Minor upgrade 5/9

[Mati1]

Please don't break the forum

[roddy]

Ok, it's a bit more 像样 now. It's still not ideal - can't change titles, can't distinguish between an editor's comment and the actual content, and a few other niggles, but for elevating quality content from the depths of a five page topic to the front page... 

 

Have a look at chinese-forums.com/test if you want. Don't bother on mobile, nothing to see there. 

[Mati1]

Well done.

Remove the "Promoted by ..." and the number of replies lines to make it smaller. (I wonder why the first entry (Blog Comment in Currency) does not show the number of replies anyway. And when I see the number of replies I do not know if it's the total number for the topic or actually for the specific post.)

Can you add the latest topics below again?

[roddy]

Promoted by is going to stay as ultimately I'd like to have several people doing this, not just me, and I think people would like to see who's promoted something and written any comment. Replies only applies to, eg, a topic or a blog entry. A blog comment doesn't have replies, as such. But what I might do is just add the number of replies for the parent item as a general indicator of activity. Or likes, etc. And fold those into one line or something so it's more compact, yes. 

 

Latest topics... I don't know. They'll still show up in the recent posts list and show up under 'unread' or 'all activity'. I think if they stay on the home page it'll be a much more compact format, with titles only and no snippet. Unsure. 

[Mati1]

Oh, I've now just realized that the actual texts were your own comments. This and having multiple people promoting is of course reason to show the name.

 

Latest topics in a compact title only list is fine with me too. Has the advantage that it reduces traffic. But there may be other readers regularly scanning the main page who will miss the currernt format more than I will.

[roddy]

Right, everyone who's reading this have a look and tell me what you think. Chinese-forums.com/test

[Lu]

This looks good, I think. So this would be the front page then? I can see this kind of setup being useful to attract casual passers-by.

[roddy]

That's what I'm thinking, yes. 

[edelweis]

re: forum decline
there's the moderation aspect too.
waiting hours to get a comment published is discouraging for newcomers.
other social media are often not moderated, or moderated a posteriori, not a priori.

[roddy]

There's no easy way to get wait times out of the database, but I did a random sample of ten and the average wait is 3h20m. Longest 12 hours, shortest 0m. I'd be willing to ditch pre-moderation for a post stercora approach and see how it goes - the spam filters are working very well at the moment, there's not much automated stuff in the queue at all. I'm not sure what everyone else thinks of that - generally I'd say people appreciate the entirely spam-free site. If I make the home page changes discussed above any dubious posts wouldn't immediately be sitting on the top of the home page, so I'd be a lot more relaxed about it. We'd probably want a couple more folk with ban hammers, which is to be done anyway.

 

Not sure how much of an issue it is for newbies - I can certainly think of other places you get held for approval, and there's a clear message explaining what's happening. I suspect we'd end up with a slight shift to adverty / low-quality content, as once something's up there's more of an inclination to leave it there.

[edelweis]

This might be the end of CF as we know it

 

I am wondering about external social media login.

1) what happens when a student creates a CF account with login from Facebook, then arrives in China ? Can they still access their CF account with a VPN? without a VPN ?

2) how about integrating login from Chinese social media such as qq, weixin, etc?

[Shelley]

I had a quick look around and could not find anything like CF, either content or quality of the layout of the site.

 

I understand new users add interest and is good for the community, but if it is a bit slow for awhile does it matter? From experience things go in ebb and flow and just when you think its all going downhill something turns up.

 

I wonder if there needs to more links to CF from Schools, Colleges and Universities websites to encourage students. Some recommendation from existing CF members to other communities and so on to enlarge the circle.

 

 

[Mati1]

The signup procedure and moderation for new members, while a bit annoying, are doing a great job to keep spammers and questionable posts out, raising forum quality for everyone.

When I signed up to be able to post I was only a bit annoyed because at that time new posts needed over a day to go through. I think a delay of, say, twelve hours is already a low enough value, if you consider only having one or two persons doing it as a hobby.

The moderation barrier is also an incentive to contribute at least a few useful posts to the forum after signing up, the reward of course being getting out of the full moderation phase.

 

I share Shelley's thoughts about  getting CF better known. This is something that depends on the life circumstances and personality of enthusiastic members.

[edelweis]

21 hours ago, Mati1 said:

This is something that depends on the life circumstances and personality of enthusiastic members.

 

Let's start with you and me.

 

I am not so young anymore and not familiar with current forms of social media. Also not really sure how one goes about making publicity.

I guess I *could* add a link to CF on my Postcrossing profile (although it would not target specifically Chinese learners, maybe some people who receive postcards from China would be glad to have a place to ask for translation - although they can also do that on the Postcrossing forums). That's about it. (I'm not saying I will do it).

 

What do you intend to do yourself to promote CF?

[roddy]

I'm not that fussed about off-site promotion. If you have somewhere you think would be interested and you're not going to annoy anyone, by all means post about it. But do it for their benefit, more than for ours.

 

If you want to help then a) thanks! and b) what I think is most effective is...

• Welcome new members and point them in useful directions. "Hey, if you're just starting out, the Aims & Objectives topic would be a great place to get ideas and..." or "Oh, you're going to UIBE? There are some other students there having a conversation in...." or "Yeah, sounds like you're struggling with tones a bit. Try posting in..."
• Nudge people. If you notice someone hasn't updated a blog or topic you might expect them to, a quick bump doesn't hurt. 
• Start new topics. Don't force it, but if you're writing a reply to a topic and it's going a bit off-tangent, or if you read an interesting article or have a remarkable thought on the bus...
• If you can't do any of that, use the reactions - like posts, say thanks, or it was helpful or a good question. Just the simple acknowledgement that someone read a post and bothered to make the tiniest response is helpful, especially now people can see who responded.

The problem is not currently one of getting people TO the site - Uncle Google is still quite good to us. It's a matter of drawing people in and retaining them. The more friendly, active and engaging we are, the better. Anything off-site, to my mind, should wait until we're doing better on-site. 

[Mati1]

I hate spam too.

Let me think about it.

[Shelley]

6 hours ago, edelweis said:

What do you intend to do yourself to promote CF?

 

I had an idea.

 

@roddy did you see my pm?

[edelweis]

@Shelley

The suspense is killing me you tease.

 

Re: new members,

how about reducing the number of pre-moderated posts down to 1 or 2, if 0 is too drastic?

 

 

[Mati1]

Heh, I am also waiting to hear the idea.

 

Three is also smaller than five.

[Shelley]

I just wanted to run it past roddy before sharing so I am waiting for his reply....sorry