San,

I know Sajha is your baby and you have every right to give it any kind of haircut you choose. But as a frequent clicker of your site, I too have every right to voice my grievances.

It looks like creative work is getting a very low priority in your new format.

1. First, the headings for Stories/Poems,Ghazals/Humor section are collapsed. Why can’t you display the five most recent threads and give an option of ‘More’ for these headings as well? Are we really that less important than ‘Kurakani’?

2. Kurakani & Classifieds & Immigration take precedence over creative writings. Call me biased, but I favor “Ek haat testai” over ‘Graduate Lady Wanted for Marriage’ any given married day.

I don’t know about other writers, but I write here because I want to reach to more people. I have always been as shameless as humanly possible about it. With this thread, I am only taking it to a new height of shamelessness.

I come to Sajha because nobody promoted me more than you did in the beginning (not even SNDY). I have always felt deeply grateful and a little embarrassed because I was not worth it.

There are some very good writers/poets in Sajha. I am sure I speak for all of them when I ask you: “Did your dingo eat my thread, San?” ( It’s a Seinfeld line, I have no idea what it means).

I hope you will reconsider. By now, Sajha to you must be more than just a product. Whatever you reply, please don’t tell me to do: “Hey sum_off, you can always click on ‘I like Old Style’."

The reason we are still humans is because we are so used to defaults.

I really really really HATE New Style....................!!!!!


Sajha is no more FUN like before............

Agreed.

Yes yes, Dingo ate your baby. ;-)

San, I have to agree with Sumof. The visual organization of Sajha needs some serious facelift - aesthetically and reader/writer friendly-wise.

Do it, San, do it. I know you can do it.

(narisau hai, jamaana ma lifetime membership diyau kyaara, tyesaiko right le timilai karaako.)

I hope you will reconsider. By now, Sajha to you must be more than just a product. Whatever you reply, please don’t tell me to do: “Hey AMAZING, you can always click on ‘I like Old Style’."

hmm u separated everything :D
cool
it looks pretty good if you list couple of threads in each section with a more option
:-)

Thanks for this thread Sum Off.

This is what I feel about the changes:

(1) There are some clinks to be worked out. Some of the ads overlap the thread section unless you expand all threads. The home page does not display correctly on some platforms (I have informed San bro about this separately)

(2) I think this is a great start but we probably need some more sections. My suggestions would be:

- Politics & International Affairs
- Business & Finance
- Sports
- Travel


(3) If these changes and any others that people suggest can be accomplished, in my opinion, and I know many might disagree, this is a monumental change in Sajha's history. If improvements can be made and San and stick to this format, this is a  tectonic shift in terms of how content is presented. I feel the last-update-gets-top-slot policy can work both ways and displaying content by group is a compromise between direct positive discrimination by an Admin or Editor where he or she chooses what to feature on the front page and 100% user driven display of content.

(4) If this is done right, for the first time in my memory, Sajha will have content organized by interest group and no one interest group will be able to dominate the front page just because they have the most posts or the most enthusiastic posters. As long as these interest groups (e.g Politics, Guf suf, Business, Music etc) are broadly representative of the larger interests in society, I think this is a more equitable distribution of real estate on the front page. Sajha is a site that I feel has both the intent and the means to encompass a diverse range of people and interests and giving structure to the content is a right step in that direction IMHO.

(5) At the least, this is a good experiment if it can generate good and constructive debate on the changes and new ideas can flow out of it. Maybe the present format is not the best but I am curious if people have ideas about how to better organize content and deal with the front page getting overloaded by threads related to only one type of interest.

Just my thoughts.

Last, but not least, and this is not a slight towards those who didnt't like the change, as I am sure there might be many, I want to congratulate San bro. I have been a keen observer of changes to the site and this is by far the boldest of them. I don't know if it will work, and you will probably receive much heat for it, but I admire your courage in at least trying out a new direction. Rock the boat baby! he he

San. I have just one request. You can fill the add on the whole page except the kurakani section. Leave the kurakani as it is.

Fill the add everywhere else. we dont care.

Hi Sum_off,

Thanks for starting this thread. As always, let me say that sajha has grown so far because people actually care enough to let me know what would be better for sajha and I have attempted to take in suggestions to try to make it so.

This new round of update were sparked by Captain Haddock's suggestions as well as a reminder that I had been keeping from as far back as around 2004. It was Czar, one very good writer, who we don't see anymore unfortunately, who encouraged me to do something that would retain good writers. That's how the sajha guild - now known as the Sajha blogs took form. That however was not a good solution specially since back then I had to add the guild articles myself.

I experimented breaking out into groups, but people tend to want everything handy on the front page. As you can see, most of the groups lay barely touched.

In most other forums, you go to the first page, and you see a list of catagories you have to select from. Then only you get to the discussions. But in sajha people are used to seeing everything on the front page.

You might be surprised, that this new round of update is actually geared towards giving excellent writers like yourself a block in the front page, which would also make it easier for readers to go to the catagory directly to read stories only. I had intended to keep the "Stories/Essays/Literature" block open by default just like the Kurakani, and make the rest be customizable according to user preference, but I suppose I forgot to set the default cookie to do that - my bad - but it's been done now! I did however put it under classifieds and immigration (which would remain closed by default) because I wanted to give precedence to the way sajha evolved - first just a place for general kurakani, then classifieds evolved with plethora of questions regarding immigration... only highlighting the importance of the "stories" catagory by keeping it open by default - which I didn't - thus seemingly making my point weak - but now hopefully strenghtened by the fact that it's all set now

Even for myself, the stories being shared by talented writers make it worth my while to spend countless hours in sajha as a mere reader.

There is more to be done to make this new change smoother around the edges, please bear with me while it's done, and please feel free to make suggestions and comments. Hopefully by the next week or so it will all be bearable.

And then again, if things dont work out at all, we can always revert back to the way things were! As always, it's a win win situation : )

Just wanted to acknowledge comments by Amazing, o_o, riten, cerine, captn and no quiro.

Quick note to cerine - having all of the groups open would mean it takes more time to open the home page that's why by default i have most of them closed.

Amazing, always been a fan of your amazing style, keep it up, hopefully some more changes coming soon to a browser near you will make things easier..

Riten thanks for your belief in me : ) Will try to make things better...

no_quiero - unfortunately there are not enough ads to fill the rest of the pages

Captain see what you got me into?

.It's a nice move San. Atleast I don't have to go through all other threads to find Sum off's story. It looks well arranged to me.

Thanks. :-)

San,
You are bringing a total revolution to sajha!! I was browsing sajha and all of a sudden the whole format had changed... at first when the stories section was not open by default I found it sort of annoying to go and open it everytime... THOUGH as I see it we can click on the small box that says "keep this open" and will be able to see it at all times, I thought that not a lot of people would have the energy (as humans are lazy by default... and I have scientific research to prove that ) to actually go there, open it and read it. But as you have it open by default I think it is much more cool.

And also, as this is the second day... hardly 24 hours since the changes were made.. I think the best would be to wait and watch and see others reaction. You must be soo proud that people are actually annoyed enough to voice their annoyance about the changes. The fact that they are doing that means that they love sajha. Good job mister! And as you know I am the greatestfan of sajha and a blind supporter I am always there backing you up.

Sum_off, u'll hire me as your marketing manager then? He he..

San, I feel it's looking better today..I agree with Camo bhaijaan, at least I'll know where to find Sum_off's stories..thanks for all the effort and making us Sajha addicts..in cafe spirit

i tend to second sum-off dai here.

1) while i agree that dividing the page into groups do sound more scientific/logical, it also risks the visibility of the more deserving threads. a random user wouldn't care to un-collapse a particular section. he will see what he can see in the main page without having to maneuver his mouse/keyboard. for users who want to browse a particular group of threads, there ALREADY is "Other Discussions" option in the main menu. i don't see why we need to divide the entire page into different sections.

2) i, as a connoisseur of threads with good discussions, don't want to see them getting sandwiched by a dozen of threads on Prashant Tamang but at the same time, i would also not want them to be camouflaged by the collapsed sub-sections.

few things i have been wanting to say for a while (please feel free to agree/disagree):

one of the major problems that i, as a user, am seeing since i have been using this site, is that the visibility of good threads is often being marred by some mediocre quality to junk threads.

So,

1) looking at the increasing traffic of sajha, it's high time we selected moderators who have sufficient privilege to do various admin (not entirely ni pheri :P) tasks: from moving threads from the main page to the right section in the 'other discussions' menu to even deleting a thread if it's a useless one which does nothing more than bashing individuals or a community.

2) sensible users who have spent quite a few years in sajha contributing to its betterment can be assigned the task of the moderator. enthusiast newbies can also take the job, if they will. we can also divide the time-slots and put the moderators in charge of the site during their alloted period of duty. a user can be the moderator during the time (s)he visits the site. nobody is required to put in extra hour from their private schedule. this will help in to reduce the load on San uncle bicharo

3) i think "Sabaiko Sajha" makes more sense if there are more threads worth reading for users and NOT when random users are allowed to open discussions on rubbish.

ki kaso?

Ha ha ... San Pradhan, Sajha revolutionary!

And I say that only half in jest.

Here's two quotes for you, San bro:

The original one:

Lord, give me the strength to change what I can, give me the strength to resist what I cannot change and give me the wisdom to understand the difference between the two.
- St Francis of Assisi


The one I like:

Lord, give me the courage to change what I can, the wisdom to accept that which I cannot change, and the heavy artillery to make up the difference.
- Patrick L. Humphrey

The second one is entirely in jest

:)

By the way, I have moved quite a few threads from kurakani to 'Stories/Essays/Literature', but there are move that needs to be moved. If you started a topic, now, you have the ability to move your thread to the correct catagory. Personally I like the fact that I can see the stories in one section. Instead of hoping or leaving to luck that I see a potential good story to read, it's easier to have the easy access.

If you started the topic then you should be able to see a dropdown at top saying "move to". Use it well!

ठिउ छ पर्भो -- अहिल्या ताल ठिउ छ -- राउँरो लाई रच के रे आफुलाई त। कहले के लेहे छुट्याम्न सइलो होला जह्तो लायो।

जय होस साहुको।

घाघहरुको कथा नी छ्याङ्ग देखियो -- धागा उधिन्दै खोज्न परेन -- काईदा भो।

.San,

I think you might want to put more than 10 threads in "Kurankani/general discussion" section. May be 20. That's the place where the traffic of threads is relatively higher and it is more likely that some threads may go out of the front page without being noticed.

as thapap always says
what do I know (O:

san uncle,
sweet! i liked the idea of being able to move the thread.

what's your take on the idea of moderators btw?

As this thread is so much more happening than Cafe N, I thought I would drop in... LOL.. Uncle L, Camo, Cappie whats up?? No posting in Cafe N??

San, Great job.. I totally love you. (LOL Had to say something to you right? otherwise I would be totally spoiling the thread!)