Malgudi Express: From the pages of RK Narayan to the railway tracks of Mysore. - Vageesh

Several new features have been introduced recently to the Forum, and we are forever striving to make Member experience here more productive and satisfying. With the recent introduction and success of the new FM System, it has been observed that small groups of highly involved and enthusiastic members are far more effective than large groups of dormant members. One way to picturise this is that if there is a party in a large hall where thousands of people are gathered, but except for 5 of the attendees, the rest are totally silent, then it is deemed a failed party of ghosts. The 5 who are actually interested and enthusiastic will soon get demoralized and leave. The party is deemed a total failure. On the other hand, if the same party is held in a small room, and ONLY the 5 people are attending, and all of them are animatedly discussing and...
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talking, then the party is a huge success, with many cherished memories for 100% of the attendees (even though only 5 are actually attending). The people are the same - just the size of the room and the number of attendees has changed. The 1st party is a failure and the 2nd party is a grand success. Another reason for the 1st party failing is a human sociological phenomenon called
Bystander Apathy, which is an innate part of human psychology. Diffusion of responsibility leads to erosion of motivation and a feeling of disassociation, resulting in apathy.
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Accordingly, we shall soon have a "Lurking Clause" and "Dormancy Clause" for all our Groups/Monitors/RF Clubs. This means that if a person is a member of a Group, he must be active. We cannot have a situation where a member in a group of hundreds is asking a question or greeting other members, and he gets TOTAL SILENCE with zero responses. If that group had only 1 person asking questions, then the questioner will understand - there is no one to answer!!! But if there are hundreds of people and no one answers, the situation is not acceptable.
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Monitor-ships, RF Club membership, etc. are NOT medals to be collected, and then do nothing after joining. Members are always free to come and go from the site. But if they are explicitly choosing to be part of a group, then they must be actually interested in the Activities of the group, and actually desire to do something. A group is not to just join and thereafter be quiet and observe the proceedings silently.
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The "Lurking Clause" (and the related Dormancy Clause) will soon be strongly enforced, and we shall hereafter be trimming the Groups to only have involved and enthusiastic members. This is expected to lead to more productivity and satisfaction for the participating members.
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Lastly, it is understood that IRI is supposed to be a really low priority distraction from members' actual real life activities, which are supposed to be much higher priority - profession, school, exams, home life, business, etc. Members are supposed to not spend more than a few minutes in IRI. So yes, there are "phases" when people are in IRI almost daily (when they have free time), and logout for months due to life events like marriage, new job, etc. This is FINE. Your reputation and history will forever be preserved on the site. But you CANNOT be an absentee member of a group for months while you are away or LURK when are actually online. You must participate. When you come back to IRI after a long hiatus, you are most welcome to join back into any Groups and participate.
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Once again, the ultimate goal of the "Lurking Clause" and the "Dormancy Clause" is to make members' time on the site more productive and satisfying.
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Thanks.