Feature request, ideas & suggestions for future developm

[Omkarnath]

Please list under this topic the possible feature requests you may have, as well as possible suggestions and other ideas to make this forum better.

[Omkarnath]

Hi,
it would be great if we have a possibility of pasting a chart on the board. It gives better understanding if chart is right in front of you. Also it definitely gives faster and correct readings
cjappu

This is in the plans. The upcoming forum software version allow file attachments. I am also thinking of having a add-on plugin where one could fill in birth data, and it would automatically calculate the chart. But this is more complex and would need some programmer to code such a feature.

Are there any perl / java / C / php programmers on the board who could help with this? We have the software that can do the jyotish calculations. We just need a module which would take the text input from the forum user (DOB, TOB, POB), pass it to the server app which would generate the chart, and this app would return the results to the php module, which would present the chart on the forum.

[chaks]

Please increase the inbox capacity so as to accomodate more incoming mails...

I second this.

[lovacrs]

Please increase the inbox capacity so as to accomodate more incoming mails...

Probably a better facility could be to provide an option to forward the messages to member's email ID and delete the message. Currently only a notification comes to member's mail id. It would also be great if it is possible to send a reply from the email session itself directly even without knowing the mail id of the sender of the private message on the basis of LoVA id.

[anushree44]

I love this site.. would like to give my inputs

email notification along with the PM contents sounds good...(great backup!)
*An alternative could be.. we could have select and archive to email feature or select and email.. to this...We already have the archive feature in place..in xls format n so on..so that we can direct important PMs to personal email for future reference and keep the inbox with a bare minimum of them..to allow the traffic

*The above should be also applicable to posts in forums much needed in the student section where one would be able to store the valuable comments as notes.. for future references and eliminate another forum search..Pdf conversion tab would be good...

*Chat pop-up on clicking the online members name..could avoid the bombardment of PMs while your fav member is online..

*Keeping standard titles for posts in forums..to enhance effective search and better viewing..
You could restrict users to not use titles like ""plz help i am frustrated " and ..."I am fed up"..instead.

*The member profile doesnt allow jpeg files as attachment for profile photo...:-D

[anushree44]

***Astrologer Ratings
We should have ratings for the astrologers here,as there is a mix of senior astrologers,budding astrologers and some just fake ids here,each one should get a rating,or stars...Something like in orkut where we have for Fans.. Stars for the quality rating and so on..
Since we have the smileys enabled in our PMs and posts,I dont think adding this feature should be a problem.

***Flagging for personal abuse
We have a sign next to each post,to report the post.
But we should also have red flags that we can raise against a member for abuse/personal attack.
Since this is a personal forum,flagging and a feature to downgrade a persons rating should be put in place.

***Limit to number of posts
A feature where the creator of the thread has unlimited posts in that particular thread while,others have limited (say 5 posts in each thread). This is reduce the unecessay smileys,thank you and other posts that deviate from the thread topic,hinder the astrology discussion.The other members also would use their limited posting facility wisely by posting only appropriate content.If additionally one has to convey a message to the creator of the thread,one can always use the PM facility.

***Locking feature
As the creator of the thread is the querist,he/she should also have the feature of deleting,locking,editing his own thread.
The other members that give their opinions should have the deleting/editing feature which exists currently.

[Basab]

Dear Anushree,

Your suggestions are really good, except for a couple of them, which I will object to, definitely, even though it is for my selfish interest. The first one is about the ratings given to an astrologer: see, it is insulting for people like me when given a rating of a 1/2 star, even when I am one of the oldest member here. I will become a joke if ratings are introduced, so I would not allow that. And then, these days I am not an astrologer but a spiritual person here as most of my posts are on spirituality, so would you have a rating there too? And if I get a rating for that, how will you measure it? I may get quite a few stars for my knowledge in spirituality.

I don't feel the right to lock a thread should be allowed to the querist because it can lead to misue of that power by him. If the querist realizes in the course of a discussion that he is being proved wrong, he may immediately lock the thread, stopping the discussion, which would be unfair to the person giving the right points.

[anushree44]

Your suggestions are really good, except for a couple of them, which I will object to, definitely, even though it is for my selfish interest. The first one is about the ratings given to an astrologer: see, it is insulting for people like me when given a rating of a 1/2 star, even when I am one of the oldest member here. I will become a joke if ratings are introduced, so I would not allow that. And then, these days I am not an astrologer but a spiritual person here as most of my posts are on spirituality, so would you have a rating there too? And if I get a rating for that, how will you measure it? I may get quite a few stars for my knowledge in spirituality.

1st of all,Regarding,when i thought about this idea,I didnt think about you or me.In which case since I dont contribute much so I will not fetch a single star.I thought about the students in general and the senior astrologers here,Students too will get the ratings from their clients in the reading section depending on the effectiveness of their predictions/advice.If one is really good,you dont have to be afraid of ratings.besides this forum of vedic astrology talks abt astrology and spirituality,ayurveda, mundane astrology,religion and various allied subjects....I meant an OVERALL RATING.Abt enemity,jealously,well these are the negative traits of a few budding astrologers here.
What I proposed was is a " sign of public faith",not some publicity icon.

I don't feel the right to lock a thread should be allowed to the querist because it can lead to misue of that power by him. If the querist realizes in the course of a discussion that he is being proved wrong, he may immediately lock the thread, stopping the discussion, which would be unfair to the person giving the right points.

You thought the negative part,may be you are always worried that when you make your last statement,such a feature will allow the creator of the thread to just lock the thread and not be bothered about your comments.Well this wont happen in healthy astrological discussions.Since even you are anticipating not so healthy ones... I proposed this feature.Locking of threads will eliminate mud slinging and futile arguments and allow student to refer required educative content.Even another member Kakasya is of the opinion that deleting our OWN OLD THREADS will help clean this site.Infact in the case of futile arguments such option will stop any thread going haywire only for the mods to come and lock it after much loss is done.
May be if you feel so threatened by such features you should keep your ego to yourself and not try to initiate DEBATES LIKE WHAT YOU ARE DOING NOW...

This is a thread for ideas and suggestions,the MODS and the founder Vaugh Paul will decide upon implenting the same or not.I have emailed Vaughn Paul the suggestions along with the reasons,and I think he is wise enough to take his own decisions for the benefit of this site and its members. Moreover, one think I like about Vaughn Sir is that he does announce everytime he introduces a new feature.If he goes ahead with this one that you dont particularly like..you can raise your doubts and concerns to him...

My previous post was in respond to Omkarnathji,I dont understand why people have to start debating and give their opinions on what I have to say..
May be we could have another rating for MUD SLINGERS !!!!

Basab,Give your OWN IDEAS and suggestions if you have any...
I do not wish to respond to WHAT YOU OR ANYONE FEELS ABOUT MY OWN SUGGESTIONS AND IDEAS..
PM me if you have anything to say. DONT INITIATE DEBATES AND ARGUMENTS.


Regards,
Anushree

[anushree44]

Dear Omkarnathji,

My apologies since the below is not a suggestion for your thread.
But I must warn,Ghosts of frack people who left last year Dec are still haunting this forum..

by aseem82 » Tue Jan 04, 2011 1:54 pm
Dear Basabji...please avoid the clever posts of juniors here who are very early in the twenties with no knowledge of astrology and spirituality and don't know how to treat elders...spirituality is about being respect to elders...I suggest if you wish to resolve some differences, then do it through pm...thanks...

[egoCombustsKnowledge]

Rating of members as beginers, average, moderate, advanced, useless , etc should be started by the forum.

BUT if the forum does not decide to start this rating...then members should refrain from self-rating themselves as advanced....or assigning rating others whether good or bad.

[Vaughn Paul]

I agree that rating members could create problems. First if all, who would do the rating if it's not self-rated? Like Basab said, if he's assigned a lower rating than he expects, than he would take offense. I'm sure he speaks for many people. Very likely a person's ego would get puffed up, or deflated, by any kind of rating system. if someone is active on the forum then they'll discover which people are advanced or beginners. I'm in the process of formulating what kind of changes to make on the forum so it's a good time to have discussion about these things. Vaughn Paul

[Basab]

Sir,

The proposal to give ratings is a very impractical one because there are hundreds of members and every day new members are joining, so it will take years to decide what ratings to give to whom as one has to go through all the posts of each and every person to find out how much he knows in astrology or spirituality. And then, there are so many members who join this discussion board just to get readings, and their number is more, so how does one rate them? And then, only a few members are active and the rest doesn't participate, so it will be really frustrating to rate the latter ones after reading their posts, and they will not come back to write here after some days. And finally even if the rating is done, one may not approve of it.

Sir, thank you for understanding my point. I would not take offence at all if given a low rating, and I was just speaking for other people, who will feel offence, and was trying to show, how they would react if given a poor rating.

About the locking system coming into the hands of the users, it's also I feel dangerous, and I have stated the reasons in my last post. I think it is not possible also to give the creator of the thread the right to lock his thread.

Now, coming to suggestions, the only suggestion I can give is, the moderators have to be very prompt in taking actions as per the need of the situation. And people should be blocked for a month, at least, if they are abusive here on this forum.

I agree that rating members could create problems. First if all, who would do the rating if it's not self-rated? Like Basab said, if he's assigned a lower rating than he expects, than he would take offense. I'm sure he speaks for many people. Very likely a person's ego would get puffed up, or deflated, by any kind of rating system. if someone is active on the forum then they'll discover which people are advanced or beginners. I'm in the process of formulating what kind of changes to make on the forum so it's a good time to have discussion about these things. Vaughn Paul

[milredr]

My only suggestion:

1. The system should allow only one id per ip address. This will restrict fake ids from springing up. Even if someone is logging in from another computer, at the most there will be 2-3 ids from the same person.
2. Moderators should warn the erring members thrice and then permanently ban them.


Both these things will help in cleaning up the forum.

Regards,

[Basab]

Good suggestions, Milredr. No one wants to have this locha of "one soul, many bodies" anymore.

My only suggestion:

1. The system should allow only one id per ip address. This will restrict fake ids from springing up. Even if someone is logging in from another computer, at the most there will be 2-3 ids from the same person.

[kunalbhardwaj27]

by milredr » Tue Jan 04, 2011 9:49 pm

My only suggestion:

1. The system should allow only one id per ip address. This will restrict fake ids from springing up. Even if someone is logging in from other computer, at the most there will be 2-3 ids from the same person.
2. Moderators should warn the erring members thrice and then permanently ban them.


Both these things will help in cleaning up the forum.

Regards,

Dear Milred,

I totally agree with the above point of yours.BUT WEN WILL THIS THING BE EXECUTED OR IMPLEMENTED.Thats the main question.


Regards
Kunal

[milredr]

Hi Kunal,

If i may say so.....

First of all this is a free site for all of us. We don't pay anything. I don't c any ads here either. Its a clean site and is a great service provided by the founders of this forum and we must all appreciate the same. Now the suggestions that i have given, i am not even sure, if it can be implemented, and if it can be implemented how much will it cost. Its very easy for all of us to suggest. Secondly even the moderators are doing the job free of cost. They give their time to us which i think is more valuable than money. Hence we need to appreciate that as well before we start questioning them on why it took them so long to intervene. Each one comes from a different timezone and they are providing us free service. My two bits.........

Regards

[anushree44]

Sir, About the locking system coming into the hands of the users, it's also I feel dangerous, and I have stated the reasons in my last post. I think it is not possible also to give the creator of the thread the right to lock his thread.
Now, coming to suggestions, the only suggestion I can give is, the moderators have to be very prompt in taking actions as per the need of the situation. And people should be blocked for a month, at least, if they are abusive here on this forum. ]

1)The creator of the thread should be able to delete his/her own thread,the edit feature for posts is in place.Deleting will help us clean up old posts/our old threads. Mods are doing a free service & are there to intervene & lock the threads whenever required.but locking feature should be available to the creator of the thread. Anyone and everyone cant lock,Only the creator of the thread should be able to lock the thread.I dont perceive this as dangerous or threatening,if people do,the MODS can look into this on request why a particular thread was locked.There are very old posts there went 15-16 pages..and sometimes we still see people posting on the same topic.Locking will prevent any further discussion on the title.

2)Mods are prompt in their actions as per their convenience and time zones.Well Another additional MOD will be of help

3)People abuse others in public and get away with it.I am not aware if the MODS can block any member,but I expect that the accused should atleast get a warning in public/should be blacklisted for certain number of days.

4) About ratings,The ratings suggestion could be implemented only for the contributors not everyone.
Someone who has adequate astrological posts/educative comments/accurate predictions.
Queriest will rate the one who answers his/her query.
Everyone and anyone will not rate everyone .....What sense does it make sitting and rating every member???
A person who is new/ not involved in queries/posts/not contributing/members who come for predictions will not have a rating.A rating will only be assigned to some one who gives a prediction/shares educative posts.

If the rating of members sounds complicated... we could have LIKES for posts.
For eg.. Say I like Sir.Hock Leongs post on houses of fate,as a reader I would give click on LIKE icon next to it.
In this process ,the educating members /quality contributors will be brought to focus. which is the underlying reason for such RATING/ LIKE feature.

Regards,
Anushree.

[kunalbhardwaj27]

by milredr » Tue Jan 04, 2011 10:11 pm

Hi Kunal,

If i may say so.....

First of all this is a free site for all of us. We don't pay anything. I don't c any ads here either. Its a clean site and is a great service provided by the founders of this forum and we must all appreciate the same. Now the suggestions that i have given, i am not even sure, if it can be implemented, and if it can be implemented how much will it cost. Its very easy for all of us to suggest. Secondly even the moderators are doing the job free of cost. They give their time to us which i think is more valuable than money. Hence we need to appreciate that as well before we start questioning them on why it took them so long to intervene. Each one comes from a different timezone and they are providing us free service. My two bits.........

Regards

TRUE.I AGREE TO THE ABOVE SAID.But then people who suggest or give replies to our questions like ASTROBOY,ASTROSONU,RAMANANSIR,CHAKS,ASEEM82,SHRIKANTHJI,ASTRO123,SWAMYKOOL,ALIENS and many more also do it for free and do a bit more than what anyone else does.I mean i respect everyone here and ready to accept the way they want to do it.If they want any other assistance i am ready to do it.Irrespective of it being financial or giving time to the site.Because i hold greatest respect for this site and the founder and the people who keep rolling this site and help people.This site has given me a lot..ITS LIKE FAMILY TO ME.I know m being emotional but this is the way i am.


Regards
Kunal

[Basab]

Anushree,

I don't think it is possible to give locking option to a person who creates a thread. This model of discussion board I don't think has that option. I have been the moderator, so I have some idea about it. Same goes for liking a thread. I don't think that option is available here. But Vaughn Sir will be able to tell better.

[Basab]

Thanks Aseem, but I am not interested in the job.

[Vaughn Paul]

Hi Aseem,
Any suggestions of how to format the website and/or forum for a cell phone? Thanks, Vaughn Paul

[whitelily]

Hello everyone,

I'm new to astrology and to this site. I saw that on this forum there is lots of room for people, who know their birth details, to ask all kinds of astrological questions, which is really great, but there is nothing here for people who either don't have their accurate birth details, or people who don't have any kind of birth info at all (because they are adopted). I'm thinking in the lines of a section for horary questions. I understand that this is primarely a forum to learn and not to give free advice, but still. It would be nice if astrology could help them (including me) out as well.

Also, I think it would be handy if, next to the avatar, there would be a symbol which indicates the gender of the member. With some nicks it is hard to figure out if the member is male or female, confusion about which can (as far as I know) effect the analysis of a chart.

Regards,

[Humannature]

I second with the rating concept...There are some senior members who I do not know are seniors because of their contribution to the forum in astrological perspective or just any type of response..
For eg, when a general discussion is started, people post their opinions, general ones, need not be astrological opinions like a thread on mumbai serial blasts..If I post my opinion on that thread my number of posts will increase, but that does not mean I have any astrological knowledge..

So even if I have more stars down the road, I may not necessarily be an astrologer...

So for teh convenience of people seeking advice and who to contact, its good to have ratings...as stars don't give out much other than seniority on this site..

Thanks for considering my opinion