Few site suggestions

Replies

• 

  Kaustubh Katdare

  Very good suggestions. I'm noting them down and we'll discuss them with our next upgrade plan [to be rolled out in couple of days].
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  Gurjeet Singh

  nice suggestion opty!!!!!!
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  optimystix

  thanks for the appreciation. I really want this site to grow up. One thing I have seen is that we are lacking in quality posts. Dont get me wrong, what I mean is that the ratio of member/quality posts (as BIG K mentioned in some other thread) is very low compared to other forums.
  
  the suggestions made above are nothing new. They are present somewhere or the other over the internet space and I don't think there should be any problem learning from them and implementing them here too. After all we all want to make CE more popular and such methods will definitely bring in more active members and give them quality stuff to spend time on.
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  Sahithi Pallavi

  Really very nice suggestions opti!
  Done a good job. 😀
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  Kaustubh Katdare

  The forum structure is evolving and we cannot make the changes frequently. That's why lot of thought is put in before the changes are committed.
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  tashirosgt

  The basic problem with offering sections with exciting new opportunities is that it is such a let-down when an insufficient number of people participate in them. For example, I like the "CE Labs" section, but, realistically, you can't expect large numbers of people to collaborate in research projects in that section (nor do I expect a group will create gravity or use air for memory storage!).
  
  There is a world wide shortage of people who can accomplish things, write reviews, compose tutorials etc. What is the solution? One primitive solution is to harvest! Google makes a living merely by providing useful links to information. So far, I've not seen any websites that select useful information and republish it. There are sites that do wholesale plagiarizing of the Wikipedia. There are sites that collect links about topics in some automated fashion. But I haven't found any sites that use much human discretion in what they collect. There are many blogs, tutorials etc on the web and some of the authors might give you permission to republish them. Or you could simply provide a concise summary of the site and a link to it - and also provide a way for your members to discuss the contents. A thread for each link, perhaps? -or some organized way that a member can start such a thread?
  
  The web is great opportunity for "the population" to submit content and solutions. However, I think the current opportunity greatly exceeds the population who can contribute anything. In contrast, I think there are few sites that gather collections of useful content, content that has been selected by a human editor. Being an editor is a job. It's more labor than simply moderating whatever content arrives in the posts. If the point is make money, one must expect to toil.
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  Kaustubh Katdare

  @Tashirosgt: Your post is excellent. I've realized that it isn't right to compare our posts/member ratio with others. The reason being, we are an engineering forum and its not so easy to come up with topics, responses to technical things.
  
  CE Labs is an excellent section gone dead (hmm!). So is our Entrepreneurship & Finance section. When CE started, I thought we'd have plenty of engineers contributing engineering problems, ideas and solutions. However, to this date, majority of traffic comes looking for ready made help project ideas. Even in our Computer Science section, there are 20% CS engineering ideas and 80% computer troubleshooting problems!
  
  However there was no way we could have predicted it. Its however now clear that we need a better structure and also better organization of the forum.
  
  Maybe we have to choose between quality & quantity.
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  Ashraf HZ

  Good ideas by Optimystix and tashirosgt. I do hope the CE Lab section gets back into gear, so I don't have to keep bumping threads 😛
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  Gurjeet Singh

  great ideas !!!!!!
  
  A quote-."The ability to convert ideas to things is the secret of outward success"
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  HImanshu_Sharma

  yeah its an good idea, start work on it as soon as you can....good luck!!!!!
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  HImanshu_Sharma

  admin can you tell me that how can i make my own thread?
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  Kaustubh Katdare

  Look here: #-Link-Snipped-#
• 

  optimystix

  @tashirosgst and Big K
  
  it is true that we could use linking strategies to increase quality posts.that's exactly what the video section I suggested above demands.
  
  That's fine for video links and all that but when it comes to actually written posts, there are only few sites that allow re-posting their articles on other sites/forums. Even if they do it will be only a summary followed by clear mention of the original source. People will come here and read them initially and then will directly start visiting original sites. And linking to articles elsewhere can become a tedious jobs for mods tending to them and checking for copyright infringement issues(owing to such a large no of members on this site). Also doing such things on a large and regular basis will brand this forum as being a 'copy cat' and unoriginal and that would be bad for such a great forum as this one. Site visits are important for CE's popularity and as such good quality content is important(SEO basics).
  
  There are so many active members here. Let them write original and quality articles once in a while. Even 30 people doing so once a month will be a sufficient to get loads of additional visits here. Let the admin and mods take the initiative. There are article writes too who take around 20-40$ per 10-20 articles who will be ready to do so.
  
  As Big K said, it's difficult implementing so many new things all the time and lot of thorough prep has to go in before it is implemented. Ans he has enough experience behind him managing such a large forum. Let him think on them and decide what's best. It will be his call in the end and we are here to assist him 😀
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  tashirosgt

  optimistyx,
  You are optimistic! By all means "let" members write articles and tutorials. But nothing is preventing them from doing this. I agree that maintaining a guide to other material on the web is laborious. But so is any way of making a living. Or can we "let" various members have editorial responsibilities for parts of such a guide?
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  Kaustubh Katdare

  I agree with most of the points. The only way to get lot of people contributing great articles is to get people who are genuinely interested in engineering and technology. We seriously need active participation of visitors from various countries.
  
  Another way to achieve this could be to offer some incentive to the article contributors. I'm already working on this and soon make an announcement.
  
  We've also realized that the forum organization needs an upgrade. We'll do it in steps so that the SEO does not get affected much. Plus we will be introducing blogging feature for all our regular members.
  
  I hope this will help.
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  Sahithi Pallavi

  yes Biggie, they will really help.. Nice ideas. 😀
• 

  Morningdot Hablu

  we are wating.
  admin must have to implement these ideas recently.
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  Kaustubh Katdare

  Blogging features will be introduced soon. Its undergoing testing right now.
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  Gurjeet Singh

  Is the sidebar "latest on CE" in the Forum page is added recently,one thing i want to know that is side bar is updating or not cause i have replied on a post still its showing 0 replies on that post coming back to see on forum page.
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  ms_cs

  cooldude..:it is not ajax powered at present. It will not updated as the thread updates.
• 

  AllenMass

  I am new in this forum & thanks for your good suggestion.
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  optimystix

  wouldrichest

  thanks for the appreciation. I really want this site to grow up. One thing I have seen is that we are lacking in quality posts. Dont get me wrong, what I mean is that the ratio of member/quality posts (as BIG K mentioned in some other thread) is very low compared to other forums.
  
  the suggestions made above are nothing new. They are present somewhere or the other over the internet space and I don't think there should be any problem learning from them and implementing them here too. After all we all want to make CE more popular and such methods will definitely bring in more active members and give them quality stuff to spend time on.

  err...the post by this guy- wouldrichest is a copy paste of my earlier comment on this thread. I understand his comment has been edited, but why not delete it altogether?
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  Kaustubh Katdare

  Banning the spammer. China is being bullish on spamming thing! Meh!
• 

  Saandeep Sreerambatla

  This is regarding the time out feature on CE!
  
  I was logged into CE through Mozilla yesterday and till today its not timed out? Is it the expected behavior?
  
  Update: I do put the remember password option which comes with Mozilla.
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  Kaustubh Katdare

  English-Scared

  This is regarding the time out feature on CE!
  
  I was logged into CE through Mozilla yesterday and till today its not timed out? Is it the expected behavior?

  I didn't see you logged in until few minutes ago. Did you leave the browser open on the computer? Did you refresh your window before logging in again?
• 

  Saandeep Sreerambatla

  Yes, I have left my browser open when I left yesterday!
  
  And today, I just refreshed my browser and I am Online!! I didnt login again..
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  Aashish Joshi

  Biggie, suggestion on general help threads.
  
  Suppose I ask a question in the section. After a bit of debate, the question is solved. So there is no point in continuing the discussion further. Why not let the person starting the topic, put a Solved status on it, so that the thread is closed automatically.
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  Aashish Joshi

  English-Scared

  Yes, I have left my browser open when I left yesterday!
  
  And today, I just refreshed my browser and I am Online!! I didnt login again..

  I know, I never log out, just close the browser window. When i open crazyengineers.com/forum i am automatically logged in. May be it is due to a cookie or something! Whatever it is, beats having to login everyday.
• 

  Saandeep Sreerambatla

  mad_scientist

  Biggie, suggestion on general help threads.
  
  Suppose I ask a question in the section. After a bit of debate, the question is solved. So there is no point in continuing the discussion further. Why not let the person starting the topic, put a Solved status on it, so that the thread is closed automatically.

  
  Maddy this is cool idea , but think for a scenario where another person has a different query on the same topic?
  
  Anyway New thread will serve the purpose though , but just a question 😁