End Monopoly

One suggestion I would like to see is the end of censorship when it comes to responding to queries on local moving. This is after all a site both for profit (for the AsiaXpat company) AND for advice - hence the term "advice forum". If someone asks for suggestions on local movers - all those which are not the "official" ones (or one as I think Man with a Van used to be the sole company allowed but after many comments that they are busy there is possibly another one also allowed) get deleted.


If AsiaXPat allows people to offer advice as regards which dentist they have used, which shipping comnay they have used etc etc then it would be nice - and oh so very useful - to allow freedom of choice in choosing local moving companies.

We have 3 of the best movers in the world with paid ads on our site and we have Mr Kwai who is perhaps the best man with a van in Hong Kong.


They provide excellent service and they pay to advertise with us so I dont see any reason why we should post what are in effect free ads for their competitors.

Ed.


This is your website and I do understand the need for you to protect your advertisers interests. But basically if hurts the interest of the site if users aren't allowed to provide full information on a topic that is being discussed. The discussion loses credibility after a while, and that could reflect on the rest of the site. My friend runs a large internet marketing company, he builds comparative shopping sites for such things like credit cards. His client is normally just one bank, which pays all the money, but other banks products are compared on the site, they are also getting free advertising, the reason they do it is to develop credibility, and once the site has that, he can generate traffic. I know its not quite the same as AsiaXpat but the concept is similar. Perhaps you could design a way when people are asking advice on a certain topic for which you have an advertiser you could allow those that do not advertise the ability to make their case, under your advertisers, highlighting your advertiser as the trusted source on here. Its done with affiliate marketers on comparison sites, where all competitors are listed, but the traffic is directed one way, towards the advertiser or client.


I'm not trying to tell you how to run your business, its just a suggestion

I hear you however we tried to expand our list of movers particularly the smaller man with a van types - they declined to advertise - therefore I am not comfortable with giving them a free ride at the expense of paid advertisers...


This is about the only industry that I can think of where we do this - we have comprehensive mover content from top movers so I think we've got a good range of service as it is.

OK fair enough

Agree with the others


How come you have don't stop info on accomadation in Bali for instance as or hairdressers etc when you have advertisers for these services? i can only think that santa Fe only agreed to advertise on the site if you didn't allow the forum to suggest alternatives.


shame really as it makes people go to the opposition for help

The reason we delete ads for other movers is because we have agreements with these movers not to promote others.


As you correctly point out we dont delete recommendations for any other types of companies - if you want to recommend to respond to pretty much every other sort of question whether someone is asking for a recommendation for a restaurant or a handyman, we will not delete it.

Ed -


It just happens via PM rather than in the threads... Being an exclusive advertiser is completely understandable, but insisting that responses to the question "Which relocation firm do you recommend" be deleted if they mention firms other than Santa Fe is over the top. I will pretty much never use Santa Fe if that is their attitude to oppressing speech.


And to to be a bit pedantic, having a company named by a contributor on the forums is not the same as AsiaXpat promoting the company named. Surely you aren't advocating the legal view that site operators stand behind all that is said on their sites. LOL.


Certainly no one thinks that AX is promoting SQ when I suggest that SQ has have a better business class offering than CX on the HKG - SIN route.

A couple of things... we signed the exclusive arrangements with a number of movers (extending beyond Santa Fe) and it is our policy not theirs of not promoting other movers on the forums or anywhere else.


We have the market covered with three of the best movers in Asia + it is in our interest that they generate business from their ads so there is no need to mention other movers - and as indicated in the past, we offered a 4th spot to a number of movers and it was turned down. So we feel no obligation to give anyone a free ride at the expense of advertisers that pay our salaries...


Re: negative comments about companies. In addition to the obvious libel risks, keep in mind who pays for this site to exist (and for our Molson).... If we allow users to slag off companies you have to remember the internet has a very very long memory... and so does google... Do you think that if we littered the site with complaints about companies that they would be very happy to see their banners show up beside negative comments?


We have around a quarter of a million unique visitors on the HK site each month and I know from past experience that a negative comment about a company or individual will get back to them very quickly because someone knows someone knows someone in this town.


Years back when we didnt monitor the forums closely we had plenty of calls from companies who were not very happy to see themselves on the forums in a negative light...


And then you have Google - search your company name and up pops blasphemous comments on AsiaXPAT... guess where you will never be advertising (and if the comments are not true guess who spends time in court and pays the $3K+/hour legal fees....).


What you are suggesting is nothing new - all of these issues have been taken into consideration, pros and cons weighed, and we have determined the rules after much discussion and debate.


Nothing will be perfect but from the standpoint of running a business we feel that this policy is the only viable option we have. Anything else definitely ensure that would be bankrupted by law suits and advertiser defection and it would mean that I would have to go back to Sudbury and work in the mines....


http://www.hummerguy.net/wp-content/nickelmineSudbury.jpg



Cut me a bit of slack ya... I bet you'd do the same if faced with that...

And after the mines, this would be my fate eh... Feel free to tap your toe and singalong...

http://hongkong.asiaxpat.com/gallery/videos/1245/stompin-tom-connors-sudbury-saturday-night/



And that would be a fate worse than that of my good friend who also hails from The Nickel Capital of The World - the one, the only.... Expat Bob: http://hongkong.asiaxpat.com/promos/smartexpat/sx_3_bob.shtm