User Comments - bababardwan

Posted on: Giving up a Seat on the Bus

I'm very glad to see you write this bodawei and thanks again for your China insights.I completely agree about giving up seats for little kiddies.The messages on the buses here used to say that kids had to stand for adults as they had a discounted ticket and while I never minded doing this when I was a kid I can't imagine making a kid stand up for me or accept an offered seat,and I would definitely give my kids a seat over myself.As you say they are at higher risk of injury,and also little ones tire more easily.I have to wonder at adults who would have it otherwise unless they're old,frail or somehow disabled.

Posted on: Giving up a Seat on the Bus

这些小皇帝是大概几岁呢？

Posted on: New Dashboard

kdogg36,

I agree..Zoey's a wonderful teacher...patient++,kind,generous,accomodating,great to chat with and a fabulous sense of humour [thanks Zoey for putting up with my sense of humour and being so patient and supportive].Great to hear Zoey on this N&F.Jiayou Zoey !!

Posted on: Relativity

Folk interested in this lesson may also be interested in the Big Bang Theory:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pA9LVW__ufs&feature=PlayList&p=0B1A561A56BB9C3E&playnext_from=PL&index=0&playnext=1

Posted on: Blog Posts, API's, Announcements and Gloria!

Mate I also think Monopoly is well past it's use by date. A lot of us tend to call it "Monotony".

Posted on: Blog Posts, API's, Announcements and Gloria!

RJ,

I wasn't doubting your 50 mate...I just hadn't realised it was quite that many. I understand the problem others describe,but regardless of the number,it doesn't change my comments above,though I certainly respect the opinions of the vast majority who will disagree.Just my 2 fen...well ok...it's ended up being more than 2 fen,hehe. :)

Posted on: Blog Posts, API's, Announcements and Gloria!

yeah,from poddies viewpoint it is an old and recurring problem. The messages are all pretty much the same,and many of them have the same habit of posting the same message all over the place [I spotted about 10 or so on the weekend..I hadn't spotted RJ's 50...one can only guess what they were thinking...my guess is not realising how the site works they thought they were reaching a wider audience]...so we tend to view them as the same...almost as one entity...ok,we know they are different...but it's a bit of ...here we go again. But from their point of view it's all new to them...their first time here and I really think they don't know better [and they don't know about similar previous transgressors or the messages they were given].It's their first transgression of a law they didn't know existed.Following on from zhen's suggestion about policy,we know from experience that if there is a wordy policy in fine print that people oft tend not to read that.Thus I'd have a big simple message like...."Looking for an English language partner? Click here" ...and then the link could have all the info about policy,and where to go on the site for English language partners and then have the sign up details. Otherwise,unless something changes we're just gonna continue to have fresh faces making the same mistakes and then losing face and maybe leave the site with a bad taste in their mouths which seems a shame if they came with good intentions. So to me I don't think it's bad there are folk looking for language exchange, it's more about how to manage them right from the start. Good luck CPod. I hope this feedback is taken in the friendly and helpful light that it's meant to be and not as criticism. I realise your main objective will obviously be to attract new paying customers and get folk to sign up for a trial and make that process as simple and attractive as possible. Anyhow, it's just a thought. Jiayou. :)

Posted on: Blog Posts, API's, Announcements and Gloria!

zhen,

I think we mostly agree here.If it's a very old thread then one is not going to bother scrolling through the whole thread in most likelihood [which is a shame I agree if something has been buried]. Of course this threading is relatively new so by and large most of the older threads aren't going to have any subthreads and the latest comments are going to be at the bottom. But sure there are exceptions. But the same thing can happen whether it was spammers burying it or not,thus my view it's mostly a threading issue. Regardless of the intentions of the spammers [and one's reaction to them],I can't see that it won't continue without something being done to the structure of the site...to how they first engage with the site [thus my suggestion of heading it off at the trial sign in stage....it can still be a welcoming type message...but guiding them in the right direction from the very get go]. I can't help but feel that it's mostly done with good intentions,unwitting that they are upsetting some folk. Even if they are being sent PM's,one has to presume they are checking their emails regularly [ok, one might think that with so many messages...seemingly so keen that they would be checking regularly...but they could be giving it a day or two before they check and realise].Their persistence may reflect that they have not checked their emails yet rather than blatantly thumbing their noses at CPod rules.

Posted on: Blog Posts, API's, Announcements and Gloria!

As for board games,I have no idea what's popular in China,but with China emerging as an economic superpower I could see the appeal of monopoly. I know symbols aren't allowed in pictionary,but this has also made me think of how many Hanzi are pictograms..a potential gray zone,esp for the uninitiated,hehe.

Posted on: Blog Posts, API's, Announcements and Gloria!

Yeah,I think you are right to a large degree zhen. However,I think if it's a comment on a lesson from say 2007 and you look and see that the last comment before the spamming comment was several months ago,then the chances that someone has buried a new comment earlier on I think are pretty low....but yeah,not nil.Because the chances are so low I think most of us are not going to bother sorting through a long list of old comments on the chance there's something new there.I think most revived old threads add a new comment at the end rather than a buried subthread, but there wil be exceptions no doubt.