Having gone through the A.N.H. questions, I do agree that there have been quite a few questions asked that pertain to life in Vietnam in general. It could be a good idea to have a separate category for such questions.
Also, I've noticed a few reviews for places located in HCMC. It'd be terrific if a sister site for HCMC could be started as well.
totally agree, just when the discussion is getting interesting, it gets to the bottom and disappears off the main page. So, if like me you don't add any further, cos out of sight out of mind sets in.
Like other message boards i go on, if the thread is attracting replies it stays at the top, and those who dont attract any response slowly go down the table.
answered about 2 months ago by alpha
You can also use the city switcher at the top of the page to visit the Saigon site or the one for Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
On the issue of "discussion" on Ask A.N.H., there are a few issues actually.
To begin, we intentionally stayed away from a general forum. From our experience, too many forums degenerate into outlets for those frustrated with their overseas experience to vent, and that subsequently turns into flame wars when people come to the defense of this or that. We thought the Q&A approach would provide a relatively effective way to keep people on topic and productively contributing.
As the site incrementally grew in popularity, it was fairly easy to keep things on track. We removed posts that weren't really questions and encouraged people to use past posts for any subsequent comments and questions that were related to the same subject. Ideally, people would use existing posts so that all the information on a given inquiry would be in one place for future info seekers. It would also help to prevent the unfortunate situations where a question is posted, there are some great answers given to it that show real sensitivity to detail and effort, then a week later someone asks the same question. Those same contributors who went to all that work are not likely to go to that effort again and may not even feel as inclined to contribute in the first place if it appears that their work will have such short lived appreciation. Because any thread that gets a post immediately goes to the top of the list on the Ask A.N.H. page, we'd like to think that this system would work. Up until about three or four months ago, it did.
Starting last spring, the gradual, incremental increases in site use took on a greater order of magnitude. I tried to keep up with monitoring the quality of Ask A.N.H. question posts, but it ended up being a hell of a time burden. Additionally, a large portion of the users who I asked to move or change their posts started responding with outright vitriol at the suggestion. They basically told me to go f*#k myself and that they should be allowed to post wherever and whatever. We'll probably use some volunteer moderators to help keep an eye on that section in the near future, but for now, I've thrown my hands up a bit concerning the non-questions and repeat posts. We sincerely wish people would use the Ask A.N.H. search box on the Ask A.N.H. page before posting, but whether or not it happens is a bit beyond us right now.
Another issue that comes with more general, less-Q&A-oriented posts is that Ask A.N.H. turns into a data dump. People throw any and all information there, when the site is explicitly set up to provide a more structured and usable method of contributing. There's no problem with asking about a salon or doctor that somebody recommends, but the real way to deal with this is to ensure that the business is listed on the site, then review it. That way, anyone who looks into that category of service or business can find opinions on the matter with all the context of differing views. They also don't have to search through dozens of scattered posts to find contact info and then wonder whether or not the place is still open or in the same location. If the business isn't listed, there is an "Add a Business to the Directory" link in the footer of the page. Use it. Once it's entered, we can then go through the usual verification processes and future face to face interactions with them to ensure that the info stays up to date. If you just dump it in Ask A.N.H., its usefulness is greatly diminished. There's been a great deal of this lately. I used to message each individual who did this, but that would take me hours a day now if I continued to do so.
Finally (I know this is getting rather long winded), there is the issue of what can and cannot be discussed in Vietnam. General discussions often have a way of moving toward public policy/politics, sex, and religion on many forums. Two out of those three are very sensitive subjects that we nearly have to avoid altogether if this site is to continue in its live posting manner. Whatever our own political and cultural leanings may be concerning these subjects, caution is needed. The problem then becomes, "Where do you draw the line?" Given the overall lack of transparency when it comes to media law (especially online media), it's a very real and practical concern for us and the future of this online community. If we let things go too far, then suddenly start pulling on the reins, many on The New Hanoian will perceive us as arbitrarily limiting their speech. To some extent, they'd be right. However, we're not the source of that arbitrariness. We'd just be its messenger. That further leads us to be wary of general discussion that isn't rooted in something we can all turn to and agree is the arbiter of what stays and what goes.
We don't want to hold you back. We want to promote greater understanding here, but it's not always so straightforward.
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