Planet Romeo closing their "Classic" site

Anything and everything about Thailand
Josan

Re: Planet Romeo closing their "Classic" site

Post by Josan »

In the new site how do you search for countries?
User avatar
Gaybutton
Posts: 21459
Joined: Sat Jul 31, 2010 11:21 am
Location: Thailand
Has thanked: 2 times
Been thanked: 1306 times

Re: Planet Romeo closing their "Classic" site

Post by Gaybutton »

Josan wrote: Thu Dec 12, 2019 6:21 am In the new site how do you search for countries?
Good question. As far as I'm concerned, their new and improved web site sux. I can't even figure out how to search other cities in Thailand, let alone other countries.

If these features are so hard to find or not even available anymore, what's the point?
Jun

Re: Planet Romeo closing their "Classic" site

Post by Jun »

1 Download their excellent phone app
2 Click on the airplane icon at the bottom
3 Type in the city in the search box at the top
User avatar
Gaybutton
Posts: 21459
Joined: Sat Jul 31, 2010 11:21 am
Location: Thailand
Has thanked: 2 times
Been thanked: 1306 times

Re: Planet Romeo closing their "Classic" site

Post by Gaybutton »

Jun wrote: Thu Dec 12, 2019 8:54 am 1 Download their excellent phone app
That's the phone app. I prefer using the desktop site. If there is a way to do the same thing on their web site, I haven't been able to find it.
Jun

Re: Planet Romeo closing their "Classic" site

Post by Jun »

The good desktop site is gone, whether we like it or not.

I would then suggest the phone app beats the "new" desktop site for usability.
User avatar
Gaybutton
Posts: 21459
Joined: Sat Jul 31, 2010 11:21 am
Location: Thailand
Has thanked: 2 times
Been thanked: 1306 times

Re: Planet Romeo closing their "Classic" site

Post by Gaybutton »

Jun wrote: Thu Dec 12, 2019 12:09 pm I would then suggest the phone app beats the "new" desktop site for usability.
Hornet seems to be going in that direction too. The obvious question - why? What's in it for them to do that? How is it advantageous to them to the point they seem to be trying to phase out the desktop apps? While I understand that people carry their mobile phones with them and usually have them handy at all times, I don't understand why also having the desktop apps perform just as well is somehow a disadvantage.

Grindr, BlueD, and Jack'd never even had desktop apps.
Jun

Re: Planet Romeo closing their "Classic" site

Post by Jun »

Gaybutton wrote: Thu Dec 12, 2019 12:44 pm The obvious question - why? How is it advantageous to them to the point they seem to be trying to phase out the desktop apps?
These fancy phones are catching on. Almost everyone has one.

10 years ago, boys might have used an internet cafe to access Gay Romeo. Now they all have phones.
I would guess that less than 1% of Gay Romeo use is on the old desktop site. So it gets to the point where, given a choice between improving the phone app or the old site, the phone app wins.
User avatar
Gaybutton
Posts: 21459
Joined: Sat Jul 31, 2010 11:21 am
Location: Thailand
Has thanked: 2 times
Been thanked: 1306 times

Re: Planet Romeo closing their "Classic" site

Post by Gaybutton »

Jun wrote: Thu Dec 12, 2019 12:54 pm it gets to the point where, given a choice between improving the phone app or the old site, the phone app wins.
I understand the phone app wins, but what's wrong with both?
Planet Romeo wrote:Shutting down Classic will remove some limitations and allow us to focus on continuing to develop new things.
In that case, why is their phone app better than the web site app? Why isn't the web site at least equal to the phone app? Seems to me what we ended up with on the web site was more, not less, limitations. What am I missing?
Jun

Re: Planet Romeo closing their "Classic" site

Post by Jun »

To answer the question, what you MIGHT be missing (obviously I don't know for sure):
Maintaining 3 services costs more than 2. They probably need to ensure compatability between all forms of the service (cost). There are probably hosting charges. Also, for security reasons, they probably can't just leave the old site with no maintenance.

Where sites have tried no maintenance, that has sometimes led to hacking and demise of the site (eg one Thai forum).

So there are costs to running the old site. Then if most of the users have migrated to the phone app, eventually there is no business case to keep the old site.
Jun

Re: Planet Romeo closing their "Classic" site

Post by Jun »

Number of boys under 24 online within 2km radius of my hotel:

Planet Romeo 17 within 2km (32 within 10 km)
Grindr 90 (within 2km)
Hornet 54 within 3km

Caveats:
Planet Romeo "Online" filter selected. If unselected, profiles that have not been active for weeks show up.
Due to no "free" filters:
Grindr -I counted all visible profiles, as the offline ones seem to have been online within 1 hour
Hornet -Profiles with green dot for online only. Profiles without this include some inactive for many hours.

Obviously a true like for like comparison isn't easy, due to different definitions of "online", filters etc

Incidentally, I don't limit myself to under 24s. However, when some apps limit the number of profiles I can view, a work around is to view tighter age ranges. e.g 18-24, 24-30.
Post Reply