The New Hanoian User Guide

What is The New Hanoian exactly?

The New Hanoian is a community site for the city of Hanoi that is composed entirely of user generated content. It is the accumulated wisdom of all of you brought together in a single, well-structured home. The New Hanoian is also an opportunity. Through the integration of various social networking features, The New Hanoian offers you the tools to find the people and places that make Hanoi such a compelling place to live. As your own experience grows, you too can revisit the site and contribute your own insights to it all. Become a respected member of the TNH community, and you can be sure that the scene will be taking note of any events or activities you decide to throw together. Here is where you can make it happen.

How long has The New Hanoian been going and who's responsible for it?

The New Hanoian was originally started in the spring of 2005 by Elliott Price and Brady Fossen. It was a modest listings site with a few articles and reviews scattered here and there. It wasn't really until Elliott and Brady met Tom Lancaster that the site began to take its current form. With Tom's technical expertise in web development on board, a dynamic version of The New Hanoian (allowing user reviews and other contributions) arrived on the scene in October 2005. Brady returned to the U.S. that fall, and it has been Tom and Elliott's project ever since. When they're not hard at work on the site, you can probably find them in one of Hanoi's various beer joints arguing about music, dissecting the world's problems, and coming up with ways to make The New Hanoian better. As the Director of Technology, Tom's the guy we lock up in a dark basement until he can make sense of the bia hoi induced plans we've committed ourselves to. The marvel of information management you see before is his doing. Elliott, as the Community Relations Director, has overcome his own aesthetic shortcomings to be the face of the site around town. To keep the community active and productive, there are countless meetings to be had with business owners, organizations, and community members like yourself. Three years of that sort of running have prepared him for a lucrative career as a xe om driver, should things here at the site not work out. Additional design help has been provided by our good friend Julien over at DuoGrafik Media, and our old buddy Hoai is always ready to lend a hand with map drawing or other grunt work. It's a small operation, but we press forward. The site has been in constant change since its inception. That's one thing that won't be changing anytime soon.

How does The New Hanoian support itself?

The New Hanoian began simply as a labor of love. There was a glaring need for improved web resources, and we thought we could give it a shot. As we developed, the project became bigger and bigger. At some point, we realized that in order to really give the Hanoi community what it deserved, we'd have to devote ourselves to it full time. Knowing this, we began to work on ways in which it might support us financially. We weren't, however, interested in going for the quick and dirty ways that a site like this might usually try to cash in. To start profiting from this in a way that abused the trust of the community and undermined the open and honest tone the site has set would be contrary to all we have worked for. Thus, we've been diligent in setting up a monetization approach that allows local businesses to interact with the community at a commercial level without violating the most essential aspects of community. We've been willing to do it for free for three years, and we're not going to see it hurt by our own hands in any way now. The summer of 2008 sees us moving toward that dream of working on The New Hanoian full time.

How do I become a member?

Anyone can join. Simply click on the "Sign Up To Be A Member" link in the upper right of the header, and away you go. There is no fee to join, we won't share your information with any outside parties, and you won't receive any spam from us. To sign up, however, you do need to use a valid email address. You will be receiving a confirmation email with a link in it that you must click in order to activate your account.

I signed up, but I didn't receive any confirmation email. What do I do?

99% of the time, one of two things has happened. 1) Being an automated email, that confirmation email can sometimes be mistakenly filtered out as spam by your mail provider. Always check your spam/junk/bulk folder. Most of the time, it is in there. 2) You may have mistyped your email address. A single typo in your address during registration and that confirmation email is either on its way to a non-existent destination, or is dropping in on a very surprised individual with similar tastes in email handles as yourself. So, basically, if you don't find it in your spam/junk/bulk folder, try signing up again, and be very careful how you type in that email address.

Everytime I try to sign in, it tells me, "Bad Username or Password". Why can't I sign in?

The vast majority of the time, this is because you've slightly mistyped or didn't quite remember exactly how you signed in previously. Remember that both the username AND the password are case sensitive. If you signed up as "JohnSmith", then "johnsmith" will not work. Likewise with the password. If you're are certain that you have the username and password correct, email us at tech@newhanoian.com and we'll look into it for you.

Now that I'm a member, what does that allow me to do?

The New Hanoian membership has many advantages. Now that you're a member, you can start to give back to the community and help it flourish and continue to help you. You can write reviews of businesses around town, ask and answer questions on Ask A.N.H., post job, housing, and classified ads, make or join Groups, post events through those groups, enter new businesses into the directory, and communicate with all the other members of the site through the private messaging system. You'll also be eligible to win user contribution prizes and to attend the monthly meet ups. Being a member of The New Hanoian is really your first step to becoming an active and contributing member of the Hanoi community as a whole.

After signing up for The New Hanoian, I've begun receiving the TNH Newsletter. What is this all about?

We send out two or three newsletters each month. These newsletters help to keep the community informed about recent changes on the site, activities of and opportunities for prominent site members, and the occasional non-commercial event taking place around Hanoi. Businesses can't buy their way into that newsletter, though we will consider including them if we feel they make a sufficiently valuable contribution to our community of users. There are three main ways this usually happens. They can sponsor one of the monthly user contribution prizes, host a TNH Meet UP, or get involved with a non-commercial event or fundraiser that is working to make Hanoi a better place for all of us.

How do I unsubscribe from the TNH Newsletter once I've left Hanoi?

There are two ways to unsubscribe. 1) You can visit your Profile page after signing into your account. Go to the "Manage Notifications" tab and untick the box that has you receiving the TNH Newsletter. 2) You can reply to the newsletter with "unsubscribe" as the subject line. Either of these will lead to you no longer receiving the newsletter.

What are the User Contribution Prizes, and how can I win one?

The User Contribution Prizes are our way of rewarding outstanding contributions to the site by general members of the community. Each month, two or three different Hanoi businesses sponsor these prizes. Winners are awarded things like dinner in one of Hanoi's fine restaurants, a night of drinking for a group of friends in a local bar, or perhaps a spending spree in an area shop. To win, one needs to be one of the top contributors for a given month. The available prizes are typically announced mid-month, and the winners are announced just after the end of the month. We select those TNH members whose reviews best epitomize what it takes to make the site the most useful and current one for the city of Hanoi. It may be writing a bundle of reviews, entering new and exciting businesses not yet listed on the site, or helping out people on the Ask A.N.H. pages. Also, while we love to see a large number of contributions pouring in, quality definitely matters. Look through the archives of past newsletters (and front page articles) to check out some of the previous winners. You'll get a quick idea of what it takes to win one of these. Once the prizes are announced, we'll print up a prize voucher for you and contact you so that we can hand it over. From there, you're off to enjoy some free stuff.

When are the TNH Meet Ups, and what do I have to do to attend?

The meet ups are generally held in the middle of each month. We announce them a couple weeks before the actual event. Any The New Hanoian member is free to attend, and we frequently have computers at the event to sign up anyone who is tagging along with other members, but may not be a member yet. Each month's meet up is sponsored and hosted by a different area business. These frequently take place in bars or restaurants. The hosts of each gathering offers our community three hours of free drinking and possibly eating as well. The minimum you can expect is free beer for three hours, but many businesses are looking to show off a bit more than that and toss in a variety of other things as well. These meet ups give us all a chance to put a face to the username. They are also very popular with new arrivals to the city who may have been using the site to get settled and are now ready to jump into the social scene. They're loads of fun, so be sure to mark them on your calendar. No reservation or sign up (other than site membership) is required. Just show up and have a blast!

What is your reviewing policy? Can anyone write anything?

The New Hanoian is fundamentally driven by user contributions. Accordingly, we do not in any way want to to stifle opinion or limit your sense of expression. However, there are some basic considerations we all have to take into account. This is a community with a wide variety of perspectives and attitudes. It is important to be respectful to all who are active in that community. Your posts should show respect to other community members. Unnecessarily profane or confrontational content is not appropriate here. Culturally insensitive comments will not be tolerated as well. Living abroad can be a frustrating experience at times, but this is not the place to come and vent. Make your opinions known in a well-informed and responsible manner, and you'll always be welcome. Come here looking for payback for that bad week you've had, and you may be asked to leave. While there's no one way to write a great review, we do offer some basic guidelines for how to approach it.

• Be as clear and personal as possible in your reviews. Remember that saying a certain spot is "great" or "terrible" is of little value if other users have no way of gauging why you feel that way. Give personal, anecdotal information so that other people can decide if it's something they might like to pursue further. Give people some context for your rating. Do not post hearsay or second hand experience as your own review. We understand that you may not want to patronize a business due to the experience that one of your friends has had, but it's important that you keep your own reviews based on what you've seen and done. Encourage a friend to sign up and write a review of their experiences if it's something important for the community to know. Once people start adding hearsay and and second hand info, things spin out of control quite quickly.
• Offer both the good and the bad you know about Hanoi. This isn't a Hanoi PR site. A great many of us enjoy our lives here (or we wouldn't be here any longer), but that certainly isn't to say that the experience is flawless. In fact, documenting the rough experiences we've gone through can help others avoid similar mistakes. We can also steer people in the right direction, allowing businesses and organizations that operate effectively to enjoy greater success.
• Don't use the review pages as a place to carry on an argument. We have no problem with people having fun with the reviews or referencing other people's opinions about a place, but it will not be allowed to degenerate to the level of back-and-forth attacks by users. If you feel the need to call somebody out on something, please do so by appropriately rating their review and using the private messaging system or more extensive exchanges. Remember that the review pages are not a general forum. Keep the content on topic.
• Don't anonymously review or provide content about a spot you have a personal/financial relationship with. If you own or work at a spot that you'd like to give your opinion on, that is perfectly fine. Simply make it clear in the review or comment what your relationship is. People will respect that as the opinion of a person close to the situation. If it is well-written, it can be of great help. On the other hand, trying to covertly review your own place rarely works out. Our users are not idiots. If they suspect someone is shilling for themselves, subsequent user reviews are frequently ruthless, whereas places with honest and modest reputations are more likely to get the benefit of the doubt.

How does the site deal with abusive community members?

It is an unfortunate fact of life that not all people will treat a community like this with the respect it deserves. We deal with abuse of this sort in two primary ways. 1) The site is set up to automatically marginalize abusive site users. The contributions of all users do not equally factor into how places are rated. Those users who only make a few reviews that don't fit the site's general tone will see those reviews have virtually no significance, and as other users rate their reviews and contributions (using the links directly below the review or post), that significance can drop even further. Ultimately, the amount of work it would take to game the system effectively would end up being counter productive, as that same time and energy spent improving their actual business through legitimate means would be far more effective. 2) If a user is writing offensive or misplaced content, we will remove the post and notify the user. We will invite them to continue contributing to the site, but only if they follow its expressed policies. Repeated failures to conform to those expectations may result in a user being banned, but it is rare.

The most common form of "abuse" on the site, is a business owner or manager finding the site and attempting to get some exposure for their business before they have fully understood how the site works. If their posts are in direct violation of site policies, they will be removed and the poster contacted. We frequently sit down with business owners and explain the dynamics of this sort of online community. We give them advice on how to use it responsibly and most effectively. We do not take a punitive stance. We give them the benefit of the doubt and work to integrate them into The New Hanoian. The more they see themselves as a community member, the more likely they are to identify with the concerns expressed by the users on this site. There's already enough antagonism between small businesses and foreigners in Hanoi. We don't want to contribute to intensifying those issues and think we can actually work toward a more productive relationship with them.

What do I do if I want to review a place that is not yet on the site?

The first thing to do is really make sure it's not yet listed. Do a few site searches for the name of the business and maybe some key words you'd expect it to be associated with. If you don't come across it, then you can click on the "Add a Business to the Directory" link in the footer of any page. This will take you to a business entry process with three steps. Step one is the business information. Enter all the contact details and business type, along with its position on the map, and hit "submit". Next you will have the opportunity to add some photos, if you have no photos to add, simply proceed. Finally, you'll be at the review page. Write your review and you're done!

I entered a business, but I don't see it on the category pages. What did I do wrong?

Nothing. When a member of the community enters a new business, it does not immediately appear on the category pages. It is entered into the site. It is visible by doing a site search. However, it will not be fully listed on category pages and eligible for "Top Spot" ranking until one of us here at The New Hanoian has had time to go out and verify the essential details of the entry.

How are the rankings on the Top Spots page determined?

The Top Spots rankings are determined by user reviews. They are they highest rated businesses in each category according to the reviews of our users. To be eligible to appear at the top of a given category, a business must pass a minimum review number threshold. When a business has passed this threshold, you will see that their rating stars change from yellow to red.

Why do some reviews have yellow stars next to their names and others have red stars?

Here on The New Hanoian, we have several features built in to discourage abusive activity. Some businesses might be inclined to sign up for accounts to talk up their own place or slag on competitors. We've made this relatively ineffective by giving each user a different impact on a businesses overall rating according to the overall contributions they've made to the site and how the community has responded to those reviews. Users who have done little on the site will see that their review stars are yellow. This means that they have not yet contributed enough to pass the threshold where their reviews start effecting a business' overall rating. Once they go red, you know they are having some effect. However, even then, that effect may not be equal to that of users who have been on the site for some time and have been writing appreciated reviews for months. The more you've contributed, the greater effect you have in any one review up to a set cap. This reviewer strength is also affected by how the community responds to a given post. The various "props" that you see linked beneath a review can positively or negatively affect that reviewer's strength. When you see a great review or answer to an Ask A.N.H. question, give them their props. If they're writing something that seems to have ulterior motives or is simply so far off base you can't even justify its existence as a differing opinion, hit that "utter rubbish" link. Doing so helps the site settle into a most productive groove.

How do I give a business zero stars in a review?

The review system in place is set up as a one to five star rating system, with one being the worst, five the best. In the past, we allowed users to give zero stars as a rating, but 90+% of the zero star reviews were actually people who forgot to enter a star rating with their review. We got tired of messaging people to tell them to go back and edit their reviews to correct the oversight, so we've switched to this format. Really, it's not much different. Adding a zero star would not be any different than making it a one to six star system, which nobody clamors for. If you really think the place is lousy, enter your one star review knowing that it doesn't get any worse than that, and nobody is going to confuse your decision with forgetfulness.

What is Ask A.N.H.?

Ask A.N.H. stands for "Ask A New Hanoian", but also has a lovely second meaning since "Anh" means older brother in Vietnamese...a person one would often expect to get advice from in Vietnam. Ask A.N.H. is our Question & Answer Forum that serves as something like a community generated FAQ on all things Hanoi. This is where you go when Hanoi has just left you baffled. More times than not, somebody (or several somebodies) in the TNH community will have your answer. It's a fairly open format, but there are a few things to keep in mind before -getting started:

• Make sure you actually have a question before posting. While we try to keep things free and loose, this IS a Q&A forum...not just a general discussion board. Come here to get specific questions answered.
• Search for the topic of your question before posting! This is becoming an increasingly problematic trend with the great increases in traffic we're getting. People find Ask A.N.H. and throw up a question without bothering to see if somebody else already posted on the topic. This causes trouble for a couple reasons. One, it scatters information throughout a bunch of posts, when it would all be easily accessible to an interested party in a single thread if people took the time to realize that the discussion was already underway. Two, it frustrates those TNH members who take the time to give wonderful, valuable answers to questions, only to have somebody turn around and ask the same thing again. It makes the community feel like their efforts are being wasted and it will discourage future help from them. Search before you post! If a thread is already there, posting an additional question perhaps asking for more detail, a different aspect of the issue, or more recent updates on the same info is the way to go. By posting there, that question thread will move to the top of the Ask A.N.H. page. It WILL get action from the community. You DO NOT need to ask the question again to get attention brought to it.
• Do not post Job, Housing, or Classified ads here. We have separate sections for those things. Please post them there.
• Do not use the Ask A.N.H. pages to tout your business in either question or answer form. We provide ample ways for businesses to gain exposure on The New Hanoian. Posting your business information in Ask A.N.H. is only going to get the community upset and damage your reputation. If you feel that your existing entry is insufficient for your needs, contact The New Hanoian sales department: sales@newhanoian.com.
• Maintain a responsible and culturally sensitive tone. Remember that you are in a foreign country where attitudes can be remarkably different from your own upbringing. While we advise caution and common sense in dealing with just about any issue on Ask A.N.H., there are two topics that must be mentioned specifically as likely to lead to trouble in Vietnam: Politics and Sex. Keep all political discussion at at minimum. Whatever our own feelings about any particular country's political situation, a degree of respect must be given to its people and how they have chosen to deal with their own issues. Polarizing political discussion has many homes on the web, but, for now, this is not one of them. Likewise, keep all sexually explicit language and content off these pages. Vietnam, and Hanoi in particular, is still a very conservative country when it comes to sexual mores. Public discussions deemed lewd are not tolerated.

How do I post something to the event calendar?

Event calendar posting is done in one of three ways. First, a business who has a commercial account with The New Hanoian can post their own events directly. Second, event posting can be done through the "Groups" section of the site. This is the best choice if you're organizing an event that is likely to be part of ongoing organizing efforts in the future. If you've got any sort of theme (and we mean ANY), then start up a group and use it to post those events. Finally, if neither of those seem to be what you need, send us an email with all the details. As long as we think it is a suitable entry for the site, we'll post it for you.

What are groups and can I start one?

Groups are a way of finding like-minded individuals within The New Hanoian community and organizing events with them. Any site member can start up a group. All you need is an account and an idea! We encourage anyone to come up with a reason to get people moving and set it up. Once the group is going, you'll have a variety of tools at your disposal to help in that organizing. You'll be able to post your events to the event calendar, send group messages to all your members, post photos of your undertakings, and generally keep the community informed. The only special restriction we put on the groups is that they must be non-commercial. We have plenty of outlets for business activity on the site, so they need not happen on the Groups' pages.