CPod Staff Contributions

We're optimizing the site, and as ousijia has said, we're launching a new dashboard to make it easier to use the counseling services (for guided/virtual school/executive plan customers).

Oh ok. I hadn't seen that. The activity stream was always buried far too deep within the site for me to go there often.

What's the reason for this?

Hey Sebire, there is a notice above the activity stream that says

Please note this "Activity section will be discontinued on April 5th. The current Counseling and Activity sections will be combined into a new Dashboard for ChinesePod customers subscribed to a Teacher Service (e.g. Guided, Virtual School or Executive Plan)."

Who said the Activity Stream is being discontinued? I didn't hear that.

Hi sydcarten, I was saying the soon-to-be-discontinued Activity Stream (under "Home" there's an "Activity beta" tab) is set up well and easy to follow. It's chronological, but we can reply to specific comments and are also allowed to toggle and view threads when we want to.

This current threading as is on these boards I don't like.

That is not such a bad idea - this environment is just made for 'secret ballots' or plebiscites, referendum, whatever. We are all 'on tap' like the old political theorists dreamed about. ChinesePod is potentially rich with information about what people think, if they turned their collective minds to collecting and considering it. Now this approach (eg. democracy) might not work well for running a country but for a web-based learning business it may be just the thing?

Hey bodawei,

"how do we know they are appeased? How would we know what anyone thinks? It is a kinda random expression of opinion we see here, there is no systematic way of judging the prevailing opinion at all!"

...you're absolutely right and I must confess that even as I wrote "seem" above I was conscious of the fact that I was just going on an impression [from less complaints...but maybe a fresh batch are coming..who knows?...and from the occasional poddie who has commented it's less of an issue now] based on very little but was just trying to take into account what John has previously assured us was not an insignificant number of complainers about the old perceived "clique" issue and that threading was the answer for them.If it keeps em happy then that's important.

"But this bit about the threading 'not intimidating others from posting' (rather similar to Barb's point which I think was more that it allows others to stay on the point), I don't for the life of me see that. Never did understand that."

...once again completely agree mate.I couldn't understand it either.But at the same time I thought it was important that even if I don't understand it that folk with those views are catered for and so if threading helps them then fine.Just hope we can have a toggle so we can have both.Otherwise how about a secret ballot [after community debate ] for these kind of community issues [so we're not just responding to vocal minorities...which might be me for example].But ultimately it's CPod's call of course.

I meant to add exactly that mate ie if we could have a chronological option,I'd like to keep the in reply to option.Speaking of which,this button [in reply to] doesn't work when you're replying to the initiator of a thread.I suppose this was on the presumption that if someone started a thread and then you came along and replied to that then it was all to obvious who you are replying to.Now that's fine.The problem [too strong a word] arises when several posts are made on the subthread and you want to then come and reply to the initial post ,it won't register that that is who you're replying to.It would just come up with ,in my case,bababardwan says.I think it'd be better if the first reply button worked the same as the subthread buttons.

Bodawei,

I can see your point. I guess its just that I don't feel less likely to jump into a conversation now than before. Actually, I think it is easier to join in because it is easier to see at a glance the whole picture of what is being talked about. But yeah, that leaves less mystery. Sometimes I do lament the modern obsession over convenience. (That said, I still like the new system, haha.)

Xiaophil, your comment prompts me to wonder if I have been too harsh. There are some things I like about the new 'look' of course, and naturally I see it as a work in progress. But this bit about the threading 'not intimidating others from posting' (rather similar to Barb's point which I think was more that it allows others to stay on the point), I don't for the life of me see that. Never did understand that. I am always drawn to the grey bits myself - on the grounds that something was said or asked that others found interesting, 'wonder what that is?' Like crowds milling around an accident or an altercation. That's it, I am lemming like, and so are most people. Isn't that how we LEARN? I have a library metaphor: the white bits are like the books on the shelves, the grey bits are like people chatting in the corridor or in the 'break-out' area. One problem for me is that the editing tools in the exciting grey bits are limited - this is where all the multi-media should be, allowing us to express ourselves fully. (Yes, I know, go away and learn html bodawei.)

Cool, thanks Zhenlijiang. How would you like to be known as The Archivist? Maybe we need a group - somewhere that we can get to easily to ask about those unforgettable threads the addresses of which are easily forgotten?

As for my question.. damn, can't remember what it was now! I'll get back to you.

count me in the minority of public posters also. I like this system better. Also, my casual observation is that more new people are posting, which is one thing John said cpod wanted. I agree, the tweaking/modifications are not likely done yet anyway, so we might as well see what ends up happening.

It seems I'm in the minority. I like the current system much more than the old one. I like that all related conversations are clumped together. I like that long conversations no longer intimidate others from posting (I have no proof that this is the case, but I suspect it is true).

I also think that the system has to be improved so that it is easier to retrace older comments, but I believe John is working on it. I'm sure whatever he comes up with will never please everyone, but perhaps it will please most, and the majority of the rest can at least accept it. I say, why not just wait and see what he comes up?

Just my 2 cents.

Bodawei I don't know anything but I've hung around here enough and often remember where something was discussed. Ask me if you like!

Hi Barbs

‘those who complained about frequent posters seem appeased' ...

Just interested, how do we know they are appeased? How would we know what anyone thinks? It is a kinda random expression of opinion we see here, there is no systematic way of judging the prevailing opinion at all! What people think is what the latest opinion is at the top of the community board.

For me, I think that it is a shambles - it is well nigh impossible to keep track of conversations now. Possibly worse for occasional posters than frequent posters. Frequently posting you can 'keep up' with what is going on. If you come here only occasionally it seems to me that it would be very confusing. I say this because I left the community for about three or four weeks (busy with other things) and when I came back it seemed like a different country. I was lost. I think I am experiencing culture shock! :-)

I am waiting for the improved search function - yesterday I tried to find a thread I know we had only a couple of months ago and I just can't find it. Have to resort that old method, tried and true, 'ask Changye'.

Yeah the way Activity Stream is set up. And there, if you want to see a thread a certain comment is part of, you click on View All Replies. It's neat, logical and easy to follow.

As a frequent reader (and seldom poster), I feel like the threaded comments has really killed the flow of conversations. I used to like how a conversation would meander through various topics and end either in a general consensus or flame war. In the new system, the threads are dying or ending pre-maturely, because there are either too many threads active in the same conversation or it is too hard to find what is new if there is more than one active thread. For the volume of posters, the old system worked best. Personally I think we should go back to the classic system, eliminate the threads but keep the 'in-reply-to' text. Clicking the 'in-reply-to' text could then instantly jump you back to the post being replied to, if you really needed to see it.

Oh yea, I agree. It's really hard to see what's new and what's not.

I don't think anything can be extrapolated from the above table.It only tells what it tells.Users come and go,plus it's comparing number of posts from a time that included a holiday period where folk may have more free time vs an average over a whole year.Most importantly as go manly points out,it's only reporting on the posts of a few.

Having now had plenty of time for the new system,I'd have to agree that it's still very easy to miss posts and hard to find what's new in a thread [and thus much more time consuming than the old system which was easier and much faster to scroll through],and would still love to see at least an option of toggling to a chronological view of the whole discussion.If it were possible,then it seems we'd have the best of both worlds,as I'm glad those who complained about frequent posters seem more appeased,so I think we still need the threading for their sake.

This list shows the top 10 posters only. The number of posts by non-regulars has dropped significantly. Anyone who has been around for a while can notice the change.

But... your figures above show a massive increase in the number of posts, not a decrease :p

On a chinese note, Sue, correct me if I'm wrong, but shouldn't that be 可笑极了 ?

That's a good memn mnenm mnemn ..... way of remembering ruidianren ! I think Rus means 'red', and referred to the compexion/hair colour of northern europeans as seen by those with darker complexions and black hair. The ancient romans used to describe the ancient germans as red-haired.

so that's why they're called

瑞典人[ruìdiǎnrén] in Chinese. Never could remember that ....

极可笑的!!! But don't believe it - the Germans are more than willing to take on one English term after another into the German language, so much so that we've nearly got "Denglish" now (Deutsch+Englisch). So the influence can't come from here

Yeah, but I think the Swedes ( Rus ) travelled east ( Russia )and south-east rather than west. The viking raids on the north of england and Ireland were mainly Danish and Norweigian ventures, I think. The settlement of northern england resulted in the Danelaw, so I guess that, if not exclusively danish, it was led by Danes. It didn't really make a lot of difference to the country, though, cos the Anglo-saxon and viking languages and culture were so similar.

I wonder what simonpetersson has to say about the invasion of Vikings into Yorkshire. Somehow only the Norwegians and the Danes are mentioned. I should think a proud Swede would want to be part of that - 对不对 ?

Christ ! There's some stuff in there which even your average Tyke couldn't fathom. 哎哟！连我也需要一个翻译。

不可思议的 - this I like :)

My Chinese teacher often uses 还可以 to mean really good rather than "not bad" which it literally suggests to us. But of course 非常好 or 不可思议的 seem better to us. It's got to be the best place in the world !! 在世界上 最 好的地方 ！

I found this while googling to try and find the phonetics of the Yorkshire dialect, only skimmed it but it seems interesting

http://www.yorkshiredialect.com/

.............. Back again ! Here it is. We all know how inefficient our english spelling system is; well, our heroes in Brussels have come up with something which will make things a whole lot easier:

The European Union commissioners have announced that agreement has been reached to adopt English as the preferred language for European communications, rather than German, which was the other possibility. As part of the negotiations, Her Majesty's Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a five-year phased plan for what will be known as Euro English (Euro for short).

In the first year, "s" will be used instead of the soft "c". Sertainly, sivil servants will resieve this news with joy. Also, the hard "c" will be replaced with "k." Not only will this klear up konfusion, but typewriters kan have one less letter.

There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year, when the troublesome "ph" will be replaced by "f". This will make words like "fotograf" 20 per sent shorter.

In the third year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible. Governments will enkourage the removal of double letters, which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling. Also, al wil agre that the horible mes of silent "e"s in the languag is disgrasful, and they would go.

By the fourth year, peopl wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing"th" by "z" and "W" by "V". During ze fifz year, ze unesesary "o" kan be dropd from vords kontaining "ou", and similar changes vud of kors; be aplid to ozer kombinations of leters.

By the fourth year, peopl wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing"th" by "z" and "W" by "V". During ze fifz year, ze unesesary "o" kan be dropd from vords kontaining "ou", and similar changes vud of kors; be aplid to ozer kombinations of leters.

After zis fifz yer, ve vil hav a reli sensibl riten styl. Zer vil b no mor trubls or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi tu understand ech ozer. Ze drem vil finali kum tru.

Seems to me that the German commissioners had more than a fair say in this :-)

Hi Sue, it sounds more like kallin than calling, doesn't it. Maybe we should sort out some sort of standardised pinyin-type system for Tyke-talk.

What do you mean ? - 还可以 doesn't really cut it for me....anything less than 非常好 simply won't do :)

That reminds me of something. Hang on, I'll be back in a mo .............

hellotherebrick: yeh, I did wonder how you wrote kalling to distinguish from calling, so kalling it is.

I just re-read sebire's comment: Yorkshire is not really THAT bad. Hope you mean 很不错 or 还可以 by that sebire ,otherwise you've got at least 2 Yorkshire poddies up against you!

trevorb: you're right about human diversity being wonderful. I think it's the mixture of the things that are common to all humans (I love watching kids the world over cos a lot of the things they do are the same everywhere) plus the diversity that makes ít so interesting.

Sorry mate.Ok,so:

cobber...means mate or friend...it's an even more specifically Aussie slang term than mate but like a lot of Aussie slang it's pretty old fashioned now and not used much by the younger generation and not much in cities.

betcha..bet you

neck o the woods...region

carry on like a pork chop...make a fuss [kimiik knew I didn't really mean this at all...he's very au fait with Aussie slang and I was just having a joke with him]

right o...ok

strewth ...comes from a contraction of "God's truth" ..and is more of an exclamation.

back o burke....refers to somewhere in the outback in Oz

blimey [or cor blimey]...UK slang meaning an exclamation of surprise

wot...what

fair suck of the sav ...fair go...come on...steady on...that is to say...hang on,that's not right..I can't have that [sav is short for saveloy I think...a type of sausage]...generally it thus means be fair.

pommie..of course means English

crikey...another exclamation of surprise.

Sorry for the brief slipup into 胡说folks.

Afterthought: we haven't lost thou, it's tha.

Nice thought, Trevorb :)

You've got some great accents down south, too - broad Devonshire and Cornish twangs are probably the origins of pirate talk..... I won't argue about Yorkshire, though - we still have the thee's, and thy's (thi), but we've lost the thou's. My fave dialect here is Geordie, my least fave is Brummie ( no offence meant to Brummies )

Maybe you could setup YorkshirePod it would probably help a lot of people in the UK as well!

Sometimes I look at the variation in speech on this comparatively small island of ours and wonder how this translates into somewhere as large and diverse as China! I guess that adorable Yorkshire twang is the equivalent of the Pirate speech of Beijing mandarin....

Of course in the south of England we have the standard youth accent, instead of adding something like the 儿 you just add "init" to the end of the sentence.

"You see what I is saying init!" :-)

Its a wonder that anyone understands anyone else at all really! You just gotta love human diversity.... :-)

Ey up Sue lass, ah thowt thi were a fraulein ! 'Appen we ave ter teach t'poddies it's not all dark satanic mills round 'ere. Friendliest county in England, too - nowt like yorkshire folk. Si Thi,

Albert Brick (Sn.)

PS that should 'ave bin kallin' an gunner learn

stop faffin round hellotherebrick and confusing t' poddies. tha's not going to learn much Chinese calling in Yorkshire, ister ?

ah, but changye 我们 的 老家 真么漂亮 !

http://www.yorkshire-dales.com/

Me too, but sometimes I oss missen. I went to school in the Holme Valley, so I know the lovely Summer Wine country well and recognise a lot of the locations in the series. What a great little series ! It got a bit silly towards the end, and lost it's atmosphere for me after Bill Owen died ( I think series 21 was his last ? )

Changye, it's not really that bad in Yorkshire! They are perfectly capable of being intelligible to the rest of the country when they want to be. You should try watching Last of the Summer Wine.

Faffing about isn't unique to Yorkshire, I wouldn't have thought. I faff around all the time.

Many thanks, that's very interesting. Thankfully, I have no plan to visit Yorkshire at the moment.

Yorkshire dialect, Changye. Probably more difficult because there are a lot of old norse words and pronunciations in the yorkshire dialect which didn't run through Chaucer to standard english.

off fer a lig i'bed - going to have a lay down

mash - brew some tea

faffin - messing about/wasting time

frame - get a move on

thissen - yourself

Anyroad, am of fer that lig nah.

+ Not backards at comin' forards (not backward at coming forward) - not shy

Your English (?) is much more difficult than that by Chaucer, hehe.

Baba, tha's not backards at comin' forards. I'd explain to Changye, but after Av ad a mash am off fer a lig i'bed. Stop faffin an frame thissen.

先生们，你们说的到底是哪里的语言？我一点都看不懂！

fair suck o the sav,that sounds Pommie to me.Crikey!

1st sheep,now you're breaking me back [strewth no, I don't venture into those woods mate...back o' burke 'd be more like it],blimey,wot next?

Ok, I will follow you with a cup of tea, a Bex and a good lie down. ;o)

http://www.anu.edu.au/ANDC/res/aus_words/aewords/aewords_cg.php

Montana ?

Ay Cobber,I've been around a while but a betcha still wouldn ave a clue which neck o the woods I hail from,so don't carry on like a pork chop,right o?

To be blunt with you, I didn't have any expectations when I first came here but I just have a different experience with some other forums in english.

When you follow this forum for few months, you know the native language of the Poddies involved in most of the discussions and the country where they live.

But, of course, I know nothing about you because you're NEW here (4 posts in the last 5 days).

kimiik

Surprisingly low, relative to what expectation? I guess I've never considered this because I've never placed an expectation on how many I should expect. Also, like chunjie2010, I'm wondering how one decides that someone is a native speaker outside China.

Chunjie2010 has a point. I always think the profile should show his/her "first language".

How do you know who is really a native english speaker and who really lives outside of China? The profile may be wrong. Question: Am I a native english speaker? Do I live in China?

Yeah, congrats chanelle!

please do chanelle...I'd love to hear every detail . :)..gongxi,gongxi :)

[dajia kuai dangxin]

Don't worry (as you like to say!), I would have made these comments sooner or later anyway.

Sue: Okay, I'll cut down on mentioning God's Own County from now on.

Sebire: Do you mind if we call you Tinkerbell ?? [ :-) ] We're not quite in the arctic circle here, but you do have to watch out for polar bears.

我爱Yorkshire! 其实我爱英国北方 (for holidays). 北方冬天太冷了，也太长/久了 (delete as appropriate!) I'm a soft southern fairy essentially, however I do love the long days in the summer.

There is no solution as yet...

okay, so we won't mention Y.......e again and put Sebire off. But the thread talk is Chinese to me to, I also just wish there were a solution cos I find it hard to find posts, especially when not having been in for a couple of days or more. Did I miss solution for this problem or is there none on offer?

Yeah, I thought that was a bit too obvious. You'll have to get a paper round and start saving up those pennies, cos it doesn't look like anyone 'in the know' has seen your plea for help. I think Chanelle is taking a break from CPod at the moment - I suppose it's also a bit too obvious to suggest PMing her, or maybe PMing someone on the CPod team. Maybe you could start your own Conversation to get a bit more publicity.

Edit: I just re-read the message about your problem - seems that there isn't a 'fix' after all.

Brick, it's attached to the computer. Bigger monitor not an option. Need a new one, but doubtless that'll probably be some cheapo netbook with an even smaller screen.

Sebire - thanks for the info. I don't much go in for blogs etc - the CPod community is the only virtual community I follow.

By the way, if monitor size is a problem, is getting a bigger monitor out of the question ?

Brick, if you wanted to investigate feed readers, maybe try using something like Google Reader, then you don't have to download anything. They support Atom and RSS feeds. I think RSS is more popular. Outlook 2007 also has some support for feeds. If you read lots of blogs and things, they can come in handy for notifying you when one has updated.

Yeah, you're right - just like Outlook. Something familiar-looking like that wouldn't scare off an old giffer like me ! Thanks for that, Sebire - I'd googled Atom reader, but found nothing like that display.

I think they reserve the Blue links for me ;-)

Chanelle, I've just forced my browser to use a specific font at a specific size (i.e. smaller, but with a minimum font size). It's a shame I have to implement it for all sites, rather than just CPod. If you use Firefox, I bet there's loads of plugins that will do it on a per site basis.

Aside: Why on earth are half the links in blue and half the links in red? Is this a new feature?

Ha, in many cases it's done by indenting. Have a look at this example of an Atom reader. Subject matter is slightly unpenetrable, but you see what I mean by looking a bit like Outlook. You can immediately see that one of the messages is new, and what it is in reply to.

How you would implement something similar in a web environment, I have no idea.

So you have a sort of 'subway route' diagram to guide you through the threads ? Sorry, talk about RSS and Atom readers is a bit beyond me; I've just got used to using an answerphone :)

Well, CPod Staff Contributions is its own thread, it's just that within that thread you can follow the sub-threads as they go off on one, be it Yorkshire or posting frequencies. You can see the entire structure of the thread - you will see this conversation as its own sub-thread, whereas Zhenlijiang talking about Pete would also be a separate branch of the tree with the root being Chanelle's comment (and the ultimate root, in this case, being the original post).

Before, when these kinds of forums were not on the web, you'd use special software that's rather similar to email to read these kinds of forums. You'd see a new post as a message title in bold, like you would in Outlook, and you could collapse and expand threads at every level. You could also change the title of the thread whilst still keeping the original structure if you were going really off-topic so everybody could see the conversation had now turned to "What is Threading" rather than "CPod staff Contributions".

I believe that in the Web age, Atom readers are basically re-inventing ancient technology for the web. So an Atom reader can do comment threading if the blog you're looking at supports it. I don't know a lot about it, and I believe that CPod just uses RSS? I suppose it's not much use to the average user though - you need to get the web forums right.

I'm not too sure I understand - am a bit thick when it comes to modern technology and forms of communication; you know what yorkies are like - still stuck at the butt-end of the Industrial Revolution. When you say 'conversation', I take it that you mean the entire content of eg. "CPod Staff Contributions" as a single conversation ( it appears as a 'conversation' on the page displaying Conversations ) which veers off into different threads.

Are you saying that on the page listing Conversations it would be better to have a sort of sub-menu, available at the click of a mouse, which displays the most recent additions to each thread within that conversation?

As for receiving a million emails about Yorkshire, by 'eck, you don't think I'm a bit too partisan, do you ? :-)

This is precisely the problem - saw all your replies about Yorkshire before, but completely missed this one.

True threading is where you see the entire logical tree for a conversation. The best ones are where you see message title and all the responses underneath. The new responses are highlighted, and if it goes off topic, the message title changes so people can just read the relevant bits.

This solution only shows one level of the tree, and as it's pretty much chronological after that. The whole message is displayed, so if you're scrolling through it's really difficult to pick out the relevant thread, and there is nothing to highlight new messages.

I could switch that email thing on, but I don't want a million emails about Yorkshire, thanks ;)

I was wondering where you'd got to. What is half-threading ?

Also, I still find it difficult to find posts and things, and the threading makes it difficult to read. True threading or no threading is fine, but half-threading is just difficult.

I'm still struggling with the font size. Still too big. Fine if you have a 22" monitor, but mine is 15" on max resolution. If I shrink the text, then the links are too small.

I know no story, and I'm sorry for the misleading remark. What I meant was that he was allowed to go--as in imo CPod should have done everything in their power to keep Pete on, and involved in the Community. I should have realized what the term "let go" means in such a context in English.

And just to be clear, this isn't a dig at Jason the current translator either. Again, what I miss is Pete's contribution to the Community.

This 'letting go of Pete'? Is there a story there that I am not aware of? I was under the impression he left of his own accord.

我也是。 And I somehow liked the pre-letting-go-of-Pete era better.

And I take back my remark that it's "pretty dead around here", with apologies.

It's only relatively slow to those of us who have been used to a more lively community and perhaps taken it pretty much for granted.

Actually, it seems to me that threading has resulted not in diversity, but in more comments from those who do comment anyway.

Nothing wrong with orderly. But let's be honest, it is pretty dead around here. Last Spring Festival it definitely wasn't like this. Sure, we all have lives, even all us frequent posters--top-10ers, dominators, whatever you want to call us--have periods when we just don't have the time to come here.

I do think there's been a shift over the last half-year. The CPod environment has undergone quite a few changes (and I'm not saying CPod ought not to grow and change) and the way users feel in the Community just can't be the same. I'll refrain from presuming to speak for others and just say I personally find many of the changes rather alienating--taken individually maybe not significant, but they've added up.

Tal - I can confirm that no one at ChinesePod is trying to dampen down the liveliness! Goodness, no. Threaded comments were introduced just to make it easier to follow a single thread/conversation, no dampening intended.

Now that we are all back from the Spring Festival break, I am sure you'll see more activity from our end. As for user contributions, we are actively planning new ways to improve the community functions in 2010, to help encourage lots more people to get involved in discussions here.

Hi tal

You're a smart guy. I completely forgot about the change. I agree, theoretically, the change would definitely reduce the number of comments here, although "orderly forums" might not be necessarily a bad thing, hehe.

Hi go_manly

Thanks for the reply. Actually, I also have the same observation. I hope that is not due to so-called "clique problem", hehe.

I have noticed the same thing. I think the top posters are commenting as much, if not more. But there is not much else.

I don't have the time to do another count now. But one thing I've noticed - when I check the conversation page first thing in the morning, it used to be that the entire first page contained conversations that happened while I was sleeping. Now its less than half the page, and the last conversation on the page typically occured about 17 hours earlier.

@go_manly,

哈哈，thanks for counting mate,. Someone has to be the watch dog reporter (internal auditor) on behalf of all poddies, newbies as well as long-timebies. My speculation why the frequency of postings from staff has lessened (not counting Pete):

They are too busy fixing the errors/glitches in the lessons materials. I note that all the reports of errors in the lessons materials which I've informed Cpod remain uncorrected.

Priority of answering questions goes first to guided poddies (as should be), then to newbies/ele (how many times have we been reminded that these are the important subscribers ), and if any energy left over, may go to the other boards.. Are long-time poddies too gun-shy to ask questions at the Intermediate level because they have experienced their questions went unanswered by staff (not other poddies)? I've seen several instances where a long-time poddie asked a question and got no answer (unless he/she persisted asking the questions repeatedly) It may be worth a count of percentage of unanswered questions above Ele level, or a survey.

See the pinyin appearing on staff's posts on Intermediate boards that were not there before? Would that have something to do with the reduced staff's postings? I wouldn't be surprised if a count of before John's announcement that pinyin at Intermediate level would be "heavenly", and after, would show marked decrease in staff's contributions.

Unfortunately, I didn't record particular questions from particular lessons. Finding them again would take me the same time as it would you guys.

Go_manly,

Thank you for your comments, they have all been noted. I would like to reassure you that there are a team of people here everyday who go through all the questions and make sure they are all answered - but we will certainly start going through the site more thoroughly from now on. We are always looking for ways to improve.

In order to address these issues, would you be able to point out to us exactly which questions haven't been answered, particularly in the newbie sections, so that we can respond to them asap.

Hi zhenlijiang

I hate to say this, but with limited time and manpower, I think counselors should concentrate on posting comments in recent lesson forums. There is no need to bring up old lessons, unless someone posts a question in their forums.

Counselors are human too. I suppose if they felt the comments they were making were eliciting no response, receiving no acknowledgement, that they might feel discouraged from posting. I think we all appreciate the comments they've posted, often bringing up old lessons to the top of the boards too, but that many of us haven't been able to reply to them much.

But yes, what we most want from our teachers is our questions answered. We want constant attention like you say, to the problems we're expressing, both through direct questions and otherwise.
I have a feeling both sides wish there was a little more interaction. I think we all want good communication.

Hi ousjia

I guess what poddies want is not "temporary surge in posting by counselors", but "constant posting", including answers, tips and advice, which doesn't necessarily mean "a lot of comments".

Thanks for that. BTW, I didn't just randomly decide to check up - I had noticed questions not being answered again.

Is there a new 'community advocate' who should be participating the way Helen was last year? Helen and Pete were a visible presence last year, and no-one seems to have taken over their roles. Lujiaojie has been the biggest contributor in lesson forums this year, but her contribution numbers don't go near matching Helen and Pete.

Perhaps a concern for you should be that, of those 143 posts, only 6 were made on the Newbie forums, and half of those were answering my questions.

Hi go_manly,

Thanks for bringing this subject up again. All counselors have been notified and will start posting and contributing more onto the site. Just to let you know, Helen Shen was the community advocate last year, however has now become a teacher for guided and executive students, therefore is unable to post as many comments on the boards as she used to.