Lung addie: writing an article for the blog (1)

Last month, on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of Thailandblog.nl, the main writers, known as bloggers, were put in the spotlight. This was a very nice initiative by the editors. Yes, after all, a blog cannot survive for long without writers.

There is a need for different people, different subjects, different views. 1 person cannot handle this as he would be 'unregistered' very soon and would be forced to repeat himself. This initiative led to surprising findings. Often the person behind the articles was perceived as completely different from what he really is.

However, many people have no idea how a good article comes about. It is understandable that such an article does not just roll out of the proverbial pen. No, there is much more to it. We must make a distinction between the different categories of writers and I will not list them all:

• the file managers with Ronny LatYa, Rob V. ……
• the informative writers such as Gringo, Lung Jan, Dick Koger, Lodewijk Lagemaat, the editors…..
• the story writers like De Inquisitor, Lung addie, Charly…..
• the people who only write comments or ask a question to the first two categories mentioned. I call them commenters or questioners.

Without the first three categories, a blog has little chance of survival. No articles means no readers and no comments. The last category is also important for keeping a blog like Thailandblog.nl alive. These certainly keep the brewery alive.

Today I want to talk about the first category: file managers.

This category of writers has a lot of work all the time. In the first place translating the relevant laws and regulations. The original laws and regulations almost always have to be translated from English into Dutch. A lot of time has already gone into that. Forget about using a translation program because that is only good for translating certain words. Full sentences almost always give very poor results, sometimes even ridiculous. These writers must therefore have a very good knowledge of the English language and also of the Dutch language. An article, especially when it comes to such a subject, full of language errors cannot be appreciated by the reader.

These writers also have to keep up. The rules change very regularly. So they should always consult the relevant official websites very regularly and compare what it looked like before and how it looks now. They should do this with the Thai Immigration website as well as the websites of the relevant embassies and consulates: The Hague – Amsterdam – Brussels – Antwerp – Essen. Particular differences may also arise between the embassies and consulates of the same country.

For a file such as the Schengen visa, this means always consulting the EU Commission, IND, DVZ, BUZA….

Collecting, filtering and storing reader experiences is also part of this. It is therefore a constant task to be able to draw up a correct file and keep it up to date. Regular reading of other forums is also part of this. The information obtained there can provide interesting information for them.

Secondly, these people have taken on the task of answering readers' questions. Especially with the Immigration file that is quite a sandwich, especially if there are changes. This is often not an easy task. Not an easy task due to the often missing crucial information, the confusion of terms (visa at arrival, visa excemption, tourist visa, Non O versus Non OA…. Is there still the refutation of incorrect responses given by other people who respond to a question Fortunately, the editors have provided the option 'No response possible' here.

Under this category we also have a special item: 'GP Dr Maarten'. Although he does not act as a file manager, medical questions, as a doctor, are reserved for him. He too is totally dependent on the information obtained by the questioner. He too will regularly have to do some research on the names of certain medicines that may or may not be available in Thailand, but under a different name with the same chemical composition. A very commendable initiative by Dr Maarten.

It is therefore very important for the file managers to receive a clearly correctly described question, with the necessary correct information. The editors usually send the question initially to the file manager before the questions and answers appear on the blog.

This article was created after first informing the relevant file managers. This allowed them to submit their comments to the author, Lung addie.

To be continued.