Forum is Losing Its Cerebral Appeal Very Fast!

Yes you are right many people just want to respond not want to make a new thread this heart the forum most boddunan should take some action about this.

Chinmoy, it is true and i have lost interest in answering the old and repeated threads. Now-a-days even news items are been posted two or more times. Dont know why those threads are not been deleted.

I feel that some of old members who contributed well in past are for one reason or other devoting less time. We cannot blame new members who may not be so talented as they can write posts according to their capacity only. However, all should ensure that same topic or matter is not repeated. It will be best that we should not hurry in writing posts for getting points quickly but make some research before replying.

I think lot of topic already there to discuss but members not interested in search. they reply just topics came to front page.

The senior members should show more interest. I appreciate Santosh Kumar singh for his regular contribution. Chinmoy has aptly pointed out the deteriorating quality of posts. Administration should send periodical reminder to inactive members who were once active requesting them to visit the forums and add their thoughts.

Thanks for appreciating my work Gulshan ji . I hope I will continue my contribution to boddunan.

Most of the forum post are generally unnoticed by members even after some replies and the forum concept is to discuss on particular topic to acquire knowledge, which is not happening here. If anyone starts a topic there is no responses if people do not have knowledge in that topic. I agree that some topics are really boring and unrealistic. But still forum activity should be like a group discussion with proper conclusion. :)

Chinmoy,

Thank you very much for initiating the topic.

The issue of quality on forum posts is being discussing for quite a long time. I have make a point on it many times that there needs some radical changes needed for making it more interesting and useful for the people. Here are some of those.

1. Continuous monitoring of forum posts and delete unnecessary ones time to time.

2. Reduce points for posting replies or replace with bonus points for quality posts.

3. Do more interesting contests on forums to engage people. The contests should help in learning activities rather than games etc.

4. Give forum supporter award to the people who encourage users to post quality content as well as contribute it.

These are some of the things in my mind.

The biggest challenge is the number of moderators and their time available for forums. We do hear from many people for such posts but we need people who can handle such things.

Regarding the people who left from here, most of them are returning here because of the people associated with the forum as well as the quality of posts which are still coming these days.

We have initiated a weekly newsletter feature which will arrive to your email address every week with the latest articles as well as recognition of the week's leaders on leader board. Any suggestions are welcome.

Thank you once again Chinmoy for the very good discussion.

@Maverick

Thanks a lot for taking note of my concern! I think you have very correctly diagnosed the problems that dog boddunan at the moment and all your ideas to combat this should find full support from members like me. The quality quotient has suffered a big jolt in recent days mainly because some members both old and new have contributed to this declining trend. I remember how members like Mr. Harish Jharia,Sajeetharan, Meean used to rock the forum in the recent past. Even present members like Kalyani,Neetu,Rajani and Manas Aditya,Kumaresh created such a strong impression in very quick time! You must find ways to check this trend and the measures you have in mind are likely to succeed. So I must say that you are on the right track and go ahead to implement them. Do show zero tolerance to puerile posts! All the best!

I had a idea the posts which reached 20 replies can be deleted so that the new post will be posted other wise the old one will be repeated.

What i have understand till now is boddunan have different sections and among all the sections, forums attract more traffic compared to article or polls etc. So, taking any decision regarding forums needs good analysis and experience or else peoplemay loss interest. But it is not good to tolerate spam and duplicate posts simply to increase the traffic. i have a suggestion which is though common can be good for new members.

Maverick
It is nice to see that news letter feature is introduced. Similarly i request you to create a instructions mail regarding rules to follow in forums and mail it or share the link to all the newly registered members. I know it may take time but i strongly feel that new members are often confused in using forums and create duplicate posts or spam knowingly or unknowingly.

Putting some restriction on posts is not good as boddunan has variety of people with different thoughts and ideas. Regarding contest, yes in some thread previosly there was discussion and i think theme based contest can be created as festival season is approaching.

Thanks chinmoy for creating this post and allowing us to share our thoughts. :)

I think lot of topic already there to discuss but members not interested in search. they reply just topics came to front page.

This appears correct. I request members to go through posts made in the last twenty for hours and not just first page. This will give opportunity to give more comments.

forums are the really main part of boddunan. i really enjoy it but from recent days it is not interesting i thought that only i felt like this but now what i am watching it is really serious topic among all.

Firstly, kudos to Chinmoy for starting this discussion and thanks to Maverick for starting the weekly newsletter.

There are a couple of things I would like to suggest and, looking at present quality of the forum topics, must be done as fast as possible:

1. Revamp the list of moderators - remove the names of those who have been inactive for more than six months, some even more like Karthik. Those who are still present but are not really taking the moderator duty very seriously on a daily basis must be notified. If they are unable to do so because of time constraints, they need to be removed and someone else appointed.

2. Delete ALL and I mean ALL posts that are nothing but links to daily news items. There is nothing interesting in those and hardly encourage any discussion of any kind.

3. If any one is found posting news items again and again, deduct 100 points straight away on first offense. Second offense ban them from revenue share for that particular month. It looks like banning does not work, they come back after ban period and start the same thing again.

4. So many topics such friendship, love, arrange marriage etc. are being repeated so many times! I am really sick of such topics, delete such topics straight away!

All of the above may seem harsh to all, but then time and again these type of problems are repeated and I feel that until now, admin has been very much tolerant and lenient while taking action. So let us try and be more strict now.

[quote]Similarly i request you to create a instructions mail regarding rules to follow in forums and mail it or share the link to all the newly registered [/quote]
Rajani, good suggestion. Will do it in next newsletter.

[quote]1. Revamp the list of moderators[/quote]
Kalyani, good suggestion again. Need to revamp this list as I mention in my earlier post, the active moderators are needed.

[quote]2. Delete ALL and I mean ALL posts that are nothing but links to daily news items. [/quote]
I believe there are some very good discussions went on the daily news items. May be we need to restrict from now and delete unnecessary ones carefully.

[quote]3. If any one is found posting news items again and again, deduct 100 points straight away [/quote]
Many new people do them unknowingly. We need to educate them first.

[quote]4. So many topics such friendship, love, arrange marriage etc.[/quote]See answer for point 2

Thanks a lot friends for displaying your overwhelming concern for the cause I stand for! If boddunan has to survive it has to do so on the strength of quality alone and we need members who are quality conscious not ones who fill the forum with child-like posts! And I am particularly impressed with the way Maverick, Rajani and Kalyani have responded to this challenge.Now time has to come to talk straight and do things professionally to enable boddunan to find its place in the sun! What do you say?

yes, that right. I agree with chinmoy.and even my self lost interest in answering forums as the quality is lacking and the old forums are repeated

Maverick, thank you for giving your inputs on this!

[quote]2. Delete ALL and I mean ALL posts that are nothing but links to daily news items.

I believe there are some very good discussions went on the daily news items. May be we need to restrict from now and delete unnecessary ones carefully.
[/quote]

Yes, restriction would work, again if ever such posts are created, if there are no responses for a set period of time, then that means they are futile posts and must be deleted. Can something be worked out where the moderators get a notification, say weekly, as to what posts are being ignored with zero replies? They can then be deleted as soon as notification is received? Just a thought here! I know there are many technicalities involved here!

[quote]3. If any one is found posting news items again and again, deduct 100 points straight away

Many new people do them unknowingly. We need to educate them first.[/quote]

Can something be put in place, I have seen it on many websites, unless and until a newly registered user goes through the FAQs and rules and regulations etc, the system does not allow them to post on the forums?? Again a technical issue, but I think that can be worked out.

[quote]
4. So many topics such friendship, love, arrange marriage etc.
See answer for point 2 [/quote]

When a new thread is created for such topics where in discussions are already there on forums, the system gives an alert and brings up those threads, so the user can view them and if they still have something more to add, then they can use those already existing posts!

[quote]Thanks a lot friends for displaying your overwhelming concern for the cause I stand for! If boddunan has to survive it has to do so on the strength of quality alone and we need members who are quality conscious not ones who fill the forum with child-like posts! And I am particularly impressed with the way Maverick, Rajani and Kalyani have responded to this challenge.Now time has to come to talk straight and do things professionally to enable boddunan to find its place in the sun! What do you say? [/quote]

Thank you Chinmoy! you are right, what we need here is a much more professional approach with regards to forum. It will definitely deter those who are not so quality conscious and it may also prevent many from joining, but then in the long run, it is only going to prove beneficial for boddunan.

Kalyani,

Thanks for your inputs. There needs to be some technical things involved in setting up such things and any technical support will not come cheap. So it would take some time. I will make sure most, if not all, suggestions implemented.

I have been keeping away from forums for some days due to my official works targetted to complete by Sept 30th.