Partnership between TT and TheLocal.de

This info was posted and discussed in the private supporters forum last week.

TheLocal.de is a website that publishes daily English-language news about Germany. Since April this year we have been running their news headlines in a box about half-way down the frontpage of TT. This was a link exchange deal. In return for us linking their headlines, they link to TT from their "Discuss" chat forum pages.

Now we're taking that partnership further. Behind the scenes, the businesses will be merged. "The Local" will be the company name as listed on invoices to our advertisers, for example. The publicly visible face of Toytown Germany, however, will remain largely unchanged. Moderation policy will still be the same and I'll still be "The Decider" in that respect. Most members will be unaware of any difference. The main visible developments will be:

• The Local's "Discuss" section will be replaced entirely with a link to TT's chat forum.
  
• TT's headline topics will be linked from within a box on the right-hand side of The Local's frontpage.
  
• More of The Local's news articles will be cross-posted to TT's "Germany news" section thus making them available for comments.
  
• TT members will be able to opt-in to receive The Local's weekly newsletter email.
  
• Advertisers will be given the option to advertise on both sites. This means that some advertisers who appear on TT will also appear on The Local, and vice versa.
  

Over time other features may also be shared across the sites and the two will be integrated more closely. The general idea is that The Local provides news, while TT provides chat. People like to chat about the news, so we think it makes for a good partnership.

One of my military buddies sent me the link to the Local a couple of weeks ago and I really like that site. I am pleasantly surprised that it's now partnered with TT. What a treat. Thanks.

I've just checked out the discussion forum of thelocal.

Interesting feedback about TT:

I am sure the original poster would have been shred to pieces on TT!: S/M Lifestyle

Someone would point out to that poster that we do have an Adult Chat section, I don't think the Local does / did...

This guy's dead on. Going to other chat boards an seeing people just conversing like real human beings is such a treat.

TT is like a schoolyard full of sullen bullies ... and it's starting to get really, really tiresome.

Anyone up for starting a civility campaign?

Was that a quote about TT as well?

Where is that? www.superfriendlychristians.org? C'mon, some other chat forums are not even readable because of garishly coloured spinning gif avatars, mottos, crap ascii art...and even if you can find the text, there are trolls and muppets and attacks and squabbles galore.

I died a quick death on the Christian section of the BBC board once. Somehow nobody was buying into my point of view.

What other boards are you talking about? I used to use expats.cz when I lived in the CZE and that board was ridiculous. This place seems like a friendly retirement community in comparison.

I actually meant the chat board on The Local itself, which appears to be reasonable. Notice how people actually use "please" and "thank you". There's a thread where a guy asks a detailed question, gets a detailed answer and there're no "BadDoggies" or "Keydecks" swooping in to say what a muppet/idiot/fuckwit the person is.

I completely agree with you that most "comment" sections, notably most news sites, degrade into flame wars. Ditto on the avatars and other junk.

But some are reasonable. Have you ever seen the Spiegel English forums? The best I've seen is Plastic.

You work in the financial sector? Money lender maybe

As I read it, yes.

No, not specifically. Here's the quote in context:

TT is tame compared to other forums...

Just checked out The Local chat board: Three threads have been active since Monday. The five threads from Monday have received a total of six replies. Two haven't received any. Seems TT ain't that bad.

Were they about the merger with TT?