Generating More Discussions On CE - Ideas

Kaustubh Katdare · 2011-12-08T01:23:21+00:00

CEans, Every day I see lot of CEans logged in and doing close to nothing. What should we really do to encourage threads creation? The new system makes it incredibly easy to create new discussions. Suggest something concrete. Graphs show that new thread creation activity has gone down significantly in the last few weeks. What could be a probable fix?

Kaustubh Katdare

@thebigk • Dec 8, 2011

If you see our members/post ratio - it's way below than what it should be. There are forums with under 5k members but over 1m posts! What I've noticed is; the discussions that have new ideas or opinions usually do not get any responses. There are several threads in our feedback section too; which haven't been touched or are screaming for feedback; but no one seems to notice them.

CE can become more useful for engineers only if members come forward and open up. But that's not happening at the rate it should. Can someone provide a solution? What's it that we lack?

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Sahithi Pallavi

@sahithi-oJZaYj • Dec 8, 2011

We have discussed this lots of times, didn't get the solution yet 😔.
I can say it is just a change that has to come. But I think only our Regular members are participating in the discussions here and it looks most of them were busy in their work now 😒

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Kaustubh Katdare

@thebigk • Dec 8, 2011

@Sada. Yes I agree with you. Hundreds of new members join CE every day but they seem to join and do nothing. It surprises me because we do not make it mandatory for the members to join before they can read content. Joining is optional and required only when user wants to participate in discussions.

If we go by the statistics, even the highest posting members do not have many posts. I'm at ~18k posts followed by E-S at ~6k posts. That's a *HUGE* gap.

Following are possible reasons -

1. CE is too geeky that people go away.
2. CE is difficult to understand in terms of how to use it.
3. We do not have interesting discussions.

What do our regular CEans think?

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lal

@lal-R60Xjx • Dec 8, 2011

The forum is at its best. Only solution for this problem, I think, is the members (including me) themselves should take the initiative. 😀

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Kaustubh Katdare

@thebigk • Dec 8, 2011

lal
The forum is at its best. Only solution for this problem, I think, is the members (including me) themselves should take the initiative. 😀

Really appreciate that. If members take initiative in sharing ideas, problems and solutions; then the site will attract more engineers who will in turn generate more useful content and everyone benefits. However, we need to speed up the process.

I'm looking for all the feedback we can implement. We already have more stuff planned; but content creation is a collective responsibility of all the CEans. Otherwise, we all will end up killing our time.

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Sahithi Pallavi

@sahithi-oJZaYj • Dec 8, 2011

The_Big_K
@Sada. Yes I agree with you. Hundreds of new members join CE every day but they seem to join and do nothing. It surprises me because we do not make it mandatory for the members to join before they can read content. Joining is optional and required only when user wants to participate in discussions.

If we go by the statistics, even the highest posting members do not have many posts. I'm at ~18k posts followed by E-S at ~6k posts. That's a *HUGE* gap.

Following are possible reasons -

1. CE is too geeky that people go away.
2. CE is difficult to understand in terms of how to use it.
3. We do not have interesting discussions.

What do our regular CEans think?

If one come across the CE-forum, it's quite natural that they will register because it's free of cost and this is not only in our CE, it is the same for all the free-forums. If the newbies really spent their time for 2 mins on the forum they can easily get the process and then they will not leave for sure like our regular members. And yeah if they really want some help, they will sure post their queries by somehow.

And yes I agree with you about the post count, but you can not compare your post count to others because you are such a Great person used to post the replies first almost to all the threads 😀

Coming to your reasons -

1. No point.

2. CE is not at all difficult I guess. Because I came to CE through a search engine and no one told me how to access and how to post and all. I got to know very easily except a few things like post introduction or about signatures and all. But I have some friends who are new asking me How to post a New thread question. And my friends about 5-6 joined CE but they said its confusing, I don't know what confused them.

3. We have interesting discussions quite sure really. Gadgets section is awesome and CS section has many mind blowing threads like C++ tutorials, Learn Phyton, Shalini's java thread, CS important resources and yeah we have IITs video lectures in all our sections and our quiz section is fantastic. By seeing all these how can we say we don't have interesting discussions?

But Biggie, you gave the tutorial page for us to get of use of things when this new layout was live. it's really nice. How about giving the tutorial links to our Newbies after their registrations? So that they can easily get a hang of CE.

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Kaustubh Katdare

@thebigk • Dec 8, 2011

@Sada: I'm not comparing my post count with other's post count. I just hinted that if everyone posted their opinion on the discussions we've on CE, then the overall post count would be much higher. That's what usually happens on the popular forums.

Again, for the content - our best bet is our regular members who login to CE every day. If they contribute more; we'll surely attract even more amazing engineers who'll share all the innovative and interesting stuff with us. That is our initiative will help us, in the end. Plus, it will help us advance faster towards our aim of becoming an engineering company.

We're planning to setup dedicated help pages on CE. Hopefully we'll be able to set them up by December end. CEan Godfather has already taken a lead. Maybe other CEans can join in to create documentation for the new members. It could be a collaborative project.

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Sahithi Pallavi

@sahithi-oJZaYj • Dec 8, 2011

Fine, lets discuss how to become more productive,how to generate more discussions and to make atleast some CEans to be regular.

Our Regular Members were always ready to give their best including me. We have had some plans like -
1. Our Aptitude test initiative helps to generate more discussions in quiz section.
2. Our Technical test initiative(not yet started) will help us to generate more discussions to all our technical sections.

If we can plan these things more frequently, there might be a bit chance to generate more discussions on the forum.

And I just remember, I have posted IIT video lectures in CS section but I couldn't see any discussion going on there 😔

Okay fine, for any question, initiative is only the answer. I'll take my initiative to bump the not-answered-old-threads and will try to generate a discussion!

We're planning to setup dedicated help pages on CE. Hopefully we'll be able to set them up by December end. CEan Godfather has already taken a lead. Maybe other CEans can join in to create documentation for the new members. It could be a collaborative project.

That's really nice. Yeah Godfather and Akd are doing a Great Help 👍

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Gandalf

@gandalf-RPhbu3 • Dec 8, 2011

One of the ways is viral marketing of events like CE Quiz , Synonym Game etc through Facebook, Twitter

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Kaustubh Katdare

@thebigk • Dec 8, 2011

Here's my idea: If we want more quality engineers to join CE; we'll need more number of technical discussions. Why not start asking questions related to your respective engineering disciplines and start conversations? It could be simple ideas that you can pick up from your text books or just initiate a discussion to develop a better understanding of discussions.

CS engineers can discuss tough programs and easier ways to solving them. It will help all CS/IT engineers in their careers as well.

Mechanical engineers can discuss mechanical engineering problems and solutions. Textbooks can be a good place to find concepts and discuss them with fellow CEans.

..and so on. Initially there won't be replies; because people will just lurk to find that there's a inflow of questions. Then slowly they'll start participating in discussions. Can we do this on experiment basis for the next 3-4 months?

PS: Of course, every new thread created should be shared through Facebook or Twitter simply by clicking 'like' or 'recommend' button below the thread.

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Sahithi Pallavi

@sahithi-oJZaYj • Dec 8, 2011

Gandalf
One of the ways is viral marketing of events like CE Quiz , Synonym Game etc through Facebook, Twitter

Yeah, CE is in Facebook, Twitter, Google plus and We are updating them with our interesting posts, voice posts and all. And some of our Regular members will share them on their profiles too 😀

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Sahithi Pallavi

@sahithi-oJZaYj • Dec 8, 2011

The_Big_K
Can we do this on experiment basis for the next 3-4 months?

Why not? Let's do it! As I already said, I'm taking my initiative and I will give my best. Threads count will increase for sure but can't say about discussions and answers 😲

Anyway, as you said, 2012 is going to be a big year for CE and for you 👍 and yeah for us too 😉

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Kaustubh Katdare

@thebigk • Dec 8, 2011

@Sada: You make everyone at CE proud. I hope this works. I can't wait to have all our CEans under one roof.

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Harshad Italiya

@harshad-ukH5ww • Dec 8, 2011

I'm used to be member on different forum since 2003. Different forums, different people, different policy, different intense. I hardly found similarites. Initially i used to visit forum for fun only and when i come to crazyengineer i feel totally different and i decided to be active. Apart from this now to the point i feel we have less long technical quality threads. And talking about members who joins forum and not taking part in discussion
1) May be they are on forum to find some ready codes, circuit or project. If they found such they will come again when there is some problem with project.
2) They are students and thinking these threads are not my cup of tea or they are dumb enough to reply in specific thread
3) They are from technical field or engineering from industries and for then we don't have such active threads.
4) They are on forum for solution of some technical query and we have very few number of such members.

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Harshad Italiya

@harshad-ukH5ww • Dec 8, 2011

Now it's our time CEan let's attrack students + People from industries. And i'm sure we'll be on TOP. For that we've to start threads for both student oriented and industry people oriented.

Let's join our hand together. 👍

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Kaustubh Katdare

@thebigk • Dec 8, 2011

godfather
Now it's our time CEan let's attrack students + People from industries. And i'm sure we'll be on TOP. For that we've to start threads for both student oriented and industry people oriented.

Let's join our hand together. 👍

That would be super. As I mentioned earlier; we're beginning to venture into additional services, in 2012 so that we attract the attention of people from Industry & colleges. However, content wise - we are far behind the others (we aren't competing with anyone!).

The problem is cyclic: People come and ask their questions - and do not get answers. Then they don't come back. That deprives us of quality questions they might have contributed in future.

How do we solve this specific problem?

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Ankita Katdare

@abrakadabra • Dec 8, 2011

Read each & every post in this thread. I could relate to every word written.
(I felt bad seeing that only 3 or 4 CEans replied to this thread since yesterday. 😐 )

A solution I would like to offer is - When a regular CEan logs in to CE, it's his/her job to check all the "technical threads" & reply to them in more than 20 words. If its something you don't know about, google it. See what is already written about the topic over the internet & then ask/state/quote/give examples in your replies. That's how we build discussions. No technical thread should be left unanswered. When a person asks about something on the forum, either we know about it or we don't. If we don't, how about replying to it with whatever knowledge we have & asking further questions about the same topic? We can boost the newbie CEan's questions ONLY by posting replies, nothing else. Imagine, the kind of discussions & level of knowledge that will be raised by each CEan if we all follow such simple tips.

How about sharing all "gadget/software" news that you come across on the forum by asking questions about it? How about each CEan sharing a new puzzle everyday? How about searching & posting the most debatable topics? How about making a great useful collection of engineering recruitment news & materials?

Like they say, the possibilites are endless.

Let's not leave any stone unturned. It's a collective effort & that's what the community and the time you spend on it is all about.

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Kaustubh Katdare

@thebigk • Dec 8, 2011

Gadget & Software section is fine. We need more stuff in our Technical Discussions sections.

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Ankita Katdare

@abrakadabra • Dec 8, 2011

The_Big_K
Gadget & Software section is fine. We need more stuff in our Technical Discussions sections.

Thats what I have said here:

When a regular CEan logs in to CE, it's his/her job to check all the "technical threads" & reply to them in more than 20 words. If its something you don't know about, google it. See what is already written about the topic over the internet & then ask/state/quote/give examples in your replies. That's how we build discussions. No technical thread should be left unanswered.

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Harshad Italiya

@harshad-ukH5ww • Dec 8, 2011

Long time ago i've tried to invite some of my friends from industry to join this forum in thought of they might give some quality reply to the queries but it was not successful i'll give it try again.

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lal

@lal-R60Xjx • Dec 9, 2011

When I first visited CE, the most fascinating section for me was the 'CE - Labs'. In no time, I registered an account and shortly started a thread there. It was really a great feeling when i got an instant reply too. Then i thought this would be the hottest section in CE, because thousands of crazy brains from around the world would be working for solutions and tons of innovative ideas would be born. Later i found out CE-Labs was a great section but with the least number of updates.

I think there are a lot of users visiting CE to get help and share about their hobby projects as well as serious ones. I think, we should make the Labs section also a bit more lively.

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Ramani Aswath

@ramani-VR4O43 • Dec 11, 2011

Responses like: 'Oh, yeah!', 'I agree ' and such monosyllabic postings or oneliners are like hot air balloons adding only to post counts. I generally spend quite some time in responding, often referring to my books and notes, so that the questioner gets a serious response. At times I wonder if there is adequate ROI for the time spent. Many a time I have put together a response only to cancel it as I felt that the questioner was casual about the query.

While life is not all serious and there should be time-outs for horsing around, by and large, discussions must be serious. This, as many have said, is the responsibility of each member.

I too have noticed the stasis in various categories of the forum. Most active seems to be those related to education choices or career opportunities.

Would it help if each member conciously looks around for day to day issues that can benefit from a technological intervention and use them as a starter for discussions?

This will be inaddition to whatever is going on now.

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Kaustubh Katdare

@thebigk • Dec 12, 2011

I spoke at TEDx conference today and after my talk couple of young enthusiastic people gathered to talk to me. We discussed the importance of 'expressing yourself'. I think people do have genuine questions and answers; but they do not know how to express themselves. The education system does not teach people how to express themselves.

That leads to problem. Genuine problems; not expressed well, won't attract responses from others.

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Ramani Aswath

@ramani-VR4O43 • Dec 12, 2011

You are right.
Expression skills are perhaps the most important one for the entire life. It is truly unfortunate that it gets minimal importance especially in technical education. It is not just this generation that suffers from this malaise. It has been festering within like a cancer. I see this with my own senior colleagues. Even HODs are unable to express themselves clearly and succinctly.

These days I ignore such errors and try to dig a bit deeper before deciding against replying. I try to paraphrase the question even if not in my area, so that others more competent can answer.

It is an uphill task and tends to raise some hackles. Yet I so not see any other way except plodding on.
Are you putting together a summary of the main conclusion of the TEDx conference? May be of use to all.

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Generating More Discussions On CE - Ideas

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