From the Editor's Desk

[Raaabo]

CTC - click to continue!

Hi Guys,

I just thought there should be one place on this forum where you can get direct, no-nonsense answers straight from the Editor. Suggestions, queries and more welcome here.

Please don't post troubleshooting or generic questions here, this is only for those who want to ask questions about the content that Digit provides, the direction Digit's headed in, suggestions for upcoming issues, www.thinkdigit.com, etc.

[Krow]

Great idea Raaabo. Good to see you posting again. I will have a few queries lined up in a week or two specially for you. Might just help me in some of my projects.

One humble suggestion : Is there no way you can improve the present status of the forum? There's gotta be something you can do and we can help. All I want is :

A forum which takes lesser time to load.
A system wherein links are in blue colour so that we may be able to distinguish between words and links. (Helps keep spammers at bay easily).
No advertisements for those who are logged in to the forum. (Anyway most number of visitors are Guests and the members don't click at all)

I can assure you that these three simple suggestions, if implemented will go a long way in taking this forum back its olden glory days. More members will stay. This will only help those looking to interact with you here as a well maintained and clean lobby always makes a good impression on the Interviewers.

[Raaabo]

Our technical team just made some changes yesterday, which has helped the site and forum load a lot faster than it was before. Let me know if you guys have noticed this.

URLs now appear in blue.

As for advertisements, as any other editorial person I would like nothing more than an ad free experience everywhere I go, or spend time, however, we have to be realistic, and accept the advertising for what it is. Compared to a lot of other forums, and other media, I would still say that thinkdigit has fewer in your face ads. We have been trying to place ads in a way that it will interfere with content as little as possible. I'm open to suggestions on how we can improve this to benefit both advertisers as well as forum members.

I will also be focusing on making the broken Ajax work again.

[ico]

Thats a good idea Raaabo.

There are advertisements in every site, but in Thinkdigit, I feel they are highly more noticeable and interfere with our browsing. The thing which actually annoys me and most of the people is the narrowness of the forum.

[Krow]

The blue which you used was hurting to the eye. Please use a blue which does not do so. Even I would agree with you about ads being necessary, but can you please give us our forum width back? Content is why people come here, so if you must keep ads, then please make sure that it does not hinder the reading flow. One easy way to do this is to keep the ads above and below the forum. Above the first post on every page and below the last post or even better below the quick reply box.

Yes, I agree with ico. The ads here are especially annoying. Not so much the image based ads, but the flash based ones. These are the ones that eat bandwidth too. Text based ads are even less of a problem, as long as they are placed in such a way that they don't hurt our reading flow, as suggested above.

As for the forum speed. I wish I could say better, but I just did an apt-get for Opera so that there is no cache factor to speak of. The page took 15 seconds to load. This is not good at all, especially considering that I am getting download speeds of 60Kb/s. Please address this issue as many people have much much slower internet connections, I can't imagine how long the page must be taking for loading on their computers.

EDIT: This blue looks better than the older bright one.

[ico]

Regarding the loading time for website, there has been a noticeable improvement for me.

[saqib_khan]

As far as ads are concerned, they are more noticeable, like everyone is saying. But we are saying this from a long time. It seems no one cares about this.

Another thing. I would like links colour to be black only.

BTW, this error still occurs on replying, eventhough I am replying for the first time.

The following errors occurred with your submission:

This forum requires that you wait 30 seconds between posts. Please try again in 29 seconds.

[Krazzy Warrior]

Great idea Raaabo. Indeed there is some improvement in loading time for website..

Here are some of the suggestions from my end:-
1. Link colour should be reverted to black.
2. When we click on Edit Button to edit a post, it opens in a new window! Can u fix that forum bug? It's quite irritating, specially when we have to edit our post for trifle things.
3. Not to forget mentioning, those Ads? I really can't understand why day by day the no. of ads is increasing by leap and bounds? As ico mentioned its quite irritating to surf this forum in a narrow width. Hmmmm can u install some forum plugin that lowers the no. of ads for a logined member, but keep the no of ads same of a non-logined member/Guest? If this is implemented then it will be great and will help a lot to regain activity from its old members? Frankly there was a time when TDF used to be my homepage, but its no more longer my homepage! Just think from this view, "What will be the use of Ads when no-one 'actually' visit this forum"..This forum is running because of good & OLD posts by old member and that's the reason u see so many guest in this forum viewing pages..But soon the no. of guest will decrease as this forum is not getting updated..Hope u get my point
4.Just a thought:-
Can you make a function which gives option to select some 'cool' & 'good' themes..Such as choice of theme? Kirsch Theme, Evo Theme, and other good one..User will select a theme and from then onwards whenever he open forum, it opens in respective theme?

[The Sorcerer]

Hello! I am The Sorcerer. 3 questions, for now:
Out of curiosity, one of your testers already got a lian li a71f case, so do readers will get an opportunity to get to read a review about it?
Also I was wondering if there would be an active admin who will be empathetic and work towards the progress of the forum?
May I ask your real name?

[rhitwick]

Originally Posted by The Sorcerer

May I ask your real name?

abe, he's the editor, read his name in Digit editorial
(actually spelling yaad nahi, or I would have written )


@raaabo, hmm, another good move, have some ideas, would post later

And, let d links be blue. Its my fav color

[Krow]

@ Krazzy I am of the opinion that if URL's are black, then how do you distinguish between them and any normal post? I think URL's in posts should be blue at least. I don't if they are not blue anywhere else.

@ Raaabo Yeah, give us an option of choosing theme please. Kirsch theme is great. Very good for those who are here to read. Please take heed of my suggestion with respect to ad placement. As an editorial person, you very well know that we all are here to read posts, not to view ads etc. So please ensure that ads don't hinder our reading process. Also, as we have been saying. 90% of visitors are guests, so why not remove ads for users who are logged in? The "other" forums that we visit do this for sure. I can even link you to one forum, where most of our old and respected members have migrated to. They manage to run so well sir, then why not us.

You and Anorion are our only remaining hope.

---------- Post added at 08:04 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:02 PM ----------

@ The Sorceror His name is Robert Sovereign-Smith. Please excuse me if I have spelt it wrong.

@ Raaabo Did I tell you that I like the new message which pops in between automerged posts? Its so unobtrusive. Please make the ads that way too.

[The Sorcerer]

Originally Posted by rhitwick

abe, he's the editor, read his name in Digit editorial
(actually spelling yaad nahi, or I would have written )

I don't read magazines, any of them, nor that I am interested. I used to read pc gamer and one of the magazines ages ago before jeff publications taken and used to write advertisement for the games in the form of review (IMHO) but that was really long time ago.

[a4rocks]

Hi there everyone,
Didn't know where to post this so am posting this here.

FOR DIGIT STAFF

I am very annoyed with the way Digit has handled my issue here. Despite mentioning my new address while renewing my subscription, my address wasn't updated. That is fine considering there might be a technical fault. But here starts the problem.

I sent two mails to the Digit Helpdesk (help@thinkdigit.com) but haven't even received a single reply regarding my address change. Two times I sent the old and new address but not even a response. Today, I came to know that my issue has arrived at the old address. Why is it like this? At least someone better encourage my query. Very sad.

Now the next day I will know that my gifts have been sent back due to the fact that I was not physically present there to receive the items. I thought that Digit has changed a lot in the past 2 years and had no problems before but as soon as I subscribe again, this has happened.

My details are-

Personal Info removed by Raaabo

And if I don't receive a response here too, what am I supposed to do? How do I reach the appropriate person to address my grievances? Hope my issue is looked at as soon as possible.

Regards,
Dr. Tapan Kumar Das

[Raaabo]

Originally Posted by a4rocks

I sent two mails to the Digit Helpdesk (help@thinkdigit.com) but haven't even received a single reply regarding my address change. Two times I sent the old and new address but not even a response. Today, I came to know that my issue has arrived at the old address. Why is it like this? At least someone better encourage my query. Very sad.

And if I don't receive a response here too, what am I supposed to do? How do I reach the appropriate person to address my grievances? Hope my issue is looked at as soon as possible.

Hi Dr Das,

I've forwarded this as a mail to our helpdesk. Let me know if you do not receive a confirmation of the changes from them by Monday, 14th December.

You can also write to me at editor @ think digit . com (without spaces), in case you do not receive this confirmation of the address change.

Regards,

Raaabo

AKA

Originally Posted by rhitwick

actually spelling yaad nahi, or I would have written

Robert Sovereign-Smith

---------- Post added at 05:23 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:21 PM ----------

Originally Posted by The Sorcerer

Out of curiosity, one of your testers already got a lian li a71f case, so do readers will get an opportunity to get to read a review about it?

Yes the review is coming, as soon as Michael gets a chance to write it

[a4rocks]

Originally Posted by Raaabo

Hi Dr Das,

I've forwarded this as a mail to our helpdesk. Let me know if you do not receive a confirmation of the changes from them by Monday, 14th December.

You can also write to me at editor @ think digit . com (without spaces), in case you do not receive this confirmation of the address change.

Regards,

Raaabo

Hi Raabo,
Thanks a lot. Already received a confirmation of it by mail. Extreme thanks for the help.

And Raabo, congratulations for being the editor of Digit. I do know that it is too late a compliment now but I came to know it at the very last issue of my subscription 2 years back and thus just couldn't wish to you. Keep it coming. Me and my kids using whose ID I am responding in this forum are very enthusiastic to renew our subscription with Digit. My elder son especially was in tears when I had ended the subscription for his studies. Now it is again great to see him very happy with the new Digit. Even Digit has provided me with a lot of tech knowledge and can thus proudly say that I am a Digitian too.

A suggestion here - Can you include reviews of Music Systems and LCD/ Plasma TV? I think reviews for LCD TVs have started but for the other two - not yet. It would be great to see them.

Thanks again for your help Raabo and looking forward for an enjoyable experience with Digit.

With regards,
Dr. Tapan Kumar Das

[toofan]

Raboo. Hi,

In the month of October/09 I get three of my DVD's Not working and I contact the helpdesk through mail. They asked me to mail back the defective Disks back to digit head quarter at Mumbai. I send them through Registry on 17.10.2009 from "Bhotia Paroa- Haldwani Dist. Nainital" Post office. Registry Sl. No. 450.

But since then I had not got any response nor the DVD's.

Hope you will look into matter. Rest later.
My Add:

Personal info removed by Raaabo

Thanks.

[Raaabo]

Hi Toofan,

Let me know if you do not receive a response in a day or two.

---------- Post added at 02:15 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:11 PM ----------

Originally Posted by a4rocks

A suggestion here - Can you include reviews of Music Systems and LCD/ Plasma TV? I think reviews for LCD TVs have started but for the other two - not yet. It would be great to see them.
Dr. Tapan Kumar Das

We're thinking about including reviews for music systems as well, but we're still finalising the testing procedures (since it's a category we haven't tested before). We want to make sure that there is a standard testing procedure that can apply to all types of systems, is completely unbiased and fair, and meets industry standards; only then will you see such a review in Digit. Hopefully, we should have that all sorted in a few months.

---------- Post added at 02:27 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:15 PM ----------

Oh, and links are back to black by popular demand. Sorry Krow [COLOR="Silver"]

[sriharsha_madineni]

Why black again??
I agree with Krow,How are we going to distinguish links,I myself faced this problem in my very own posts,If Blue is not of everyone's taste make it yellow then .
jokes apart,plzdo something to make links distinguishable

[saqib_khan]

Now thats good. Links should be in black only. Blue seems annoying to read.

[rhitwick]

Hi Raaabo,

One thing I was thinking for a long time, why there are no ads of Digit in print media?
No, seriously, u r "The" most successful and old tech mag of India, why don't u advertise?

Now, don't say u don't need advertisement? Everyone needs it right?!

I'm not talking about advertising on print media about how good and awesome ur mag is? how it has helped public or how old it is...I'm asking about printing mag's cover page twice for any issue.
E.g. if its January issue, print the cover page once b4 its launching date (Next issue, coming soon etc title)
And another after it launches in market (released, published, on-stand etc title)


P.S. Saw ur ad in Mint. Good move. U guys got a full column where u were dedicated only one-two reviews. QnA, Review, Tips...good.

Would love to see u guys doing a TV Show like tech2 someday

(Am I being unrealistic? I don't know. Am I being emo? May be. Digit holds some important part of my life, so I sometimes tend to overdo things)

[a_medico]

Could you please include an article featuring gadgets, PCs, softwares, hardware used and could be used in healthcare field? I am sure there are many docs who read Digit. It would be of great help to them. This is a huge area and is a bit untouched on Digit.

[desiibond]

Raaboo,

can you please get this issue with BenQ rollover ad fixed.

The rollover ad stays expanded

This is really really awkward. every time I scroll up the page or load new page that ad stays in expanded mode for few seconds not allowing me to use the drop down menu.

I am trying to get used to TechEnclave now as this forum is going worse week after week.

[Ronnie11]

Originally Posted by desiibond

Raaboo,

can you please get this issue with BenQ rollover ad fixed.

The rollover ad stays expanded

This is really really awkward. every time I scroll up the page or load new page that ad stays in expanded mode for few seconds not allowing me to use the drop down menu.

I am trying to get used to TechEnclave now as this forum is going worse week after week.

+1...totally agree

[Krazzy Warrior]

Originally Posted by desiibond

I am trying to get used to TechEnclave now as this forum is going worse week after week.

True! I think i'm here since 3 years but now i've registered at TechEnclave Forum and have started using it Bye Bye! Digit..

[toofan]

Hi Raboo: Its well past one week but haven't got any reply.

[Raaabo]

Originally Posted by desiibond

Raaboo,

can you please get this issue with BenQ rollover ad fixed.

I tried hovering over that AD in IE 8, FF, Opera and Chrome, and it worked as it was supposed to everywhere. Are you still having this problem?

---------- Post added at 04:02 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:58 PM ----------

Originally Posted by toofan

Hi Raboo: Its well past one week but haven't got any reply.

Please re-send your mail to help @ thinkdigit . com and CC me at editor @ thinkdigit . com, and I will get to the bottom of this.

Sorry for the delay and inconvenience.

[desiibond]

Even when I scroll the page, as you can see in the pic, the rollover ad stays expanded.

And when I click on edit, nothing happens and I see error at the bottom right corner:

[The Sorcerer]

Continuing from this thread: Time to move on!!!

Originally Posted by Raaabo

I understand the complaints, and yes I'm guilty of being too busy to rectify things soon enough. Allow me to try and change that.

I recommending thinking about improving the forum's life by the time making/attempting/planning to make change the forum.You can try this similar pattern where it has worked resurrecting another Indian tech forum, but it should work here:

# Pick up 3-4 mods and give them moderator access throughout the forum. Don't choose people who are good advisors, rather choose those who can command and take care of the sections swiftly and won't be intimated so easily even if the majority of the people decide to go wild. Create order by flushing out the chaos.

# After a month/2 months of cleanup, depending who did what, assign super moderator acess who have cleaned the forums as admins- most likely 2. Give them a chance of around 2 weeks and then exchange the super mod rights with the other 2.

# Assign someone who is responsible enough to be something like an assistant admin. Let him make decisions what is good for the forum and make changes accordingly.
-
This will take a lot of time (a year atleast) but its way more effective in the long run. As a tech forum who runs a tech magazine is naturally assumed to be ethically bound to make a healthy community.

Also, I think its best if apology is not used as well . Don't take it in the wrong way, but these people have been loyalists for a very long time, and I am sure you agree that apologizing to people who hoped for a change for ages is pretty much equivalent to rubbing salt on one's wound. Make the call!

[rhitwick]

@Sorcy,
Mod thing I got, but why new admins?
What would they do?

First ask them to fix the site, then everything else...

[Krow]

@ Raaabo Give us forum width and avoid adding larger ads. Ads on the top and bottom (below quick reply) are okay. Also, please fix the forum. Whenever I send a VM/Friend request, I get an error. Also, when I post I get this please post in 30 seconds error even though my post has appeared.