intentionally lying about what I wrote or did you seriously misunderstand?

Buick has a great idea here, and it should be up to the poster to block the report to whomever he wants to block.

@Laguy that is the reason I did not do my latest trip report from location, I did not want someone to "poach" any of the girls that I found, now I don't mind if I'm on a trip and I'm showing photos to a wingman and he says...hey I would like to get some of that, that's cool. It's the guys that go to all these locations and become information sponges that I would block.

@Blazers While it has NOT become a problem on this site with "senior" members or those with a lot of trip reports, on other sites it has become an issue with those that have a lot of posts or threads to their names, for example I would not post the trip report I just did, on the Secrets forum because of this problem. So I would suggest that the only people exempted by the thread blocking software should be Hombre and the moderators.

Blazers, I don't think anyone would block you, but even if you (or anyone else for that matter) were a reason someone wasn't posting a report, then it would be better for us to have the report with the block and try to resolve the problem between the individuals rather than not have the report at all.

Buick, there already is a solution for the issue regarding unwanted commentary in trip reports, it just isn't publicized. I've only offered it to people who have contacted me directly regarding their trip reports. Basically, the author of a trip report is given a greater say in what is considered "appropriate" in the comment section of their reports. I could remove comments, ask a member to tone it down, ask a member to stop posting in the report, or some combination of the three.

Buick, your 1/25 7:59pm post actually describes a different situation and solution, but one which is also doable. In technical terms, this topic is mostly about a "Deny" solution where the issue is an individual or group of individuals causing problems from the report author's perspective. So if you were to write a report and felt that a user named "Flamethrower" was causing problems in your past reports or you saw him cause problems in other reports, you could request I add the instruction "Deny from Flamethrower" on your report. Flamethrower would then see a message such as "You do not have the privileges required to access this report", or whatever I decide to make the message read.

The new issue this post brings up is about lurking and motivation to post. This could be addressed with an "Allow" solution where a user needs to meet certain requirements to view a report. Sample instructions might be something like "Allow users with at least 1 trip report" or "Allow users with at least 1 trip report posted within the last year". There are other kinds of requirements that could be made as well, such as minimum post counts or posts in certain areas of the site.

Coincidentally, the "Allow" solution would actually tie in with a deveopment in the works that I have not announced yet. I should note that if I implement this, I would probably limit the number of reports that have requirements. In other words, I might require that a member have at least 5 trip reports or that at least half of their reports are available to everyone, or something like that.

portege,

i understand your experience in pattaya may have been different than others. but it is a perfect example of what you bring up - what if info in a report is not totally correct and needs some clarification from a vet in order to assist newbies (you used dangerous as an example, i'm using availability of english as one). you had a one time experience and someone who spent hundreds of days in pattaya provided some clarification on a particular topic. this was done to help newbies, they may have felt they couldn't get by in pattaya as they speak no thai.

i think you need to relax a little and not take everything as a personal attack. this is like black and white or night and day. there is no need to debate it, english is widely spoken in pattaya. it might be broken english but it isn't hard to understand 'go and come back' or 'same same'. did you not know what they meant when they said 'go and come back' or 'same same'. same means same. same same means same. go and come back means they are going and they will come back. that isn't real tough to understand for a first timer. alot of time what you write doesn't make alot of sense and needs correction.

another example is this recent deal about reading trip reports, getting offended, and launching an attack. you said something like don't read the report that way you won't be offended and launch a personal attack. but how would i know i was offended unless i read the report ? again, this was night and day, black and white. it needed correction.

i've had debates, clarifications, corrections, etc... with blazers every few months for 10 years. but i don't think either one of us has ever considered it an attack. at some point you need to realize that the issue is within you, not with the other members. i'm not attacking you here, this is just facts. sometimes they are hard to take but they are justified.

Buick,

Its not that my experience is "different than others" its that everyone experiences what they want to experience on a trip. While you may be able to have an intelligent conversation with ladies who have very limited English vocabulary, I become flustered and give up trying after the first "same same" and "go and come back" type conversations. That might be "good English" to you and you might keep on trying to explain yourself to such people. However, for me, I don't even bother because I realize that English is not any of these lady's first language. I will be the first one to admit my written English is not the best, however, I will bring you a cup of coffee if thats what you asked for. If you worked for me at my business 10 years ago and tried that "same same" crap than you would be thrown out the door. I think I have mellowed out since than and am now able to at least tolerate such minimal conversations. I have come a long way in regards to mature handling of such issues so you should be proud.


So for you, the Beach Road rejects and Soi 6 wannabees might be the perfect women for picking up. (Hey, I did it a few times on my trip and not knocking it) However, for folks like Priew, they wouldnt even bother with that and go right to the best go-go in town. If we just operate under a more flexible mind then we can see the merits of both Beach Road and the high end go-gos. I frankly don't care where you dip your stick. I never once chastised anyone here for dipping their stick on Beach Road and never revealed my true feelings on the issue. So you can go to that Beach Road all day long hanging out on the wall wondering when you are going to get that deal and pay 500 baht for an hour of pleasure. I don't hold that against you, more power to you! Even if you came on here bragging about it, I would not comment or say you made the wrong choice. As for Priew and I, we are going to skip that and head for the highest end go-gos in town.

As for not reading the report to know when you are being offended...look, people all day long offend me. Today, on the street, 3 thugs walked by me with their pants down to their ass. Now I was offended by their attitudes and thuggish looks. I didnt think they represented me or my community. However, I did not get on a soapbox to announce to everyone that I was offended. I simply kept my mouth shut and didnt believe bothering with it would get me anywhere in any meaningful way. So lets say I sit there and read how a fellow Hombre got frustrated over the conversations he was having with Miss "English the Second Language". Im not going to sit there and tell him how wrong it is acting offended by the reporting. Instead, I would try to understand his point of view and have a good laugh over it. You, on the other hand, would get up on a soapbox to lecture the kids with pants down to their ass and lecture the Hombre who got a little mad over the "English the Second Language" folks.

So I think you, along with others here, need to have that flexible mind to understand these things. You can't sit there and criticize others for their choices and opinions. Maybe if you took a few minutes of time to understand the issues then we wouldnt be writing long essays on human behavior. The fact of the matter is that if you came to my community to tell everyone how offended you are by their choices and decisions then it wouldnt be a matter of if your ass gets kicked, but how far down the road it would be kicked. I am happy you dont live here because I am sure you wouldnt be happy with any of that.

So, the bottomline, the conclusion, is that if you read someone else's opinion on an issue and disagree with it then sometimes the best thing you can do is stop reading it and go somewhere else. We are all adults here. If someone states how great looking one of the Beach Road rejects is then there is no need for a diatribe on how that is not so. You can sit there and be silent because the real truth will be apparent and as adults we will be able to figure it out without you pointing it out.

I hope I have explained myself well and appreciate the time I have put into explaining it.

In reply to Hombre's approach above of using a "deny" feature, I submit that that isnt really neccesary. I think we should be able to filter out people with our own minds instead of needing some type of electronic feature. For example, if I think Buick's reporting is full of shit then I should be intelligent enough to not even read his report in the first place.

What I will usually do is give folks like Buick the courtesy of reading the first few lines in their report. However, once my mind hits a spot that I do not fancy then I have my own electronic feature where I simply move on to the next report. Some folks may not have been built with this electronic feature when they were born, but I can tell you my mind has that feature built in. When I hear or read something which I believe to be shit, then I automatically "deny" it and move on.

Some here might need that "deny" function because they havent reached my level of evolution of where they can skip past stuff they feel is total shit. Im not putting them down and I realize how the law is worded. The law basically states that Hombre needs to construct this site so that all individuals can be able to use it. So implementing a "deny" function might satisfy the law of allowing everyone to be able to use the site, but I feel Hombre should just be able to put up a website and have everyone be able to use it without having to implement such features. I really dont feel that a business needs to build ramps for the handicap or Hombre needs to go out of his way to implement a "deny" feature for the challenged who have not reached that level of evolution. However, I respect the law and understand why these features might be needed.

I think Portege has realized that everyone would put him on the deny list.

I thought I’d give a current example of how two people (buick and roadglide, aka RG) can exchange views and not escalate it to the point where it might be considered an attack. Patience can be a big factor. I don’t have patience so I have a hill to climb in that department. A term we often used in the office was ‘like water off a duck’s back’ it just rolls off. No problem. In blazers recent pattaya report, there was some discussion about the supergirl and superbaby go gos. RG and I had a little back and forth on the asian rip off joints. I had the last ‘comment’ on the situation and RG let it go (water off a duck’s back). Then, in the chat section, I had responded to a question from porker on LT being gone in Thailand. RG gave a response after mine. I said I couldn’t get LT anymore and then RG posts some reasons why people don’t get LT. they were not flattering reasons. in reading it, I wondered if it was roundabout way of working me over. So I posed a friendly question back to him for some clarification. Then I went out on the town for a couple hours and thought about some things. I realized that I had changed my habits and that was the likely reason that I found it difficult to get a go go girl to agree to LT in pattaya in recent years. Said another way, I wondered if I was the subject of a minor ‘attack’ and then I realized the ‘problem’ was me. I went back and told RG to disregard my post as I realized I was wrong.

I think it is a good example of how you score points around here. Use some patience and be capable of saying that you are wrong. In this case I really was wondering why I had changed from an LT to an ST over the years. Porker posed the question and I wrote down my reasons. Those reasons were involved with the change but in reality the biggest one was I had to significantly reduce my alcohol intake back in 2009 due to stomach issues and that got the ball rolling on my change from 100% LT to 100% ST (I went out earlier and came home earlier because I could no longer enjoy 3-4 beers before hitting the town. getting a go go girl to agree to LT at 8 or 9pm has worse odds than it does at 11 or 12). if I hadn’t had the dialogue with porker and RG, I would still be wondering why I converted.

And let’s be honest, many of us enjoy tossing out a little zinger every now and then. It adds some spice to the site. A little back and forth doesn’t truly hurt anybody and it can build character. That is a part of life. What if catocony stopped throwing out some of his zingers, it would be a bad day for clubhombre. The real key is how many times do you find yourself on defense and offense. If you are constantly on one or the other, then something is probably wrong with you. i've been on the site for 10 years and haven't found myself on defense and offense very often. yet i've seen others playing defense and offense at all times. many of those members are now gone.

i just saw blazers post. we posted at the same time. those are the zingers that i like. simple facts.

jesus, i didn't even notice portege's comments prior to blazers post as i was crafting my message offline and then posted it real quick.

portege - i'm just going to act like you asked me where i like to go in pattaya (water off a ducks back). i'm a creature of habit. i've tried all the options in pattaya but i am a go go guy. i ended up in bkk as the go go girls are better (IMHO) and the expat/tourist profile in bkk is better than pattaya. i can't deal with all the partying in pattaya and phuket, i used to love it but now i can't drink anymore (only a couple beers). hard for me to be around the party.

Any new features will not solve the real problem, which is that Portege trolls - read any of his political threads - and posts nonsense, and when called on it, whines that we're being mean to him. If Hombre wants, I'll kick in $50, and he can refund Portege his fee and boot him.

I liked funny, entertaining trolls like Turk, Roblaw, Riorules, KidCisco, etc. Portege is neither funny nor entertaining.

As to the bigger problem of fewer posts and trip reports, I think the reasons are these.

1) Clubhombre has been around a while, and needs a facelift.

2) A lot of the veteran posters have ventured on to other boards. Their replacements are far less interesting writers.

3) A lot of veteran posters aren't mongering as much anymore, due to money, getting older, settling down, just plain tired of the game. There are dozens of reasons, but the fact is there are a less guys mongering these days, and the remaining guys monger less than they used to. If you're spending less time in the field, you're not going to post as much.

4) There are few worlds left to discover. 11 years ago, when the board was new, monger boards were still pretty new. I'm sure we all have memories of going somewhere in the 90s - Tijuana, Bangkok, wherever - and doing things that, today, you just wouldn't do. The information simply wasn't widely available, it was like oral history, passed from veteran monger to newbie monger. Then, sites like Redsnake popped up, and the info was now ready to explode. Stuff may not have been new to some, but it was to many, and there were no collections of it readily available. I look at this site as a library, and early on, the shelves were bare. Now, they're full. With no reason to write the hundredth trip report about the same places in the same venue.

Laguy, I think the combination of selective blocking and comment removal would be perfectly suitable for your concerns. I believe most others agree with you that the information aspect of reporting is paramount and that lack of photos does not lesson the value of a report.

I think there is some lack of context in your post and that it may come across as you being sensitive to being asked for pictures when I really think it refers to an individual or two that have been unusually repetitive in asking for pictures. Now you can simply request a view block on them and I'll enforce a rule disallowing them from commenting in your report.

Once you filter out those one or two, I think there already is an environment where information alone is valued.

I started to comment on Venues, but it's somewhat off-topic here and this topic is already veering off a bit. I'll just say that it's still in it's infancy, but you'll see that it ties a lot of information together and makes it all much more easily accessible.

Catocony provided a fair analysis of why there are probably fewer postings, I think he only left one out that is significant.

As a pay site, CH will always have a more difficult time of attracting the volume of members that a free site can bring in. Consequently, this requires we use a different model of operation to more actively encourage participation, and/or offer unique content and features that can not be found elsewhere.

Ten years ago, I had a lot of energy and optimism to concentrate on continual development of CH. In 2007, a combination of burnout, legal concerns, and personal life changes put a lot of development on the backburner and made it difficult to do much more than the daily maintenance of the site (which was still significant). Late last year, my life changed again, and I've regained a lot of that energy and enthusiasm. In addition, I now have a lot more experience, so I'm optimistic about CH's future.

The facelift is being addressed, and along with an upcoming move to a newer and faster server, will be part of the plan to bring back what veteran members that we can. I've also developed strategies to better communicate our policies to remind veteran members and inform newer members that complementary accounts can be maintained via participation.

I've had to scale back on development a little to prepare for the server move, but once that's done, it's full speed ahead again.

To reiterate, this blocking feature is currently available, at least denying individuals is, and requires only that the report be emailed rather than posted with a specification of who is not allowed to access it.

If you read some of this stuff I am writing the thought might cross your mind that maybe I am not being serious or taking anything personally. If that is your thought then I would have to say you are correct. A website named "Clubhombre" where the primary goal is to visit foreign destinations and "get laid" should not be one of serious thought and contimplation in my humble opinion. However, it appears some here seem to take it that way.

The problem here is too much analysis and thought. Just post your report...post your pictures. You are operating under an alias meaning that if the pictures don't look good or the storyline is not very interesting it wont come back at you. The members here should be mature enough to simply move on to the next report if there is some type of content they disagree or even offends them. For example, some here felt that Priew driving off on a motorcycle was offensive. If you disagree with the act of driving a motorcyle, then turn the page, hit next, close the window, but don't sit there and egg the report with your personal thought pattern.

If you feel the content of some reports might mislead reporters, then you might want to think again. I believe we are all adults here and some have very impressive resumes who you might even pay money to for a service (medical, legal, etc.) People who you would normally trust in the real society. I believe if left on their own they can form their own conclusions on the issues without your commentary. If I sit there and state I saw a man open carrying a Glock in the DR, a man who mind you is not a member of the NRA, or that I felt there was an English barrier when some lady repeatedly states to me "same same" without really comprehending what I was saying, then rest assured my conclusions on those issues are all my own. The readers, most of which probably have impressive resumes and a wide range of experiences, can probably deduct fair minded conclusions without your "two cents".

In regards to Blazers comments about everyone denying me reading their reports, I am not concerned one bit. As I said, I have my own deny feature. If you post a report without pictures or isnt that interesting to myself or contains disagreeable content, then I simply move on. Others here, like Blazers himself, feel differently. They feel they have to leave a few comments in there criticizing the writer's choices. If a woman doesnt look all that good to Blazers, he will say so right in the report instead of simply moving on. Or like Buick or Vladmir where they feel my opinion on a certain issue is not accurate. Im not sure what to say to them. I guess I don't have the same experiences as them. People openly carrying Glocks and armed checkpoints might be the standard in Vladmir's part of the world. English may not be practiced so voraciously in Buick's part of the world and he might be used to something different.

It all comes back to having that open mind and trying to understand what people are saying.

cat,

what you say makes alot of sense......

i think you've been following this saga from the beginning but i wanted to clarify a few things as posts got split up, etc....

i thought about the block feature as a way to cut off unwanted/unneccesary comments in a report. the author could simply 'block' that person if he got out of control. that would immediately end any flame situation. that doesn't come through in this thread even though my suggestion began in the one about a better posting environment.

that got lost in the shuffle when the single thread got split into three. it looks like i just thought of this as a way to block people from my trip reports. this was a secondary benefit, something that i would use if we actually put the block system into place.

then the third item was perhaps the block from trip reports might motivate others to post reports.

i can say without hesitation that i am the worst person on earth, behind my mother, to come up with ideas on how to motivate people. my genes don't contain that ability. so hopefully others can come up with stuff for that.

my primary idea was to block for bad behavior in a report and the secondary was i could use it to block certain people from my report.

Blazers said:

---

quote:

I think Portege has realized that everyone would put him on the deny list.

---

Portege somehow combines the arrogance and cluelessness of Roblaw with the complete uselessness of Happy Monger, combined with the political acumen of Beachman. But, with none of the complete "wow, he actually believes the shit he's writing" delusional diatribes of Turk that made him funny to read.

My offer stands until midnight Saturday - I'll refund Portege's CH fees if Hombre gives him the boot.

Gentlemen,

I think all of you are looking at this problem from the wrong perspective. Contrary to popular opinion, I want to deny all poster, allowing only lurkers to read my trip reports. After all, they aren't the problem, others are. In the event a lurker posts a reply to my report either positive or negative, he would be immediately denied access to mine and any other report online. That way any flaming would be halted before it could take on a life of it's own as it often does.

Hombre. shortly after i posted my first report back in 2005, I asked if it was possible to track the number of hits on an individual report. You replied that it wasn't feasible and I let the issue die because you were somewhat emphatic about it. As some of you may know, I publish on other sites under different monikers and they are able to track each and every hit. Contrary to the popular thought on this site, it is gratifying to know that after several hours of publishing elsewhere, 2000 plus individuals have read your article and over the course of several days it has grown to over 10,000.

As a writer, number count, comments don't, so why don't you include this important feature on this site and do away with all the comments? Give the members credit; they are smart enough to recognize great writing all by themselves and it can be confirmed by looking at the numbers. This kills two birds with one stone, doesn't it?

Now, I want to get to my main point. Hombre, is it right to deny the majority of the due paying board the right to reading trip reports because they haven't posted? They paid to join this site for total access and now you are contemplating severely restricting their access, all because of a few who have manipulated the system you put in place.

Do away with comments on trip reports and track hits!

BTW, I'm more than slightly drunk so I will deny that I ever wrote this. That said, I'm in Rio and on my way to get laid because an eminent member of this board asked if I was mongering this trip. and I replied positively, so I guess i better get going. Wish me luck and no dark clouds overhead.

Jag

Hombre,

After rereading this thread, I might have missed something. I think Buick had a great idea in limiting readership which i didn't directly address. As a personal request, don't let Catocony read anything until he replaces my fucking Sandisk Ultra 8 GB chip. After all, how can i post a report without photos?

Off to find the GDP of my dreams.

Jag

Knowing both Catocony and price trends for technology, by the time you get back your chip it will be worth less than the ketchup in Catocony's knapsack. Probably not worth worrying about.

I had an idea. Instead of blocking, denying, etc....why not allow the author to moderate the trip reports they start? For example,so lets say Priew starts a trip report and he gets some bozo commenting on his motorcycle riding habits. Priew can just delete the comments he does not like instead of having to reply to them or ignoring and living with them.

If you author a trip report then you should be able to delete the comments you do not care for. If someone believes the content of any trip report is so inaccurate or offensive that it shouldnt be there in the first place (like my statements on the English language being weak in Thailand, Priew's motorcycle riding habits or the safety issues in the DR), then send Hombre a request to review it and let him arbitrate. If Hombre feels that Priew can't ride a motorcycle for shit, then Hombre can add an administrative comment with some type of disclaimer.

Another idea I have seen on other sites is to create a seperate "flame" or "disagreement" forum. Move all posts and threads which seem a bit strong or disagreeable to the "flame" forum where the members can duke it out. The comments would still be on this site for all to reply to, but in a different forum out of the way of regular traffic.

Jaguar, the way the blocking would take place would actually remove the report itself from the message board structure which is severely limited because of the software for that part of the site. That's why tracking hits wasn't and still isn't feasible directly from the message board.

CH is directed at a much smaller target audience, not a more general public audience like a free forum. Do non-hobbyists sign up for free hobbying sites? My guess would be all the time. The same happens on CH, I suspect, but far, far less frequently because they are unwilling to pay and unable to contribute. I know there are a number of CH reporters that post exclusively on CH for this reason. Anyhow, because of this limitation in membership, view counts are much less significant.

Regarding numbers being more important than comments from the viewpoint of a writer, I know there are other writers that hold the opposite view.

As for denying a majority access with an "Allow" restricted report, I partially addressed it above, but to expand on that, I really don't think most reporters would want to implement that for their report, and those that did would have to meet certain requirements such as already having 5 reports and having no more than half of their reports be restricted. This gives reporters the ability to create "special" reports that have viewing restrictions, while requiring that they still provide content for all members.

And Jaguar, this wasn't really answered for you, but for the Jaguar that did or didn't make the Jaguar post.

I think that being able to block members from viewing or posting to trip reports or thread you create is a great idea. One of the reasons I don’t post much anymore is because there is a member who I personally detest. It would make using the site a pleasure if I could not only block him from seeing anything I write but it would be nice to block everything he spews forth as well.

I also agree with Jag that it would be very gratifying if you could see how many hits a report gets.

It sounds to me like there are just a couple of members whose posts are offensive to other members. Why not just have a procedure for voting those folks out, possibly after a suspension period where their posts would first be reviewed by the voter-outers before being posted--if any negative posts on suspension, out for good.

You can vote people out, but what is going to keep them from reregistering under a new user name?

MM

Its a stupid idea to block someone because they wrote something offensive or hurt someones feelings....MAN UP! This is CLUB HOMBRE for Christ sakes!!

We all know for example that Catacony is an obnoxious,insulting , arrogant ,condescending douche bag contributor.....but we love him and especially enjoy his criticising of other hombres. I vote for freedom of speech!

ps....no offence Cat.