Member of Cyprus-forum gives his view.

andytandreou

Hello guys. I just registered and until now I had no idea that this site existed. A member of Cyprus-forum made a thread called "where are they" and someone replied and said that you guys might have gone to another site. Anyway... I googled "cannedmouse" and i came across a link on blogger which brought me here. Now that I'm here I would really like to give my opinion.

Firstly I ALWAYS agree that there should be competition between two service providers so that we (as consumers) can get better quality. however talk-Cyprus has no originality what so ever! It looks slightly cheap and thrown together in a hurry.

The same mistakes that where made in Cyprus-forum are being made here, but ten times worse. See any resemblance with the numerous amount of un-needed Sections? You guys have even made more sctions than Cyprus-forum did but "they" are ten times bigger than you. What the hell is a section called "international news" good for? "We are not alone" what a stupid thing to say mulder and scully!!!! The Section "Suggestions for the forum" is the second biggest on this site... hint hint!!! ARE YOU SERIOUS? I CAN'T TALK ABOUT BOOKS, FILMS OR GAMES IN THE GENERAL SECTION??? Are you guys under the impression that Cyprus has a billion population?

You are not even listed in Google... LOL.... and to find you someone firstly has to go through another forum site (namely cyprus-forum) and find out that you guys had a fight!!! Why not put an ad with Google if you want to compete?

The colour scheme reminds me of the Army. That silly pigeon you have as a logo makes visitors think that Cyprus is some kind of a war-zone and all our websites are dedicated to peace. You guys should be ashamed of perpetuating the myth that Cypriots have nothing else to talk about but the Cyprus problem!

This site proves that unproffesionalism and refusing to learn are passed from one person to another like a disease. Instead of becoming a better version of something that already exists you have become a mix between it's predecessor and a cheap knock-off!

If this site had something different to offer i might have stayed a while, but you guys have made so many sections and have so little users that i doubt you will ever become bigger than cyprus-forum. And since Cyprus-forum is bigger and better than talk-cyprus why should i stay at this cheap knock-off abomination that you've created...???

thebrix · Last edited by thebrix on Sun Oct 09, 2005 8:48 pm; edited 1 time in total

Crash Test Dummy · Posted: Sun Oct 09, 2005 8:31 pm Post subject:

If this place is so bad why dont you go away?

thebrix · Posted: Sun Oct 09, 2005 8:43 pm Post subject:

Crash Test Dummy · Posted: Sun Oct 09, 2005 8:46 pm Post subject:

Mete · Deputy Joined: 16 Aug 2005 Posts: 1150 Location: Boston

Crash Test Dummy · Posted: Sun Oct 09, 2005 8:50 pm Post subject:

Plus that 'dark-side' is full of people who are stuck in interent cafes and want directions. About 100 people join a day and about 1 actually decides to discuss. The rest use it as a online yellow pages

city · Posted: Sun Oct 09, 2005 9:10 pm Post subject:

Crash Test Dummy · Posted: Sun Oct 09, 2005 9:36 pm Post subject:

I say we do a big-brother type thing. Vote off Members Wink

detailer · Posted: Sun Oct 09, 2005 9:41 pm Post subject:

When you have hatred in your heart, you dont' appreciate anything. I think you should sort out this first for yourself.

erolz · Posted: Sun Oct 09, 2005 11:45 pm Post subject:

Hi andytandreou and welcome to the site.

Just to add to what others have said. Why would you stay here and not CF?

For me the principle and key differences are that this site is bi-communal and has an ethos of being a community site owned by it's users and for it's users.

CF is a 'privately' owned site controlled by a single indivdual where memebrs are guest as 'his' forum.

If these differences are not important to you then that is fine. Howver for others this stuff does matter.

You are also welcome to come here, slate the site and disapppear again. Of course another approach would be to come here and argue your case re the direction and implemntation of the site - for as a member here you have as much say over it's future as anyone else - and could get involved in making the site better. This is another difference between here and CF.

snobieone · Villager Joined: 18 Sep 2005 Posts: 21

i like this site...choice is available to all....well done....;o)

cannedmoose

erolz · Posted: Mon Oct 10, 2005 2:33 am Post subject:

Hi again andytandreou

To expand on my earlier comments and give my views on some of the specific you raised.

Number of sections.

For me the point of 'sections' is an organisational one. My PC only has a single user (me) yet I have many many drives folder, sub folder etc etc. You could have all the jokes and recipies in the siongle general chat section, but then people who only want to see new jokes or new recipies would have a hard time to find them.

To be honest I am not sure why you see this as a problem. There are various simple ways to see what new posts they are, so just because a joke is posted in the jpokes section it does not mean it is any more 'hidden' or noticed that a p[ost on general chat or elsewhere. The site alos has a RSS feed finction that can easily show a member if there have been any new posts - in the whole forum or any section of it as the use choses.

So in summary I see an 'upside' for having organisational categories (those who want to find just posts in those categories can easily) and yet no downside to them? Or have I missed your point here?

2. Listing on Google.

Firstly it takes time to become listed and high ranking on search engines. Efforts have been made and are being made to speed up this process as quickly as it can be without resorting ot 'black hat' tactics to do so. I track our listing positions on a number of major engines accross a range of terms and we are sloely getting listings and moving up the rankings. Google is the slowest engine as far as this goes and in fact I have done as you suggested and used goolge ads as a means of getting a presence on such engines in the mean time. What search term did you use on google that failed to return this site as a google advertiser? I am pretty sure I have covered most of the major ones that I can affors to but if I have missed some obvious ones I would ike to know about it.

3. Color Scheme

The color scheme was chosen by a 'majority' of the sites early users. You are welcome to propose changes and if you can raise enough support amongst the membership for them they will be implemented - that is the ethos of this site. It is the members site.

4. Proffesionalism

I do my best with the technical aspects of this site. I am not however a professional, I do not get paid for doing this (in fact I pay - like the google ads). At the end of the day I would rather have a true community site that was 'less professional' than a 'proffesional' corporate site more interested in raising revenue that fostering community.

5. Nothing different to offer.

We are in the very process of discussing these issues, after only two months of existance of the site here

http://www.talkcyprus.org/viewtopic.php?t=810

and some of the experiments leading from this discussion here

http://www.talkcyprus.org/viewtopic.php?t=835

Again I would like to stress that this forum belongs to it's members (unlike CF). If there are other areas
and things you think the site could and should be doing I urge and encourage you to suggest them. I geive you my promise that if there is any sort of agreement from members in general that we should do this, I will do my best to implement such ideas and as timely as I can, within the limits of my unprofessional skills.

Critisim is welcome and useful but constructive critisim so much more so. Saying x is rubbish is one thing but saying x is rubbish and y and z would be betterr because is so much more useful and doing so here can have a real impact unlike many other less 'community' focused fora in my humble opinion.

I hope you decide to stay and contribute to our community and site, helping it to evolve and develop and improve. If you do not decide to do so that is of course your choice and priveledge but I sincerely hope you decide otherwise.

Xenos 2Fan · Posted: Mon Oct 10, 2005 4:12 am Post subject:

Hey Andy what's up?

Let me talk to you in a language you would appreciate. If you don't like this forum.....don't let the doorknob hit you where the good Lord split you. I hope you get the gist of my message. Adios!

PS: The reason we have a a section referred to as "International News" is because we are not self absorbed to the point where we don't care about the rest of the world. The planet is just a bit larger than Cyprus, Turkey and Greece.