Forum Feedback How should we evolve TE into something big
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Crapmypants
Herald
This is brilliant! - e.g. a new mobo gets passed around members that have cpu's with that socket and all reviews can be collated into one. each member gets a week or two with it and then pass it along. 2 biggest issues i see with this is that shipping costs will need to be borne by the reviewing members and some mechanism to prevent a member from just keeping the item forever will need to be in place.
I've noticed this too and i think that maintaining it as a knowledge base can help increase page hits from search engines. almost all new visitors here came looking for a solution to a problem or buying advice.
we can have budget brackets like gaming pc for under 30k, under 45k and so on - it provides a good guideline on both prices and which parts complement each other well.
It can be a sticky thread that's updated every 6 months or so.
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These are just my impressions after a long time being away from TE.
1 - The site design is too clunky. It's all boxes after boxes and take ages to load with all the ajax or JavaScript it. It's too mind boggling for a non tech normal user. I don't like the vbulletin or other forum type style. They're too geeky and look work out. Like a 80's style web site.
I don't know what can be done, but if you want visitors to stay back, try to lose the forum effect. Maybe shift to a reddit type style with already built in api to browse through mobile apps.
2 - All the new posts are mostly of buying selling section. A new user would think, that the site is more of a flee market than of tech talk.
3 - Most important of all, there nothing here that will make me want to come back. I know it will hurt the admins and other users here. It hurts me too to say this. All I see is people getting offended really fast over small things. The number of people helping with recommending stuff or helping in troubleshooting is even lower than when i left. You can't expect only one bunch of people to keep helping all the time. To a newcomer, it looks like just a few bunch of guys solving issues all the time & another bunch of guys selling stuff all the time and the reasoning they will take from this is that the forum is not popular. No one stays long in such a place. I've signed up to many such forums in other fields, and i haven't looked back or even logged into them from years. I'm not even sure which of them exist now.
4 - Like a few of the forum members above mentioned, one of the positives this forum has is the buying guides. The only reason i logged back after a year or two was i needed help on which ac to buy. Maybe you could highlight the consumer appliances, mobile and pc buying guides in front along with news.
5 - I liked the video suggestion. Sometimes, things can only be explains through a video properly. Maybe embed or add a link to YouTube videos as additional info. It's already been done in some posts i think where people have linked videos to start a psu with a clip etc.
6 - I don't mind the general talk or the "stupid" stuff people are getting angry about some it's far away from the main tech sections. You don't need to get angry on being smart for his posts just because the site is not performing well. He or people like him are not the main cause. No need to make a scape goat of him.
If threads like what these guys start irk people, you could make such type of threads Facebook only. Keep the main site for tech related stuff and Facebook for the nonsense. Or you could start fun enclave again. Wonder how many still remember that site now.
7 - The level of help needs to be pulled up a lot. I mean a lot. I've seen better help on reddit, which is a mish mash of stuff than here, a purely tech forum. If you want quality posters, get rid of the forum layout like i said before. TE does not have anything to set then apart from the rest. You could get the same help from reddit, quora or another site with users on them.
What does TE want to become? An Indian tech site or a masala site like another user mentioned?
Anyway, these were the things that i saw from my absence here. All the best to forum members, Renu & admins who work hard for TE.
1 - The site design is too clunky. It's all boxes after boxes and take ages to load with all the ajax or JavaScript it. It's too mind boggling for a non tech normal user. I don't like the vbulletin or other forum type style. They're too geeky and look work out. Like a 80's style web site.
I don't know what can be done, but if you want visitors to stay back, try to lose the forum effect. Maybe shift to a reddit type style with already built in api to browse through mobile apps.
2 - All the new posts are mostly of buying selling section. A new user would think, that the site is more of a flee market than of tech talk.
3 - Most important of all, there nothing here that will make me want to come back. I know it will hurt the admins and other users here. It hurts me too to say this. All I see is people getting offended really fast over small things. The number of people helping with recommending stuff or helping in troubleshooting is even lower than when i left. You can't expect only one bunch of people to keep helping all the time. To a newcomer, it looks like just a few bunch of guys solving issues all the time & another bunch of guys selling stuff all the time and the reasoning they will take from this is that the forum is not popular. No one stays long in such a place. I've signed up to many such forums in other fields, and i haven't looked back or even logged into them from years. I'm not even sure which of them exist now.
4 - Like a few of the forum members above mentioned, one of the positives this forum has is the buying guides. The only reason i logged back after a year or two was i needed help on which ac to buy. Maybe you could highlight the consumer appliances, mobile and pc buying guides in front along with news.
5 - I liked the video suggestion. Sometimes, things can only be explains through a video properly. Maybe embed or add a link to YouTube videos as additional info. It's already been done in some posts i think where people have linked videos to start a psu with a clip etc.
6 - I don't mind the general talk or the "stupid" stuff people are getting angry about some it's far away from the main tech sections. You don't need to get angry on being smart for his posts just because the site is not performing well. He or people like him are not the main cause. No need to make a scape goat of him.
If threads like what these guys start irk people, you could make such type of threads Facebook only. Keep the main site for tech related stuff and Facebook for the nonsense. Or you could start fun enclave again. Wonder how many still remember that site now.
7 - The level of help needs to be pulled up a lot. I mean a lot. I've seen better help on reddit, which is a mish mash of stuff than here, a purely tech forum. If you want quality posters, get rid of the forum layout like i said before. TE does not have anything to set then apart from the rest. You could get the same help from reddit, quora or another site with users on them.
What does TE want to become? An Indian tech site or a masala site like another user mentioned?
Anyway, these were the things that i saw from my absence here. All the best to forum members, Renu & admins who work hard for TE.
vivacious_tg
Discoverer
It looks like TE doesn't come on search results when users search for something. For example, If I search latest news on android M or IOS 9, i don't get any search results on TE. If some one is checking for new cabinets launched in 2015 like core x9, there no results which points to TE. I used to read all the news on pc, computing and others TECH stuff on TE. Now a days not explicitly coming to TE for that , but we still have latest tech news section which don't get reflected in search engines. One example can be if I search" computex 2015 techenclave" I still don't see thread created by windwithme on search results. So, my point is TE needs more visibilty on search results.
I too agree with 6packs suggestion on site design and video reviews, unboxing new phones/cabinets etc.
I too agree with 6packs suggestion on site design and video reviews, unboxing new phones/cabinets etc.
edge111hussain
Forerunner
I feel more or less everyone has covered all the relevant points here. But to me, TE on the whole is not engaging enough. And frankly speaking earlier TE was used as a medium to discuss a lot of topics from cars, travel, music hardware, current events etc which is not happening anymore or rather not keeping people hooked in.
To be honest, without AMG and being smart , we wouldn't have half the threads that are since the last 3 odd months.
Also a lot of older members are no where to be seen.
Sigh, the good old days..
Hell, i liked this place so much, even i had posted a UEtf10 review.
Now this place looks like a buy/sell medium.
TE was always more about the contribution made by its members and the interest shown by them. Nothing has changed too much, just the participation has fallen.
Also i strongly feel the drop in DEALERS section has had an impact.
To be honest, without AMG and being smart , we wouldn't have half the threads that are since the last 3 odd months.
Also a lot of older members are no where to be seen.
Sigh, the good old days..
Hell, i liked this place so much, even i had posted a UEtf10 review.
Now this place looks like a buy/sell medium.
TE was always more about the contribution made by its members and the interest shown by them. Nothing has changed too much, just the participation has fallen.
Also i strongly feel the drop in DEALERS section has had an impact.
Crapmypants
Herald
i think vivacious_tg has it. more visibility on search results will go a long way.
participation is down i guess because most active members here are in the pre-college to first-job part of their life. after this stage, job and family take over most free time.
participation is down i guess because most active members here are in the pre-college to first-job part of their life. after this stage, job and family take over most free time.
You can use 'Ignore New Posts' option to selectively ignore certain sections : https://www.techenclave.com/community/account/new-posts
I'm guessing this is for the mobile site? Because on my desktop, TE is among the faster sites I browse.
First page first result. Maybe its a geographic location thing?
Actually most dealers left because there wasn't much interest, and felt they were wasting their resources monitoring TE for an occasional order. Only the US import businesses were doing sort of ok.
Personally I think the PC tech scene has dwindled with the shift to mobile devices. And mobile devices being 'media consumption' devices, results in most mobile users being readers not contributors. This is probably where t-bhp made a good call in deleting one liners, thereby encouraging people to get behind a proper keyboard, put on their thinking caps, and make good posts. You do not need to be a certified forum celeb (?!) to make good posts.
Well most of them its told me its because of unreasonably high dealer membership fees. Correct me if am wrong.
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@Crazy_Eddy, I've stopped browsing from the comp. I use mobile apps or mobile browser now for everything. Browsing through mobile, the site lags a lot, so i only log in through the TE app.
The option to ignore market threads is not there on the TE app.
Regarding the boxy design, i meant the design of vbulettin or whatever package you people are using for the forums now. Its too off putting for non techies.
I know its not possible to change it to something customised like other sites. But i still feel its one of the reasons.
People used to forums won't feel anything, but for newcomers it's complicated with all the umpteen sections. Maybe that's the reason many people do not even post on the forums.
The option to ignore market threads is not there on the TE app.
Regarding the boxy design, i meant the design of vbulettin or whatever package you people are using for the forums now. Its too off putting for non techies.
I know its not possible to change it to something customised like other sites. But i still feel its one of the reasons.
People used to forums won't feel anything, but for newcomers it's complicated with all the umpteen sections. Maybe that's the reason many people do not even post on the forums.
I felt it was a bit high too. But this again traces back to what I said, that they weren't getting enough orders to justify paying a fee.
Good posts don't get bubbled to the top. If you are following or are aware of people who regularly post good stuff you tend to get a lot more from the forum.
One suggestion to revive 'suggestion threads'. Try getting users on quora and reddit(like 6pack said). On quora (where I am mainly active), people ask the same question myriad times, 'laptop under 35k' 'gaming mouse under 1.5k' . So what we can do is, sort and categorize each component according to their price and performance. Build different threads specific to talks about a single component. And finally our users on quora answering those question with a link to the thread as the source. I am 110% sure when a person sees the source he will click on it.
Now that was the part to increase footsteps. Next you can try including specific links of threads people might be interested in when they are viewing a specific thread. Like when a person comes searching for mobiles under 15k, give him a link for '10 android games that will blow your mind'. once someone visits 2-3 pages of interesting stuff its highly likely he will bookmark the pages for later read.
Now as for posting there is an option of 'create an account to view links'. But that can backfire too, so I am not much sure about it.
I will add more stuff if I can work something out.
Now that was the part to increase footsteps. Next you can try including specific links of threads people might be interested in when they are viewing a specific thread. Like when a person comes searching for mobiles under 15k, give him a link for '10 android games that will blow your mind'. once someone visits 2-3 pages of interesting stuff its highly likely he will bookmark the pages for later read.
Now as for posting there is an option of 'create an account to view links'. But that can backfire too, so I am not much sure about it.
I will add more stuff if I can work something out.
I believe there should be more reviews on the site. Not 2 liner reviews, but a proper review like it's there on Cnet or T-BHP and many on this forum too! Reviews should be open for all tech related products (and low tech too) - Mobiles (obvious, isn't it) and related items, Computer related items (mobo, ram, HDD, etc.) and maybe even ACs, washing machines, refrigerators....the list is endless. It might seem slow at the start, but once products keep adding up, TE will have a big repository of reviews (just look at Cnet for instance).
Initially, I think reviews will need to be done by members who bought the new toy with their own money, but I am sure once the word goes around, companies will start giving demo products for review and if lucky, a product before its market launch.
Also, I think the overall language in the forum should improve. I am specifically speaking for english grammer. The forum will look more sophisticated if the grammer is better than current levels.
Posts by new members should be approved by a mod before getting displayed, to confirm it's authenticity. Spam/ads should be deleted asap.
Initially, I think reviews will need to be done by members who bought the new toy with their own money, but I am sure once the word goes around, companies will start giving demo products for review and if lucky, a product before its market launch.
Also, I think the overall language in the forum should improve. I am specifically speaking for english grammer. The forum will look more sophisticated if the grammer is better than current levels.
Posts by new members should be approved by a mod before getting displayed, to confirm it's authenticity. Spam/ads should be deleted asap.
Crapmypants
Herald
We could perhaps come up with some guidelines for user reviews?
like a pre-set format for testing and reporting results.
like a pre-set format for testing and reporting results.
avi
Keymaster
Arv90
Forerunner
Yes
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