Poll: Does Winston give a damn about his own forum?

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Poll: Does Winston give a damn about his own forum?

No, he doesn't get rid of trolls or clean up the spam since they make it look more active. Claiming he had to let all trolls back in due to a technicality was just an excuse
18
50%
Intermediate opinion
5
14%
Yes, but he is so hell bent on free speech that prefers to err on the side of freedom.
6
17%
Does Winston really make a living out of this?
7
19%
 
Total votes: 36
Rock
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Re: Poll: Does Winston give a damn about his own forum?

Post by Rock »

Mr S wrote:From my perspective as I've been pretty much with this forum since it's inception as well as been in contact with Winston since he began his foray overseas, yeah the forum is, as they say, in its winter season or entering its twilight. For this forum to remain competitive, as well as his overall website, he would have to basically do a complete overhaul of them with the newest software and design. Right now there are too many online competitors and better organized sites nowadays than when the forum was initially put up. There are numerous other places to go too with similar topics and information, without all the distractions that this site has nowadays due to numerous reasons such as spammers, slow load times, primitive interface, excessive negative commenting and attacks on fellow members, off-the-wall topics that distract and have nothing to do with the overall message of traveling and living overseas, etc.

I personally don't see anything changing much as to do so Winston would have to invest serious time and money to perform the necessary upgrade to Happier Abroad 2.0 version, which I don't see hm doing. As he admits himself, there are multiple things preventing him from doing so like Murphy's law, negative energies and whatnot.... :roll: :lol:

He probably should upgrade the forum to the newest software or if that sucks, then find an alternative one that runs better and just start over again and maybe retire this one but keep a link where people can still access the old threads for reference purposes. He should probably hire, yes pay someone to be a regular forum monitor that will give a shit how it operates as there is some kind of monetary compensation involved. Also, if he wants quality posting he should probably create an alternative blog site like Roosh did with Return of kings and invite writers who can then get some kind of compensation and links back to their own sites. Personally, I'd rather not spend much time writing unique articles for someone else's site where I get nothing out of it other then extreme criticism from one side or the other, which is often the case in the forum nowadays. Since it's relativity easy to make ones own website or blog and post on there or find other sites where they will give you page hits and possible monetary income, I'm not going to spend a lot of my free time writing a descent essay for nothing anymore, those days are over and I think many other decent writers with half a brain aren't writing for free on forums either.

For example, I've been living in PI for quite a while now and could probably write a decent book for Westerners about the pro's and con's of the place, better than any of the current pdf's available in the market place. Why would I want to give away all this info for free when I can just write something up and put it up on Amazon kindle and monetize it nowadays? I haven't done so as of yet for personal reasons but all I'm saying is why should I be giving away tidbits of info for free which I know people will pay to read? The Internet has changed in over the last 10 years but Winston has not really modified his approach to capturing online readers and writers as it's changed. I mainly just keep in touch with Winston and occasionally participate in the forum because I'm friends with him and we share similar viewpoints on many things and I've met him in person and all that, but if I had not done so or had any personal communications with him I probably would have stopped participating a long time ago just as many previous members on this forum have done.

Money does not motivate Winston, personal freedom is his main motivator so as long as he has a comfortable steady stream of income to live off of, there is no incentive for him to improve his website because it is still providing him money, right now that is. However, I sense that in the next few years if he doesn't upgrade even the fumes that run his website and forum now will evaporate and there will be nothing much left in comparison to the revenue stream he once had.

Another reason is he will be inheriting a lot of money and properties when his parents eventually pass away and I'm assuming that this will also provide enough of a steady stream of income for him to live off of in the future so it's not like he is motivated to change his website and forum because he needs new income streams. He basically is just living off it's fumes at the moment and also he can periodically vent on it as well as meet occasional forum members that still exist on it or ask them questions about various subject matters that he doesn't feel like researching himself. Remember, this whole concept was initially just him writing essays venting about how life is so much better overseas for Westerners in relation to the dating and banging women market. He just monetized it back in the late 00's because there weren't many other competitors or alternative options back then, now there are and to keep up he'd have to put more time and effort into his branding and basically he' not willing to do that right now. So even though we feel we know what should be done and what we would do in his shoes, we are not him and thus have limited options since he does not listen to persuasion easily and follows his own path so to speak.

So basically to put this to rest, nothing we suggest or complain about is going to change anything that's done on this forum. Until Winston decides to change his behavior and priorities, this forum will continue to just die a slow death until there are no regular posters anymore. I suggest those with the will to set up a competing website and forum with similar branding and moderate it to their liking if they want a place to communicate about topics that this forum used to contain on a regular basis and run it appropriately with proper rules and what not.

Personally, now that I've been living overseas for over a decade, the happier abroad message is kinda a misnomer and I'm not so sure I'm sold on it anymore. I think a better branding might be living happier abroad occasionally or seasonally rather than permanently....Globalism and technology has pretty much removed the very things that made living overseas great as one could get away from their native culture completely. Nowadays Western globalism and corporatism is everywhere and it's like your living in a shitty version of whatever Western country you initially came from minus the benefits. If I had known this was going to occur 15 years ago I would have just stayed in the states and set myself up there then traveled overseas periodically from that point in my life. I don't suggest moving overseas and giving up ones entire life in the West anymore, there's no benefit to it unless your running away and want to cut your life completely from your past culture. If you do that though, make sure you run away to a country where it's easy to get a second citizenship. i f'ed up and stayed in a place where it's difficult for a foreigner to get a passport and if you did want it, you'd have to give up your original country of origin citizenship and having a Philippine passport is essentially worthless outside of South East Asia. I suggest if you're in you're 20's and 30's to figure out a way to create your own online business or some other way to be your own boss, become financially stable then travel the world occasionally from there. There's no reason nowadays to have to completely uproot yourself anymore from your home country, there's no benefits anymore because of the technocratic globalism everywhere which intrudes on your life wherever you are.

I'm just hoping it's not too late to turn around my life after being in PI for so long, it's truly a place that sucks the life out of you and give little to no return investment. That's why so many Filipinos want to leave and never come back... I interview hundreds of them every month and in the back of their minds they must think I'm the crazy one that is staying in this whacked out country! :lol:

This is going to be one of the rare and few posts where I actually write something longer than a few sentences, I won't be doing this much more in the future....

P.S.: I do respect the uniqueness of this forum and it's ideals regarding free speech on ANY topic, however I do also feel there is too much negativity and bashing of others writings on here, which in turn, turns people off after a while. Fortunately or unfortunately, this kind of forum attracts individuals who are generally more intelligent and discriminating than the average person and I believe what goes along with that are ego's to match, thus intellectual mini wars break out. If we could come together and figure out a way to limit or prevent this from occurring and turning into recurring flame wars against each other, I think the forum could be saved and resurrected. That's why I suggest just creating a new one using the latest and best forum software while also having better monitoring and stringent posting rules, then just mothball this one (just maintain a link to look at old threads). In it's current inception I'm not sure it can survive much longer in the coming years where this forum software cannot provide adequate place for people to post and read where there a better places to do so.

I feel if we were to meet each other in person we'd all be able to get along and share similar interests with each other, a forum should be a similar place to do so but all the current forum does is bring animosity on each other from what I read, which turns people off except for the die-hards who are probably reading this.... :( :|
This is a great answer and I'm on same page. I don't know if Winston pretends not to see the pattern or is just in denial because whenever I bring up forum decline to him, he will claim that lots of new posters are coming on board and that content is as good as ever. Part of the problem is his inattention to the forum over long stretches of time and his management style but yes the other part is out of his hands - the trend away from forums and other factors you brought up.

If you go elsewhere and contribute in those places, let us know how we can still gain access to your essays and postings.

The HA forum has already lost a lot of great content providers. The older timers who do stick around including us don't write nearly as much and probably remain here just because we're all kinda friends with Winston and/or each other. But the forum is dying a slow to not so slow death if the production of new and interesting content is the metric you judge it by.

Since the owner has other sources of income and assets, there's no fire under his ass in case income generated from forum drops off which I imagine it will (could be wrong on that though).

Anyway, it is what it is. Don't expect anything out of Winston. He's kinda like Trump. He'll do his own thing in his own way and will react to any criticism by lashing out lol.
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starchild5
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Re: Poll: Does Winston give a damn about his own forum?

Post by starchild5 »

It doesn't work like that...there is a thing called AI after all.

You cannot have both ways. There is not a single forum online that is as free as HA. Guaranteed.

America, the west is so fake ..third world sh*t hole looks better...American freedom is fake PC freedom...You cannot really say what you want to say unless you weigh your thoughts and see to it that..you do not hurt the minorities, the jews, the blacks, the political establishment, the feminist and on and on...aka you cannot really say anything in America...its just reverse of Saudi Arabia.

This is the PRICE Winston is paying for making the forum stick to TRUE FREEDOM.

True Freedom is not easy..Try it with Roosh, Godslikeproductions, DavidIcke Forum, reddit, 4chan, Chinese, Indian, Filipino based forum...all freaking fake as f*ck false freedom forums.

The AI gives amazing time, forum software to fake forums but makes sure Winston never have the time, energy, money etc to upgrade the software. He has internal battles going on..The AI attacks true freedom lovers.

------------------------

Just to put things into perspective on earth and how AI works. Can you believe, the guys in Dubai pay millions of dollars to get single digit numbers for the cars.

Can you believe this retard from Dubai who have billions of dollars.

Indian businessman pays $9 million for unique car number plate in Dubai

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/nri/ ... 767463.cms

DUBAI: An Indian businessman has paid a whopping $9 million to buy a single-digit car registration plate in Dubai, adding another coveted number plate to his collection.

Balwinder Sahani bought number plate "D5" for 33 million Dirhams at the Roads and Transport Authority's number plate auction on Saturday.

Image

:shock: :shock: :shock:

-----------------------------------------

Can you believe this f88cking guy and his Ego...Just for D5 number he paid 9 million dollars and here people complain about Winston and his Forum software. :lol:

Humanity should sulk in shame with this kind of behaviour...With few 1000 dollars he could have supported TRUE FREEDOM but no Number plates are more important to him.

The day Winston decides to be fake like this guy would be the day his forum will get updated smoothly, but one day sure this forum could be updated or may be never...as long as we have retards on earth paying for number plates. :twisted:

This AI gives money, power, time, energy to total fake, retards of Earth but holds everything against the true freedom seekers.

-----------------------

Forum is not getting updated due to retards in Middle East. Yeah. It does not make sense, exactly because of AI. The countries with least freedom but money should have found this forum already and donated huge sums to HappierAbroad to make sure...true freedom remains which there is none in the middle east.

They could come here and complain, join forces about the royal families of Saudi and other princely kingdoms but f**king NO...they are too busy buying latest stupid sh*t called Car Plate number.

This AI has divided humanity. Winston's job is to provide freedom..The money, time should have come from other humans...

All it would take is for one call from Middle East to make this Forum Amazing.

--------------------

Its guaranteed, humanity will perish when we have middle eastern retards with millions but Winston is the one taking the blame for bad software.
Citizen
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Re: Poll: Does Winston give a damn about his own forum?

Post by Citizen »

starchild5 wrote:It doesn't work like that...there is a thing called AI after all.

You cannot have both ways. There is not a single forum online that is as free as HA. Guaranteed.

America, the west is so fake ..third world sh*t hole looks better...American freedom is fake PC freedom...You cannot really say what you want to say unless you weigh your thoughts and see to it that..you do not hurt the minorities, the jews, the blacks, the political establishment, the feminist and on and on...aka you cannot really say anything in America...its just reverse of Saudi Arabia.

This is the PRICE Winston is paying for making the forum stick to TRUE FREEDOM.

True Freedom is not easy..Try it with Roosh, Godslikeproductions, DavidIcke Forum, reddit, 4chan, Chinese, Indian, Filipino based forum...all freaking fake as f*ck false freedom forums.

The AI gives amazing time, forum software to fake forums but makes sure Winston never have the time, energy, money etc to upgrade the software. He has internal battles going on..The AI attacks true freedom lovers.

------------------------

Just to put things into perspective on earth and how AI works. Can you believe, the guys in Dubai pay millions of dollars to get single digit numbers for the cars.

Can you believe this retard from Dubai who have billions of dollars.

Indian businessman pays $9 million for unique car number plate in Dubai

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/nri/ ... 767463.cms

DUBAI: An Indian businessman has paid a whopping $9 million to buy a single-digit car registration plate in Dubai, adding another coveted number plate to his collection.

Balwinder Sahani bought number plate "D5" for 33 million Dirhams at the Roads and Transport Authority's number plate auction on Saturday.

Image

:shock: :shock: :shock:

-----------------------------------------

Can you believe this f88cking guy and his Ego...Just for D5 number he paid 9 million dollars and here people complain about Winston and his Forum software. :lol:

Humanity should sulk in shame with this kind of behaviour...With few 1000 dollars he could have supported TRUE FREEDOM but no Number plates are more important to him.

The day Winston decides to be fake like this guy would be the day his forum will get updated smoothly, but one day sure this forum could be updated or may be never...as long as we have retards on earth paying for number plates. :twisted:

This AI gives money, power, time, energy to total fake, retards of Earth but holds everything against the true freedom seekers.

-----------------------

Forum is not getting updated due to retards in Middle East. Yeah. It does not make sense, exactly because of AI. The countries with least freedom but money should have found this forum already and donated huge sums to HappierAbroad to make sure...true freedom remains which there is none in the middle east.

They could come here and complain, join forces about the royal families of Saudi and other princely kingdoms but f**king NO...they are too busy buying latest stupid sh*t called Car Plate number.

This AI has divided humanity. Winston's job is to provide freedom..The money, time should have come from other humans...

All it would take is for one call from Middle East to make this Forum Amazing.

--------------------

Its guaranteed, humanity will perish when we have middle eastern retards with millions but Winston is the one taking the blame for bad software.
More commie Masonic and false Jew posts from you. Beware of wolves in sheep's clothing. Beware of evil men saying words like freedom and liberty for they only care about themselves and seek to take what is not theirs.
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starchild5
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Re: Poll: Does Winston give a damn about his own forum?

Post by starchild5 »

Citizen wrote:
More commie Masonic and false Jew posts from you. Beware of wolves in sheep's clothing. Beware of evil men saying words like freedom and liberty for they only care about themselves and seek to take what is not theirs.
Dude...I have enough of your bull shit..WTF are you on ...? really...I'm a Jew, freemason...are you for f***ing real...? :lol: :lol:

Yeah...a freemason, who lives in a third world country to be in HA forum to delude Americans, if they are not deluded already......are you f***ing that retarded...

You are absolute total moron to even worth my time...too much fluoride, iron in your system it seems...I did not reply to your other same post because you are a proven mental retard...

I have a word for you...which your brain cells can understand because you are incapable to understand the truths....

f**k OFF....can you read that or chemtrails have retarded your vision as well..

I think pictures are worth thousand words..so here just for you...

Image

:lol: :lol: :lol:
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Winston
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Re: Poll: Does Winston give a damn about his own forum?

Post by Winston »

Tsar wrote:
Cornfed wrote:About half the latest 100 posts are spam posts. They are easy to spot. Why is it so hard for Winston to go through and delete them all?
I asked that question more than a month ago.
This is a stupid poll and thread. I do clean up the spam a lot, not everyday, but every few days at least. And Jamesbond cleans it up too. They are in the moderation queue, which you are not supposed to see. But the Latest 100 topics page contains a loophole that displays them to you. But it doesn't matter even if I clean it up everyday. Spammers come back and post again. So if I clean it up one day, they come back the next day.

I've explained this to you guys hundreds of times. Are you guys deaf or dumb? lol

We are doing everything we can. But there seems to be no stopping them. See here:
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=33783
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Re: Poll: Does Winston give a damn about his own forum?

Post by Winston »

Yohan wrote:There are even troll-postings in the 'Banning and Warning Announcements' since days.

I think, Winston should clean up his forum more frequently, maybe he should control it daily, but it seems he is not always available.

He is not making a living out of this forum, I guess this is merely a hobby and a side-business, he often said there are other sources of income (renting out space? or something like that?)
I do make a living out of this site. It generates over $1,000 USD monthly. Sometimes close to $2,000 USD on certain months. I've explained this for years. Why you guys so deaf and forgetful? lol

I am in Angeles City now. It's a man's paradise and heaven here, yes, but it's also a place with tons of distractions which make it nearly impossible to do any work or get anything done. A hedonist's paradise makes it that way. lol. Come here and you guys will see what I mean. lol
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Re: Poll: Does Winston give a damn about his own forum?

Post by Winston »

Traveler wrote:I wonder how Winston spends most of his time. It seems like he would have plenty of time to maintain his own forum given that he doesn't work and has sources of passive income.
Yes that's true. I do have plenty of time to manage this forum when I'm not in the Philippines. That's why I hardly get any other work done. I have a list of hundreds of things to do, and have had this list for years. But it's hard to do any of my other work, because when I go online, I get bogged down in managing this forum and participating in some discussions too. All that eats up all my time, to the point where all my other work, some of it from 2011, can't get done. So yes I spend a lot of time managing this forum, which is why a lot of other stuff never gets done. I need to hire some contract workers, but I can't find anyone qualified or responsible.
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Re: Poll: Does Winston give a damn about his own forum?

Post by Winston »

Cornfed wrote:Wouldn’t it at least be possible to have new member posts not posted to the Top 100 Posts Page so they wouldn’t contaminate it pending their deletion?
It may be possible. But I am not a programmer and not an expert in HTML. So I wouldn't be able to edit the Latest Topics Page to remove the spam threads. It would take someone with knowledge of HTML to do it. Someone here, I think droid, said he would try to help with that. He offered to help and said I could PM him the code for the latest topic page so he can see if he can alter it so spam doesn't show. I will try that and see.
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Re: Poll: Does Winston give a damn about his own forum?

Post by Winston »

Cornfed wrote:The spammers are becomming a problem again. The idea would also be to go through the membership and ban all suspicious usernames that haven't posted yet.
Yes I've done that. I deleted all forum accounts with zero posts and no activity for a long time. In doing so, I may have deleted some legit members or lurkers. I announced it here:

viewtopic.php?f=33&t=32506
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Re: Poll: Does Winston give a damn about his own forum?

Post by Winston »

starchild5 wrote:Winston ..Its time to upgrade the forum man...Get new vBulliten software, it will reduce the spam considerably and you will have more control.

The whole forum experience is very 90s.

Well, I don't just say it...I will do it for free and help you install the software etc..The software cost a bit more but its worth it..90% of all forums have vBulliten software and they have excellent support.

It also have inbuilt SEO which will help appear your post in Google ranking. Your China posts need more exposure...The reason HA posts don't appear in Google often is due to phpbb not secure in the eyes of Google.

https://www.vbulletin.com/faqsales.php

Its 195 USD/ year and its is the most used forum software on the internet.

Go for it.
Vbulletin used to be $99 for a lifetime membership. Now it's $200 fee annually? Geez they have gotten greedy. Phpbb is good and has excellent SEO. But the code is messy and the programmers don't like to change much. I should have used a different software long ago when I first started this forum. Too late to switch now. If I switched to vbulletin, the internal links in this forum would all be broken. It would be a pain to try to have a program redirect all internal links or maintain the same structure. If I could do it all over again, I might pick MyBB, which Rooshv forum uses.

http://www.mybb.com
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Re: Poll: Does Winston give a damn about his own forum?

Post by Winston »

droid wrote:@Winston
PM me the latesttopics.php file, see if maybe i can suggest something
Ok I'll do that when I get home and have access to that file. For now though, try this:

view-source:latesttopics.php

Does that show you anything helpful? You can view the source code of any webpage by pushing Control U. At least on Firefox browser you can.
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Re: Poll: Does Winston give a damn about his own forum?

Post by Winston »

Kradmelder wrote:What is all this spam people talk about? How come i dont see it?
You don't see the spam because it's in the moderation queue. Some see the spam because when they come here, they check the Latest 100 Topics Page:

latesttopics.php

Do you? When you come here, what's the first link you click? View Your Posts or View Active Topics?

I told those guys they can just click "View Active Topics" but they don't want to use that page for some reason. That page looks nicer and has the same theme as the forum. But some prefer the latest 100 topics page for some reason.

Right now, there is no spam on the latest 100 topics page because I cleaned it up. However, if they spammers come back again tomorrow, like they usually do, or a few hours later, then you will see the spam topics on that page again.
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Re: Poll: Does Winston give a damn about his own forum?

Post by Winston »

Cornfed wrote:Winston, the intent of these trolls is clearly to destroy the forum by burying it under crap. They have tried having bots posting spam. Now they are trying to pose as real posters and then dig up old threads with one sentence remarks. This should be obvious and you should be dealing with it by banning these trolls. This will necessarily involve a little bit of that dirty, four letter word - work - on your part. You can save your forum by keeping an eye on things to know who the trolls are and then banning them, or if that is too hard then you can lose the forum. The choice is yours.
Why would trolls and spammers want to ruin this forum? What's their incentive? Why this one? Are these trolls a group subcontracted by the US government or feminist groups? This site isn't a threat to the US government or elite. So why would they subcontract hackers or spammers by proxy to undermine this forum? What's their motive? Isn't that a wild conspiracy theory? lol
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Re: Poll: Does Winston give a damn about his own forum?

Post by Winston »

Mr S wrote:From my perspective as I've been pretty much with this forum since it's inception as well as been in contact with Winston since he began his foray overseas, yeah the forum is, as they say, in its winter season or entering its twilight. For this forum to remain competitive, as well as his overall website, he would have to basically do a complete overhaul of them with the newest software and design. Right now there are too many online competitors and better organized sites nowadays than when the forum was initially put up. There are numerous other places to go too with similar topics and information, without all the distractions that this site has nowadays due to numerous reasons such as spammers, slow load times, primitive interface, excessive negative commenting and attacks on fellow members, off-the-wall topics that distract and have nothing to do with the overall message of traveling and living overseas, etc.

I personally don't see anything changing much as to do so Winston would have to invest serious time and money to perform the necessary upgrade to Happier Abroad 2.0 version, which I don't see hm doing. As he admits himself, there are multiple things preventing him from doing so like Murphy's law, negative energies and whatnot.... :roll: :lol:

He probably should upgrade the forum to the newest software or if that sucks, then find an alternative one that runs better and just start over again and maybe retire this one but keep a link where people can still access the old threads for reference purposes. He should probably hire, yes pay someone to be a regular forum monitor that will give a shit how it operates as there is some kind of monetary compensation involved. Also, if he wants quality posting he should probably create an alternative blog site like Roosh did with Return of kings and invite writers who can then get some kind of compensation and links back to their own sites. Personally, I'd rather not spend much time writing unique articles for someone else's site where I get nothing out of it other then extreme criticism from one side or the other, which is often the case in the forum nowadays. Since it's relativity easy to make ones own website or blog and post on there or find other sites where they will give you page hits and possible monetary income, I'm not going to spend a lot of my free time writing a descent essay for nothing anymore, those days are over and I think many other decent writers with half a brain aren't writing for free on forums either.

For example, I've been living in PI for quite a while now and could probably write a decent book for Westerners about the pro's and con's of the place, better than any of the current pdf's available in the market place. Why would I want to give away all this info for free when I can just write something up and put it up on Amazon kindle and monetize it nowadays? I haven't done so as of yet for personal reasons but all I'm saying is why should I be giving away tidbits of info for free which I know people will pay to read? The Internet has changed in over the last 10 years but Winston has not really modified his approach to capturing online readers and writers as it's changed. I mainly just keep in touch with Winston and occasionally participate in the forum because I'm friends with him and we share similar viewpoints on many things and I've met him in person and all that, but if I had not done so or had any personal communications with him I probably would have stopped participating a long time ago just as many previous members on this forum have done.

Money does not motivate Winston, personal freedom is his main motivator so as long as he has a comfortable steady stream of income to live off of, there is no incentive for him to improve his website because it is still providing him money, right now that is. However, I sense that in the next few years if he doesn't upgrade even the fumes that run his website and forum now will evaporate and there will be nothing much left in comparison to the revenue stream he once had.

Another reason is he will be inheriting a lot of money and properties when his parents eventually pass away and I'm assuming that this will also provide enough of a steady stream of income for him to live off of in the future so it's not like he is motivated to change his website and forum because he needs new income streams. He basically is just living off it's fumes at the moment and also he can periodically vent on it as well as meet occasional forum members that still exist on it or ask them questions about various subject matters that he doesn't feel like researching himself. Remember, this whole concept was initially just him writing essays venting about how life is so much better overseas for Westerners in relation to the dating and banging women market. He just monetized it back in the late 00's because there weren't many other competitors or alternative options back then, now there are and to keep up he'd have to put more time and effort into his branding and basically he' not willing to do that right now. So even though we feel we know what should be done and what we would do in his shoes, we are not him and thus have limited options since he does not listen to persuasion easily and follows his own path so to speak.

So basically to put this to rest, nothing we suggest or complain about is going to change anything that's done on this forum. Until Winston decides to change his behavior and priorities, this forum will continue to just die a slow death until there are no regular posters anymore. I suggest those with the will to set up a competing website and forum with similar branding and moderate it to their liking if they want a place to communicate about topics that this forum used to contain on a regular basis and run it appropriately with proper rules and what not.

Personally, now that I've been living overseas for over a decade, the happier abroad message is kinda a misnomer and I'm not so sure I'm sold on it anymore. I think a better branding might be living happier abroad occasionally or seasonally rather than permanently....Globalism and technology has pretty much removed the very things that made living overseas great as one could get away from their native culture completely. Nowadays Western globalism and corporatism is everywhere and it's like your living in a shitty version of whatever Western country you initially came from minus the benefits. If I had known this was going to occur 15 years ago I would have just stayed in the states and set myself up there then traveled overseas periodically from that point in my life. I don't suggest moving overseas and giving up ones entire life in the West anymore, there's no benefit to it unless your running away and want to cut your life completely from your past culture. If you do that though, make sure you run away to a country where it's easy to get a second citizenship. i f'ed up and stayed in a place where it's difficult for a foreigner to get a passport and if you did want it, you'd have to give up your original country of origin citizenship and having a Philippine passport is essentially worthless outside of South East Asia. I suggest if you're in you're 20's and 30's to figure out a way to create your own online business or some other way to be your own boss, become financially stable then travel the world occasionally from there. There's no reason nowadays to have to completely uproot yourself anymore from your home country, there's no benefits anymore because of the technocratic globalism everywhere which intrudes on your life wherever you are.

I'm just hoping it's not too late to turn around my life after being in PI for so long, it's truly a place that sucks the life out of you and give little to no return investment. That's why so many Filipinos want to leave and never come back... I interview hundreds of them every month and in the back of their minds they must think I'm the crazy one that is staying in this whacked out country! :lol:

This is going to be one of the rare and few posts where I actually write something longer than a few sentences, I won't be doing this much more in the future....

P.S.: I do respect the uniqueness of this forum and it's ideals regarding free speech on ANY topic, however I do also feel there is too much negativity and bashing of others writings on here, which in turn, turns people off after a while. Fortunately or unfortunately, this kind of forum attracts individuals who are generally more intelligent and discriminating than the average person and I believe what goes along with that are ego's to match, thus intellectual mini wars break out. If we could come together and figure out a way to limit or prevent this from occurring and turning into recurring flame wars against each other, I think the forum could be saved and resurrected. That's why I suggest just creating a new one using the latest and best forum software while also having better monitoring and stringent posting rules, then just mothball this one (just maintain a link to look at old threads). In it's current inception I'm not sure it can survive much longer in the coming years where this forum software cannot provide adequate place for people to post and read where there a better places to do so.

I feel if we were to meet each other in person we'd all be able to get along and share similar interests with each other, a forum should be a similar place to do so but all the current forum does is bring animosity on each other from what I read, which turns people off except for the die-hards who are probably reading this.... :( :|
Mr S,
With all due respect, I disagree with you on most of the above because:

1. First of all, there is no evidence that traffic is dropping on this forum. Or activity either. According to Google Analytics, about 3000 people visit this forum everyday. But according to my Cloudflare control panel, about 7000 unique visitors come to this forum each day. I don't know why they are so different, since unique visitors per day is an objective measure. But regardless, these numbers have been the same since 2011 or 2012. So this forum doesn't seem to be dying or dwindling. I see no objective hard evidence that it is. So I disagree with you and Rock on that. Neither of you have any real proof that it is. It is just a subjective perception on your part. Also because you two tend to have negative critical viewpoints that assumes the worst and you both tend to lean toward a PESSIMISTIC mindset. Anyone can debunk your claim by going to the Latest 100 Topics page or Active Topics page and see that this forum has plenty of daily activity. Now as to the quality of posts, that's another matter and is subjective. But the quantity of posts is pretty active and stable, which anyone can check and verify objectively.

2. Second, people like you Mr S, and Taco and many others here, are very jaded, negative and pessimistic, whether you admit it or not. It's obvious from your tone and posts. Basically, you have an "assume the worst" type of mentality and you apply it to people, such as Filipino girls and bar girls, and to things in general, like this forum. People have been predicting the demise of this forum since 2010, yet they are proven wrong each year and even today, since the forum is still stable and very active, as mentioned earlier. In spite of that, you guys keep making the same pessimistic predictions each year. Taco keeps predicting the crash of the US dollar and World War 3, yet it never happens.

I have had other close friends in the past who had this "always assume the worst" mentality. So it's nothing new. Even some of my most intellectual friends before had this mentality. The thing is, and the GOOD NEWS is that: People with such an "assume the worst" mentality are usually WRONG 99 or 95 percent of the time. They are rarely right. No joke. They are only right 1 percent of the time or 5 percent at most. Yet in spite of that, they continue to have this mentality, even when they are wrong 99 percent of the time. It's simply part of their personality. Not logical of course. But humans are not logical creatures. Even intellectual types like you and me tend to not always be logical. So fortunately, I'm not worried, since highly pessimistic people tend to be wrong most of the time, especially when they assume the worst about every new person they meet or every new girl they meet, or whatever. I can give tons of examples easily.

The critics of this forum say that you guys are too negative and jaded. No doubt that is true. Even though your criticisms may be justified, there is no doubt that the filter of you guys' perception is too negative and jaded and that biases your views toward the negative. That is not objective or truthful or accurate. It's just negative. It only sees the glass half empty. It only sees half the picture. It's a shame that even some of you die hard HA fans are like this. You keep coming back here, even though you are overly critical of this forum. It's ironic.

3. Third, yes Mr S, this site may be outdated in some ways, but it is still VERY UNIQUE and ONE-OF-A-KIND. I've explained this to you before. No other site or self help movement or self help guru recommends changing your LOCATION as a solution to your problems. They all recommend changing your thoughts and attitude. Not just Tony Robbins says this, but virtually ALL new age and self-improvement and self-help authors and gurus and figures say this. That makes us still VERY UNIQUE, because we are advocating changing LOCATION, while they are advocating staying in the US and changing your thoughts. Even Art Bell, who claims that his show has no censorship and that no topic is too taboo for him, will not talk about a better life overseas for single men, or a better dating and social life abroad. So even the most famous freethinkers like Art Bell or David Icke, will NOT touch the topics we talk about. You know it too Mr S. You follow these guys too so you know it. Even one of your favorite guys you promote, Michael Tsarion, will not touch the subject of HA.

If you don't believe me, go to YouTube or any counter culture website. They will talk about government tyranny, the right to bear arms, how America's freedoms are being eroded, etc etc. But no one is promoting the HA solution but us. We do not have any major competitors except maybe Rooshv. So YES, we are still very UNIQUE in that way. I challenge you to find another major website that compares to this one in content and popularity - other than Rooshv forum that is. I'm willing to bet you can't.

Moreover, the members of this forum keep coming back here because they can be themselves and express free speech. Try going to other forums Mr S, even Roosh's forum, and see how much free speech there is. Thus there is a feeling of FREEDOM here that other forums don't have. That's what keeps bringing people back. That's why you are still here Mr S, whether you admit it or not. There is psychological appeal here. Even Starchild can see it. It's also a venting ground for frustrated men who will not be met with sympathy on other forums, only ridicule. So this forum provides a lot of therapy for frustrated men.

Sure this forum does not appeal to the mainstream. You are right about that. It only appeals to a niche of intellectual types and of angry negative types as well, who need to vent. And it appeals to those who share our views and those who are seeking HA solutions rather than conventional advice.

I hope you understand, Mr S and Rock, and that this all helps you to see the bigger picture through more objective lenses. Your analysis Mr S, does not take all the above into account.

Somehow, this conversation seems strangely familiar, as if we've had it before. I'm not talking about deja vu. I'm talking about you making these same points many times before, and me giving you the same answers and reasons why I disagree. We seem to have this conversation every year. Yet life goes on and the forum goes on and remains stable and active. When will you guys learn from your mistakes?

Finally Mr S, you aren't a webmaster, so you don't know what it's like to run this site. Most of the solutions here, proposed by NON-webmasters, are not feasible or won't work in real life. Even Xiongmao, who is a webmaster too, can see this. He knows that fixing the problems here is not as easy as you guys think. Yes there are things I can do to make this site better, and they are on my to do list, but they are not easy to implement and will take time and subcontracting work out to people. But most of the suggestions here are trivial and won't do much to change things. This forum appeals because of it's content, not because of it's sleek web design.

It's true that the young generation is getting more stupid and turning away from forums to more simple websites and to YouTube videos, but that's a trend we can't do anything about. We still appeal to a niche group of expats and wanna be expats and global daters.
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Winston
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Re: Poll: Does Winston give a damn about his own forum?

Post by Winston »

starchild5 wrote:It doesn't work like that...there is a thing called AI after all.

You cannot have both ways. There is not a single forum online that is as free as HA. Guaranteed.

America, the west is so fake ..third world sh*t hole looks better...American freedom is fake PC freedom...You cannot really say what you want to say unless you weigh your thoughts and see to it that..you do not hurt the minorities, the jews, the blacks, the political establishment, the feminist and on and on...aka you cannot really say anything in America...its just reverse of Saudi Arabia.

This is the PRICE Winston is paying for making the forum stick to TRUE FREEDOM.

True Freedom is not easy..Try it with Roosh, Godslikeproductions, DavidIcke Forum, reddit, 4chan, Chinese, Indian, Filipino based forum...all freaking fake as f*ck false freedom forums.

The AI gives amazing time, forum software to fake forums but makes sure Winston never have the time, energy, money etc to upgrade the software. He has internal battles going on..The AI attacks true freedom lovers.
Yes Starchild, you seem to get it in some ways. This forum is the only one I know of that's truly free. You can feel it when you come here in the forum's vibe. My challenge to Mr S and Rock is this:

Go to David Icke forum and talk about HA topics. You will get a warning from the moderators that you will be banned if you continue. I know this because I received such warnings from them. Wanna see them in my inbox in the David Icke forum? lol. Try doing the same on Alex Jones forum, PrisonPlanet. That forum has banned a million people, most of the time for no good reason. Most forums are moderated by control freaks who ban people for trivial reasons that are often subjective. This even applies to Rooshv forum too. Name one forum that's like this one. I'll bet you can't. If so, then you must admit that I'm right. Therefore your point about this forum not being unique or special anymore, is DEFINITELY WRONG Mr S. And inaccurate too.

Even if you go to the forum at LivinginthePhilippines.com, which is a popular forum for Philippines expats, you will see that it is moderated by control freaks and assholes. It's not a free speech forum like this one at all. You are only allowed to talk about practical stuff. And if you disagree with the moderators, they will ban your ass. Not so here. So where is your appreciation Mr S? lol

As to updating the forum, dude, we just updated this forum from phpbb 2 to phpbb 3 remember? There are threads about the major upgrade. Sure there is a phpbb 3.1 now. However, the templates look the same. There are no major improvements. The only improvements are stuff that only geeks would understand. You and I would not understand them.

I've also explained the problems with upgrading to you all before, MANY TIMES! Again........

This phpbb forum has many mods and hacks. The reason is because the forum default template is woefully inadequate. It does not even have a function that resizes images to fit into the forum properly for instance, so oversized images will bloat the page off the screen, forcing you to scroll a lot to see the whole text. So you gotta install a hack or add code to resize images to fit on the page nicely. That's just one of many mods and hacks here. The programmers seem to lack common sense. They work for free, as this is open sourced software, so there is no incentive for them to improve this forum software. Thus any changes they make, are the kind that only keeps and programmers understand. People like us will not understand them.

Now the thing is, if I update the forum to a new version, such as 3.1, the mods and hacks may fail to work or cause problems. Do you want that? If that happened, no doubt you would complain. LOL

So you see, it's not easy to just upgrade, even though I could do it with an automated tool now, still the problem is that the hacks and mods here may fail to work. And as I explained earlier, the mods are necessary because this forum lacks many features that we need, by default, so mods had to be installed to add them.

So you see, it's not an easy solution. If we get rid of phpbb and move to vbulletin or mybb, then the thousands of internal links in this forum will not work. Do you have a solution to that? If not, then why are you suggesting bad solutions or saying that I refuse to implement them?

Do you understand the situation now? Comprende? This is NOT the first time I've explained all this. I've explained all this to you MANY MANY times before! MANY TIMES! Yet you keep forgetting and bringing up the same arguments and acting like I don't listen or refuse to upgrade the forum, etc. WHY? WHY do you act as though you are deaf or have amnesia? We been through all this years ago!

Do you have a solution to the problems above? If so I'd like to hear them. Neither of you guys are webmasters, Rock and Mr S. So you don't know the problems that upgrading forum software entails. I do, and I've explained them to you many times in the past. Yet you forget them because they aren't important for you to remember, so your brain flushes them out and causes me to re-explain them to you. Next time, please book mark this page so you can refer to it again when you bring up the same questions again. (sigh)

Either way, please DO NOT act like I haven't addressed all this and I ignore all suggestions, because I have not. The problem is YOUR forgetfulness after reading all my explanations to you.
Check out my FUN video clips in Russia and SE Asia and Female Encounters of the Foreign Kind video series and Full Russia Trip Videos!

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