End of Turcic.com?

[Zire]

Originally Posted by Alexander

It is actually an alias which I would have used for the upcoming site-update, so https://www.mobileread.com/forums/index.php etc works as well.


I like your suggestion. It also integrates well with what I've planned to change.

Hey Alexander or may I call you Alex?

How are you going to let the users who visit you everyday know that the site has moved? I would be very upset if one day I try www.turcic.com and come up with a 404 error.

[Alexander Turcic]

Originally Posted by zire71man

How are you going to let the users who visit you everyday know that the site has moved? I would be very upset if one day I try www.turcic.com and come up with a 404 error.

Alex is just fine :P Makes it easier right? Don't worry about turcic.com, it'll continue to function as an alias for a long time, no matter how I will rename and redo this site in near future

[cbeaman]

Well said, radleyp!

I don't get here very often (notice how late into the game I'm writing). This is the first time I've been here since the original announcement.

I, too, use the Channel Collection with iSilo -- at least once per day; I've appreciated the updates whenever I came across those that interest me. There's nowhere else that has anything similar to the content on Turcic. By its very nature, I guess that it serves more as a reference than a sense of community.

It would be very bad for the site go away. I'm glad that Alexander is talking about expanding the site to include more than just the PDA side of things rather than administering its last rites.

Thanks, Alexander! Thanks for your hard, long, frequent hours -- not to mention expen$e to keep the site up and running. I for one really appreciate it!

cb

[earthling]

Your morose post made me sad, Alex. This will sound repetitive, but your site is unique. iSilo is a great app and completely outclasses AvantGo (which doesn't even work in my case). Diversifying turcic? I dunno... turcic has a unique niche right now (but presumably not enough interacting readers).

This will sound pathetic, but one reason I haven't really posted (yes, I'm one of the silent 95%) is that I still haven't got round to learning to use the web collection in a regular, daily way in the way that I used to use AvantGo. That is, AvantGo is easier to use, even if it has stopped working in my case.

Still, if you've already decided on diversifying Turcic, perhaps it will get even more interesting. I just hope the iSilo community support/interaction also continues.

By the way, I like your redesign, though the earlier design was cool, too.

[Zire]

Originally Posted by Alexander

Alex is just fine :P Makes it easier right? Don't worry about turcic.com, it'll continue to function as an alias for a long time, no matter how I will rename and redo this site in near future

Alex,

You are the best. Thanks so much for clearing up the comic page for us!

[Zire]

Originally Posted by earthling

This will sound pathetic, but one reason I haven't really posted (yes, I'm one of the silent 95%) is that I still haven't got round to learning to use the web collection in a regular, daily way in the way that I used to use AvantGo. That is, AvantGo is easier to use, even if it has stopped working in my case.

Hey,

From your clues it seems as if you are using a mac. Avantgo started to not work for me when I upgraded the palm desktop to version 4.0. I hear that there is a new way to make avantgo work by using the missing sync it only works with os x. But you have to weigh the price and the features. The Missing Sync for Internet Sharing - ESD - $19.95 while A single user license for iSilo™ costs $19.99. When I went to the website for The Missing Sync there is a complicated setup process for the application while isilo is pretty straight forward. Download isilo, download isilox and run isilox to convert document. It can also be scheduled so that if you know that you hotsync late in the day you can have isilox run during the day to get your pages and when you hotsync it will be there for you. I highly recommend isilo and just stopped using avantgo when I couldn't sync anymore. It also made my system lag when I did sync and I like that if I don't feel like reading the news and such I just don't run isilox. Please let me know if the problem you have is what I'm describing or if I just typed this all for nothing. I guess just a way for me to vent.

I'm at this thread/forum today as a direct consequence of a PDA247 posting. I'll confess: I'm ashamed of myself, because once I grabbed the uber-listing for iSiloX months ago, I didn't return long enough to realize that forums existed here. Nor did I take the time to extend my appreciation. I assure you, these are my failings, in no way reflecting your work.

Let me state now emphatically: your gift to the PDA community, in terms of:

-- the iSiloX bundle-- which caused/allowed many of us to abandon AvantGo completely;
-- the continued loving care evident in your constant feeding of the site;
-- & your overall selfless generosity

are all key to enriching the virtual community. Despite the human tendency to take without comment, for which I sincerely apologize, we are deeply appreciative.

Today especially, you've made me a better me, because you coerced a re-examination internally-- what I think I'm "about" versus my behavior. I'm conscious now, and so will strive to act accordingly in the future. Whatever that future may bring, absolutely absorb one thing to the core of your being: the world is truly a circle, my friend. What you put out, comes back, ten-fold and then some. This law of nature is as real as gravity. So, I know your future holds good things, sufficient to overcome the inevitable bumps along the way.

That said, let me now be on my way, with a bottle of Top Job, so I can clean up my little act!

:-)

Hi there,

I just want to say that I'm one of the nameless people you'd never hear from that loves your site. I've been downloading your lists for years now. Please know that it is appreciated.

Thanks

Hi Zire71man!

Aha! So AvantGo doesn't sync for other users too! Nope, I don't use a mac; I use Windows XP. AvantGo synced the first time right after installation, and then just stopped syncing. The same thing happened when I tried AvantGo earlier, with Windows 98; it only synced a few times.

However, I still haven't learnt how to use iSilo to sync a channel collection on a daily basis. I mean, AvantGo was as easy as just pressing HotSync once.

Originally Posted by zire71man

Hey,

From your clues it seems as if you are using a mac. Avantgo started to not work for me when I upgraded the palm desktop to version 4.0. I hear that there is a new way to make avantgo work by using the missing sync it only works with os x. But you have to weigh the price and the features. The Missing Sync for Internet Sharing - ESD - $19.95 while A single user license for iSilo™ costs $19.99. When I went to the website for The Missing Sync there is a complicated setup process for the application while isilo is pretty straight forward. Download isilo, download isilox and run isilox to convert document. It can also be scheduled so that if you know that you hotsync late in the day you can have isilox run during the day to get your pages and when you hotsync it will be there for you. I highly recommend isilo and just stopped using avantgo when I couldn't sync anymore. It also made my system lag when I did sync and I like that if I don't feel like reading the news and such I just don't run isilox. Please let me know if the problem you have is what I'm describing or if I just typed this all for nothing. I guess just a way for me to vent.

[Zire]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Hi Zire71man!

Aha! So AvantGo doesn't sync for other users too! Nope, I don't use a mac; I use Windows XP. AvantGo synced the first time right after installation, and then just stopped syncing. The same thing happened when I tried AvantGo earlier, with Windows 98; it only synced a few times.

However, I still haven't learnt how to use iSilo to sync a channel collection on a daily basis. I mean, AvantGo was as easy as just pressing HotSync once.

Hey,

Hmmm...windows xp. I had a problem with avantgo not working for me either at my job. What fixed it was ghosting the machine onto the network and reinstalling everything onto a clean system. Maybe upgrading avantgo would help. I heard that uninstalling and reinstalling palm desktop helps. You may also have a conduit that is incompatible with avantgo.

Anyway isilo for the price is much better then having to worry about avantgo. Avantgo to my knowledge is not hi res, doesn't have custumizable fonts, customizable text size (web pages look great on the zire 71), image compression to how big or how little you want the image including length and width (this helps with sites that have alot of images), the list goes on and on and on... :-)

Originally Posted by Alexander

It definitely does! I am not going to remove turcic.com, but I will try to move the focus to something more like a general computer news portal. In other words, nothing old will be removed, only new things will be added. I believe that content is the most important aspect of a web site, so let's try to increase user activity by creating new content.

Hi! Looking in the net for tips about another @#$%#@% MS "addition" (totally un-wanted): wisptis.exe, I found your site. Com'on! it's pretty nice and the info is really usefull (and I haven't a PDA!). Please, create new (and more) content for the entire PC (and non-PC) world, you're very welcome!!!

Hey there,

I'm afraid I'm late on the scene, but I must tell you I value your site very much. This personal insight may not be of much value, but I bought my PDA to help me (via the T:C wireless connection) to help me stay in touch and on topic with my University studies. Long story short: The University decided to cancel it's plans for a wireless communityfor another year.

This would have normally made my purchase almost useless, but your site has added an excellent amount of knowledge to keep me in contact with the rest of the world. Granted, I'm a mediaphile, but, honestly, the amount of _mobile_ knowledge you have facilitated has been enabling.

In short, please keep up the good work. I am unsure as to what problems other users may be having, but I know that your format has undeniably helped me.

Woody

[TadW]

I believe I speak for everyone that we like this site and want it to flourish also in future.

From what I conclude, the main problem is that Alex has already covered so much on PDA & mobile content that there is not so much left for us to say. To have more fervent discussions again, he should expand the focus of his forum.

I think Alex was looking for ideas how to expand the forum.

My first ideas:

Step 1.

Currently we have the following forum layout:

- Mobile Web Channels
---iSilo Web Channel Collection 
---MobiPocket eNews 
---HandStory Clips 
---New Links
---Links Discussion 

- E-Books
---Book Links 
---Book Reader Software 
---Book Review 

- Mobile Content Viewers
---iSilo/iSiloX 
---MobiPocket 
---HandStory 
---Plucker 
---Avantgo 

- Mobile Hardware/Software
---General Palm Discussion 
---General PPC Discussion 
---Emerging Technologies 

- Community
---Announcements
---Suggestions/Feedback 
---Costa Del Sol

One thing we could do is create one new root section called e.g. 'Mobile PDA', and restructure the forum:

- Mobile PDA
---Web Channels (with its own subsections)
---Content Viewers (with its own subsections)
---Hardware/Software (with its own subsections)

- E-Books
---Book Links 
---Book Reader Software 
---Book Review 

- Community
---Announcements
---Suggestions/Feedback 
---Costa Del Sol

Now our root forum has only three sections, nothing of the old content has been removed, still with plenty of space for something new.

Step 2.
Take a look at Costa Del Sol and see if there are any interesting topics we can use to create new forum sections.

How about this new section:

- Sapid Computer News
---Scene
---Reviews

Just one idea. "Scene" could imply anything related to computer-scene such as security, web development, ...

I must sleep over that to come up with more!

Tad

[madmaxmedia]

Hi Alex,

First of all, whatever your decision is I want to thank you for all that you've done. I don't browse or post in the site as often as I'd like, but the Web Collection list is truly great and the basis for my scheduled iSilo conversions.

A couple of observations-

1. Although I understand your motive behind requiring participation, etc. I think it is the wrong way of trying to solve the 'problem'. I don't think there's an actual problem per se, but I do understand that if more users contributed the mobile URL's and settings they used, the better the site would be. But forcing people to contribute is the wrong way, there are ways of encouraging it.

2. That being the case, I think you may want to rethink how the forums are organized. Right now they are organized 'functionally', based on platform or technical divisions.

I think if you want to turn the site into a true resource for mobile content, you need to change this and organize by content. Different sections for 'News', 'Sports', 'Technology', etc. just like how the Web Collection list is organized. Different programs (iSilo, Handstory, mobile browsers) will have different settings, but that is not as important as the type of content IMO. If a Handstory user posts a URL to a great mobile site, knowing the URL is 90% of it- I can figure out the best iSilo settings if I need to (the most important 2 factors being link depth, and whether including images will make the file too big). Also, now that I have internet on my Sony PDA even a URL is enough.

Adding user reviews would be great too, even if it's as simple as encouraging people to rate threads. Any feedback is better than none, and I think the simpler the set up the better.

In addition to the content sections, you would of course have technical sections/info, where people could learn how to best use whatever program they're using.

There are plenty of sites with mobile URL's for mobile web browsing, but only a couple of good ones. And none of the others have any information on web clipping. But to me it's all the same, the most important thing is who has the best collection of URL's to check (again, I can do the rest myself if needed.) The good thing about them is that they're organized by content, so I can easily browse through and look for whatever I'm interested in.

Right now you have the best of both worlds- the most comprehensive list of URL's, and information on clipping the sites too. So you only have to find the best way of leveraging these assets. Right now the only disadvantage I see is that it's not organized in a way that prioritizes content. The Web Collection list is organized this way, and I think this is why it's so popular.

3. I like the idea of a different URL like mobileread.com. Just as important, is there or will there be a mobile-optimized version of the site? That would be really useful too (whether someone accesses it wirelessly, or clips it).

Thanks, Steve

[gvtexas]

Originally Posted by TadW

- Sapid Computer News

Sapid? What a tasty word...

Nice suggestions. Reorganizing the site can make sense, but I wonder what percentage of folks here actual go to the top forum page where the sections show, and how many just click on the "new posts" button when they visit?

You can't be all things to all people, and focused sites tend to live longer. Alex's plan to expand is great, so long as the structure allows those who choose to just browse in one area that luxury.

Good ideas Tad...and I'm just funnin' ya about the word choice...