Factual Summary
- What's this site about?
- What does maBoum mean?
- Where do you get your data?
- How do you review and rate places?
- Why only Monaco?
- Why don't you have details for all the events?
The Personal Touch
- How did you start?
- Why such boring colors?
- Where are all the distracting flashing things?
- What happened to all the accents?
- Why are you really bad at spelin?
- What are your plans for the future?
Participate
- Can I recommend a great place?
- Do you want to know how I'd improve maBoum?
- What if I find an error?
- What if I don't want my business listed?
- Can I advertise on your site?
Factual Summary
Q: What's this site about?
A: It's a practical guide to enjoying life in Monaco, listing events and information about places to go, in a way that makes it easy to find somewhere for any occasion. So far, we've added all the places to eat and drink, because that's what we like to do with our friends, visitors, or just ourselves for a night out. The concept seemed so obvious that we waited a few years for someone else to create a site like this. But they didn't, so we did. Of course there are many sites with information about where to go and what to do, but none seem to combine accurate and comprehensive data that's very easy to use.
Q: What does maBoum mean?
A: We made the name up, based on the French word boum, which has two meanings. Un boum means a bang, or a boom. However, when the word is feminine, une boum means a party, most famously in the 1980 French film La Boum starring Sophie Marceau. So, maBoum translates loosely as my party, and we hope our website helps you have a great time in Monaco.
Q: Where do you get your data?
A: Many places: the web, newspapers, paper leaflets left in public places around Monaco, billboards, event organisers' mailing lists, or straight from the horse's mouth. You name it, we try to find it. Sometimes we find information that may be out of date, or we're told things that are inaccurate. We make every effort to validate the facts, but we can't accept responsibility if we've been given false data.
Q: How do you review and rate places?
A: Most reviews and rating systems are subjective, whereas maBoum does its best to give you objective information. To help you decide where to go, we've written a one line description for places we've been to. By using this, and checking which keywords have been assigned to a place, or omitted from it, you should be able to work out if a place is worth visiting. If that's not enough, maBoum includes some links to reviews on websites we trust, where you can read opinions about hotels, restaurants and other places.
As for ratings, such as stars, palm leaves, plates, dollar signs and others, we'll be introducing our own novel concept in rating soon. We think the rating systems used on many web sites are fairly useless because they rely too much on subjective information. What appeals to them may not appeal to us, and consequently what appeals to us may not appeal to you. That's why we've invented our own system. Subscribe to our newsletter to find out more.
Q: Why only Monaco?
A: We live here, we want to use this website ourselves, and managing the data just for Monaco keeps us busy enough.
Q: Why don't you have details for all the events?
A: There are lots of sites that have a more comprehensive listing of events than maBoum. As we've built the site for our own use, we mainly add events that we're interested in, so we can plan our social life. You'll notice an emphasis on music, film, food and wine, because that's what we like.
Also, because our first language is English, we tend to avoid listing theatre, talks and presentations that are in French or Italian. We do speak French, a little German and a smattering of Welsh, but mostly, we like our entertainment to be in English.
The Personal Touch
Q: How did you start?
A: Being quite indecisive, forgetful and easily bored, we wanted a list of things to do in Monaco whenever we were stuck for ideas. In other words, we just wanted this site for ourselves. We combined our skills as software engineer and information manager to create what you see now, and thought that others might find it useful too.
Q: Why such boring colors?
A: We're not graphic designers and like to keep things simple. If you think you can help make the site look pretty, please let us know.
Q: Where are all the flashing things?
A: Don't get us started on Flash. It's a wonderful tool for some things, but mostly it's used very inappropriately. Yes, it looks great, but the way most design agencies apply it makes using the web a very frustrating experience. We want to spend more time with friends at our local bar or restaurant, and less time being distracted by cute animations on websites.
Q: What happened to all the French accents?
A: Monaco is a very special place and many thousands of visitors from around the world agree with us. Although the official language here is French, most people can (and will) speak English to help smooth things along. Typing words with accents into a web site just makes things more fiddly, so we took the difficult decision to avoid using accents in all spellings throughout the site. We apologise to you purists out there.
Q: Why are you really bad at spelling?
A: We're British, so we spell the way we know. Apologies to our colonial cousins.
Q: What are your plans for the future?
A: In the very short term, we're working to add opening hours, improve the way you choose your location, and increase the functionality of the search box. Sign up to our newsletter and we'll keep you up to date.
Participate
Q: Can I recommend a great place?
A: Of course! If it's not on this site and it's in Monaco we'll be surprised - but we definitely want to know about it. Please keep in mind that we never publish personal opinions or any other subjective information - just facts.
Q: Do you want to know how I'd improve maBoum?
A: Yes! We want this site to be genuinely useful to people visiting or living near Monaco. If you can think of anything that would improve the site, please let us know.
Q: What do if I find an error?
A: Please let us know as soon as possible if you find anything wrong and we guarantee to investigate, because data quality is very important to us. For instance, we report mapping errors to Google, but you'll have to understand that we can't update the maps ourselves - even though we'd like to.
Q: What if I don't want my business listed?
A: Although we're not sure why you'd want a free listing of publicly available information about your business removed, we respect your wishes and will remove the entry as soon as possible. Please contact us.
Q: Can I advertise on your site?
A: Not really, because this is a personal undertaking, but if we get enough requests we'll consider it. If you think your business in Monaco should be listed by maBoum, then please contact us and we'll check it out. We don't charge you for appearing on the site, it's absolutely free!