Only 10.23% of Recom Members Speak...

[royston]

At this moment, I realized that out of 606 members, we have only 62 members posted in our forum, the rest are almost silent members.

I guess we should come out few ways to attract our members to talk. Any idea? What about... for those members who has zero post, we redirect them to the introduction page when they log in?

To me, no doubt Recom has improved but base on the "speaker" rate, it is not healthy. If our speaking-members can increase up to 30-40%, Recom will be even better !!

~ roy ~

[eeyore]

I am curious about something, among the 606 - 62 members who haven't posted messages yet, how many times have they logged in since registering as members?

[Dharman100]

Well..I think introducing Bittorent in our forums can do wonders..

If you havent heard about bittorent yet..check it out at..

http://bitconjurer.org/BitTorrent/

Its the next generation of peer-to-peer download...

Have fun..

Dharman100[/img][/url]

[iQing]

as I have said... I think we should consider about some topics discussed here...
as some of the topics are not interested by certain people eg secondary school students.... and it's not avoidable...
(I would try to avoid using figurative terms like "high" or "low" level)

I think we should find a way so that new users can tell us what kind of stuff they wanna participate...

perhaps an opinion poll is a good start... do u think so?

[qedx]

and what wold we serve if we do BT?

[Dharman100]

well nearly anything..if the admin can allow us to attach files in forums then it will be easy for us... just take a torrent file from any of the sites and attach together in your forum posting.. I think it will be great as these torrents files are really small....

Dharman100

[Thirdshifter]

I'm not sure how many active poster comes here, but i would guestimate it to about 15, 20 top.

After some observation and reading i had come to the conclusion that Recom is just another chit-chat board.

I have no idea whats the main idea behind recom, other then get Malaysian to talk about News in Malaysia.

Recom lack content.

[iQing]

Ooo...

3rd shifter... can you give some suggestion on what features ReCom should have?

thanx

[masterof_none]

After some observation and reading i had come to the conclusion that Recom is just another chit-chat board.

Other than chit-chat, I guess I learn lots of stuff in the forum from our discussion, such as Transportation, Sex Education, etc.


I have no idea whats the main idea behind recom, other then get Malaysian to talk about News in Malaysia.

This is the main idea:
http://www2.recom.org:8000/modules.php?name=Visions


Recom lack content.
we've bunch of links in the e-learning section.
hundreds of links in the weblinks
free-sms
updated news.
active forums.

we're in our way to improve ourselves.

[iQing]

I agree...

I have been to real life forum and I have learnt a lot.

we don't really need to come out with something when we held a forum...
it might be endless
but forum enable the flow of ideas and we learn things from each other and learn how to express ideas...

I think it's good if u experience real life forum for yourself as I have done so and find that forum is useful for personal growth...

[silverblue]

Dear Thirdshifter,

I don't think we lack content. I don't think we lack vision.

We have highlighted news from home right in front of our eyes so that we, lazy bodies don't have to go click the various news-sites to read them.. just come here and u'll know the latest and hottest!

We have really healthy discussions amongst members. Chit-chat rooms are definitely not the same. We may seem like we are chit-chatting, but I think of it more as mature discussions where we share and exchange our views on current issues and important affairs pertinent to our country or age-group.. where we learn from others and others learn from us... where we get to expand our knowledge...

Think about it, didn't you feel that you've learnt something since you'd joined Recom? Didnt you feel that your communications skills have improved? Didn't you feel that you've made so many more friends? People whom you are networking with now may very well be someone really important in the future... Didn't you feel a sense of belongingness whenever you log on to Recom? Isn't Recom an avenue for you to express your thoughts and let it be heard? Isn't Recom a place where you can get help from people about computer problems, for research resources, moral support, etc? Isn't Recom GREAT??

Perhaps it is not really apparent how Recom can benefit some as of now, but we need some time to show the results... We are slowly developing...and only time be the witness to our eventual success..
Already, we have so many plans for achieving something tangible with Recom :- Recom Computer Programs, our own column in local newspapers, getting sponsors or support from big companies, creative corner, and various others in line... Just be patient and trust this path that you have chosen...and it shall lead you to the fruits of achievement!

:) Sincerely yours

[iQing]

I agree with silverblue.

From my personal experience

I have been trying to find a website where intelectuals and leaders of malaysia gather under one roof where members are talented and having lots of enthusiasm....

and ReCom is the website that has satisfied me....

I believe that Recom wil become a successful platform in gathering young talents...

[royston]

3rd Shifter said:
After some observation and reading i had come to the conclusion that Recom is just another chit-chat board.

I have no idea whats the main idea behind recom, other then get Malaysian to talk about News in Malaysia.

Recom lack content.

Well, to be honest, I have to agree with 3rd Shifter but I read it from the other way, that's why I agree. This is also one of the things that kept in my mind so long, after I joined Recom.

Wait... hold on... I am not trying to say Recom is a chit-chat board, lack of content. But somehow I feel that Recom is not healthy, no doubt we can see that it is GROWING but towards which direction it grows?

Let me iron out one by one:

1. Don't you see that the posters are those within this 62 person? Or I should say... less than 20 persons? We have 606 members... 10% only speaking... Should we do something?

2. Recom's vision is not ONLY discuss but we have to think of something "workable" and we really work it out!! We have plenty of plans, we have plenty of ambitions, tons of suggestions... but do we really build a way to deliver it out? Bottom line, we are just -- discussing.

3. Content... we have a lot of good contents but have we brought out a survey, are those content will be used by members? What about those 540 members? What are they thinking? What do they want?

4. Every member do have their purpose/intention when they register Recom. Try to think back, when you come to Recom, if you know what you want from Recom, you have certain purpose before you make the first move to register, right? But why they just keep quiet or even forget about Recom after the registration? They can't find what they want from us. Recom only popular in our e-world. How to make the fantasy become reality?

I am sorry to say these but I am also part of Recom. I wish to bring out whatever inside my heart. I want to see Recom "physically" grown instead of "virtually" in e-world.

Should we think about how to make Recom known by everyone with/without computer? This is the main question. Not only known but understand our vision and help us to put in effort to achieve our target.

Shoot me if you have something valid and I am here... ready to accept it.

~ roy ~

[iQing]

I agree with Royston.

I think that the problem is some people are not interested in participating in forum... or maybe they are not interested with certain subjects, as I have said.
Probably they don't see the outcome of the website? or they don't "feel" the direction of ReCom? or maybe there's confusion..... (I hope this post wont cause another chaos)

and maybe it has something to do with members themselves? thier interest?

it's not easy to find Malaysians that are very ambitious + high vision... I think we don't have to have very high expectation yet... perhaps we should wait and see?

[silverblue]

I know all these intentions are meant to be good... so that Recom can grow.... but I guess all I am trying to say here is that, Recom needs time to grow.. I just hope you won't judge how Recom is not being as effective as it should be just yet. Think about it - although the site was up in June, it wasn't really active until recently, about one or two months ago.... how can you expect Recom to produce so much within just two months of its bloom?

Recom is still a baby and we only have one daddy and one mummy (bachok and masterofnone).... as we grow, we have the support of our elder sisters and brothers (all the 13 'official' recom anchors) and we make friends (all the other recom members) and learn to grow up with them. So give Recom some time to develop....I know it can be alarming why only 10% are active and all... but eventually, we will grow out of it. We also have to keep in mind that although Recom may be our baby, we are all still students (or working adults) and we have our priorities too...
We need time to slowly work things and plan things out carefully so that we do not act impulsively and recklessly. What's the rush? Just sit back and enjoy all the current benefits that you get from Recom while we slowly work towards refining our goals, vision and mission. Adding features, website improvement, creating projects, changing this and that all take time.... just give Recom and their anchors some breathing space.... and in no time (hopefully during winter esp) we'll be able to satiate your hunger for more!! ;)

[iQing]

I agree with silverblue.

Personally I'm satisfies with ReCom's development and I myself gain a lot from it.

I believe ReCom is performing fine, better than some other websites

I think we should consider time factor as well... it needs time to develop.

Maybe some members are not satisfied with ReCom but I believe that we can overcome such problems as time pass by...

I'm impressed by the ReCom's format.
In fact, when there's a good suggestion, ReCom achors quickly implement it. I don't think ReCom is not performing well...

[royston]

I think that the problem is some people are not interested in participating in forum... or maybe they are not interested with certain subjects, as I have said.
Probably they don't see the outcome of the website? or they don't "feel" the direction of ReCom? or maybe there's confusion..... (I hope this post wont cause another chaos)

and maybe it has something to do with members themselves? thier interest?

it's not easy to find Malaysians that are very ambitious + high vision... I think we don't have to have very high expectation yet... perhaps we should wait and see?

iQing, from what you have written above, I am sure that you have a lot of "unsure/unconfident" thinking flying around in your mind... well, me either. I believe most of the Recom members/anchors are having the same dilemma.

Each time I read a new reply or topic, my mind will ask me, "Another discussion? Anything solid been done?" Well, should we come out another topic to discuss the roadmap and ways of approach we should take to physically promote Recom to outsider? I know that Syamsul has prepared a mail to MSD and I have read that in the Anchors' group. Thanks Syam, you are really proactive!!

But, can we have more of this proactiveness? I mean, besides MSD, can we start to approach local press? newspaper in US, Japan, German and so on...??

I agree with iQing that we can't do it so fast but can we start a discussion to discuss about it NOW ?? Again I wish to emphasize, users with computer know us, we are not healthy yet but if users without computers such as "uncle, auntie, ah pek, ah ma" know us and help us in our vision, we are almost there and our fantasy will REALLY become reality !!!

~ roy ~

[iQing]

Royston, thanx for your post. I think you have given me an insight...

Maybe we feel abit "lost" when something has developed until a certain stage and I think when we have such feelings, it's better for us to discuss about it so that we are clear about our path....

perhaps we should share and outline a path/aim that we think ReCom should have? a future plan or something like that? otherwise going on and on like that... I think it's like a wood drifting...
maybe I'm wrong but I believe that's the kind of feeling some of us have...

or maybe silverblue is right... we are still developing and we should wait
but still I think it's worth it to discuss such an issue...

a big ?

[silverblue]

Yeah, I agree with Roy about our forums sometimes getting a little too branched-out and less focused.... there are just too many forum topics to seriously concentrate on and produce something really solid out of them... which is why I had previously posted my suggestion about monitoring the number and topic of new forums so that it doesn't go out of control and make us lose focus (or even interested).

I did hear a comment from a friend that our 'hot' topics keeps on changing so fast and it's really hard to keep track with all the discussion once you've missed a day's log-on to Recom... and that sorta discouraged him to post for a while... It's like we don't really have a conclusion or summary to our previous discussions that we may gain from.... and this is something we can address in the near future...

Remember I suggested about appointing two Forum Managers for Recom? Actually, I know that we already officially have one Forum Manager, which is Littlebigone....and we definitely need to appoint another one. And perhaps these managers can take this issue into consideration and think up something to address it :?: .

Thanks for bringing this up by the way... although it has long been a concern of mine too! :wink: But as I'd said before, give us some time to refine this issue! Time, time, time is all we need! :)

[royston]

Hi Cheryl,

After reading your reply... I smiled. :)

I am totally wordless now... but I can understand why this happened. The only example I can give is, a jumpstick. What is the characteristic of a jumpstick? The more you press, the higher it bounces.

I am not going to explain in detail but would like to tell a little bit, a project cannot be rushed, I agree. A project cannot be delayed without reason, I agree too. But if you want success, a certain amount of pressure need to be applied. No doubt certain reasons are valid such as we are busy, we are students/workers and so on but if you want to succeed, sacrifice is needed.

Anyway, to me, my job is my first priority. So I rather leave Recom behind for a short period and work out my projects.

Cheryl, I am not saying you are wrong. You possess a positive/normal thinking, half of myself support you words (I am Gemini) but in the other hand, I used to give myself pressure to get certain things done.

Let's put a stop here, no point keep discussing about this... hahaha...!! We should stick back to the title of this post, what can we do to make the other 90% of members speak? Please advise.

~ roy ~

[iQing]

hehe...
Cheryl = silverblue right?

I have been to Sarah Brightman's official website at www.sarah-brightman.com and there's a forum as well...

of course there are lotsa fans who remain silence

when Sarah herself participate in the forum, she receive a lot of replies...

I think it's her charisma that motivates those members to speak out in the forum...

perhaps a popular figurehead will motive the members to participate in ReCom??

it's just a suggestion...

[royston]

I have a suggestion:

Can we send emails for those silent members (with 0 post) to inform them about our needs and how much they can help to contribute to Recom?

They might not remember their login ID or password. If possible, we may include a "Forget your password?" link for them... how is this idea?

~ roy ~

[iQing]

I think that is a good idea...

besides, I think we should tell them about the benefit they can get from ReCom website

and I think they should be motivated with motivating words....

[littlebigone]

Keeping inline with the forum topic, this is definitely an issue to be worried about.

1|) I think there may be two reasons. A large portion of inactive members may be those who had registered when Recom first started out. They may be inactive because at the time Recom was just a little small website with not much to offer. Perhaps if we reminded them of Recom, we may be able to pull some percentage of them back in.

2) The second group may be people who are not interested at all. They just come here for SMS. THis is the same kind of people we will most probably attract if we start hosting BT files, which is why I'm against it. Thanks for the idea Dharman, but I really don't htink it will work because i don't think this will be motivated towards Recom's vision.

3) The third group may be people who come in and just read the news and forums but do not actively participate for some reason or another. These are the people I think we would have the highest chances of making them sway towards posting.

4) I personally agree with Thirdshifter and Royston (i think they meant to say something like this in their post) that Recom may end up becoming just another chit-chat box. Nothing productive comes out of their discussion.

I think users would most like to participate if things are heard here. I think we've made a good first move with the MSD.

On content and goal. I think that many users have not read the goal and vision of Recom. I know that the admins have tried hard to provide a good user interface but I think it's not really user friendly. The drop down menu is not intuitive at all and first time users will have trouble navigating the site. Going back to my point, I think that the goals and vision of recom has to be made into one of the large categories. It should be like a Read Me First category or something. Another topic that would be in this forum is the guidelines to posting topic or something like that. The guidelines would serve to help users know appropriate ways to use the forum.

Also, the guideline would also serve to provide a process for the forum. Maybe something like debate the meaning of the question or issue at hand -> discuss suggestions and opinions -> make summary -> poll some kind of agreement on the summaries. This i think will make our discussisons seem more tangible. Also, people who have been following the discussion but had no opinions posted can get their say by the poll.

These are just ideas that I would like to throw forth for consideration. :)
Recom can truly be a malaysian Student network.

[iQing]

I think we should consider about the identity of ReCom....

We go to Hotmail.com for the purpose of checking email....

we go to www.google.com to look for information

we go to MP3 website to download MP3

these website has its own identity, its own brand and its own specific purpose
how about ReCom?

if a website doesn't has it specific function, or identity, or brand, it will become just like other ordinary website, loosing its attraction

I have been asking myself...

I thought ReCom is a great platform for gathering talented young malaysian where these talented people have the space to contribute in certain ways... at least a platform where we can meet other local talent...

and I find myself in a situation where...

instead of being on a platform where I can know each other better...
looking for new friends with easy access to other members
and a platform where there is guidance from leaders, enterpreneurs...
getting some useful tips

I find that ReCom is focusing a lot on FORUM...
and I believe that many students around our age are not so interested in intelectual discussion...

and I think ...
is ReCom's identity = Forum site ?

(I don't even know how ChenChow looks like... and I dunno about Royston's backgroud etc)

Don't you think it's suppose to be a website to gather talent, garner knowledge + guidance... ?

I think forum is good but it's should not be the main identity / brand or ReCom
it should focus more on motivating the members and promote self master...
and it should become a platform for young talents...

that's just my opinion.
I hope there's no emotional chaos here...
thanx

[royston]

Recom's identity is a Forum site... hummm... quite similar... 8O

Well, I have an idea. We may continue our discussion here but this time, we need some help from Syam and Yusof (masterof_none and bachok).

First of all, let's pick one more Forum manager (or two more...?).

Next, we divide our forum into three portions:
1. Students' Corner
2. Common Issues Corner
3. Entertainment Corner

In Students' Corner, users may discuss about their homework, problems faced during class and so on. Here the members & anchors will provide helps and useful link for requestors' reference.

In Common Issues Corner, we remain the current forum style.

In Entertainment Corner, members may talk about their daily life, something fun to share among and so on...

The reason I suggest this is, students from Uni and High Schools may post whatever they like to ask in our Students' Corner. We, Recom members, have a lot of talented youngster here (not me... :P ) can help to answer those questions and provide proper guidance. For High Schools level, I believe you guys are awesome... shouldn't be any problem right? For Uni level, you guys may share your knowledge among the group. Members here include Senior, Junior and so on. Senior may be able to help Junior with their knowledge nad past experiences and Junior may help to find useful link from internet, books from library and so on.

For Current Issues Corner, we may still continue discuss about the news in Malaysia, our thoughts, further development of Recom and so on... Here is the place for those adults or employees to share their thoughts and discuss/debate against issues and etc.

And... the Entertainment Corner is used to relief members' pressures, or if you have something you feel that it is worth to share among, do voice it out. Besides, members may talk about favourite songs, movies, shopping, games and so on...

With these 3 corners, I believe Recom will be generalized and most of the members will find their own interest and fun. Meanwhile, they will invite more people to join in. Although this will make Recom like a "tuition class" ... hahaa!!! But try to think, if we can deliver knowledge to members or Malaysian, we will gain their confidence and trust. Meanwhile we will also try to deliver info and our visions together in these 3 corners.

No doubt, the Entertainment corner will be sorta like a chat room but this is the only way we can make our members a home to stay. As long as we insist to have forum format instead of chatroom style, I believe things still be under controlled.

Finally for the Forum Managers, their jobs are kinda tough. They have to manage these 3 corners, make sure all the forums are located in the appropriate category. Hence I would suggest 3 persons or 4. I can't remember who mentioned before but I would like to emphasize that, the trust among each other is important. As long as we are mature enough to manage Recom, we should be able to lighten up both Syam and Yusof burden and in the meantime, create that kind of responsibilities for the anchors, make the word "anchor" meaningful.

To choose for Forum Managers, we may ask the members to vote.

How about my proposal above? Give some comment-lah... Don't keep quiet. At least tell me if I am talking nonsense... :P

~ roy ~

[masterof_none]

1.I don't know what to say to all of you Anchors and members guys except :

Thank you

It has been a great pleasure working with you guys and definitely you guys are doing a great job.

We definitely need some help here. I'll try to find someone who has experience and we'll discuss our NeXTStep .


2. I would like to remind you one thing:
"The journey is the reward"

This is our journey. and it is the reward. We gain so much experience out of maintaining this site. experience, friends , courage, knowledge, skills, that you don't even get it, even you work with corporation.

3. Keep thing simple
We don't want to get lots of trouble, and whenever possible, keep thing simple. If we have any doubt, just post feedbacks.

4. Active v Non-Active.
I believe lots of ppl out there are following our discussions.
but we have to keep in mind that :
- we cannot force people.

It's their right to remain silent. And we really hope that one day, they'll speak up their mind.

5. I agree with all of you Anchors and members. We will help each other to improve this site.

The journey ahead :
We don't know what ReCom is going to be like in the NeXT 5 years or so. But I'm confident 1000% that it would be something big. Especially when we're (or me) all graduate.

I would like to say thanks to you for your support, and let's turn our fantasy into a reality.

Thanks

[royston]

Syam, if you say Thank You, you are just treating us like outsiders already, right?

Anyway, I don't have special intention to spend time brainstorm about the future development or any improvement for Recom, just that I feel that... this is my virtual home.

I am not sure about the rest but maybe so many years I worked in Intel, one of the habits is aggressiveness. I can't let things flow slowly and without some movement. But I also agree with Cheryl, certain things we need to plan properly which I always advise ppl to plan, no matter what, failing to plan is planning to fail.

I do believe that, we are sort of "ready" for the move. Let's bring out a new forum for "Winter Project" and kick ass...

~ roy ~

[jiahui]

Yozz, perhaps someone could create a quick link or something to assess the newly-posted articles/works by members or what have u, so that we can be directed right to the particular ones that we're intereted in without needin to check out ourself each time. Coz u see, I wont know if there's any new update in, say, the gallery, not till I click on it and look up myself. And I doubt the passive members would even do that, so there they go, missin out whatever it is that might potentially interest them, and becomin even more passive. (maybe?) Heh.

Nyways, it's just a suggestion. (maybe I'm being simply to lazy to everytime check out myself, heh.). BUT, it'd be lovely if we can be notified with all the updates in one glance, just like how the news link bit is done. With that, for sure none will miss out on any updates and who knows those might be a trigger for one to start contributin in the forum or rather aid them in what to talk/discuss. Hopefully, this will get the members to be more active, be it the sharing-thoughts-kinda-active or more-frequent-logged-on-kinda-active. And wish that the frequency of member's log in will correlate with the possibility of them participatin in the forum. Hopefully. Triggers are good I'd say.

[silverblue]

Yeap yeap.... agree with JiaHui!!
I actually tend to click on Creative Corner all the time only to be disappointed that there were no new submissions everytime. I figured that if I keep doing that, sooner or later, I'll stop visiting it at all! SO Yeah! Updates/notification about new submissions for Creative Corner would be great! :) Thanks for that wonderful suggestion!

[Thirdshifter]

Who are the targeted audience? Malaysian students? or Malaysians living abroad? or simply Malaysian?

What do you want to deliver to that audience? News clipping from various of online news sources?

I think googles, Malaysian. Headline news would work better. Malaysia Google News (http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&edition=us&q=Malaysia)

If recom wants to be known as the Worldwide Malaysian Student Network, Why The forum hot topic on the front page? Why is news bit from the star and NST all over it as well?

I think if it wants to serve it purpose of not being a Chit-chat forum, get those link easily spotted.

Put something like, Where to find help? First time in USA?UK?JAPAN? Etc? then go here first kind of deal.

[chenchow]

Thanks everyone for contributing. I think what we need to do is read what others have posted and summarized out the good points and substantiated it. That would make us more focus.

On getting more people to be active, we need to continuously sending updates to our members. The best thing would be the biweekly email to all RECOM members be continued and I think we should send the 2nd issue this coming weekend or so. Just a check, do everyone receive the email updates on RECOM sent by masterofnone, or just those who sign up for newsletter? coz i remember littlebigone told me he did not receive it...

On what is the audience? I think would be Malaysians who are studying in tertiary education or even secondary education. The joining and help by professionals who are working currently will help boost the value of RECOM.

Its purpose? This is what I think:-
a) News updates especially for Malaysians who are overseas. I have found from my observation that most Malaysians are not updated at all with happenings back at home.

b) Forum discussion to discuss about issues of concern. It will be great if something tangible is made, but I believe that through these discussions, a lot of intangible benefits have been derived, like improving English, promote critical thinking skills, improve communication skills, learn and share new perspectives, opinions, getting heard by others,create awareness and gain awareness...

c) Networking... With 600+ Malaysians, we slowly grow to know more and more people. Although we may not know people much, but slowly and definitely, we are going to know Recom members, at least those who are active one pretty well. Say one day, you plan to visit Japan, then you know who to contact? :roll: right? Who knows the contact you have here may help you to get a job opportunity in the future?

d) Pool resources. We have a wide and extensive resources in e-learning. Although I know that the resources available are mostly engineering, but I wish to say that we have at least some resources for almost any study. The Creative Corner is a good way to share resources too! Also the weblinks, we have by far the most extensive links of Malaysian Students Network and MSD. Currently we have 97 of those. We also have the most extensive links of all public and private universities in Malaysia. I have checked through all the public and private universities websites and all links to peer institutions by any of those universities are in Recom! We have even more extensive links for those than Education Ministry or MSD.

Feel free to disagree with me, but I hope to hear from more people and more opinion please!

[iQing]

Perhaps we should have weekly, monthly events.. something like that ?

[iQing]

Talking about audience...

I feel there is a need to expand the target...
this is what I'm thinking..

I think ReCom should include young talents who are not students as its audience

I believe that there are school leavers who are interested in what we are doing but since they are not students, we might miss out the opportunity to gather these young talents..

some people have graduated from college and now they are working... they may provide elusive advice, contribution etc.

it's really great if we have chance to have young entrepreneur, intelects etc as our members

so I think that the audiance... in my personal opinion
should be Malaysian Students and Young Talents

(probably a light bulb can be a good logo/mascot for ReCom)

[royston]

Hi ChenChow,

After read through your reply, I still feel that our problem remain unsolved. No physical solution has been identified.

No doubt we still should look for more people to join Recom but if we do not have a proper way to make them active, even if one day we have the citizens of the whole planet, we are still a loser...

I don't mean to force them to be active, they have their rights to remain silent. Or maybe they come here just for the sake of sms, games and so on. But I don't think so among the 90% of members, all of them are looking for free sms, right?

some of them might found Recom boring, keep talking and chatting. some of them thought that this is simply a web-game for youngsters/students who are too free, nothing to do after class...

If we don't plan now, Recom will remain a forum like Kevin mentioned. I have proposed something in my previous reply, I am OK if anyone of you disagree with the plan, at least we are planning something benefit to Recom and hopefully in the coming winter break you guys have a target to aim.

You have winter break, non-students member do not have. The time that given for Recom to be improved to the next version will be the coming winter break. If we are still discussing some other stuff, after the winter break, Recom will remain like that, discussing on this and that...

By the way, hopefully the "comment link" stuff can be done too during the break as I have seen quite a lot of members replied with "agree, yes, I think" and things like that. I believe these are not nonsense but they are just adding values to the previous post, they should be located in comment part. I have hard time referring to the key-point of members replies. If each and every reply brings in points and facts, that will be much more effective and immediately we can archive the result of the discussion of the forum.

Ladies & Gentlemen, you may feel funny why this Royston keep pushing Recom's anchors to do so much things, "don't you know that we are students, how can we manage our time?"... I am sorry. As I used to say, I don't own Recom, but unfortunately I own the friendship from you all. I don't give a shit if Recom collapsed, but I don't wish to see my friends disappointed. I know Recom is something good for Malaysia, it is an amazing job done by Malaysian Students, a group of young chiku with great ambitions.

If you don't know how to take care yourself,
You are not qualified to have a family.

If you don't know how to take care your own family,
You are not qualified to manage your country.

If you don't know how to manage your own country,
You are not qualified to conquer the whole world.

Likewise, if Recom doesn't know how to take care of itself such as making improvement, carry out survey on what kind of information people usually like, proper brainstorm and logical thinking, Vision of Recom will never be achieved.

I am not someone brilliant, I am not as high educated as you guys, but I know how to speak with points/facts. I don't speak just for the sake of speaking.

This is the 34th reply with 179 viewers, but unfortunately I don't see any solution been suggested. I really suspect that should I brought out this topic at the first place... :?:

Anyway, please don't take it seriously. You guys have the rights to do whatever you like. I am just a side-advisor only.

~ roy ~

[jiinjoo]

3) The third group may be people who come in and just read the news and forums but do not actively participate for some reason or another. These are the people I think we would have the highest chances of making them sway towards posting.
I've found some of these people - they are in s'pore actually (admin see if you can find their ip addresses hehe), and they commented to me that they find the website very interesting, but have little concern about the things we talk about here. Just happy to find some old pals sometimes.

Put something like, Where to find help? First time in USA?UK?JAPAN? Etc? then go here first kind of deal.
That sounds like something a good student org website of that particular university usually provides, and we do link to them. Maybe more classification?

I actually tend to click on Creative Corner all the time only to be disappointed that there were no new submissions everytime.
Oh just give me a few more weeks, I'll post my cool game for my graphics class when it is ready to be released :P

If you don't know how to take care yourself,
You are not qualified to have a family.

If you don't know how to take care your own family,
You are not qualified to manage your country.

If you don't know how to manage your own country,
You are not qualified to conquer the whole world.

Is that some translation from some poem you heard somewhere? Or did you wrote that? Sounds little familiar :wink:


Great that everyone wants to do something. So let's do it! Does anyone have information about the demographic of the people here? In particular, some real forum will be more interesting (like actually getting people out to meet etc.)

Also, I remember talking about doing some more interesting projects long time ago - building some form of ebay kind of stuff (good fo trading textbooks muahahaha) etc.

I mean, in general, 10% of people being active is just plain typical. Some real life statistics: Amazon.com has about 30 million trailing 12 month customers (i.e. 30 million e-mail addresses purchased at least 1 item from amazon.com in the past 12 months), but we have more than 300 million registered accounts in the past 8 years. Some might be dead accounts, some might be people who will never come back again, some might be people who can't find a deal on amazon after opening an account, or after they got trick onto buying the first item (no, none are test accounts - those are sepearte :wink: ) So as you grow, the 10% will become bigger, even if you manage to get the percentage to get larger, you still have to increase the main figure (i.e. total number of registered users) to increase dramatically. And then typically, as you grow larger, you'll get different users doing different things on your website. All will access the gateway page, but some are only interested in sms, so be it. How many of you actually look at what amazon.com's main page says when you go there? You just type what you want into that miserable search box and hope that some useful result come back, or else you go shop at ebay right? What do you think people developing some feature in the right bottom corner of the page would feel?

Ok enough rant - back to work :(

[Schye]

It seems that many are hoping for more actions rather than just doing all the talking and discussions here.

Maybe we should start our first article to STAR or Youth Quake??
Some issues are well discussed and maybe we should start to pick one and make a conclusion.

Although this maybe just a small step but I think it is one of the best way to let others know about us while really let the community know that what our opinion is.

We have talked about this before and some suggested that we should do it when we have more members. I think instead of waiting for more to join, maybe we should act first and get more to join us from this.

[royston]

Well, at least something to do and meanwhile if our current members know that we are posting in STAR or Youth Quake... definitely they will try to take part in this organization ... coz human's curiosity ...

Which topic should we finalize? Han Qing, any idea?

~ roy ~

[luke]

there is one pepatah melayu "banyak udang banyak garam, banyak orang banyak ragam" ... certainly ppl have lots of attitudes in all things of life ... you can't expect everyone to be like you ... you can always advice/preach but you should not expect ppl will listen to you all the time .. everyone has his own ego and perception ... you can be very excited about one thing while other ppl might look at the thing you are excited about and murmur "owh ok" ... the same goes with recom ... i know some of us are very very enthusiastic about recom ... i know some ppl always reply to a post even with a "thank you for posting" msg ... that's very good ... but on the other hand some ppl don't even bother logging into recom even for once in a week ... and there are lots more who are in between (including me, perhaps) ... see? banyak udang banyak garamnya ...

well this thread asks for solution but i have no solution to offer ... instead let me suggest something ... I've been elaborating about this banyak udang thingy in the prev paragraph so I'd like to say this: there's no single solution for this ppl-not-posting problems .. as I mentioned ppl have lots of attitudes towards recom so a single solution to encompass all these ragam might sound impossible ... we should approach this problem from all angles ... however i'm sorry i myself haven't come out with all the approaches but maybe we all could do it step-by-step .. 1st let's examine all kinds of attitudes ppl have towards our beloved community ... I'll list down some but you guys can add more ..

1) "wow a post! this is great! what a great idea that is .. let's reply!" - this is our target
2) "wow a post! mm i have nothing to say but let's just thank him for posting"
3) "wow a post! what a great idea he has! mmm i'd like to reply but i have no time .. maybe later"-and-forget-about-it
4) "wow a post! mmm he's right .. oh ok ..ah i see"-and-leave
5) "a post! owh who's this guy .. he sucks"-and-leave
6) "a post .. owh ok"
7) "a post? why should i care?"
8) .... (not even log in)

[silverblue]

[quote]
Also, I remember talking about doing some more interesting projects long time ago - building some form of ebay kind of stuff (good fo trading textbooks muahahaha) etc.

I mean, in general, 10% of people being active is just plain typical. Some real life statistics: Amazon.com has about 30 million trailing 12 month customers (i.e. 30 million e-mail addresses purchased at least 1 item from amazon.com in the past 12 months), but we have more than 300 million registered accounts in the past 8 years. Some might be dead accounts, some might be people who will never come back again, some might be people who can't find a deal on amazon after opening an account, or after they got trick onto buying the first item (no, none are test accounts - those are sepearte :wink: ) So as you grow, the 10% will become bigger, even if you manage to get the percentage to get larger, you still have to increase the main figure (i.e. total number of registered users) to increase dramatically. And then typically, as you grow larger, you'll get different users doing different things on your website. All will access the gateway page, but some are only interested in sms, so be it. How many of you actually look at what amazon.com's main page says when you go there? You just type what you want into that miserable search box and hope that some useful result come back, or else you go shop at ebay right? What do you think people developing some feature in the right bottom corner of the page would feel?


Dear Jiinjoo,

That was a great post :) Just wanna chip in that I also feel that the 10%-active statistic is not uncommon and doesn't represent that we are not doing well or something like that...

By the way, I really like that suggestion about the 'ebay-thingy' kinda thing being set up here... in fact, I think it's a wonderful suggestion!!! It will definitely pull more visitors to our site (putting aside first whether they will be genuinely active in Recom). As we are mostly University Students, I suppose many of us have similar textbooks that we wanna sell away after being ripped off by our evil Uni-bookstore. Moreover, this can also be a place to sell off your CD-player, Digicam (so, can buy a new one! hehehe), unused junk or whatever!!

However, to qualify as a 'trading member', we must require that they bea registered user, have to sign up for our Recom newsletter (or updates), have to have made at least one self-introductory post and 3 more posts(??) in any of the forums. My motive here is just to encourage these people who merely want to sell/buy their stuff on Recom to post something. It doesn't have to be like 50 posts or sth like that (that would discourage people), but I think 3 posts is about reasonable... who knows? Maybe they will get caught on??!! ;) SO this is a good idea... and I definitely second it. Anyone else? I will highlight this to the Admin's attention and we'll work on this during the winter ok!

[silverblue]

About the proposal on writing to TheStar or YouthQuake, I have already mentioned alot of times that we ARE looking into the matter.... but we cannot simply start submitting articles to the papers like that without proper planning and action-plan towards doing that. We must also think if we are ready for that step or not... we may be able to produce some really good articles that we can glean from our old forums in the past, but are we really sure that we can present weekly or biweekly articles?

Who is going to summarize and write these articles? If we want to write these articles to the papers, we have to constantly monitor the forums and sort out junk content from real content. Another major problem that I foresee is on new forum topics that keep on emerging everyday... if our forum topics go on a cycle this often and lose it's 'hotness' so quickly, then there won't be much traffic to that specific forum and people won't give as much thought on that particular forum... that is why if you've noticed, I feel that the content and level of discussion in our older forums are alot more valuable, mature and serious. As more and more forum topics come out, our discussions were sometimes shorter, sometimes less focused and sometimes unproductive. Why? Because there are so many other forums (eg entertainment forums) that we can put up a post without giving much thought into the issue! So why bother writing a long, serious post about what we think about how to increase environmental awareness or what we think about that new law being implemented in Msia?

Furthermore, there are still alot of features that we want to improve on Recom before we start to make Recom public. For example, we are still working on putting up an introduction to the Recom Anchors so that people know who founded this and who's managing it (newspapers will definitely require that!!), drafting the guidelines for new forum topics or discussion ethics, refining our Vision-Statement, making Creative Corner more active and attractive, improving our forums' functions, electing Forum Managers and News Section Managers etc etc....

Ok. Enough said. You get the idea that there are many many issues to consider before we start to approach the papers. We have to remember that this is actually a huge step forward... if we want to present Recom to the public, we must make sure we are looking our best first. This is just what I think....

But anyway, as I've also mentioned before, I am going to go back to Malaysia this winter and I have plans to approach the newspapers just to see what are our options, whether they will be able to allocate a column for us, how often, if they have any restrictions/requirements on our articles, advice on how we can introduce Recom to the public, blah blah...and I am sure we'll get a much clearer picture then how we can take this very big step (towards stardom?! hehe)...

So, fasten your seatbelts and we'll see what happens then... ;)
Hopefully, in the meantime, the Recom Anchors will be working on the said improvements! :)

[taufiq]

even though not everyone have spoken around here,
we still have to appreciate them
and remind ourselves of their existence
and also make the happy @<hidden> ReCom
:roll:

[iQing]

Talking about audience...

I feel there is a need to expand the target...
this is what I'm thinking..

I think ReCom should include young talents who are not students as its audience

I believe that there are school leavers who are interested in what we are doing but since they are not students, we might miss out the opportunity to gather these young talents..

Personaly, to reach out to Malaysian community, ReCom has to interact with not just media.. it should interact also with
learning institution,
other organisations
as well..

besides, as I've said earlier,
ReCom needs a support as well,
support from some experienced leaders, intelects and young talents..

I don't see something tangible done by the intelects here...
i thought there are MENSA people here right?
if these intelects don't participate in ReCom...
how are you going to expect the other members to participate in our discussion??

before exposing ReCom to the public, I think it's better if we get a goodwill from an influencial public figure...

what do you think?
I still think it's not the time yet.. (my opinion)

--------

I have read yesterday's Youth Quake..
it tells about where we can further our study after SPM..
it introduced JPA scholarship, German programm, INTI merit scholarship etc.

Since there are some of us who are JPA scholar
and we are oversea students,
i think it's fine if we share our experience with them on our life oversea...

[Schye]

we may be able to produce some really good articles that we can glean from our old forums in the past, but are we really sure that we can present weekly or biweekly articles?
:)
May be we can start with just a normal letter/article to the newspaper as I think they wont give a column to us before they are sure we can produce good ones. Of course it is when we are READY for it ;)


Who is going to summarize and write these articles? If we want to write these articles to the papers, we have to constantly monitor the forums and sort out junk content from real content.

We may close a topic either after we have a conclusion or there is no more posting there. Then we may list out those important/useful points in a point form, and post it again under a new topic for revision and we may have someone who is really good in English to conclude in into an article -- of course will share with everyone before posting it to the newspaper.

Another major problem that I foresee is on new forum topics that keep on emerging everyday...
I have pointed this out once before but we have agreed on not to limited the creation of new topic by the members. I think maybe we should make it just like submitting news or maybe we can make only those in current issues or important topic to be shown on the main page.


Furthermore, there are still alot of features that we want to improve on Recom before we start to make Recom public...
I will have to agree on it as I think there are still some error on our page which needs to be fix and more fixtures to make it more complete. Maybe we should set a date or a goal so that we can more concentrate and our members will have an image on what we are working on.

[chenchow]

Almost every week, I have been trying to initiate contact with as many organizations and groups.

We have written to many organizations, including MENSA, PROMUDA, StudyMalaysia, Malaysian Students Department, ...

masterofnone has sent a letter to Dr. Zahratul, Director of MSD in Washington DC and she is amazed by what has been achieved in RECOM!!! littlebigone, eeyore and I met her yesterday at Hari Raya celebration at DC, and although we didn't specifically mentioned what kind of co-operation that we could have, but at least she knew about Recom and may be that could be a good way to spread the words around.

[silverblue]

I think that the Recom anchors has to come together to meet up... if not physically, then perhaps a video or chat conference during the winter break so that we will be able to decide on stuff, set goals & datelines, delegate tasks, and collaborate on suggested ideas by our members...

this would
1) speed things up
2) lessen the burden of everyone
3) really achieve something
4) have a concensus on decisions

[royston]

I think that the Recom anchors has to come together to meet up... if not physically, then perhaps a video or chat conference during the winter break so that we will be able to decide on stuff, set goals & datelines, delegate tasks, and collaborate on suggested ideas by our members...

this would
1) speed things up
2) lessen the burden of everyone
3) really achieve something
4) have a concensus on decisions

Now I see some brightness... yeah... let's do something, let's talk and discuss to bring Recom 1 level UP !!

~ roy ~

[masterof_none]

Hi guys,
Lots of wonderful suggestions. and Let's get started.

1. ReCom as a legal organization.
I suggest that we register this organization in Malaysia this winter break.
Not sure which agency that does this, but before we approach organizations/papers, we have to do this.

2. ReCom Anchors.
We'll put a page for ReCom Anchors. Each ReCom Anchors would have a specific task that they can do when they log in.

3. What we want to achieve?
- Focus on developing Malaysia, through discussion.
We've got no choice but to limit the number of forum, seems like it gets overloaded.
- Build something tangible.
we can start from ReCom's creative Corner. and start from there.
eBay's project will start this winter break.


4. Target audience;
I've simplified to 3 main categories:
1. Kids/ Teens. (ReCom Teens)
2. College students (Us)
3. Pro /transition to pro (e.g ,Us too, plus Royston, Thirdshifter , and anyone who's pro)

5. Regional Recom
- Is a wonderful idea. I have no comment and we can proceed as suggested above .

6. Winter Break Project
So, far, we have this :
Approach Papers, eBay, Redesign website, assigning specific tasks.

These are all crucial. and you guys can start planning right now.

one point about Redesing website.
make sure to post all suggestion here. we have to integrate all these in one. (in other words, the UI is gotta be kick a**. )
eBay, article to newspapers. etc.


I've decided that our forums would focus on:
1. Malaysian current issues and how to achieve vision 2020
2. Tech at ReCom.
3. Submissions from members, (could be anything from creative to papers)

7. Get sponsor.
To fund our first ReComWorld. Place not yet decided...but perhaps around US. But we can do videoconferencing at the same time.

and various other activities, also, migration towards better system.

I can't think of any right now. Just got back from Tahoe this midnight.
But I'll come up on task assignment soon.

Let's decide when all of us can meet (videoconferencing ) after finals.
we'll do it right after that.
I'm free after Dec 18 and beyond. Let's fix the date.

How about Dec 20?. Saturday, 8pm Pacific, 12.oo pm malaysia, 11.00 Eastern?

There, we can suggest, about the implemetation about our ideas.
Assign tasks, and move on.

[royston]

Jobs volunteered:

1. Forum Manager - I wish to help out on sorting/filtering/categorizing our forums. Like what Syam mentioned, we are going to have 3 major portions, Teens, Students and Pros. I believe I am capable to manage it!!

2. National/Regional Rep - I wish to appoint myself as the rep for Malaysia site. Not because I am the anchor, more post, high level and so on, in fact those numbers are not my concern. What I want is, to contribute for Recom. If I want to make Recom succeed, quite hard but if all of us want it to be success... Recom will be long life !!

By the way, if anyone read this reply and "you" feel that you can be any or both of the jobs above better, please voice out. I don't ask for anything but I want Recom to be popular, known by everyone ...

~ roy ~

Recom lack content.

Ouch! 8O

[iQing]

Personally, I can see some improvements.
more people are participating in the forums..

I'm glad that ReCom has successfully curb one big problem...hehe
by the way, I have post a suggestion in the suggestion forum...

thanx

[chenchow]

Hope that everyone would continue efforts to encourage more people to speak in RECOM.

When Royston started this thread on Nov 27, he said "At this moment, I realized that out of 606 members, we have only 62 members posted in our forum, the rest are almost silent members.". That is 10.23% members have posted.

Today, Dec 3rd, (6 days later), we have 660 members and 76 members have spoken, with 23 members have posted above 20 posts." So, that is 11.52% members have posted. So, that is at least a pretty good improvement, as our memberships grow. Hope that everyone would redouble your efforts to promote RECOM and especially in bringing top talents of Malaysia to join RECOM!!! Lets spread the words around!!!

I also hope that we could target to have more RECOM members who are active members. Let say having 20 posts are considered active (this may not be a good gauge, but lets live with it first), then 3.03% of Recom members are active members.

I would propose that we would target to have 1000 members by Dec 31st (So, we need to grow about 12 per day. Currently, we grow by about 10 members per day). We should also target at least 15% of members have posted. (So, we would need to have 150 members who have posted, up from 76 currently). We should also target to have 5% of Recom members are active members. (So, we would need to have 50 Recom members who have posted at least 20 posts in Recom).

What do you guys think of this target? Although it is merely concentrated on forum, but I think forum is the most popular means in RECOM currently and we should take this as the gauge. I will come up with the statistics on reads in newspaper etc in the next few days!.

Lets work hard together! RECOM BOLEH!!! MALAYSIA BOLEH!!!

[CrAzyCow]

The only thing that make me lose interest in reading the posts is they are too darn long. If possible, lets concise the way we put things across. Well this is just me.. Dunno how the rest feels about it.

Btw, why are we in such a hurry to have such a large group? Is it just because of the ratings?

[royston]

Hi,

I agree with chenchow's suggestion. Crazy cow, I don't think so this is just for the sake of rating.

To have more active members, Recom will be grown faster.
To have more active members to speak in forums with fact, meaning that our "active members" are intelligent and will not talk bullshit. This will greatly help Recom to grow faster and towards our targeted direction.

This is not considered "hurry" anymore indeed, although it is kinda hard to find talented people to involve in Recom but we still have to apply "slight pressure", like how chenchow do, to set a target. Without a target, no doubt Recom still can move forward but it will be slow.

Setting a target doesn't mean that we MUST hit that target, just like holding a compass to walk towards North, we might not reach exactly to North but at least we have a direction and we know where we want to go.

Talking about long post... sometimes I will lose interest to read that too but I will skip paragraph by paragrah to find for key-point that the member try to say. I agree... if it is too long, quite boring... haha... :P

So hopefully anyone of you read this post, try to focus your point out without so much assisting-words around...

~ roy ~

[chenchow]

I would suggest that may be what we could do is to write the main idea of each paragraph in bold, like this.

1. Idea 1
_____________________
_____________________

2. Idea 2
_____________________
_____________________


So, this will allow everyone to skim through the main idea and for those who are interested, to select which idea to read the further elaborations. How do you guys think of this suggestion?

[royston]

I doubt it... each person has their own mind structure. Not everyone can think and speak with point form.

Some of the mindset will try to form up what they want to speak in a story form, others will be like... point by point or from one story link to second story... episode by episode... something like that.

I guess... so far our members are really talented and really can speak out what they wish to with their personal perception/facts and so forth. So, as long as they can try to stick to the point, try to give examples that related to their point, that should be good enough.

Any comment chenchow?

~ roy ~

[chenchow]

I agree with you.

What I really mean is that after you write for one paragraph. Just summarize the idea of that paragraph in a few words, so that those who are busy could look at the bold part and see what they think.

I think that method would be useful, especially for those who write very long. Check out the post by huilinchin in the Study Method. I think with that method, it is very clear to the readers.

But that is just my personal opinion.

[Schye]

I think there is nothing wrong to have a long post but as ChenChow said, a short summary/conclusion at the bottom will help a lot.

The fast pace in our forum too may be one of the main reason why there are more and more long posts. If you don't log in for like 2 days, i think you will have a lot to tell especially when the thread goes out of topic.
So, Lets have less new topic and try not to get out of topic :wink:

Wow,
really looking forward for the new image of Recom.
But please put in mind that we are growing...
and will keep on growing...
Go Recom , go!

Go, go, go... *CS*

[budakkerek]

As an Event Planner (cheeee wah!), i feel that we should hv more events for Recommers to participate in. Right now what i hv in mind is the gath during summer hols (which hopefully will be able to be carried out)
next, like someone suggested (sorry i forgot who, gomene), a writing comp or sthing like that. but the hadiah etc we hv to discuss bout that also. coz of course if there are no rewards, ppl might be discouraged from entering.

anyway, if anyone got any ideas, lemme know.

[budakkerek]

As an Event Planner (cheeee wah!), i feel that we should hv more events for Recommers to participate in. Right now what i hv in mind is the gath during summer hols (which hopefully will be able to be carried out)
next, like someone suggested (sorry i forgot who, gomene), a writing comp or sthing like that. but the hadiah etc we hv to discuss bout that also. coz of course if there are no rewards, ppl might be discouraged from entering.

anyway, if anyone got any ideas, lemme know.

[Diesel]

we should start giving out free hats to those who post. :p

[Diesel]

we should start giving out free hats to those who post. :p

[Yeogolas]

I think there are do not know what is the RECOM is they think this is only for register only and has a fun and said to friend they has regiter here..
They not find the forum cause they only join, and could't join the forum and they did't know the forum was there....

[Yeogolas]

I think there are do not know what is the RECOM is they think this is only for register only and has a fun and said to friend they has regiter here..
They not find the forum cause they only join, and could't join the forum and they did't know the forum was there....

[silverblue]

Well.... we are planning to have sorta a competition for Recomers to submit articles to REMAG... cos we want to have one main FEATURE article per edition and it'll just be nice to have ur article chosen to be featured...

no free hats at the moment... but mebbe some form of recognition on REMAG?

[silverblue]

Well.... we are planning to have sorta a competition for Recomers to submit articles to REMAG... cos we want to have one main FEATURE article per edition and it'll just be nice to have ur article chosen to be featured...

no free hats at the moment... but mebbe some form of recognition on REMAG?

[tehjiao]

well, i'm glad to see that so many ppl care about this site and willing to contribute, (not like me, lazy to contribute,hehe...). just 1 thing to say, i realize that this topic most of the "speakers" are mainly anchors, why no member is participating? Don't they concern about this? well, to me, it's a hard time for me to finish all these posts as i log once a week and it's lot to chase!and may be , the members feel that this topic only for anchors? just 1 opinion, it's good to plan and carry out many projects but just consider our strength and limts, don't go too far and others may afraid and tired on joining,too demanding...sorry if i'm wrong :roll:

[tehjiao]

well, i'm glad to see that so many ppl care about this site and willing to contribute, (not like me, lazy to contribute,hehe...). just 1 thing to say, i realize that this topic most of the "speakers" are mainly anchors, why no member is participating? Don't they concern about this? well, to me, it's a hard time for me to finish all these posts as i log once a week and it's lot to chase!and may be , the members feel that this topic only for anchors? just 1 opinion, it's good to plan and carry out many projects but just consider our strength and limts, don't go too far and others may afraid and tired on joining,too demanding...sorry if i'm wrong :roll:

[topdog]

just 1 thing to say, i realize that this topic most of the "speakers" are mainly anchors, why no member is participating?

you will be a "recom anchor" too, once you hit > 60 posts, i think. right now you're a "best friend". continue posting, soon you'll be a "super best friend". :D

[topdog]

just 1 thing to say, i realize that this topic most of the "speakers" are mainly anchors, why no member is participating?

you will be a "recom anchor" too, once you hit > 60 posts, i think. right now you're a "best friend". continue posting, soon you'll be a "super best friend". :D

[silverblue]

Can we do something about the 'Recom Anchor' status? I think many people have wrong impressions about the real 'Admin Anchors' vs. the 'Recom Anchors' that have >60 posts. They think it's the same thing when in fact it is not.

I suggest that we keep the Admins as 'Recom Anchors' but change the member profile status from 'Recom Anchor' to something like 'Recom Graduate' or 'Recom High Achiever' or 'Recom Master' or anything else other than 'anchor'..

Hope Luke will be efficient in implementing...

[silverblue]

Can we do something about the 'Recom Anchor' status? I think many people have wrong impressions about the real 'Admin Anchors' vs. the 'Recom Anchors' that have >60 posts. They think it's the same thing when in fact it is not.

I suggest that we keep the Admins as 'Recom Anchors' but change the member profile status from 'Recom Anchor' to something like 'Recom Graduate' or 'Recom High Achiever' or 'Recom Master' or anything else other than 'anchor'..

Hope Luke will be efficient in implementing...

[topdog]

Recom All Star?

[topdog]

Recom All Star?

[luke]

Done.

Real anchors = ReCom Anchor
>60 posts = ReCom Partner

I can easily change these two titles if you guys want cooler titles ...

p/s: notice the golden/yellow 6 stars for ReCom Anchors :)

[luke]

Done.

Real anchors = ReCom Anchor
>60 posts = ReCom Partner

I can easily change these two titles if you guys want cooler titles ...

p/s: notice the golden/yellow 6 stars for ReCom Anchors :)

[CyberJaya]

I agree with silverblue.

From my personal experience

I have been trying to find a website where intelectuals and leaders of malaysia gather under one roof where members are talented and having lots of enthusiasm....

and ReCom is the website that has satisfied me....

I believe that Recom wil become a successful platform in gathering young talents...

what other websites are out there similar to recom?

[jiinjoo]

Interesting question, I have no idea. Various universities have their own forums or mailing list that sometimes turns into something very similar here, but are not as dedicated.

Even if there is, there's also a huge demographic difference i.e. most of them are highly local (usj forums, penang forums). Here, we get Malaysians all around the world, which is what makes it so interesting at times.

[budakkerek]

anyone can explain, the diff membership levels we have in ReCom? from what i understand, it depends on a member's number of posts.

[iQing]

now even the anchors are inactive...
where have they been?

[janewai]

now even the anchors are inactive...
where have they been?

busy studying i think.... :)
exam is around the corner for most of the universities... i guess

[jiinjoo]

As far as i recall, recomanchors are people who're running the show here. yes most of them are posting as much as they can but there are usually some background issue as well as personal responsibilities to attend to. The other types are based on number of post, but I forgot the cut off points. It's main purpose is to encourage people to speak up. A forum isn't a forum we all participate, or else we can call it a play or concert. :) :)

[iQing]

i feel that after sometime... people will feel bored with this place.
something is missing.

personally I think this whole ReCom things focus too much on forum.
sometimes ReCom rely too much on members?opinion
when people go inactive, this place goes inactive as well...

I suggest that ReCom can improve by learning some features from some successful webportals like netcousins

[chenchow]

I would like to ask for opinions from ReComers on the features in ReCom. Click at the link at the end of every of my post, where I have the link to a page with links to all features in ReCom.org . I have to say that many of those features are not yet fully utilized. Any suggestion on how we could improve it, what new features to work on etc.

[iQing]

I don?t think students have appropriate cognitive development at this stage.. esp for this intelectual stuffs...
I think the target audience is not right.
If we offer something that most people don?t need, we can?t sell..

it?s like tawaran and permintaan...

sometimes we have to reflect the most basic things as well...

can you honestly tell me, how many primary and secondary students are willing to contribute here?
it?s mostly participated by older students..
I think even the word "worldwide malaysian students network" should be reflected seriously.

another question.. if I am a member.. i may ask, what can I gain from this website besides discussing and discussing... ?
when it become inactive, will I come here again?

there are a lot of reflection to think about..

one wise man told me... when an organisation reaches a certain stage or development, it might loose direction as well.. it need some reflection from time to time...

I think it?s not about how many feature a website should have to be considered as good website. some website has little features but it?s very well accepted.

[chenchow]

Thanks iQing for your opinion.

I would say one of the main benefits of ReCom is networking. A lot of members know a lot of extra new friends here, and they have been chatting with one another etc via email, ICQ etc. This is a benefit too.

I would say that our target group is towards students in universities, colleges, Form 6, matrics, basically post Form 5, although anyone in high schools are more than welcome here. I guess, we need to have some kind of focus here. It would be very difficult to cater to a large variance of target group. That's my personal opinion. What do you guys think?

I would strongly encourage every member to check out e-Learning. It is a very important resources, for students, especially those who are studying in university. With this e-learning, you get access to lecture notes from a great number of top universities in the world, all Free Of Charge. For instance, the lecture notes that you get from Cornell there is exactly what I get here, and quite a number of students don't even go to class, they just learn online, which means you can learn exactly the same thing as them.

One of the main benefits that I see from e-laerning is that for instance, I am taking a course on circuits. The lecturer teaches on a certain topic and I don't really understand it. What I usually do is to go to peer institutions to learn about it. Perhaps the lecturer in another university may explain better. I could also take the exam papers, homeworks of other universities as added practice. It is global learning.

Of course, our e-learning is still not complete. We have about 4000-5000 courses directly or indirectly linked from that section and I would hope that if any ReCom member in any part of the world, has their lecture notes on open source, please kindly send a PM to me with the link. Thank you.

We are open for wonderful suggestions from everyone. I believe what ReCom has is a platform for people to do stuff they want to do. If you are interested to do a survey for your studies, you could post your survey question here and get ReComers to help you. If you want to have a discussion on a paper you are going to write, feel free too. If you want to have a discussion on a topic that you are really interested in, for instance anime, you can join or start a new Special Interest Group (SIG) on that topic.

[iQing]

oh yeah.. thanx for mentioning about e-Learning...

I think the user interface is not good.

when I enter e Learning..

open note from..
open note from..
notes from..

OK fine... I enter one of the link and find them some even don?t have note.. get lost easily..

why don?t we make the user interface better?

I want to know how rocket function...
I go to e Learning..

Oh great...
bio section, physic section, general knowledge...

I klick on physics...

Oh... good interface.. easy links...
can search also...

compare the above situation about to the current situation where we have to encounter ... things like

open notes from lembu universiti..
open source from nobita institute...

we can?t blame e Learning section from not being fully used right?[/i]

[iQing]

I think there is something wrong with the networking as well..
do you notice that most active members here are JPA scholars and some form 6 people?

I seldom have the chance to interact with people from private colleges...

I always ask my self why I always meet JPA or ATU students only? is it coincident? it has been so for many months... where are the geniouses from private college? the active sportman?

these people should be our target audience as well. (just my opinion)

[iQing]

I have a suggestion...
to promote members interaction I suggest we have one or two session... perhaps in a month where we can chat with each toher togather....

this makes the atmosphere warmer....

the chat room is idle for a long time... it can be a good tool...
if I have some problems or suggestion I can voice it easily there..

[gohweihan]

I think for the moment, instead of diversifying Recom, we should instead narrow down to only developing features that make users come back. These features could be the forums and e-Learning section, or it can even be some other features that have not been implemented yet but can draw people to the site and interact.

Only when these features had fully developed and Recom have a strong user base and participation level that we should start to venture into implementing features that might appeal to the users. Simply trying to implement lots of features without focusing on the strength of Recom would be not very practical and Recom might even end up losing more users than gaining them, as Recom might end up with some features that are not fully implemented, or implemented poorly.

From analysis, users who visit sites which does not cater to their needs, or have features that cater to their needs but which at that moment is currently under construction, or features that are poorly implemented, would most likely not visit that site again. If indeed Recom is to develop more features, it must be implemented only when it is fully ready for deployment.

I would take Yahoo! and Google as examples. Starting off as search engines, they only diversify when their strong feature (i.e. the search engine itself) is solid and stable with a strong user base. Also, they never implement anything before it is ready for full scale deployment (one of the reasons being that they depend on that to survive).

Right now, like iQing said, there could be a chat session every fortnight or so. It is quite easy to implement, and the dates could just be put up at the main page for people to know when the sessions are going on.

[iQing]

thanks for sharing... you have your points...

I think what we can improve now in the near future is the user interaction.
we could make ReCom something more tangible and understand...

I remember last time when my friends log into recom they can?t even find the forum... then they leave...

the users should find ReCom something easy to use...

e Learning is a good example.. I have voice my opinion about it already...

here?s anotherthing I want to commend...

let?s say I am an active learner who wants to learn things...
I want to know some resipi, or some health tips.. or maybe I want to know some scientific facts...

oh... recom.. a place for student...
i think I will learn something from it..

let me see.. where can I learn something about science or business..

let me click..

or e Learning.. what is this...

open sourse from.. ... ...

nothing..

ok..

creative corner...

hmm... just a few files...

let?s see the chat..

hmm.. no one...

why am I here? I can?t learn anything... no facts or tips...

let?s join the forum...

hmm... after many days.. I am bored with the forum..

let?s leave...


this is the story I try to imagine myself as one of the users who are not active.. not ment to criticise or what...

[iQing]

I think the statistic and top 10 feature is awkward...
it doesn?t serve its purpose as well...
have a look at it...

What makes an organisation successful is motivation... if we can focus more on motivation it would be better...

[chenchow]

I agree that the top 10 feature is not useful, however the statistics give a rough estimation of how is the development of ReCom. I looked at it every day, in fact a few times a day, to check on how ReCom is growing etc. Although it may be a superficial way of looking at the activity at ReCom, it gives a rough idea.

[iQing]

I agree that the top 10 feature is not useful, however the statistics give a rough estimation of how is the development of ReCom. I looked at it every day, in fact a few times a day, to check on how ReCom is growing etc. Although it may be a superficial way of looking at the activity at ReCom, it gives a rough idea.


thanx...
can you make a summary of what you have observed on the growing of ReCom? and your commends about it?

thanx

[chenchow]

This was the last summary I made on 7th of May. It has data for the past few months. I would try to calculate the data for the past one month over the next few days.

http://recom.homelinux.org:8000/~recom/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=16510#16510

[iQing]

thanx for sharing.

I think the coming in of new member is not very important as there are millions of student in malaysia... even in high edu. sector there are many thousands of students... a few new students joining this site everyday is just normal and expectable...
I suggest that we should shift the focus from getting more new members to making the members more active..
what?s the point of having many members when they don?t participate?

I suggest again that we should include some non-students members such as leaders or professionals as moderator because if there?s only enthusiasm and without guidance, the forum would be like students chatting with each other... with these non students around we can learn more from them.

that?s all.

[USSDefiantNX74205]

Um, one more thing I'd like to add here. It's mostly regarding comments my friends have about recom. Some of them say that recom is 'complicated' or 'hard to use'. I personally don't find the layout of recom that hard to understand, but all the same, I thought I might wanna tell ya guys about some feedback I've been receiving. Anyone received such feedback too?

[iQing]

agree.. that?s what I am trying to say as well...

some of my friends told me they can?t even find the forum..

I don?t think many of us know how to use e Learning right?
and some other features too.

I suggest that ReCom should be more user friendly and focus on the user interface.

hmm.. I think SIG is just like another small forums...
I suggest the features in SIG should expand as well...

[ElansarGelmir]

Most of my first timer friends can't find the forums as well... Others who visited it said that they do not know what's it all about... hard to explain to them through messengers, especially when there are lots of ppl around... Can do some intro about Recom in the main page? Perhaps it will give those ppl a gist what's Recom all about without having to go all the way and search for the ABOUT RECOM icon...

[ElansarGelmir]

oh yeah, i noticed another thing as well... it seems like the active participants in RECOM are mostly JPA scholars, and among the JPA scholars, the ATUs (except for iQing from ALG and Jane from Korea... anyone else i missed out?)

[chenchow]

In terms of number of ReComers that have posted in forum, we have seen a pretty good increase.

Out of 2115 members, 441 members have posted, which gives us 20.85%, which is much higher than 10.23% when this thread was started.

For those members that just joint in June, out of 231 new members, 80 has posted in forum, which gives 34.63%!!!

Below is the breakdown of new members posted, new members and the %.

April ' 03 14/41 (34.15%)
May ' 03 3/22 (13.64%)
June ' 03 13/71 (18.31%)
July ' 03 3/26 (11.54%)
August ' 03 2/16(12.50%)
September ' 03 3/43 (6.98%)
October ' 03 15/128(11.72%)
November ' 03 53/281 (18.86%)
December ' 03 26/209 (12.44%)
January ' 04 24/196 (12.24%)
February ' 04 46/230 (20.00%)
March ' 04 63/253 (24.90%)
April ' 04 43/171 (25.15%)
May ' 04 42/173 (24.28%)
June ' 04 80/231 (34.63%)

Below is a recognition list of ReComers who have posted more than a certain number of posts per month since joining ReCom:-

Assumption:-
a) Analysis is up to 30th June 2004
b) If a member joins any day in September 03, I would calculate that the members join for 9 full months (Oct 03 - June 04), so the number of posts is divided by 9. The same goes with other months.
c) By calculation in B, number of posts by members joined in May, would be divided by 1. This method is used for members joined in May too. For members joined in June, it is divided by 1 too.

Members that have posted more than 500 posts per month:-
ElansarGelmir

> 100 posts per month (in no particular order):-
_earth
topdog
iQing
budakkerek
USSDefiantNX74205
Pandaboy
Cyberjaya
Kobebryant
GohWeiHan
misled_youth
The_Observer
chenchow

>50 posts per month (in no particular order):-
thirdshifter
luke
schye
decentmerson
ic3b3rg
b_ronick
lonewolfhan
aquila
windy_city
spring
munhua
yekban81
randomphantom
lynnx01
oxherd
kevinkhoo1986
PJKru
Daniel
kucingbiru

Congrats everyone~! If I leave out anyone's name, it is accidental mistake. I calculate all those manually. So, if I left out anyone, please post it here, I apologize for my mistake.

Hopefully, this will be an incentive for ReComers to be active in ReCom's forum. The next calculations will be done by end of 3rd Quarter of 2004 (30th Sep 2004).

[abepsu]

My first post.

From my opinion (an opinion from a first-time user :D), the very first thing that caught my interest to post something in this forum is the "Game Room" SiG because apparently, I am a gamer. A one hell to be truth. But sadly, I couldn't get into the forum because I was not a member of that SiG. But.. what the hell is SiG??

As a first time user, I wondered. I browsed around and found a topic under General and finally after spending about 30 minutes (looking up for a specific topic), I learned about SiG and successfully enrolled into the Gamers SiG which was in the 3rd page in the General forum. A topic with such a short, uninteresting subject.

That's allright with me. But how about people who are lacking "navigation" skills? You know right.. there exist this type of people in this modern world. No matter how much you taught them, they still need help in navigating applications, websites etc. They take time to learn and get familiarized.

It's a small thing but it can make people feel complicated about joining the community.

Maybe you will have to make a sticky post about SiG because it is there people find interesting topics. In general, maybe u guys might want to consider about improving this website navigation. Post a general guide in the home page or whatever. The current navigation is already good but still, it can be improved :D

Good Job!

[iQing]

My first post.

From my opinion (an opinion from a first-time user :D), the very first thing that caught my interest to post something in this forum is the "Game Room" SiG because apparently, I am a gamer. A one hell to be truth. But sadly, I couldn't get into the forum because I was not a member of that SiG. But.. what the hell is SiG??

As a first time user, I wondered. I browsed around and found a topic under General and finally after spending about 30 minutes (looking up for a specific topic), I learned about SiG and successfully enrolled into the Gamers SiG which was in the 3rd page in the General forum. A topic with such a short, uninteresting subject.

That's allright with me. But how about people who are lacking "navigation" skills? You know right.. there exist this type of people in this modern world. No matter how much you taught them, they still need help in navigating applications, websites etc. They take time to learn and get familiarized.

It's a small thing but it can make people feel complicated about joining the community.

Maybe you will have to make a sticky post about SiG because it is there people find interesting topics. In general, maybe u guys might want to consider about improving this website navigation. Post a general guide in the home page or whatever. The current navigation is already good but still, it can be improved :D

Good Job!


Hi.. welcome to recom..
thanx for sharing.
I agree that the user interface needs to be improve ...
last time some first time users can?t even find the forum... but i think it has been rectified...

thanx for the feed back.
enjoy surfing and sharing in ReCom !