[jackbl]

Expats love to discuss scams, not Vietnam traditional arts: insider
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Editor’s note:­ Michael Tatarski, our English language editor, expresses his thoughts on topics he thinks Tuoi Tre News should focus on, and those that should receive less attention, as he congratulated the news website on its fifth birthday on Thursday last week.

Congrats to Tuoi Tre News on the 5th birthday. Overall I think Tuoi Tre News does a good job.

I really like the stories that highlight people doing good things here, especially as a lot of expats seem to be quite negative, even though they chose to live here.

For example there was a recent story about an old teacher helping to educate kids for free in central Vietnam – stories like that are good to see.

It's important to cover uglier stories as well, but I like that there is a balance between the two.

I also like the stories about parts of society you don't normally see, like the photo essay on coal miners the other day. I've heard about coal production in northern Vietnam but that's the first time I've ever seen pictures of it.

Saigon is so flashy that I think sometimes people forgot that other parts of the country are still very poor or have to do very dirty work to make a living. That doesn't mean there needs to be a ton of stories about poor people, but just about other parts of society.

Any story that looks into scams or other annoyances, especially in Saigon, is good. There was the series about the coconut vendors, and there are plenty of people like that to investigate. These are the types of things that expats love to discuss and share.

If you were to run a story about a xe om (motorbike taxi driver) who purportedly keeps robbing people you would gain a lot of new readers. It's good that there have been multiple articles criticizing problems with visas, as that is a huge problem for people here.

There are also some stories that I don't really think are appropriate for a foreign audience. For example, pieces about old styles of Vietnamese music or theater, etc. A few people may find this interesting, but most expats don't care because they are fading out and we never come across them. If Vietnamese aren't interested in them anymore, we certainly won't be.

Also, one note about some of the posts I've seen from the Tuoi Tre News Facebook page - it's better not to post things like “OMG!” with a story, as people might not take it seriously. That's fine for Buzzfeed or some sort of gossip site, but I think Tuoi Tre News should be more professional. I know stuff like that is trendy but not everyone likes it.

Anyway, those are just a few thoughts. Like I said, overall you guys are doing a really good job, and I enjoy seeing what comes through my inbox every day – the stories have definitely helped me gain a deeper understanding of Vietnam. Good luck with the future!