Suggestions for the RC India forum/website

[aniket210696]

here's another suggestion... have two table lists instad of one... the top one is recent posts on the forum, excluding the for sale section, and the second is for recent posts in the for sale section only....that way, everything can be sorted....

[K K Iyer]

@anwar
Can we have a category for members called vendors?
Anyone who tries to sell stuff more than say 3 or 5 times in a year can be thus classified.
We do need to differentiate between a hobbyist getting rid of his extra stuff and a vendor.
Or separate areas for sales / wanted / discussions.
Regards. How do you cope?

[ajayjohn]

I am a quite new to this forum and am probably an infant in this hobby line compared to you guys.

Just my 2 cents... I see a lot of user videos, self designed models and other valuable value ads that are unique to this forum. Can these  be leveraged more and organised better?
I mean, maybe we can have a separate video gallery for indigenous content from this forum. Same goes for model designs and other related content.
This will not only make it easier to find, but also probably build a repository of original content which can bring more cross linking and visibility from other communities else where, probably even the international ones.

Another suggestion is to have an archives feature by which old threads can be moved to a separate section and even search results will show results as normal search results first and archived results as a separate section below. Reason being that we have many threads with outdated information which if not screened properly, may be misleading for newbies.

Kind of late now and am sleepy... Not sure if I made sense.   

[rcrcnitesh]

Kind of late now and am sleepy... Not sure if I made sense.   

You definitely made sense
your suggestion is good. Anwar sir please reply

[ajayjohn]

Thanks Nitesh!

I have another suggestion to make in the light of the recent bad sale experiences in the Bazaar area.
I don't know if this has been discussed before but why don't we establish a standard sale template that gets pre-populated in the new post page for the Bazaar section.
This should ideally cover the following aspects,
1) Complete item name and a link to any online store covering details of the product
2) Condition of product
3) Accurate and clear pictures of the actual item for sale
4) Damages, defects, accidents
5) Reason for selling (can even be entered as "commercial" for regular sellers)
6) Expected price
7) Mode and cost of shipping
8 ) Expected time to shipping from date of receipt of payment
9) An extra information (Only place where one can write unstructured info about the listing)

The user simply gets populated the values beside each line. This ensures complete listing with all info as well as outright commitments on dispatch of items.

To enforce the above system, there should ideally be a up-voting or down-voting of the member which is clearly visible in the member's profile beside every post just like his reputation, no. of posts etc. This will make violators be more visible than before as well as discourage violations.
Further, buyers can be strictly encouraged to provide feedback for every sale using the voting system to ensure timely feedback is updated based on attributes like fulfillment of commitments made, packaging and quality of communication.
Lastly, all dealings should happen on the same thread. This will reduce chances of double dealing via PM.

I know this sounds complex for making a simple sale, but it is not as bad as it looks. Its just like a simple form like template in the edit post textarea. Enforcement and moderation is a challenge but i am sure there can be ways to do it. Any feedback is welcome, i can try to provide inputs to whatever i can figure a solution to as well as accept shortcomings in the idea where i find no solution. 

[K K Iyer]

An excellent idea. +1

[VC]

I've never contributed to this thread, to the best of my knowledge. This is my first attempt at offering constructive 'suggestions'.

1. Abusive and insulting behaviour is not permissible and should not be tolerated on this forum. If a member is found indulging in such behaviour he should be given a warning and his posting rights should be taken away for a month. A repeat offender should be deactivated for a period of time, as decided by the Administrating team. Any further attempts and he / his email id / his i.p. should be blacklisted.

2. Any member found and proved to be duping or cheating on this forum should be banned forthwith.

3. Any member wishing to offer any item for sale, should first furnish his verifiable details (Proof of Address and Proof of Identity) to the Administrating team. Once these details have been verified (How? ) only then will the member be allowed to trade. Or else he has to offer a C.O.D. facility.

I hope and feel that if these measures are adopted, it will make RCI a better place to be in.

Regards.

[avesh]

According to me a template should be used for sale threads. example

Product Name :

Manufacturers :

URL if any:

Expected Price: 

Time of Purchase: 
Warranty valid/Remaining and period:

Reason for Sale:

Purchase Invoice Available:

Product Condition:

Accessories/gifts/perks Included: 

Product Location: 

Preferred Courier: 

Shipping Charges: 

Payment Options: 

[aniket210696]

i agree... how about an sms system? so that before posting in the for sale section, you have to first register your mobile no. only after the number is registered, can you make a new thread in the for sale board...

[avesh]

May be atleast a introduction thread a compulsory for new members, thou i never did that

[raja_mastana]

Websense in my office has started filtering out rcindia.org as a shopping site  
Earlier it was not filtered by websense

This Websense category is filtered: Shopping.

can this be fixed Anwar bhai - missing a lot of action because of this issue ....

[avesh]

@raja_mastana have you tried opening rcindia on a proxy site.

[raja_mastana]

avesh, I cant risk opening proxy sites in office.
rcindia used to open fine sometime back. Just that recently it has been filtered as a shopping site.
forums like rcgroups, techenclave etc still open fine

[anwar]

Let me see if I can write to them to get it declassified. 

You can try rcindia.com instead, but all links will still be pointing to .org, so you will have to rename them manually for now.

[muradshak]

At my office,rcindia is open, but some other rc forums are filtered which are classified as "Society and Lifestyles"

[anwar]

That was quick response from Websense ! :thumbsp:

From: Websense Labs
Subject: RE: rcindia.org wrongly classified as shopping site in Websense - Websense Security Labs Case: 01392 [ ref:_00D207dP._50020Xx9UB:ref ]
Date: October 9, 2013 2:41:06 PM GMT+05:30
To: RcIndia Admin

Hello,

The site you submitted has been reviewed and assigned the following category:

http://www.rcindia.org/ -  Hobbies

Categorization updates should be reflected in the next scheduled database publication, and will be available shortly to Real-Time Updates subscribers.

Thank you for your inquiry,

Qiong
Websense Labs

[aniket210696]

looking at the number of for sale threads here, I would think the same... Anwar sir any ideas on purging the number of sale threads?

Sent from a potato using a lamp

[anwar]

BTW, for everyone not interested in seeing the classifieds related stuff in the "Recent Posts" and "Recent Topics" lists, please note that you can turn this off yourselves.

The steps are :

1.   Go to your profile (http://www.rcindia.org/profile)
2.   Choose "Recent posts preferences" from the left side (under "Modify profile")
3.   Make sure you check all boards except the "For Sale", "Wanted" etc and then click the "Change Profile" button on bottom right.  You can use the "Check all" button to help do this faster.

Here is a shortcut if you want to do steps 1 and 2 above in one shot :  http://www.rcindia.org/profile/?sa=recentPosts

I hope this helps people who are tired of having to weed out the classifieds often.

[aniket210696]

anwar sir this only works for the website. on tapatalk it loads all posts... also can you please check what's wrong with the tapatalk time? it's always off by a few hours... thanks!

Sent from a potato using a lamp - now mashed

[v2 eagle]

Can we have some features like the "Endorse" Just what we have in Linked in.

We have many unknown people who come and sell stuffs and their Credibility is questionable.
May be this "Endorse" feature for their Skill and their familiarity might help to warn buyers.

Ashok.P

[KALYANPRODHAN]

Is there any limit of social sites like linked, facebook, orkut tweeter... They are often kept under screening and the module may slow down the loading of our page. Though I am not a web related guy but still watched the bad things and recommend not to implement. It can be added as addins but should have a button/checkbox to make on/off. It can be linked with the iconic picture description.

I recommend to add personal 3-5 page of blog/site/social site link only just near the iconic user description which should only link to that page but not load any of module so that one have not to go to user description to get mail id or site if the particular user wants to publish.
After-all we can recommend only as there are merits and demerits of all. So let the admin have to decide.

As the new options are being introduced, selected by user, I recommend to add one butten on top right, "Reset settings" for some of blunt user like us having abhimanyu syndrome to get back at default settings.

[yashodhanp]

How about creating a separate area for Classifieds, that will need a different ID and password. The account can only be made active by the Admin. (Eg. Hipprocket Plan Gallery). Or granting access to members who have actually made good contribution to the forum

[anwar]

Can we have some features like the "Endorse" Just what we have in Linked in.

Search this site for "reputation".  There is already a system for doing what you are asking for.

[v2 eagle]

Yes, but the Reputation level never limits anyone from engaging into activities.
And no one knows what are their expertise areas are. i can make two accounts and boost up my reputation in a year without anyone doubting me.
who endorsed, for what skills, no ways of knowing except going through their previous posts.
we wonder how some people who never touched anything RC go on advising people like a pro.
put up the challenges for doing so and our members might come up with some solutions and we can implement if we get a better solution.

Ashok.P

[avinvarghese]

It's better to develop a plugging to convert abbreviations in a post content to full words.