09-30-2003, 04:47 PM (This post was last modified: 09-30-2003, 04:49 PM by rhytha.)
hi guys
i have spruced up the forum by adding new forums and clearly defining other ones. Graduate Since the forum is heating up, i thought let me do it right away else moderator's and myself would need to spend more time on mainting the forum in future if things are not clearly defined.
Added
Indian Culture
Business & Economy
Reshuffled the moderator's team (similar to reshuffling the cabinet <img src='http://www.india-forum.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' /> )
Inducted Krishna into the moderator team hehe <img src='http://www.india-forum.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' />
Viren, thanks for the nomination but I do not have any editorial skills. But I will volunteer my time to get the monthly e-magazine off the ground but someone else should volunteer to be the editor.
These are some of the things that need to be figured out:
1) Someone who can convert text and jpgs into PDF format.
2) Name, layout and style of the magazine.
3) Content (lets start with book reviews).
I am starting a new [url="http://india-forum.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=52"]thread [/url]for this purpose.
I would also like to add my 2 cents about red lines -
1. No disrespect towards fellow member - disagree without being disagreable
2. No bad mouthing of any country, religion, e.g. I don't like BanglaDesh being called beggedesh or anything like that. The only exception IMHO should be TSP.
Generally I agree. I have always treated individuals with respect regardless of where they are from , or regardless of their religion.
As far as religion is concerned it is a legitimate question to ask whether Islam condones violence and jihadi actions against innocent women and children.We are not talking about communal riots which erupt for the most part spontaneously, but a holy Book condoning such actions. It should be legitimate to say that such behavior is neither acceptable nor civilized and that in fact it is barbarism, and is especially egregious when condoned by a holy book. If you think this is academic, remember that Mush has been constantly maintaining that freedom fighters have a right to do whatever is necessary including such killings. In Agra he brushed aside suggestions that it was horrible that innocents were being killed by the jihadi terrorists ( a term he does not accept) saying such things happen in war. If a head of state accepts such a belief why should we invoke and blame Graduates of madrassahs who are only obeying orders from above. There are other dubious beliefs in Islam amongst which is the belief that no Muslim should willingly live amongst a land of Kafirs (Dar ul Harb). This is the germ of the so called two nation theory. So, the culprit is the software that is being programmed in the BIOS. It is the software that has to change otherwise the behavior in the name of the holy book will continue.
Another point. Hindus are brought up to believe in 'sarvadharma samabhava',that all religions are blessed and are therefore good and it is only certain misled individuals who disobey the precepts of their religion.It is difficult for them to accept that there sometime lurks evil in religions (even the Dharma is not exempt from this). The simple fact of the matter is that Islam was designed for a nomadic desert people in the 7th century and its values are not timeless. All religions accept reform as a necessity, but such reform is blocked in Islam, because the Prophet has declared that it is perfect and cannot be subject to questioning not now not ever. It is therefore legitimate for Hindus to question such dubious and barbaric behavior such as jihadi terrorism. We must have courage to say the emperor has no clothes, when indeed we dont see any, instead of saying one must be a wise man to see the clothes. Appeasement (e.g.the Hajj pilgrimage,different laws for different religions) is the response of the slave who has been in bondage for a 1000 years. Such behavior is now known as the Stockholm syndrome, where the victim identifies himself with the torturer or terrorist (e.g.calling him a militant). One must boldly speak up to the Muslims and ask them to take responsibility for their actions instead of constantly blaming others for theiir condition, which is in general better than that of HIndus, the average per capita income of the Muslim in the world is much higher that of the HIndu in India.
But i agree that we should not stoop to demeaning characterizations of any religion including Islam and as far as i recall i have never done so.
[quote name='Viren' date='Sep 30 2003, 03:01 AM'] There was a thread by someone regarding 'Ancient Indian Warfare techniques' or something along the line which a premier 'military' forum refused to discuss! I for one would love such a discussion on this topic if we have postors who have interest/expertise in this area. [/quote]
This is a topic of great interest to me. I am starting a thread on ancient warfare. I hope we can have an article on it in the monthly e-magazine. For now I am posting two web logs of mine that I wrote elsewhere. While I have gathered a lot of material in this regard, I am pressed currently for time due to many other commitments. So it will proceed slowly unless others are willing to pitch in.
[quote name='Viren' date='Sep 30 2003, 03:01 AM'] There are some independent efforts by others here (you know who you are) to whom we can provide content to store and categorize.
[/quote]
I am sure they know who they are. <img src='http://www.india-forum.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' />
Well, I have a couple of different ways to get the whole thing going and a few design decisions to make.
One way is to get a printer friendly archival of the forum which is an HTML file which in turn is compressed
with gzip. Then create volumes each of which would fit onto a CD. Rough space calculations are as follows.
A full BRF TSP news and discussion forum (9 pages) has been compressed down to 130KB. This works out to
(rounding 130K down to 128K = 1/8 M) for easy calculation, one can fit about 4000 such forums on one CD of 500MB.
If you take out about 20% for overheads (which I will describe below), we are still talking 3000 BRF TSP forums on one CD.
On a DVD which is about 5GB, one can fit about 30000 such forums.
Yet another way is to dump the HTML into a PS format. Probably I can find an open source/free HTML2PS filter somewhere.
Two problem with PS format are - the archives could become larger than HTML archives, and secondly the user would need a PS viewer.
One quick experiment shows that PS format would require about 360K compressed.
A couple of design problems -
1. Forum numbering/naming conventions. I should be able to reverse engineer this without too much of a difficulty
as long as there is a method that can be seen.
2. Emoticons. Not sure how to handle them. I am thinking of archiving the images on to the CD volume and then change the image URLs
in the printer friendly HTML to relative paths. That way, when somebody downloads a CD image, all emoticons will be found without going to the web.
Only the external links will not be saved. For these, an internet connection must be active. On the other hand, this is fine because the copyright will
be followed quite rigorously.
I hope the above make sense to some people. I am inviting suggestions and possibly some PERL coding help.
I would like to add an Indic Literature forum. It can go under the Indian History and Culture as forum.
Is it possible to change the name of the forum to read
Indian History, Culture & Indic Literature
Such a forum would have mostly information about Sanskrit Literature (Authors, books, reviews, translations) including VEdas as literary works, PurANAs, etc., but not limited to those only. One can look at Pali and Prakrit literature (Buddhist literature like Jatakas), plays of Kalidasa, BaNa, Allegories like Panchantantra, and Katha Saritsgara, Vikramarka Charitra, and literature from other languages of India, like VEyi Shirachheda Apoorva Chintamani, Maya Mayi (originally Punjabi), etc.
Also, another forum for Indic Languages and Linguistics.
Several people have joined today.We are fast approaching the first century in membership and may even cross it as i write. I extend a hearty welcome to all of you, if you are lurking.Please feel free to jump in and dont be bashful to post. There are few rules, which are mainly those that you would observe with your guest at home. Be courteous at all times and observe decorum in your usage of language and treat everybody with respect and dignity, especially those with whom you disagree. If you disagree do so firmly but without being disagreeable. There is no need to embellish the disagreement with hyperbole. Above all do not take yourself too seriously and make a place for humor in your internet postings
The word for guest in sanskrit incidentally is atithi. Thereby hangs a etymology. The word is derived from tithi which means time or a lunar day. So atithi means that which has no time. IOW, a guest is one who can arrive (unannounced ) at any time of the day(and should be welcomed regardless of his untimely arrival).Think of Rana Pratap and how he shared his meager rations with Padshah Akbar when he was on the run. This fits the bill perfectly for internet guests who drop in at any time and are therefore true atithis. Pl. treat everyone as an atithi at your own home. As we embark on this new journey, it is appropriate at this time to recall the Peace invocation, in particular the last 2 lines
OM
Saha na Vavathu - Let Him protect us both.
Saha Nau Bhunakthu - May He bless us with the bliss of knowledge
Tejashwina-Vadhitamastu - May what we study be well studied
Maa vidwishavahahi - May we not quarrel with each other
OM Shanthi Shanthi Shanthihi - OM Peace Peace Peace
Can we know what are the new people joining everyday. Moreover we have to evolve some structure. Rytha, (no offence), cannot do everything. I would still suggest a BR like process/structure (you can tell I do this fro a living, BPR) of control, without it'sshortcomings. There should be some admins, some moderators, a guideline why and how to ban people, somekind of voting mechanism so that one person cannot be a judge (however infalliable he/she might be).
We should be discussing these things. The way things are going at some forums, we might be getting many members here. If we do not have a structure, we would quickly die.
Those comments were not directed at you at all. It has been a pleasure knowing you and learning from you. It was a general comment. If anything is bothering you let me tell you one thing - This forum might not have come at a better time. But then lets try to make it better. I guess we have a standard and let's try to beat it. If both forum survives, Mother India has two Internet forum caring for her, all the better.
But On this forum, our goal, as the goal with Arjun was (only the eye of the bird) should be only one - to be the best!!
Let's not worry about anything else. But it's a difficult goal to attend, fortunately we have benefit of Hindsight, we can build on what is good and try to overcome what is not. Let's not forget why have we survived for so long, by being flexible, by learning good from anywhare, by overcoming our shortcoming. I have extensive Process Improvement expertise and I would give my best to make this a good place, but then my contribution can never be more that few milli percentages.
As they teach in management class 3 is a good number. You don't have more than 3 points on your power point. You don't give more than three reasons to justify or unjustify anything. I personally thinks number of forums at this site are too many. Can we do something regarding this.
You can get back to me at jambudweepbharat@yahoo.com
Quote:Can we know what are the new people joining everyday
Click on the 'members' link on top right corner of this page. Select members by their join date in a descending manner. That'll give you the answer.
AJay:
Quote:I would like to add an Indic Literature forum. It can go under the Indian History and Culture as forum.
Is it possible to change the name of the forum to read
Indian History, Culture & Indic Literature
The forum is led by Kaushal, Hauma and acharya. Hope one of you can respond and/or change if necessary. I request forum leaders to address issues pertaining to the specific forum.
O Vijay:
Quote:Viren, thanks for the nomination but I do not have any editorial skills. But I will volunteer my time to get the monthly e-magazine off the ground but someone else should volunteer to be the editor.
Thanks for taking the initative and starting the thread. See Praneet's post in there - we might be little slow at start but keep the thread around and I hope members would throw in their 2 cents in terms of what/when/how/where etc of it as we go along.
AJay:
Quote:I hope the above make sense to some people. I am inviting suggestions and possibly some PERL coding help
Great input. Sorry can't help in PERL. Anything on Microsoft platform, I'm your guy (yeah, yeah make fun of me <img src='http://www.india-forum.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/dry.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='<_<' /> ). We'll discuss this in detail soon enough.
[quote name='rhytha' date='Sep 30 2003, 06:17 AM'] Reshuffled the moderator's team (similar to reshuffling the cabinet <img src='http://www.india-forum.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' /> )
Inducted Krishna into the moderator team hehe <img src='http://www.india-forum.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' /> [/quote]
Sorry folks, had been out for the last few days due to unhealthy physcial status.
But, kinda, back now......and glad to be a Mod...........so hereby Ram Rajya ends and Satan raj begins! :devil :devil :clapping
Just kiddin' folks........please put down them bazookas! <img src='http://www.india-forum.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' /> <img src='http://www.india-forum.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tongue.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' /> <img src='http://www.india-forum.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tongue.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' />
Quote:But, kinda, back now......and glad to be a Mod...........so hereby Ram Rajya ends and Satan raj begins!
<img src='http://www.india-forum.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' /> Talk about giving a hand grenade to a ..., <img src='http://www.india-forum.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/blink.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':blink:' /> <img src='http://www.india-forum.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' />
I know that you are joking but it got me started on this list of things not to do if you want a healthy forum.
1) Do not have anonymous moderators
2) Do not edit or delete posts, other than your own posts, without leaving an explanation
3) Do not ban members without making it clear why such an action was warranted
Stan Lee, Spiderman: With great power, comes great responsibility.
I am confident that this forum will be democratic. I hope the day never comes when we have to ban a member, but if it occurs , it will not be unilateral and there will be an explanation of the reasons for doing so.
Good job everybody, admins in particular. Do any of the admins have the email of Pulikeshi Varma. He is a clear headed thinker and would be a valuable addition to the forum. If somebody can get hold of him and invite him to IF it would be beneficial.
As this site grows, more and more members join (and we grow seniors! <img src='http://www.india-forum.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' /> <img src='http://www.india-forum.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wink.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' /> <img src='http://www.india-forum.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tongue.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' /> ) we Mods/Admins would need to make sure that the focus / intention of discussions doesn't get derailed due to flaim-baiters or other spoil sports. There would be pakis in the neighborhood, so would some commies/pinkos and DDM types. We would need to carefully watch these guys and make sure they don't hijack our efforts.
Maybe not really important at this time but IMO we should have a forum for Mods/Admins only. Members / Guests cannot view anything in that. This way we can all keep other Mods up to date with anything we may have noticed.
Lemme know what you all think??
BTW. 100 is nothing, the way I see it....in the next 6 months we should cross 500+ with 40/50 regular posters. :beer
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