There are numerous community sites and varoius portals aimed at or related to Thailand. Many have similar functions and attract a huge number of people, however as a resident of Thailand and someone who has used these community sites / portals in the past I am always disappointed at how rapidly they lose the original focus and all too often fall prey to the lure of advertising money or to abuse by members looking for sex.
Even Facebook, now world famous of course, has so many widgets and gizmos that it has recently released another app called “Great Apps”, which actually filters out all the ‘crap’ that is currently in Facebook and identifies useful applications for businesses!
These sites, there are many examples aimed at or related to Thailand, become either a annoying display of flashing, immensley irritating advertisements, their owners cashing in on the lure of advertising money (just look at sanook.com and panthip.com); or alternatively and perhaps more disappointingly degenerate into notorious sex sites used by the singles of the region to find dates for those lonely mid week nights or as a convenient platform used by legions of cyber sex addicts often from other countries looking for that piece of Asian erotica in the form of a live peep show via a webcam.
I am not preaching that there is anything ‘wrong’ in this – each to their own – I think the owners of these portals however should beware of excessive advertising and segregate this material / these groups accordingly so regular users can find people and information they are looking for, not get hassled by perverts or desparados and share information without fear of reprisals.
Indeed, I went on one such portal yesterday and was messaged within 5 minutes by a ‘girl’ who turned out to be a guy from Pakistan who hassled me for 10 more minutes to get naked on my web cam! Not what I wanted, in the end I killed the window and will not return.
Thailand Web Zone was started to try and create a ‘clean’ platform for people looking to visit Thailand to make friends / contacts / even business partners in the country, provide valuable information on all manner of topics, written by those in the know: residents and locals. It also allows people to create Thailand related social groups and events, blogs, forums and so on, as well as providing the standard functions such as uploading photos and images.
Finally, we have implemented a few extra features not yet included on other Thailand community sites such as video recording, streaming whiteboards, video chat and music. Powerful group category and privacy management allows each group of people and individuals to do what they want when they want without intruding on the privacy of other people. Couple this with a sensible advertisement policy and we hope this will provide a unique and interesting community platform for people with an interest in Thailand.
Thailand Web Zone, with a load of new cool features:
Chat: create your own chat rooms, video chat, skip from one chat room to another, 1 to 1 private video chat
Boards: let your creative talent flow freely, draw pictures online and share them with your friends
Music: upload your favourite tunes, search through music, download music for your own use.
Video: upload your videos, search and play video directly from the site, use for fun or for business communication.
Video recording: record your own webcam messages and upload them to your profile
Classifieds: add your classified ad, sell, buy, submit and find a job in Thailand.
Articles: find useful and relevant information written by those who know what they are talking about. Submit your own articles, share information, share your knowledge.
Forums: participate in various discussions, submit topics for discussion / debate, ask locals and residents questions before you arrive.
Thailand Web Zone can be used by those seeking a little more community site features, fun, romance or even by business people as a free business collaboration tool. Lots of free and paid membership privileges are available.
www.thailandwebzone.com