I am sure many would not agree with me on this but I am totally against starting the DFAA again. Infact, I am against all incentive based forum activity (Note: That does not include contests and forum discussions).

Forum is meant to share information you genuinely want to share with the members or post discussions where you would like opinion from other members. The moment a reward comes in picture, everything goes haywire.

Members at Boddunan don't even keep track of their threads they have started (a basic forum etiquette)and reply with only thank you/good/bad/congrats on other people threads just to gain points. This does not help anyone. Infact it fills the site with more garbage and valuable info is lost amidst it.

An Ideal situation would be where Bodunnan stops giving points for all forum related activity. I bet this will bring the spam down by 95%. Instead all the money can be spend in some way on authors, so that they are motivated to write more articles and increase earnings for the site. Weekly contests and discussion can be kept running to keep the forum alive.

But I know whatever I mentioned above would be near impossible to implement as members here earn more from forum activity than by writing articles.

And now coming back to topic, if you want to start DFAA award again, then lay down a specific set of rules on the basis of which posts will be shortlisted and announce it to the community so that they know what is required of them to be able to win the contest.

Form a jury of volunteers (ideally change the jury every week, so that the can participate too), they will shortlists the quality posts and submit it to the management (You or Kalyani or anyone else who is given authority). He/She then picks the winner.

The result of the entire week can then be posted on the thread (Manual evaluation of post will take time and it only makes sense to announce the result weekly. But yes, the results should be announced on time as promised, otherwise it kills the motivation).


The above was my take/suggestions on forums and DFAA.

Since the topic of moderator/editor is also touched upon, I would suggest that there be proper way of recruiting them. For editors, it should be mandatory that they give the basic english skills and usage test and pass it. If editors are not qualified, how can you expect them to give proper feedback to authors.

Also, when editors start on their new role, don't take their approval/rejection as final. Let their approval/rejection go to the senior editor(Personally, I feel Kalyani is perfect for this role and I really like the way she is clear in her rejection messages. She can teach the new editor how to approach this role.)

To sum it up, I think Boddunan should concentrate more on creating quality content rather than focusing on forum activity which in principle should only be a place for member to recreate, share information and relax and not work for money (Not all but most take forum as a way to earn money here)

I substantially agree with Arun's views.And he has been clear,lucid and exceptionally forthright.I always wondered aloud how persons with barest knowledge of grammar and communicational skills could be considered for appointment as editors or moderators.I came across an article written on a topic of English grammar by a popular,competent author which was funnily given for editing to person who never makes sure to produce a single grammatically correct English sentence.What Boddunan administration delegates is authority not responsibility.The moral as well as official responsibility for any messy,ham-handed act of any moderator or editor ultimately falls on the Boddunan administration.This should not be forgotten. An editor or moderator only commands respect which he or she deserves - nothing more nothing less.I can cite so many instances where some acts are utterly baffling to me.

I feel that for announcing DFAA, they should see the quality of the replies a member given,so that for getting this award member will try to improve English and good communication too.

I agree with Arun but:

1. DFAA would improve the quality by imposing certain rules as mentioned before on this thread, may be the rules can be improvised. Idea of making it weekly and nominate own topics is something we may consider.

2. Agree with the forum points.

3. Moderators & Editors: Yes, basic communication skills are important for these roles. I believe recent recruitment of editors and moderators are based on this factor.

We can improve the selection process in two steps:

a. Selection based on articles/forum activity and quality of posts made

b. A basic quiz on English grammar and communication skills should be taken by the persons who want to take this role.

Your views are welcome.

Maverick suggestion is good but why comparing DFAA with articles I did not understood.

But the second one is so good the person who applied for editor or moderator must have an exam in English so their knowledge will be known to Admin.

I do agree with sasikanth. There should be exam for editor and moderator.and there should not be any relation between article work and forum work. If such relation is implemented then the crazy about this site and number subscriptions and participation will get decreased

Some members love to participate in forums only. Maverick you can see many members here wont participate in forums they just write Articles and leave then why the link between forums and articles.

I agree fully with admin decision. It will improve our site to get quality contents.

Article work is same as forum section. We need quality on both section. So only admin and all discussed about both.

In my opinion Both are important for site but must not linked with each other.

I am very much pleased to see that there is so much active discussion taking place regarding this very critical issue and that many have voiced their concerns regarding the quality of posts that we see nowadays. I agree with the basic guidelines as suggested by Gulshan and also the valuable inputs by Arun.

I personally feel that whatever guidelines and rules are set down, I may point out that the basic rules we already had are very much still relevant, but unless and until the rules are understood clearly by the moderator who decides winner, we we still have controversies, no matter how many times we change the rules. That is the most crucial issue in my opinion. I do not want to create any further controversies, but this kind of understanding is lacking currently. Unless we are very much sure that there is going to fairness in decision and abiding of rules, there is no point in starting the DFAA again. In lieu of that, we can definitely focus more attention on the articles.

Regarding the current team of moderators and editors, I seriously feel the need to revamp the team, nothing personally against anyone, but recently perfectly good articles were rejected simply because they were written with a twist of humor and the editor failed to understand anything of it. Such instances seriously question the understanding and knowledge of the editor - clearly not qualified to be an editor at all. Also, there are some moderators who never are seen doing any moderating but only pasting a bit controversial or irrelevant threads in forum, something that is not desirable at all.

I sincerely request Maverick to look at this and make necessary changes!