Boquete Ning FAQ’s
9/16/2015 ( submitted by readers)
What is the primary purpose of Boquete Ning? An interactive site where local Ex pat residents can communicate with each other, with those who want to visit, those who want to relocate, where local businesses can promote, and generally the site for the #1 place everyone comes to find out about Boquete, Panama.
Can I view Boquete Ning in different languages? Yes, although our featured language is in English, most members do not realize, our site has a built in Translator and you can view Boquete Ning in many different languages, including Spanish. The translations are not perfect, but they are not bad as we are told.
Will you improve the Ning Search Engine? Yes, we are reviewing with our developers and upgrading it shortly.
Will the new management be offering community editorials? Yes, we are soliciting for personal interest stories for all things Boquete to share with our viewers worldwide. If you are a writer and wish to become a contributor to Ning, please contact us.
We see you have a new Tab system, what can we expect? Correct, we are introducing a drop down sub tab program in an effort to better organize our topics for our readers. Please take the time to go through it in detail and look for the changes, some daily, some weekly, some only as needed for updates.
Will you keep the current Ning Rolodex? We are reviewing alternatives that are compatible to the Ning format. We can tell you the directory will be a categorized directory which will be easy to find sources of vendors or service providers in and around Boquete to help all Ningers find what they are looking for. It is our goal to make it very informative, easy to peruse for results and we are attempting to introduce a simple “voting” system members can vote to help future members make decisions. It will be a paid for directory. We are officially an operating business, have expenses and will make decisions based on community outreach along with decisions for paid supporters who also are in business wanting to profit from Boquete Ning from our readership. So it is fair to charge acceptable advertising fees. Our members and readers will never pay for enjoying Ning.
In reviewing the forum groups, will you allow groups to continue and take up space with little to any membership? We respect all groups on Boquete Ning; However, effective November 1st, 2015 any and all listed groups on Boquete Ning will have to show a base of at least 15 members in their group or we will cancel them from the site. We encourage those who are group creators to get out there and market to the community to get to this support level. In the future, we want a Boquete Ning that is organized, easy for members to view without the dated content or groups just taking up space in our garage so to speak. This new management team is not “rat packs” so to speak. We will strive for a really neat, organized and easy on the eyes website. We can only accomplish this by organizing areas we feel are outdated and virtually unused by the membership.
Who do you consider your readership base? In reviewing our site analytics, it appears 70% or so of the readership is from local expats who either reside in Boquete (and surrounding areas) fulltime or part time. Surprisingly, the balance comes mostly from those interested in vacationing, searching for a second home or relocating from whereat they love now. Based on these stats, we will do our best accommodate content on Boquete Ning to keep all interested in coming back daily.
Your team seems to be changing Lee Zeltzer’s original Boquete Ning concept, why? We purchased Boquete Ning with respect to what Mr. Zeltzer created and built over the years. We have full intentions to respect his goal of readership interaction via the forum and blog posts. I would say, we are committed to expand, update and offer a new look so many in the community are asking for. We will only remove sections or content on our site that we deem no longer useful or only used by a very group of members. In a few months, we think the majority of readers will enjoy our completed and growing format.
You seem committed to care about the past by naming Keith Woolford as a member of your team and seemingly Fran Hogan staying onboard. True? Both are faces and voices for years in Boquete respected by most. Keith is our new operating partner and referee if needed, and Fran continues to be our moderator of reason. ( Tough to please all members in those roles). We ask everyone to join them in fairness and assistance as our forum for all. Those respectful of all will always have a voice; those who do not follow the rules of engagement will no longer have their voice on Ning.
I do not want to be to critical, but when you take the time to go through the pages of ning, I cannot help but think it is a “hodgepodge” of confusion sometimes, especially for newbies on the site. Will you be offering a more organized format for those who post classifieds or similar? The short answer, absolutely! The long one, as stated in another question, a new directory is in the works to be better organized, we are reviewing with our development team a more comprehensive and organized classified section.
We will be offering a new real estate section to assist those looking to buy a home in the area and those of you here who may be looking to move on. Spotlight Properties will be interesting to many who are buyers and sellers. Sellers of properties will like our new format to assist them in selling their homes. There are so many new business’s and restaurants who need a voice to help them gain exposure in the community and the new Ning will do just that.
Many of us do not speak Spanish, nor are we familiar with where to turn to get emergency updates, police updates, weather updates etc. Is there any way you can expand your service to help those of us in need for such important information? Yes, we are designing a clicker feed banner for the homepage that is for breaking news which will consider these type of emergencies to inform all readers should such an event be of importance for our readers. This banner will also be used in non-emergencies for local restaurants and other business’s to promote specials, announcements, promotions etc. on a daily basis.
Please email us at Boqueteninger@gmx.com We will update this FAQ as needed to keep all of Boquete ex pats informed of our changes to better serve you. If we have not answered your question, please resubmit and we will give it another try.
Regards,
Bob Hunter
JLM Foundation
( I am the one behind the scenes of our company, not living in Boquete, just yet, please respect my privacy, curiosity gossip by others keeps me private )
