Editors Speak:Discussion Forums!

Hey!!

After our disastrous attempt at making an online forum and an integrated website,aloof from the LAGH blog hit plenty of road blocks and failed to reach more than 50 users,we have decided to shut down,actually de activate our full time website hosted by webs.com at www.lifeatgitamhyd.webs.com.

We saw it coming,but we weren’t fully prepared to leave the whole concept of discussion forums behind.

Where Have We been ?

This is exactly where we have been working ,not full time but yes work never the less,we have been way to busy checking out various forums and way to make the forums work better and also considered hosting our own PHP-BB on a rented server,but it would have been expensive,but in the mean time,the blog has been very low on content,since we are still not getting the required number of regular contributors,we have had some difficult times getting to publish fresh content.

But since one of our major hurdle(of many more to come!),has passed away,we can now divert our energy and resources to where it all started from,running the blog efficiently :).

And now,that there are many new entrants on the internet spectrum with respect to GITAM University Hyderabad Campus in the form of a promising blog like www.gitambuddies.blogspot.com ,than all the other previous ones which at some point or other tired to be pot-boilers,when the whole concept of community blogging was relatively new to GITAM University Hyderabad Campus,like , www.reallifeatgitam.blogspot.com ,www.it-gitamhyd.blogspot.com,and loads of others things !

But gitambuddies is no better,it converted our  Contact Us into meet us at,with no credit due to this blog,whatsoever!

But,we are not taking anything in an offensive way,but just saying a simple text like “sourced from:www.lifeatgitamhyd.com ”,would have made it so much better,since all the content posted on LAGH is entitled to be published under Creative commons 3.0,and can be used only if due credit is given to the blog :)

We aren't trying to shut you down buddies but just saying that you aren’t being totally fair,but got to admit you have a knack for networking who ever you are!

Your Facebook profile shows it :)

That apart lets get back to our main point of discussion.

New!

So we have decided to start the required back ground work for hunting new discussion boards and forums,and after days and days of tests runs and comparing close to 40 odd forum boards(Try visiting http://www.forum-software.org/ for all the good forums present over the world!),weighting their pros and cons and also keeping an eye on various new start ups like http://www.tangler.com/ ,which are relatively new to the main stream internet scenario ,and invitation only start ups ,and loads of other we finally decided to give the tal.ki a go ahead and see if it full fills our requirement for a smart discussion forums :).

Why Not Webs .com ?

To complex and to clumsy to maintain to be frank,We don’t have the time to maintain a full fledged website,and don’t have the heart to work with webs.com which is extremely complex,but looks way to simple :)

The major reason we didn't decide to go ahead with tal.ki initially is that the forum was relatively new and sported very few features,and hence we decided to go ahead with the webs.com ,but times has changed and the webs.com looks way to crude as of now.

Webs.com had an option of a separate internal blog,We thought it might be a good idea,but it failed to pick heat ,and the Gallery section(Users contributed pictures!),is currently being taken care of by our ShutterBugs photo-blog.

With the creation of the LAGH FB ,the Events part of webs.com can be taken care of,and so does the Birthday reminder(Calendar).

So,indirectly we haven unintentionally broken up the various components of our site hosted at webs and created something probably more functional :

S.no	Previously(part of webs)	Now(part of the LAGH )
1	Picture gallery	ShutterBugs
2	Almanac(calendar)	LAGH FB account
3	Scribble(Users contributed Blog)	Freedom Zone
4	Videos	-N.A.-
5.	Forum	Forums Page
6.	Assignments	-N.A-

We believe to have created something more valuable soon,we will be looking at having an integrated virtual calendar(very soon!),using the same name held by it previously “almanac”(probably!),and also looking at various other options to get an online storage place like mydatanest.com currently mdn.fm ,we already had an account there,and we will be reactivating it after checking out the various options available to us,since www.mdn.fm is kinda of getting obsolete for our needs.

Any more to be added to the blog ?

We will due it all in due course of time ,For now have fun ,and we wont take longer than a week to get back to our regular(read once in two days)updates :)

So everyone rush out to the forum page,and start the discussions.

Regards,

admin.

lifeatgitamhyd.

From LAGH-jr:

Fellow juniors All the best for your mids :)

Editors Speak : 7000 Hits.

Yes,the name has changed,from personal messages at regular milestones,like the number of hits on the hit counter,or just the passing of another month.(Keeping in mind,the Blogzine status of this Blog ,we have changed from personal messages by paz to Editors Speak)

We seek to set these both(Every passing Month/Hits) as our milestones in this never ending(at least for the next 3 years),journey of lifeatgitamhyd .

Today,we have hosted a new template,in remembrance of the Mangalore crash victims.

We are doing our bit by choosing not to  publish any celebratory posts,like the tradition has been,for example,during the 2000 Hits,we came up with a bundle of SCOOP!! articles(Four to be precise),and similarly at 2700 Hits,we launched the Blog,into the world of Twitter and Facebook (Fan Page),thought the twitter account,has been dormant for quite some time,some how,Tweets have not really caught up with Rudraram,and we will wait for the juniors,before we re-activate the twitter account :),in memory of the victims.

The SCOOP!!’s,posts can all wait for a couple of days,but expressing condolences can’t.

COMMNUITY:

But,nevertheless,We choose to throw,some more light on the LAGH Community,which has been in the development for quite some time now(a week),we recently published a stand alone post,informing,the readers about the conception  of the online Students portal.

I would like to clear some mist which covers the details about the Community.

• It is a Students portal(SP) for the students of GITAM UNVIERSITY HYDERABAD.
• Your associating with the SP,doesn't imply your associating with this Blog.
• We don’t seek to promote the Blog,via the SP,(it is the other way round actually :p)

We came to a conclusion,that GITAM UNIVERSITY Hyderabad,desperately needs a students portal,where the students of GITAM can,express,and showcase their interest in various fields,and not to forget ,debate and discuss sensitive topics(Not,Porn :)),away from the eyes of the faculty and management.

orkut/Facebook,are not privacy protected,by if they are privacy protected,it snatches away the core reason for an online group.

So,the Students portal,is here to address the needs of all the students alike(Be it the groups like  Saints(IT),Freaks(CSE),Rebels(EEE),Crusaders(ECE),Mob(Union),Frisky(CSE) or just gitamites)

Note:Stream in parenthesis,indicate majority of students hailing from that group.

START UP:

Now,the main issue on hand,After publishing the sneak peak of the Students Portal,We have personally received quite some queries like,

• “I hate your blog(Cause,my groups;stream wants to..:P),Can I join the Students portal ?”
• “I don't support lifeatgitamhyd,will I be looked down,in the SP ?”
• So on and so forth.

I repeat,Some one had to take the initiative ,and We at lifeatgitamhyd have choose to take up the initiative,So,The Lifeatgitamhyd team,will only be providing the required support.

To make matters clear,We have recruited moderators for the Students Portal,who have not been associated with the functioning of the Blog :)

The Blogs team,is pretty small,about 10 odd people,and about 20-30 Contributors,and We still don’t wanna reveal the number of observers we have got :P,the cadre was officially revealed,when the 3800 hits came up,click Here.

but,the Observers,still remain concealed,unlike the top contributors,who have been stripped apart of their anonymity,either by their own deeds or the Blogs,but that is all past.

But,still 30 odd strong contributors,still remain hidden,And a reminder,they are not just restricted  to the b.tech stream :)

 JUNIORS:

Yes,we have already got quite a good set of juniors onto the ranks of lifeatgitamhyd ,Actually the last two posts on this Blog(Red Fort of Rudraram!,GAT  2010 Counselling ),were handled by the juniors team,with obvious help from the oldies of the Blog.

And their next,assignment,is the big trip to the Campus,an extensive photo session,of the campus,during the GAT Counselling.

We are as desperate as you(the readers) are to check the work of the new team.

360 View:

this new baby of ours is still under development,and require plenty of investment,not just time but funds also (Same with the students portal :))

Campus 360,aims to provide a 3d view of GITAM University Hyderabad,we have started the process,ala,the coding,required soft wares,and everything.

But,we are still unsure of our success at the campus 360,with our current crude means and funding.

Nevertheless,we are reluctant to give up on a new idea on petty issues,we choose to take the development of Campus 360 forward,and probably succeed.

Obviously,it takes time,and we have two babies on hand right now,

• Students Portal
• Campus 360

The Students portal is near to completion,thought even after opening the admissions to it,we will be updating it every couples of days.

While,the Campus 360 project is still on paper.

Regards,

lifeatgitamhyd.

p.s.GITAM UNIVERSITY VIZAG,launched their own magazine,Infocus.

We claim that this Blogzine by GITAM UNVIERSITY HYDERABAD is loads better :),from a students point of view.