Bae Yong Joon @ Soompi.com

I've been at soompi since May 2004. I've 5,000 plus posts and already has a tag as Soompi Lifer. Quite impressive don't you think?

Credit for the 5,000 plus posts goes to all reporters, photographers, translators and fans from differnt sites of Bae Yong Joon.

The first forum I visited to check on Yong Joon was SoKorean.com. Though I've been a member of Quilt. I seldom go there before for so some unknown reasons. Anyway, in Sokor I Met D' May and learned more about D'Man. Then I discovered soompi but nothing much on Yong Joon there which later on I learned why. BYJ according to some is not popular in Soompi. Why? I'll let you know later.

In 2002 I remember visitng Quilt then stopped for a while. Because of my addiction to BYJ, I went back to Quilt and checked the latest about D' Man. And this was already in 2003. Nothing much about him back then. All I remember seeing were old photos.

In 2004, after discovering many Korean men I became so addicted to Soompi. There is a BYJ thread but nothing much to savor since it was not regularly updated. Whenever I visit soompi I would make it a point to visit BYJ thread. At that time I would always find the thread at either page 3, 4,5,6...

Then an opportunity came, the thread mistress went MIA, Delinnia took over. But then, Delinnia could not take also much time maintaining soompi and sokor and she went on vacation. I "took over".

Posting news and photos of D' Man is not hard. News about him keep on coming. I believe that he's the only Korean actor with so many news around. Posting them in soompi, is also not that difficult since English translation is readily available.

The hard part is keeping BYJ thread at soompi on top. Like I said, soompiers seem to not like BYJ. Even if I post news, it's hard to keep BYJ's thread on top because visitors just come and go without leaving any footprints. The thread sometimes looks lonely with 1 or 2 visitors when I'm around. There were times that I'm all alone.

Okay, why do soompiers do not like Bae Yong Joon? According to some, he's not popular in Korea. Yeah right! Likewise, I was told that soompiers goes only for KSW, Bi, CJW, LBH. Fine with me. Being a korean entertainment fan, I love also these stars. And I don't have anything against them. I also support them. Anyway, despite what I've learned, it didn't bothered me at all. All I care is posting news and photos about our man in Soompi and spreading his works and how good a person Yong Joon is.

When I took over the thread, the page was only at 50ish page and that was sometime October. The thread slowly start to move again. Remember, during this time BYJ was busy doing THE IMAGE Vol. 1 and upcoming promos were being announced. So, news and photos were everywhere.

Slowly, my dedication to the thread is paying off. More visitors are coming and some even leave their footprints.

January came and Frances started visiting and posting. Frances is a great help. She's a fellow Filipina and as crazy as me when it comes to Yong Joon.

I believe because of our dedication and hardwork at soompi, BYJ is already getting his grounds in Soompi. Although there are still fans who continuously bash him and get mad at us for posting so many news about our Man in the news section. But we don't care at all. Our reason is, it is not our fault that BYJ has more translated news than their idols?

Anyway, that didn't stopped us and even wrote the thread moderator of 2005 news section about news article postings..

As of today, BYJ's thread at soompi has 8,535 posts and 148,599 view rates with 570 pages of meaty and juicy news and photos about Bae Yong Joon. We have more regular visitors.

I've been to many threads in soompi, and like I said I've been a fan of many korean stars. But BYJ thread and few other threads in Soompi like So Ji Sub and Lee Byung Hun are the threads that I can say informative.

I don't know how long I can keep up doing this promotional work at Soompi for BYJ. Spreading and promoting Yong Joon's works, achievemets and the kind of person our man is not a tough job. I believe for so long there are news and photos about Yong Joon, BYJ thread in soompi will continuously grown.

I read Priscilla's essay in www.Hotelier2002.com and to quote her she said "BYJ doesn't need to be promoted, his fans can do that for free" and "His fans are said to be different too, to the extent that many fans call themselves the fans of 'BYJ's fans'. In a way, I believe in this since my present condition has been brought upon by the "free promotional activities" done by 'them'. Following this tradition, I am now continuing the trend..."

Just like Priscilla and any other BYJ fans, I am also continuing the trend especially at Soompi.