Would it help if www.dottech.org had a countries counter aka world map plotter like Secunia has? | Talk it up | Forums

Ashraf said:

I could definetly put up a map. The only problem is perception. I don't know how people would like the map. They may think I am "tracking" them.

@Ashraf

Please put up a map. Here's why:-

1) Other websites have, & its appreciated.

2) You've tweaked your "forum stats" window I notice (wow!). You've also indicated a remark saying "Forum Time is America/Los_Angeles". You have more than enough space available to say – "Country Count is only a country count & not a citywise count". Your well worded statement would assuage any who feel vulnerable of getting city counted.

3)Else you can avoid "counting" altogether but only show country covered. This way you  can even omit a "count" altogether but only have a shading which shows a colour shade. You can at a later date evolve from "country shade" to "country count" in a phased manner. Sometimes change gets accepted when it is phased rather than immediate. Shaded means our beloved blogsite covers the country; unshaded means it doesn't! The shading could be calibrated for a continuum ranging from extensive membership penetration to zero membership penetration or it could just be mono shading across all nations irrespective of whether they have more or less members.

4) Given your amazing knowledge & entrepreneurial gifts you can decide if most surfers are "uber paranoid" or "mildly paranaoid" or "non paranoid".

• Uber paranoid "won't mind country shading",
• mildly paranoid "might mind city counting" aka "no. of members city by city",
• non paranoid (e.g. Karen, Pwnana & I) won't mind even if both  country count & city count is given.

4)Please please please avoid a vote.

A clever mouseover pop up & a well positioned statement would also assuage fears in those who do not already know that in the cyberworld IP address is always known.

Avoid a vote for another reason too. Sometimes voting "throws up" a good idea. At other times voting unfortunately "throws out" a good idea. We all know that – the coca cola concentrate, the telephone & so many business decisions in software industry got voted out & subsequently the voters regretted it permanently. It would be sad if someone snitches this idea & we lost it or worse still became copycats. This decision should only be entrepreneurial & not vote based. Voting would actually be harmful. So use ithe idea or drop the idea. Imagine if vested interests muticlick for dropping the idea or lots of new members temporarily enter simply in order to vote against this idea – because their own website does not have it Don't we all know that our world has its fair share of people who are envious of others' success? Therefore my friend choose either way, but don't vote. Voting would also give you sampling errors & also non sampling errors. Remember only 13% voter partipation was there on the "advanced forums issue"

5)Ashraf the country count/ country shade feature should be clever enough to see beyond a proxy. As you know some use proxies for good reasons while others do so for bad reasons. Your feature should see through the proxy as well. Btw this point is no breach of cyber privacy laws. As Pwnana & Karen rightly point out – IP address can always be spotted. Since you are doing what can always be done you are not doing anything wrong.

6)I made point no. 6 because of the deep affection I have for you & for this site. As dottech grows  security concerns would grow along with it. A country shader could incidentally alert you faster to "hack threats". We all know that there are "civic prone countries" & "hack prone countries" too. Therefore my suggestion would not only boost membership but also be an improvement on the security aspect too. I made this suggestion not just for innovation but also for sake of proactivity. Why do more customers throng retail stores which have large convex mirrors & statements like "this store is under electronic surveillance". Why does more of retail business come from those types of stores rather than from stores which do not have it? QED

7) There is one last point Ashraf why this idea would be a great help. When a site is safe it invariably attracts "more visitors" because these "more visitors" feel safer precisely because that site is safe. A map gives you that good feeling.A map generates followers – "trickle to flood" other things remaining equal.

For ethical reasons I am unable to name a good website which suffered perhaps due to poor proxy mgt. I can private mail you if you wish, in order to prove the veracity of my statement & not just my affection behind it.

Ramesh

@Ashraf

Chief, Firefox 3.5.8 tab used to indicate the name of the forum thread one happens to be in. If one opened more than one tab then each tab would indicate the name of its own thread. Now Firefox 3.5.8 is no longer doing that. Just thought I'd let you know.

Ramesh