I'm just throwing out an idea after considering suggestions from few of our posters. Through this thread I would like to get your input on the feasibility of Blogs for any registered sajha user.

At this point I am not sure if it will be implemented but I would like to get all your inputs in order to decide on it.

I'm envisioning something like follows:

- Accessible through http://blogs.sajha.com or through Sajha.com top menu which reads "BLOGS" | REGISTER | LOGIN | CHAT

- Main homepage for blogs would show let's say 150 words each of the last 15 blogs which can be clicked through. On the side a list of last 20 users who have posted their blogs so that one can click to see the blogs for that user directly

- Clicking on the username of any user on sajha kurakani also would give an option to view the user's blogs.

- Ability for users to edit their blogs. (not sure if this would decrease the spur of the moment feeling - maybe allow it to be edited upto few hours? .. up for suggestions..)

Suggestions and comments welcome...

sajha blogs wouldn't be a bad idea at all .. especially since the current forum is turning out to become somewhat like a blog. If sajha regulars just have a blog of their own, it would be much easier to follow than having them spring up random discussions.

btw, what do you think of having rss feeds for the discussion messages in sajha ? or will that hamper the advertisments on the site ? or maybe we can have one for the blogs .. just a thought.

cheers,
nepalikochoro

I think it is a good idea to jump to the blogging bandwagon.

san, you keep talking about this "blog" but don't define it. what is this "blog"? if "blog" is abbreviation for "bandar log", then i say sajha is already overrunning with "blog". kinda late to jump on THAT trend, i reckon.

Liked the idea of Sajha Blogs. I have a question to San, can say slightly related to this kind of idea. It's about Sajha Archive.

San, you have not removed Sajha's old archives permanently, have you ?

That will be unfortunate. Because what is a website without the archive, no ?

I know archive occupies a large space and people do not visit it as frequently. However, the purpose of the archive is less for frequenting and more for a sense of security that you can visit and retrieve information of your interest any time.

Personally, I can not imagine Sajha without archive. I feel wasted if it is to be as they say 'hiDdai chha, paailaa meTtaichha'. (हिड्दै छ, पाईला मेट्दै छ )

Same goes with the Blogs. Will they be permanently archived or not ?

I know it's a huge commitment. But if Sajha is to remain one of the most popular sites, then it is a must. Mero bicharma.

San, San my dear San! I have not read the whole thing you have posted but somehow I got the gist - call it telepathy. So, tell me. I don't have to design and what not but still post my stuff in your page right??? Can I delete the comments that are more of the nature of attacking dogs (you know like Bathroommugs and tallu oops I mean anepalikt)than a constructive critism? When can I do it? When When when?????

God! I cannot waaaeet!

Alli kher ma Paramendra ji ko URL dekha parnechha. Paramendra ji does not
comment right in this thread, he comments somewhere and tells us to go
over there.... hahahha... I am not going to click his URL links. For me
Sajha.com is great and if you want me to read your stuffs, comments
here....

If you go there at Paramendra ji's blog pages otherthan Sajha.com,
and add something here in Sajha.com threads, then, later if Paramendra
ji overwrites with new modified comments, in that case the person who
comments on Paramendra ji's original content at his blog site, may turn
out to be irrelevant and sometime it might be misleading. So, when paramendra
ji or others post here their URL, either they should post the contents too
or people should not comment based on the comments based somewhere
else. ...........

If Paramendra ji or someone else has chance to modify the conents,
then others should also have the similar chances and opportunities.
To provide such opportunities, Sajha.com's blog might be a good idea.
"might" because I am not sure to what extent such blogs.sajha.com
will allow us to modify the contents of past postings .... or they are
just collection of URLS of our past postings......

GP
Convert Instantly the Preeti Font based Nepali to Unicode Nepali.
- http://www.hahoo.net/

Two things:

(1) There is no Sajha without its archives.

(2) If Sajha does not adopt blogs, it is going to become less relevant. It will be only a matter of time. But if it adopts blogs, it will keep its number one position. Adding blogs and links to blogs and RSS feeds from existing top blogs will further enhance traffic to Sajha, because then it is that one place you can go to to access all these disparate individuals and their more detailed writings not possible at Sajha Kurakani.

I am not sure if San means to start from scratch here. If he wants to all the glory to him, but personally I am for using existing options like Blogger. I highly recommend Blogger.

- http://www.blogger.com

In short, San, please feature my blog on Sajha's front page. I'd prefer a RSS feed that highlights my newest entry automatically. But I will settle for a link.

- http://demrepubnepal.blogspot.com/

The cool part. My blog also has audio, and video components. We are going multi-media, yo!

Prolific writers like NK and Nepe should have been blogging since 2002!

Ashu needs about 8 different blogs. To keep it tidy.

I don't see a clash between Sajha and blogs: they complement each other. Together they make it all a seamless experience.

San,

Blogosphere is the Net's present frontier.
Sajha would be foolish not to embrace this new method of communication.

As a regular visitor here, I'd say: "Let's do it."

If blogging on Sajha doesn't work out for some reason, well, you can always drop it,
and go for something else. But we'll never know until we try to find out what works and what doesn't.

After all, let's not forget that constant experimentation and continuous changes since 2000 have made Sajha what it is today.

Meantime, here's a great article on blogging: "Confessions of a Scholar-Blogger"

- http://magazine.uchicago.edu/0502/features/blogger.shtml

oohi
ashu

I think this is a great idea. Blog away!

There can't be two opinions regarding the addition of blogging features to sajha but I agree with paramendra regarding the way it should be integrated with sajha.

Reinventing the wheel is just a waste of time. Each user has his own preferences regarding the designs, functionalities offered by a blogging site and there already exists a lot of sites answering to various needs of bloggers.

So, IMO, sajha should rely on the RSS feeds of external blog sites ( of Sajha users ) and present its blog portal in a way which is convenient for other sajha users to browse.
( A good example is google personal page (http://www.google.com/ig) which creates a convenient personalized page for its users by getting info. out of the RSS feeds of popular web portals and those registered by the user)

Nepe,
Previously I was using two separate types of database for the archives and current data because of database upgrades. This was causing server crashes as you might have noticed couple of months back. That is why I had to disable the archives. I am thinking of working on this issue soon to bring the archives back.

NK,
You bring a valid point - i.e. letting the bloggers be able to edit/delete any feedback they receive.

Paramendra,
I'm thinking of letting users blog right here on sajha since they would not have to log into another system to blog. Current users should probably be able to link in their feeds somehow - I have yet to figure out the details.
Regarding a link to your blog on the sajha homepage, there hasn't been any one user's personal site/blog linked on the first page because I'd like for sajha kurakani to be the medium for one to express their opinions. I prefer to not highlight one individual user's opinions on sajha home page.

Ashu,
I'm all for the experimentation on blogging. It will be interesting to see how it turns out. What would be interesting to see is how individual bloggers will be able to attract visitors to read their blogs. Most likely the goodwill generated through Kurakani postings will pay off...

Arch119,
If we were to link to other blog sites then all we need is a link. But it would mean multiple logins as well as we can't assume that most sajha users are familiar with Blogging and RSS feeds.

Thanks for all the comments. Please keep them flowing...

>>San dai,
Thanks for the reply.
One more issue that has to be resolved : As you know, there has been a huge surge in the number of professional bloggers (those who receive a good cheque from google every month because of the number of accesses they receive) lately.
I know of a few sajha users who, if start blogging, will certainly draw a huge traffic to their blogs because of their outstanding writing skills. In that case, will you allow them to place google ads in their respective blogs ?

san, ok, i'll be serious now, seeing the clear and present groupthink going on about sajha blogs. i think it's a really bad idea. blogs tend to be treated as a personal newspaper of an individual's own private "-stan", in which the blog site "owner" (and it's laughable to think YOU own sajha but "i" own the blog) is the resident warlord who can censor what is said and who is allowed to speak. i fail to see how it enhances sajha's stated goal of bringing people together.

rather, i predict it will further the clique- and personality-driven facets of sajha, which lead to yet greater encapsulated cultural marginality. in other words, it's like giving each slog (sajha blog) a personal, prepaid cellphone and saying, "now, drive down the road as you see fit". and we all know what the studies show about excessive cellular usage does...especially when in the hands of the "driver."

certainly, some folks, even avowed "old-timers", may wish to insulate themselves from others' criticism. we see it all the time in here. people want to dish it out but simply cannot take as good as they give. we often don't like what we see when others hold up a mirror in our face. those people might be your friends, and you may wish to enable that, but it is hardly healthy.

therefore, i suggest that you consider remaking sajha ITSELF into a blog site, not a collection of individual members' blogs. if people want to start their own, independent blogs and then link to sajha and vice versa, so be it. but i feel that your proposal and all the WAH! WAH! groupthinking in response needs to be considered carefully in advance, rather than taking some kind of "experimental" approach with the assumption that it can always be dropped with zero consequences if it doesn't work. i guess what i'm trying to say is that i feel this proposal violates the social contract currently at sajha and there's a better way to evolve into a blog site. finally, try this exercise: diagram the current sajha as an organizational chart, and then do the same for both your and my suggestions. analyze, then decide. good luck, and keep it simple!

How many people would actually blog here? What if you recreate this wheel and find out only a handful of people blog. Would be a big waste of your time. Try to just let users have links to their blogs and let them be able to update their links with the latest dates of thier blogs in the other site.

Sajhakoraja brings up some interesting points which need to be considered seriously.

Then again, blogging is such a new territory that there are no right answers in advance.

And so, as a visitor, my attitude is:

Let's experiment;
let's see what works and what doesn't,
let's then drop the stuff that does not work, and keep the stuff that works,

while

seeking constant and continuous feedbacks from all, and see how things evolve
from there on.

BTW, here's a blog that has this podcast of a conversation with a Nobel Prize winning economiist and an influential Judge (i.e. Becker and Posner) as to why these two super-busy choose to spend their time blogging together.

- http://radioeconomics.com/2005/07/interview-gary-s-becker-and-richard.html

oohi
ashu

PLEASE READ

BTW, here's a blog that has this podcast of a conversation with a Nobel Prize winning economiist and an influential Judge (i.e. Becker and Posner) as to why these two super-busy choose to spend their time blogging together

AS

BTW, here's a blog that has this podcast of a conversation with a Nobel Prize winning economiist and an influential Judge (i.e. Becker and Posner) as to why these two super-busy people choose to spend their time blogging together for GENERAL readers

Mirror mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?

If someone merely holding up a mirror is called an "attack dog" and their name "oh so conveniently" misspoken to be ever ever so unflattering, you gotta wonder what was reflected in that mirror in the first place. :)

And, hey, why do we need an interactive forum where we have to, even if its in the most insignificant way, be accountable for what we say and how we act? A blog may be just the thing for people who don't want to deal with the riff raff, no? Not that there is one way to how a blog ought to operate, but noting some folk's reaction to being called on for showing where the sun don't shine, I say why bother with delete and edit? Turn off the comments feature altogether. Better still have a registration and log in system, so that those you don't want to can't read your golden words.