Why there is no interaction from many members?

      From the stastics available , everyday about 500,000 members visit this site from 200 countries.But to to my great surprise I find only a few members have the interaction in all the forums.There are about 19 forums,with about 30 moderators.Only about 100 active members and some moderators are actively participateing.

Do you know Globalisation?what is the present status?

     There are innumeable probelms in international trade. After the Globalisation there are many changes are taking palce and going to take place within a year.We are observing: But this changes should also to be brought to the business community. Wherever there is doubt the members should raise their doubts for clarification.

       BEST SUGGESTION    for the members involvement    and 

      BEST SUGGESTION   for making awareness about  WTO/GATT 

will get MVP 150;

Moderator- I think it is more appropriate in the Global Trade Policies. I am transfering this there.

Replying to [curdrice]:

Following points would help for the good cause :

• More no. of contests and variety of prizes as offered by Alibaba
  
• Introduction of new forums (as per the results of grigo's survey)
  
• Invite creative posts and topics from the members
  
• More direct penetration of Admin in the forums
  
• More innovation in graphic user interface
  
• Adding new features like spell checker, language transition etc.
  
• Introduction of multimedia articles in forums
  
• Fast dispatch of response emails to user accounts
  
• Introduction of a tutorial forum with related articles
  
• Prominent advertising of forums on top of Alibaba's home page
  
• Weekly / Monthly news letter (as also suggested by Deepali)
  
  

Thanks for your time and attention to the matter.

Replying to [curdrice]:Suggestion about member involvement :

Don't forget, alibaba is a business (B2B) website, people who visit this website are businessmen who want to talk business with others businessmen.

- Gave up forum functionality.
- Give member ability to create his own discussion space with RSS facility (this enable users to be informed each time a specific member publish new post)
- This will need of course new pages design.
- More multimedia.

Quoting from [curdrice]:

Quoting from {Nabilbo}

             Even though it is a B2B website, there are some previliges for free memebrs. if alibaba provide the same facility to paid members., what is the difference between the two?

 

Replying to [curdrice]: You have posted two differnt questions. For members involvement, I agree with the suggestions given by Mr. Agarwal. Infact Resouces can send a mail once or twice in a week to all members stating the highest MVP gainer or say member of the week with some higlighted topics in order to create more awareness.

As far as WTO/GATT are concerned, who so ever is concern with the export/import must be having an idea about the same, any time required information can be taken for the respective sites
www.wto.org
www.gatt.org

Replying to [curdrice]:You fired a salvo of questions and offered only 150 MVPs, even call it BIG.

Those guys have already answered your questions, do not shoot like a shot gun, there are too many questions to go for small space of max 4000 words to answer.


Most members or visitors are here to buy or sell some product or service, and many of them do not want to participate in the forum, because it takes time and time means money.



Alibaba's success is not measured by the number of postings in the forum, it is the number of hits and the length of time they spent on the website. The forum is a part of the Customer Services provided by Alibaba for their members to get feedbacks and ask questions.




Street

Replying to [curdrice]:
You have asked 2 big questions actually, not one.

On the first question: As Street Mart has rightfully wrote, most of the members here focus on doing business. Only a few who want to learn, share, get to know some members of the community, have time to p *, give their egos a treat, want to source for ideas, etc. would click on Resources and join the forums. Just a while ago I met a Chinese lady manager in TM who just wanted to chat. I asked her why she is not using the forums more often and she wrote "what for? is it of any use?" Well I responded that it's a learning and sharing place and she can learn some tricks of the trade. So perhaps some awareness campaign is needed to reach out to some more members who might be able to benefit from the forums. And I think an FAQ (with a user friendly index) in each forum would lessen the repetitive same topics and questions and attract those with little time to spare. The new forums by popular vote (wonder how many voted?) might also enhance participation.

On the 2nd question: Awareness building efforts on globalization by governments and business/industry associations in partnership would help a lot. Alibaba's forums in a way attempt to address some of the related challenges faced by SMEs on this major issue, such as how to achieve competitiveness, better marketing planning, etc.

macs2005

Replying to [curdrice]:Dear Curdrice, Street Smart is right to say that many people are not inclined to participate for want of time.But I want to differ with him in saying that if Forums become more meaningful and substantive, more people would be inclined to use alibaba services and forums.
After all, forums have been added to offer a complete service package and not as appendage.It is indeed a business USP which other portals do not match, this being B2B forum.
To increase number of active members on the forums, it has to be more meaningful for business community.
1.Trade Forums should be increased to have larger groups interested from different trades.
2.Instead of member spotlight, PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT May Be More Useful for Every best answer for specified time
3.New launch forum should be introduced as incentive to members by ADMIN, who give substantive answers, but fail to get best answer selection.If no new product is launched , tha member may have option to use product Spotlight
4.WTO/GATT forums should be added where members can get there doubts cleared.
No doubt everything is there on www.wto.org and www.gatt.org , still we need experienced member to explain nitty grity involved.Law books have every law and medicine books have every medicine, but we do go to Lawyer and the Doctor.
I differ here with Brahm S Aggarwal, who has projected forums content management as prime . I believe that instead of content management, quality assurance and management are more important
5. Discourage topics which are non business related. This will reduce clutter which is sometimes repelling to serious business people..
6.Producing statistics from different websites may prove a point, but kills a discussion
7.Removal of posting may be intimated to contributing member and points deducted.No penal points needed. This will reduce clutter.
8.Too much of emphasis on MVPs is not required..
I know, my observations will not be liked by many moderators, but if they are going to act with vengeance, I may be inclined to feel futile attempt to put things in right perspective in forums here

Sixer

Replying to sixer:
Answer to point 8 which is directed to Moderator posting and "recomends reading" to his own only. I think you are referring to Business Culture and Street Smart.

Your accusation may have some bearing of truths as to your view point, if you are looking at the postings by Street Smart alone. However, please be informed that Moderators are not in any contests or selection as the BEST MODERATOR by the MVPs. Neither are we entitle to any of the prizes given by the Admin in Alibaba, we were given 10,000 MVPs each to motivate other members to participate. I find your statement not true, as there are other postings awarded 50 MVPs for Recomended Reading in the same forum. If you are writing good materials, open a new thread, a sincere moderator will award this RR, but most of your postings are answers to the opening posts of others.

In any case, moderators try to do our best according to the authority and limitations given by Alibaba, if you perceive any injustice, I would ask you to write to the Admin of Alibaba then to put it in the forum.

For the information of other readers, sixer was awarded 150MVP for Best Answer twice for two postings. This was given on basis of fair judgment by popular votes. If sixer is not too concerned about MVPs, why did he ask for the points in the survey post? Why did he raise the issue of moderator/s awarding MVPs to their own postings?

Sixer, if you are unhappy with the system or the behaviour of particular moderator/s go privately to chat with him/her first and if you cannot solve your unhappiness, then write to Alibaba board, before going public.



You also mention of moderators taking vengence for those who oppose them. I can agree with you because we are also humans and we have our feelings just like you. It is natural to respond negatively to troublesome people, I did admit that I have been emotional at times, but not now, and at this forum. I was hurt badly by other moderators and felt like taking revenge, but my concience restrains me and I responded in a gentleman way instead.

However there is one member who has threatened a moderator with death threat in the forum, and after several warnings, which he did not comply, I eliminated him by the MVP reduction to negative value, and he stopped posting.



I cannot say the same for every moderator, but as for me, please do not think that I am the devil's advocate. My advise to you as to all other members: treat moderators with respect, do not get arrogant, and not to step on their tails.



Street Smart

Replying to [curdrice]:Dear street smart,
I am sorry that my observation has offended you
My suggestions were not targeted to any perticular person but to a general scenario.Even if I have different views, you have not violated any norms or procedures, and you have exercised your right to highlight what you feel is worth reading.

And that is why you posted it anyway, Isn't it?

Regarding voting, I did register my disapproval in the beginning itself and I repeat, I would be happier if you go by your judgement in future. As long as necessary amendments are not made, this system should work .

I must also add here that I find your style of moderation as most appealing for your interaction with postings and your handling of different objections and suggestions, and I accept your suggestion of first using trade manager option, I sincerely feel that I overstated in my posting.I am amending such portions from my post

sixer

Replying to [curdrice]:
Globalization occur yes but up to the level of Multinationals.

About WTO, Businesse can get all te major information in their own countries as WTO agreement allows the Governments of the countries to make open agreements among themselves to ease their businesses and trade as recently signed by Pakitan-China.

So its important that Business Management should contact the government of that country where they want to work to see the new businesses rules nd regulation signed with different countries by that particular country.

Asad Zeeshan