Forum Suggestions Thread

[ahmedsid]

Yes we must try to build a healthy male : female ratio I mean seriously, we got Female Pilots and there are lots of Girls out there interested in Defence. We should bring them in.

About Flame wars, Yes, Sadly some people come in with pre conceived agendas to ruin a particular discussion or thread. We can retort to their posts, but We must never stoop to their level of Name calling and hurling abuses, because then We will be One of them! The best thing to do would be to wait for the Admins and Mods to come in and take action.

We should encourage Sensible Chinese, Pakistani posters to contribute to this forum. We should have members from all around the globe and make this a breeding grown for Knowledge. God Speed.

 

[thakur_ritesh]

may i take a liberty of making a suggestion, ah i anyways will, so here go.

i see the mods and admins around doing discussions in the open which i believe should not quite be the case, ideally you guys should have a separate forum exclusive for the mods and the admins, far from the preying eyes of each and every member who can log in.

PS: i might be completely off track but i sensed as if you guys were discussing stuff in the open, may be you fellows already have a secret closet.

PPS: the smilies are good, if possible add a few more, like in place of "cool" wanted to have a evil face.

rgds.

 

[.v0id]

Ok Guys , the forum is going under upgradation . After upgrade , everything will be applied . Upgradation will take up to 24 hours , but today is sunday . So maybe forums will be up on Moday evening . Patinence

 

[Singh]

Since I ran a shortlived defence forum... I guess I am qualified to give a few basic pointers

1. keep limited number of moderators (1:5 ratio is about the maximum, 1:10-20 is more desirable)
2. limited number of forums and subforums in the main forums and gallery
3. add a quick reply mod
4. random images from gallery in the index would be nice
5. add email authentication and re-captcha (anti-spam) tools
6. dedicate an admin/mod only forum
7. Add a few meta tags and apply SEO
8. atleast one of the administrator has to be good IT guy

Keep an India-centric focus and limited number of initial forums and try for organic growth ie increase subforums when there is a growth in community and interest in other topics....

 

[Rage]

- A possible suggestion is that we could have the concept of "reputation" (with green or red bars indicating positive and negative rep respectively, or alternatively an incrimental 'volume graph' that gets coloured the more reputation one has).

- We ought also to change the colour scheme. Somehow, the blue and white template, while soothing, tends to make one a bit drowsy- quite like sitting in a room with blue walls and a bright tube light. Something with more variance would be nice.

- The ability for posters to embed pure audio in a post for instance, with an optional autoplay feature that plays a single track at a time when other users access that post or the thread on which it is on, would also be nice. The feature is particularly useful to have an appropriate audio track playing while viewing image threads like the "Incredible India" thread or Army/Navy/Air Force threads.

- A status bar to indicate who is viewing a thread at the bottom of each page of that particular thread would be useful.

- Icons representing contact methods for members (via MSN, Yahoo Messenger and such) appearing below their avatars for those members that choose to make themselves accessible through these means should also be considered. (Edit: Check)

- Protected sub-forums ought not to have the subject title of the most recently used thread visible on the index/main page of the forum. It hints at what is being discussed within the confines of those sub-forums.

 

[.v0id]

Since I ran a shortlived defence forum... I guess I am qualified to give a few basic pointers

1. keep limited number of moderators (1:5 ratio is about the maximum, 1:10-20 is more desirable)
2. limited number of forums and subforums in the main forums and gallery
3. add a quick reply mod
4. random images from gallery in the index would be nice
5. add email authentication and re-captcha (anti-spam) tools
6. dedicate an admin/mod only forum
7. Add a few meta tags and apply SEO
8. atleast one of the administrator has to be good IT guy

Keep an India-centric focus and limited number of initial forums and try for organic growth ie increase subforums when there is a growth in community and interest in other topics....

1. Well this is starting of Forums , so we need some mods to start .
2. Please letus know what we lacks in forums , please mention .
3. Done!!!!
4. Some errors in gallery mod , will be fixed .
5. well again , its starting of forums . We need members , so i prefer not to use email authentication . and Human verification is ON!!
6. Done!!!!
7. Meta Tags mod is already Installed , and now Auto Tagger is Added Now !! . SEO will be Added .
8. Well am not new to this business , am also running a site called www.fullydesi.com , and about 11,000 members are there . So dont worry .

 

[Rage]

- The ability to post > 10 images per post would be nice.

- The ability for logged in members to access threads listed under the "Latest Post" section on the Index page without having to re-login would be highly appreciated.

- Dedicated Social/Political issues, History and economic issues subforums, as well as perhaps a Science & Technology subforum (later on) would be useful and should be seriously considered.

 

[A M J]

2 suggestions from my side:-

1) Lurkers should be allowed to see the content.

2) The opening page should have some nice banners, plz change that old LCA pic. It is a new board and a new feel is needed. How about a new LCA pic with some kick ass roar??

 

[Triton]

Rage, "a Science & Technology subforum" would be useful and should be seriously considered.

I second that.

 

[pyromaniac]

2 suggestions from my side:-

1) Lurkers should be allowed to see the content.

2) The opening page should have some nice banners, plz change that old LCA pic. It is a new board and a new feel is needed. How about a new LCA pic with some kick ass roar??

yes, I second that. I could provide you guys with some hi-res pictures of Indian armed forces if you want

 

[A.V.]

2 suggestions from my side:-

1) Lurkers should be allowed to see the content.

2) The opening page should have some nice banners, plz change that old LCA pic. It is a new board and a new feel is needed. How about a new LCA pic with some kick ass roar??

sir banner is changed and more improvements to follow soon

the content view idea is also applicable from today, guests can view the dfi contents from now on.

thanks

 

[Rage]

- I believe a new, pinned thread for events following and related to the Mumbai carnage is in order, rather than simply putting them all in the Pakistani Army thread. Could the mod who undertakes this task also relocate all relevant posts in that and other threads to this new thread?

- Also, a separate subforum for articles and pictures of military exercises ( for all three branches of the Armed Services) would not only be organized and efficient, it would also serve as an easily accessible archive for all.

- Awaiting your response on whether a Social & Political issues subforum, as well as Technology and History subforums (for military and non-military history including an archive of the wars) are viable

Rage

EDIT: I though I'd throw out the suggestion that we hold a contest every month to see which member can come up with a catchy tagline/motto for the forum displayed on the index page. The process would be one more way to involve members in the operations and functioning of DFI online. The selected entry could be rewarded with VBI points and/or some other chosen form of recognition, and the result decided by a panel of judges composed of our distinguished mods and senior members.

 

[A.V.]

- I believe a new, pinned thread for events following and related to the Mumbai carnage is in order, rather than simply putting them all in the Pakistani Army thread. Could the mod who undertakes this task also relocate all relevant posts in that and other threads to this new thread?

- Also, a separate subforum for articles and pictures of military exercises ( for all three branches of the Armed Services) would not only be organized and efficient, it would also serve as an easily accessible archive for all.

- Awaiting your response on whether a Social & Political issues subforum, as well as Technology and History subforums (for military and non-military history including an archive of the wars) are viable

Rage

sir a new thread named " current india-pakistan crisis " is in place now.this is to cover all indian, pakistani and world opinion regarding the india-pakistan relations. related posts are being moved to this section.
another thread in the strategy section " terrorism in india " is already in place for news related india specifically.

we have the dfi gallery in place and will be up with the next upgradation.


technology forum will be put in place as the forum grows in due course of time.we have a military history thread both for india in strategy section and for world military history in the world sectionas of now later we can have subforums for those.
as of now we are concentrating on reorganisation of the current forums without increasing in number<by merging 2 and creating place for a new forum> .

new current afairs /socio-political section put in place.

thanx

 

[Rage]

I thought I'd suggest an important observation (and ensuing recommendation) I've noticed over the past few days on the forum: it is my humble belief that the level of moderation on the forum at present is a bit too high. Although nitpicking is altogether inevitable on a forum in its nascence because the number of active members is so few and because there is constant temptation to exercise a moderator's privileges at the first opportunity, I think it is prudent to exercise restraint so as not to deter new members from joining the forum and existing members from posting. Ofcourse, it is perquisite and becoming of a forum of this stature that the discussion be kept within the general guidelines, but I believe the implementation of the forum rules is supererogatory at the moment- a bit too stringent - and deterring - if you will. I cannot less endeavor to stress the importance of this suggestion, and humbly suggest that the moderators look into the matter and aim to strike the right chord between liberalness and constraint.

Much love brothas,
Rage

 

[Singh]

it is my humble belief that the level of moderation on the forum at present is a bit too high.

Although nitpicking is altogether inevitable on a forum in its nascence because the number of active members is so few and because there is constant temptation to exercise a moderator's privileges at the first opportunity,

I think it is prudent to exercise restraint so as not to deter new members from joining the forum and existing members from posting.

Ofcourse, it is perquisite and becoming of a forum of this stature that the discussion be kept within the general guidelines, but I believe the implementation of the forum rules is supererogatory at the moment- a bit too stringent - and deterring - if you will.

I cannot less endeavor to stress the importance of this suggestion, and humbly suggest that the moderators look into the matter and aim to strike the right chord between liberalness and constraint.

Much love brothas,
Rage

frankly, I haven't seen moderators really doing anything except moving posts.... or did I miss something ?

 

[A.V.]

frankly, I haven't seen moderators really doing anything except moving posts.... or did I miss something ?

i second that singhji.

1.the moderators havent done anything beyond moving threads and removing double posts.links or mentions of other defence forums have being edited as it is unethical to speak about other forums here.

2.secondly the dfi staff aims to have a even level throughout we need to set up a standard that we need to follow throughout. fixed guidelines and criterias are being formulated for the staff as well as the members on how the forum is to be conducted< in addition to the existing forum rules.>.soon we will set up a list of words,phrases and expressions that will attract a case for infarctions/ban.
we the dfi team believe that every member needs a right to know why a particular action was taken and the staff will make sure we reach each and every member personally.

3. regarding the high level we want to point it out that we should make the the level a standard from the start so that we remain even at all times. or else dfi will loose the uniqueness and be just a member among the thousands of forums that are spread across the internet.

4. we value each and every member of dfi but as a principle we rather have 150 deciplined and dedicated members than 500 unruly ones.
we do not want DFI to become a mass ground for personal attacks,and internet rivalary.

5.the staff team is always open for any discussions or suggetions if the members need answers to any of their queries they can contact the staff personally or put up their complaints/requests/suggestions on the relevant threads,we assure all the members that we will consider the opinions and complaints of every member before acting.

6.the forum is still new and things are being changed or upgraded on a regular basis so members might see some threads being moved/merged or otherwise we expect all the members to co-operate in this regard.

thanks

 

[Rage]

Singh, INvInCIBlE,

My issue is most certainly not with the moving of threads/posts to newly created subforums: after all, I was one among many who suggested the creation of these forums in the first place (and ensuing thread relocation) . My suggestion concerns specifically the editing/removal of posts, which I consider a tad too overzealous at present, a rigid enforcement of the rules in a bid to set the 'standard'- at times over trifles, and at times based on a misunderstood/misinterpreted reading of the posts. I guess my aversion to having my own posts being annotated by another might have something to do with the feeling of 'de trop' - but I believe it is a concern shared by many in the internet community - which is why I raised the point wishing to nip it forthwith in the bud. I am also deeply concerned about the wellbeing of this place, and wish to see it thrive and attract many-a-member, while being a place where respectful and rewarding discussions are held even while yet not forgetting our original intent- which is why I expressed the asseveration that too much moderation - in any capacity or purpose- would be both debilitating and deterring.

INViNcIBlE,

I appreciate the goal to set high standards from the outset and strive to their attainment, but I have been on one too many a forum to know that these standards are inevitably not met once member traffic crosses a certain threshold. Let me state here that this is not due to any deficit on the part of the mods- for the mods here and on the forums I have been on have always been a great bunch. It is simply impossible to keep pace with the level of activity on a forum once it grows to prodigious extents, and increasing the number of mods, even while this is nigh impracticable proportionately, often fails to do the trick. Therefore, it is necessary that one sets realistic standards- if indeed the aim is to maintain these standards throughout. Trifles or picayune violations of forum rules should be overlooked because these are neither consequential nor diminishing- nor for that matter capable of being maintained throughout the entire length of the life of this forum- particularly in its latterly, augmentative stages.

That is merely my humble opinion. As you and Singh have rightly elucidated, I don't think the moderators have gone overboard just yet; only that in the cases they have intervened, this has been supererogatory at best. I raise the issue early on in the life of the forum because norm-setting at this crucial juncture tends to be a product of the force of habit, and if we truly are to be a great forum, a forum that attracts many and becomes a place where members feel welcome and not schooled, these habits should not involve its indulgence.

Much love brothas,
Rage

 

[A.V.]

rage you are right on your point of view and we take your suggestion positively.
certainly your experience is needed in guiding this forum to success.
we will aim to develop that fine balance that you have pointed out, thanks for your views on this.its highly appreciated.

need to apologize to all members here who posted on the indo-israeli section
all the posts in that section got deleted due to a technical hitch while the forum was being upgraded.
the dfi staff team apologizes to all the members whose posts were deleted it was not deleted or edited by any of the staff it was a mere accident and we hope to avoid such things in the future.
we need all the members to co-operation on this.

thanx

 

[pyromaniac]

About the spammers

I've noticed that we have a had a lotttt of spammers of late...heck I think the last 10 people who joined this website were spammers. I have noted that every spammers we have had so far has registered Aaland as their country. It is something that you guys should screen for...

 

[Flint]

Yeah, lotsa spammers eh? Damned Spambots....