In the 5 days that we have been going so far, I have received various PM's, emails, and texts from members here offering a variety of comments.
Some have given me warm encouragement, which is always nice to receive; others constructive criticism, which is valuable; and yet others some unexpected ideas.
I should like to post 2 sets of feedback ( anonymously ) for discussion.
1).
Thinking about the kind of services that are quite common in the market today, I can't see which category to use when posting a thread about them.
I see you have a section about Irish Callthrough but not a corresponding section for UK and also SMS top-up.
A forum is only as good as it members and their posts, and covering more types of services, you will attract more members with more posts - and that will in turn attract more members etc.
2).
Hi MH!
Nice to see your (our) new forum. Are we restricting ourselves to phones only ? I think we should expand to other useful things as well.... eg broadbands, air/train tickets, good deals at supestores, help with income tax (as many of our new members who call overseas are from overseas and not very familiar with tax system here in this country) and UK visa information for similar reasons.
If you agree, I can start a thread on work permit/HSMP (Highly Skilled Migration Visa), and provide answers to quite a few common questions as I, myself, have suffered a lot due to complicated visa system here.
Both of these came unsolicited, and were all the more welcome for that.
My reasons for posting these here are twofold:
First, I want to encourage others to see that I am open to all constructive comments and ideas, and I am open to suggestions which may mean some 'thinking outside of the box'. Ideas which are not usually present on other forums will not be just ruled out for that reason alone: indeed, if we develop some 'niche' aspects to our forum which interests and help members, so much the better !
Secondly, I should like to share some of my own thinking, so as to inform members of my general approach.
The idea of starting this forum was completely my own, and Mikael has given me a free hand to set it up and run it as I like.
All of the initial setup that I chose was because of what I could envision being needed.
The 14 boards you can see ( there is also a hidden one for senior Members, plus 1 for moderators and 1 for admin ) covered areas that I could foresee being needed for discussion.
Some, such as the mobile board, and ones about pre-dial, I feel qualified and competent to oversee, but others are there for the good of the forum - even though nobody has come forward with an offer to moderate those boards for me as yet.
If you had asked me what the forum lacked at present, I should have answered:-
1). Offers to moderate boards ( especially the landline one );
2). A board for VoIP services;
3). A board on TopUp services for non pre-dial companies.
It is certainly a priority for me to try to find people willing to fill these gaps.
My thinking is that there will be a VoIP board, for example, when someone demonstrates knowledge in that area, AND volunteers to moderate that board for me.
The same applies to the Board for TopUp services, such as the Finarea range of products.
So the field is wide open for new talent, and I am looking for offers to take responsibility to oversee individual boards - even ones not yet created.
So please don't be timid and 'backward in coming forward'. I haven't bitten anyone's head off yet ! If you have some specialist knowledge, think you can fill a missing gap, or just are willing to help with what is on the forum right now, please get in touch by PM, email or whatever.
Thanks very much.
mobaholic.