Dear sir,

[Fio]

I've always wondered why you limit the Indonesian section to Bali and Lombok yet allow us to ask questions about the whole of Thailand Mark. Indonesia is a pretty big place and there are nice beaches and things to do elsewhere there. It's a bit like limiting the Thailand section to Samui and Phuket. I don't particularly want to go to Bali and Lombok .... well not till I'm well over 90 and can't wander far without me zimmer frame anyway.

Yours faithfully,

Fio

[markadmin]

I would love to add / have extra regions; the problem is experience and psychological.


I experimented with wider scale (worldwide) travel forums on two different domains. The first one got busy(ish) for a while until the spammers started and I had to make it registration only, then postings dropped right off and then that site got hacked (it’s US and Israeli elements attracted Turkish hackers) several times, so I dropped it. The second one I tried a different approach, registration required, but offering more features like a photo gallery, but so few people used it because, I think, it was quiet (you need posters to attract posters). Commercial sites have all launched forums now and have made forums less of a self-help independent thing they used to be. So I have concluded that a) requiring registration puts people off (I think mostly because they have to enter their email address and so many people are terrified of this and getting spammed) and b) low posting rates out people off.

As I said before, I would be happy to add another forum region sooner rather than later if a number of people ask for it (hint, hint). What I intend to do to get organic growth for other regions is via my reservations site, which this summer should re-launch as a charity site (all direct reservation commissions going to local charities). Hopefully this will make it and this site busy. Once I have that all in place, I was thinking of expanding both at the same time into Vietnam and Malaysia initially, then maybe after the other SE Asian countries.

[Fio]

if a number of people ask for it

Does "one" count as a number? *sigh* Guess I'm just going to have to ask elsewhere whether anyone knows where I can get hold of reliable Pelni boat schedules in the Moluccas then!!!!