Forum Of Note: Conflict Management

It's been a while since I've done this, although a lot of people have sent in great suggestions! (keep it up)

Today's forum of note is Conflict management, which is run by Ehteshamul Haque and moderated by Sujeet, Pain is my fuel, and Hanspeter.

What made this forum really stick out to me was the fact that it was not some "cheap advice" forum operating on theory, but rather real solutions for the real world.

Some interesting conversations include:

• Resolving conflict between two different bosses


• Getting work done at work (for all you procrastinators)


• Surviving the politics of rival departments (I've been there before)


• And last, how to deal with those "Mr. Know-It-All's"

For those of you fortunate enough to work at a company where its "every person for him/herself," then this forum is definitely for you.

Do you have a forum you think I should cover? Let me know by shooting me an email.

Note: Will add this forum underneath Forums of Note in the sidebar.

If You Were An Orkut Engineer For A Day...

(Warning: Another very long post, but there is a cool video at the end which every human, geek and Googler should enjoy)

Thanks to Death Eater I was able to partake of an Orkut survey (not to be confused with the user feedback survey) asking users to rate Orkut overall, suggest new features, rate Orkut against competitors (MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.) and talk about what you enjoyed most about using Orkut.

Although I listed a bunch of features where Google could improve on (as well as highlighting some of their major strengths) I was wondering what three major features would I add to Orkut (aside from RSS feeds and Picasa Albums) if I was a Google engineer for a day?

_____________________________________________

Google Calendar: After my palm died (which is another story for another time) I suddenly found my life to be slightly chaotic without a way to quickly organize those ever important details (like meetings, reminders, etc.).

Although my cell phone has been keeping me on time (and on task) I've been slowly transferring my schedule onto Google Calendar which allows my friends, family and manager see how open (or cluttered) my time is throughout the week.

I think adding Google Calendar would be very helpful, especially for businesses using Orkut to network each other, not to mention aiding employees and employers scheduling job interviews.

Note: With Google Calendar allowing users to embed this into web pages via html or RSS, this should not be too difficult.

_____________________________________________

Adding Personal Blog: Although having a scrapbook is nice, I think it would be really cool if Orkut enabled users to add their personal blog to their homepage.

Now I am not talking about the type of blog that a user might find in Orkut's cousin Joga, but rather allowing users to add a blog outside of Orkut via site feed and have the top five posts show up on their profile.

Of course if users do not have a blog site Orkut could give them the Joga default, although with such cool blogging tools like Wordpress, Vox and Blogger (of course!), users may prefer to use a blog tool on the outside rather than in house.

_____________________________________________

Allow non-Google Videos: One thing I like about the new video playlist is that it enables me to add my favorite videos from Google Video (which I could not do before) and YouTube (which required a separate login account, which I found to be annoying).

Although this saved me much grief in finally collecting all of my favorite videos in one spot, I ran into a major problem: not all of my favorite videos were located on any of Google's video sites.

A perfect example of this is this video which I highlighted on my personal blog as a "must have" computer (which I bet every Googler would love to run at their desk).





I think if Google enabled users to add videos from a host of different sites on Orkut (starting with those that we can already embed with our Google Reader).

_____________________________________________

Well, those are my three top features I would add to Orkut. I was wondering, what three features would you add or wish Google included to make your Orkut life easier?

A Custom URL For Your Orkut Profile?

If finding your friend's profile on Orkut is difficult, then typing it in the address bar is far worse.

Fortunately it seems that Sankar Anand has figured out a quick way to have your friends type in your Orkut profile without having to memorize a 19 digit reference number.

Here are the first several (and then some) steps detailed on Sankar Anand Blog:

• Login to Google Page Creator with Your Google accounts username and password
• Either create a new site or choose the Create Another site from the drop down box available at the top right corner of the page
• The next step is about choosing an address which is going to be the URL of your Orkut profile, so enter the profile name you want for your url basically it should be like this http://yourdesiredname.googlepages.com which will re-direct you to the Orkut profile.
• Say for example you want to use “XXXX” as your profile url then you should enter xxxx in the box provided for choosing an address and click Check Availability to see if the entered name is available or not.
• Select any layout and a starting look because because it has nothing to do with your url.
• Making sure you have entered the desired URL and check if its available or not, then click the Create Site Button.
• Now you have successfully created a site, click the [no title] link in the page name column to make it open.
• There you go, you are ready to edit the page where Google pages allows you to add title and other bla bla things. But you don’t have to touch them just click the [edit html] link at bottom right corner of the page.
• Type the following javascript code in any part of the blank page.

If you want to get the java code script, I suggest visiting his site. ;-)

Update: I wonder if Orkut should consider making our profile name easier to find by using our names (with a short number) instead of a 19 digit random number?

Like instead of http://www.orkut.com/Profile.aspx?uid=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, how about http://www.orkut.com/Profile.aspx?uid=darnellclayton123 ? What do you guys think?

Update (1/18): Java script it is. Thanks Haochi!

Should Orkut Albums Be Merged With Picasa?

That is something that PuneetWorld is suggesting.

must say the photo gallery or photo album at orkut is terrible... ..its just too plain…photo album generated by orkut seem like webpage made by someone in 1995 it does deserve an update ...probably google should ajaxfy it like gmail .. or add some flash stuff to make it more cool. and convenient

if google too lazy to add few features to orkut albums ...least they would merge picasa web albums which somewhat bearable

Although I have no hard sources to report upon, I do have a strong feeling that Google may turn PuneetWorld's suggestion into reality.

I think combining Picasa Albums within Orkut (as well as some privacy settings along the way) would make visiting albums a lot more fun.

World AIDS Day (Orkut Style)

Today many of you may have noticed the (RED)^TM word underneath your Google search bar.

Well, if you click on the link you will get a little preview from Bono explaining that today is World AIDS Day with some instructions on how you can help. (via YouTube)

Orkut users are already getting involved in the effort (some have been for a while) and here is a brief summary of what is happening within the English speaking forums.

• Over in the AIDS (HAPPY WORLD AIDS DAY) community, members are helping out Vickey on a project she is doing on the virus, giving her tips and info to make her presentation better.


• In the Red Ribbon -Fight Against AIDS forum, Parul has started a questions and answers thread, where users can post question such as how long can hiv survive in the air, and where did the [first] person who was HIV positive get it from?
  
  Also within the same community, Luv... reminds everyone that HIV infected people should not be kicked out of society but rather cared for.


• Putting my study in the fight against HIV/AIDS forum asks an interesting question by wondering if HIV can spread thru articles used inn Barber's shop (as in scissors or other tools that barber's use).
  
  The answer seems very reassuring.


• In the Heed-HIV community, Alicja points members towards this video in which a reporter interviews a person who received AIDS through no fault of her own.


• Last but not least, if any users have questions or concerns regarding HIV/AIDS you can visit the HIV/AIDS Professionals community where self-professed experts can advise you on what to if you have run into any "unhappy situations" (and it looks like they have already calmed down one person's fears).

You can find out on more ways to help by visiting the Join RED Blog or by visiting the main site for more details.

Update: I know I'm a little late in the game, but the Official Google Blog is also mentioning the (RED)^TM campaign.

Also, Blogger Buzz has a cool button you can add to your weblog in order to show your support. I would highly recommend adding it (which is great if you are unable to Buy Red due to Christmas shopping).

Staying Positive In A Negative World

Simply reading or listening to what is happening in the world today is enough to make a person want to never get out of bed (or at least take a drug to survive the day).

Some Orkut members have discovered an alternative towards sleeping in (as well as taking the pill) and over in the Personal Growth and Development forum, Ritesh lists five ways on how a person can stay positive in a negative world.

1. Take a news sabbatical. Listening to the news can be downright depressing. All bad news all of the time can drag you down and keep you there. Give yourself permission to stop listening to the news, especially before bed time.



2. Use your influence to do good where you live. Shift your focus from what is happening in other parts of the world to your community. Get involved in making a positive change or contribution.



3. Focus on what is working in your life. Choose one thing that you are grateful for and focus on it for the rest of the day.

You will have to visit the forum for the last two, (sorry folks, you need to explore inside Orkut for this one) although I can personally say that I have tried out number one and two.

For those looking for ways to change negative people into positive people (what is desperately needed in this world) then Bryce in the Conflict management forum has some great advice in this arena.

Video Highlights: Roshni-The Light

Over in the Short Films forum, Vikram (from India) has posted a video with a strong message for all those who enjoy the tobacco crave.

(Note: If you are unable to view this video here, you can check it out over at YouTube's website)

One great thing about this forum is that members are able to provide constructive criticism (rather than attacks) in order to help each other produce a better movie.

One of the best forms of this came from Yogesh who replied with:

Saw your film your production credit is excellent and SFX of that feels like a hollywood movie where did u manage that from; apart then that lighting is really poor. Even the script is dull. Is it your first film? Sorry to be harsh but it'll help you for your future.

Subject of Anti smoking is good but u never showed any reason for a person not smoking apart from death and every smoker knows everyone has to die sooner or later. Something more negative towards smoking would had been nice.

Advice well spoken. Perhaps Vikram could do a reshooting of this film (something I would look forward to) as this message needs to get across to every Orkut smoker lest they end up in this forum.

Dear Entrepreneur, The Matrix Has You

No, I am not referring to The Matrix starring Keanu Reeves. I am referring to a post by Abhay over in the Entrepreneur forum in which he (along with others) have compiled "a matrix" or a mini-test to see if your business plan has what it takes to survive.

We have created an entrepreneurship matrix with following objective in mind

To create a system which helps entrepreneurs to measure clarity of business ideas and its execution plan. This is specially for ppl who are eager to become entrepreneur's but not clear how to start [...]

(from page 3) Entrepreneurship matrix is a set of Business components and its attribute, which is very essential for any business.

Here u can check whether your business idea is really workable on not based on clarity of your business idea w.r.t to different business attributes. All this explanation is done in 24 slide Power point presentation [...]

I have already downloaded it on my computer and it is not only virus free (for the cyber paranoid out there) but also very well written. I plan on using it personally for several projects of mine (no details here). I think it is an excellent tool for anyone considering not only starting their own business, but investing in one as well.

You can either post in the forum or scrap Abhay with your email address for more details.

Changing Your Orkut Background

Although Orkut's sibling Joga.com gives users the ability to change the appearance of their background, members of the "deep blue forums" were unable to alter Orkut to their desired taste--that is until GreaseMonkey came along.

Many users within the world of Orkut have found ways of altering their screen backgrounds with the aid of GreaseMonkey, a tool (for Firefox) used to alter a web browser's appearance (more info via Wikipedia).

Here are some of the best background hacks that I have seen thus far:



1) Creamkut gives Orkut a total face lift. What I love about Creamkut is the fresh look it gives by adding new font styles, borders and even replacing the original buttons with customized ones to match the hack. Creamkut also has an official forum for those with further questions.

Recommended for anyone looking to escape the basic baby blue colors of Orkut as well as spice up the overall look of the forum. (download script)

(Designed by Alex da Silveira Ceara)

______________________

2) Pinkut is a skin that makes Orkut...well pink. The design is not as beautiful as Creamkut, but it does add a "feminine touch" to Orkut, which many girls would probably enjoy. Pinkut also has a dedicated forum for those with questions or comments about this skin hack. (download script)

(Designed by Jacques, or is it Julie now?)

______________________



3) Blackut is for those who like their Orkut rather dark. Although it appears to me as if the skin makes it "grayer" than anything else. This skin piece also looks fairly well, and may be preferred for those who think that the baby blue color of Orkut is really dumb (although the color has a weird calming affect on the mind).

You can visit the official Darkut forum for further details and questions. (download script, or install directly into Firefox)

(Designed by Jacques)

______________________

4) Bluekut (not to be mistaken for this Bluekut which I misspelled) is for those who enjoy Orkut's blue background, and like Creamkut this is a complete hack as it covers not only the background and forums, but also the buttons as well. (download script)

(Designed by Igor Thiago)

______________________

5) Redkut is also a complete hack although you may notice spots not covered while surfing throughout Orkut. This hack kinda reminds me of blood, which may be cool for those either in the medical field or if you are into the "vampire" mood. Redkut has a small forum here, although from what it appears this skin does not seem to be as popular as the previous ones. (download script)

(Designed by Marcella)

______________________



6) Orkut Roxo (or Purple) gives the Google forums a slightly romantic look. Also Designed by Igor, this skin would also be recommended. I am not sure if this is the official Roxo forum, but from all appearances it may as well be. (download script)

(Designed by Igor Thiago)

______________________

7) Orkut Verde (or Green) is for those who are feeling a little bit of Irish. This skin also has a very nice layout, and the green does make Orkut appear a little bit more "relaxing" than the baby blue, although it may wear out on you over time. Their is a forum inside Orkut dedicated to Orkut Verde where you can post further questions or comments on. (download script)

(Designed by Igor Thiago)

______________________

There are many other skins you can try out, although I posted what I thought were some of the best ones out there. More scripts are listed on Igor's Orkut Scripts page (as well as more Orkut tweaks). For those interested in customizing your own personal skin of Orkut, you can either try creating a GreaseMonkey hack or simply download Orkut Cute, the unofficial browser for Orkut.

If anyone knows of any other skins, feel free to let me know by posting below or scrapping me via Orkut.

Update: Corrected some grammer.

Finding Customers Without SPAM

Steven asks an important business question over in the Sole Traders/Small Companies forum that all business owners (and self employed people like me) ask, or at least the good ones. How do I find more clients without SPAM?

(Note: SPAM in my opinion includes randomly cold calling the masses.)

Elena provides a great answer towards this by saying:

[...] I recommend reading the "Guerrilla Marketing" series by Jay Conrad Levinson. These books have a lot of great low-cost (or free) marketing ideas. I also suggest you do some market research of your own. For individuals who want to give up smoking, I think it might be harder, but maybe you could just get on the phone and call some potential retail clients?

Ask them what their needs are, whether they are already selling this product, etc. Maybe you could just walk into a health foods store and speak with the owner? The input of clients and potential clients will give you some ideas about how best to reach them.

Peter also reminds Steven that he could also email potential clients as long as he provides an introduction of himself as well as a disclaimer at the end with an "opt out" measure for future emails.

I also think Steven could use Orkut to contact potential clients, but for the sake of anti-redundancy, you'll have to see my answer over here.

Do Ladies Enjoy Chest Hair?

After the ladies received an answer to an age old question, it seems that Prasant had to ask this question in the Men Ask, WOMEN ANSWER forum. Ironically when I was younger, my friends asked this question to an older lady so I am not surprised by most of these responses.

• Eva: a chest hair? [...] i hate it, i mean a bit of hair there is ok, but not too much and i think back hair is even worst


• M.: Chest hair is a turn on for me.:) Of course in a reasonable amount.;) Yes... very manly and sexy...mmmm...


• Jaanika: as long as u dont count the ones on ur back to b chest hair... And as long as ur chest hair aint thicker than ur actual hair....


• Nazish: chest hair is a big tyme turn offfff....n so is the hair on the backk


• Jane: I definitely prefer no, or very little, hair on the chest

Fortunately for me, my chest isn't that hairy (at least for now). Unfortunately it seems that Saajid is out of luck in that department, and may have to shave his chest to appease his future love.

Do Guys Prefer Beauty, Or Women With Brains?

That is the question Pragati is asking over in the Women ask, MEN ANSWER forum (they have a counterpart one for guys which I'll post on later).

Pragati wants to know if guys really do prefer a beautiful face over a beautiful mind. Here are some of the responses by some very brave men:

• Raghu: beauty can be instantly admired/appreciated... but it takes a while to appreciate the brains of any person. hence the misconception that guys only appreciate beauty & not brains in a female. if u really dig a li'l deeper, u'll see that most most long-term female friends of guys r those with brains matching the guy's level... & not beauty...


• Chill: beauty n brain is rare and so i will say [...]
  beautiful girl = dumb
  unattractive girl = intelligent
  beautiful + intelligent = Diva..


• Turtle: i dont prefer beauty to brains . id rather have a plain looking girl with a brain and a good heart than a total knockout thats stupid or a bitch . but i do draw the line at ugly there only room in any relatioship for one ugly person aand thats me


• Achal (page two): i guess its natures way of bringing together the best genes together to same person . beautiful woman + intelligent man = beautiful and intelligent kids? or progressive species

Although most of the answers were pretty much "beauty before brains" or "beauty with brains," Lulla (on page 3) seems to be motivated more by mental abilities than good looks. He even doesn't mind a girl with a few extra pounds.

As for me, I agree with Pulkit (on page 1)--beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Advice From The Masters

I long time ago in a forum far, far away I posted in the Community Owners forum asking what their advice was on building a successful forum. Here are what the experts (at least to me) have to say:

(Tom (C-YtEK)) Popular, broard, [controversial] issues.

Don't limit your subject matter too much. the broarder the topic the more discussion you can have on it. [...]

Advertise but don't spam. Word of mouth will do a far better job of attracting members than by pissing them off in other communitys with spam.

Find a topic a group of people (your friends is easiest) is already interested in, tell them about your intention to start the community, a community started with one member tends to bomb out, but if you have a handful people see potential for discussion.

(Carolyn) Some of your decisions will piss people off, and some of them will have even people you like disagreeing with you. Own your decisions. That doesn't mean that you should be unwilling to reconsider if you've been wrong, but don't be afraid to say, "I made a decision, live with it."

(Dr. Awkward) I'm in favor of strong moderation. Some (but not all) of my communities are strictly English and I delete all Portuguese posts. [...] All off topic spam gets deleted too and so do troll posts full of hatred. I'm sure most members appreciate this and if not...tough luck.

One of the tones stressed is moderation of forums. Although I generally try avoid being the "censor police" (unless of coarse it is violent and threatening) I can see their point in why filtering out "the trash" helps promote discussion. Forums without rules are forums without purpose and only by checking out their communities do I see their advice producing fruitful forums.

Gabrielle also had some suggestions, which I consider the "icing on the cake" for those seeking to build successful forums. Here are some of her suggestions below:

• Have an descriptive profile for your community. Basically, what the prospective members can find, who should join, etc...


• Announce it to your friends, in Orkut and outside


• Inform members of related communities (i.e.: if you create a community called science, people hanging in other communities such as mathematics, biology, chemistry, engineering, etc... are likely to have some interest in your community too. Silly example but you get the gist of it.). In the threads not in messages, this pisses me off so I do not inflict it on others;


• Equally important, ask the owner for their permission and create reciprocical links


• Post. I see communities where the owner/moderator has created a community just go away without ever posting anything, what is the point? Also, you give the tone by posting...


• Try to spend time with your members. Get to know them. By doing so, you are most likely to know what makes them tick and then source the relevant information that is likely to interest them


• Use gimmicks to make them loyal to your community, wanting to come back. My ebook community allows me to post my list and offer to share my books with them. Painstaking time spent on this but worth it


• Keep the motivation up. It is easy to spend two hours a days for three weeks and then disappear for a few weeks, but this is a mistake. Even ask somebody to moderate for you while you are away or if your need a break.

Gabrielle last two suggestions are probably unheard of throughout the Orkut forums, but both of them are probably the reasons why many of her members visit her communities. It would be fun to collect everyone's tips and write them in a small book, but for now a weblog will have to do. ;)

Indecision Got You Down?

Over in the Personal Growth And Development forum, BrAzEn lists ten ways to over come procrastination. Three, five and nine look pretty good, although I think if we all did the last one procrastination would not be a problem.

10. Just get started.

No excuses. Don't wait until you're in the mood. The mood never comes! It is a clever camouflage and a delaying tactic

I probably could apply this to blogging, as I spend way more time over at my sister site than here. Although I recently downloaded a weblog calendar, so that should help organize my schedule some. :)

Resolving Racial Tensions

Props to Tristan who seems to have mediated a racial dispute and gives his feedback over in the Conflict Management forum:

I just mediated a lengthy dispute between city residents, city officials, and the Mexican-American community over tough immigration policies....I say "mediated" but it was more like "policed" because it was getting pretty ugly.

Race has been and will probably continue to be the most difficult types of conflict for me to resolve because it is so difficult to get people to stop attaching labels onto each other. [...]

How would you mediate such a dispute and get them to reach an agreement for mutual respect?

We all (as in Sardar, DeVyne, Saurabh and your author) chipped in our two cents and I think we arrived at the answer. To be fair, I won't post it here, but you can add a comment on whether you agree with our final conclusion.

Update: Added community photo.

How To Tell When Orkut Is Up

Some people have been experiencing the "donut errors," lately, although from what I am seeing this has affected several communities and in some places, only certain posts.

I am sure that the Orkut team is working on the problem, however, one way to check whether Orkut is experiencing problems is to check your Community and friends lists.

If you can see all your Orkut buddies as well as the the forums below then Orkut is running at "All Systems Go" mode (a phrase we used in IT when everything was working). If not, then you may see something like this:



In that case, either the entire community forums are down, or part of them are (and the team is working on it). After all, tens of millions (if not hundreds) probably use the service and instead of panicking, just simply give them time to resolve the problem. And stay beautiful!

What Should Orkut Do?

Well, Orkut is down for me right now, and the only thing I can access inside Orkut is my Orkut inbox (yes, you get one when you sign up, but I generally have it set to redirect all messages to Gmail.

I could close down for the night, but instead of complaining because the engineers are fixing/making Orkut's servers to the benefit of all, I am going to post ten ways (can I think of ten?) the Orkut Team could make Orkut even better.

And I think I will count backwards to make it more interesting.

10) Enable Communities to have RSS feeds: I know Orkut is constantly concerned with privacy so this could be done via Google Reader, which is connected to a users Google account anyways.

This would make it easier to know when the latest heckler person has posted a response towards your serious question.

__________________________

9) User Journals: By this I don't mean that Orkut start a journal within the forums, but rather integrate ones outside of Orkut via RSS.

__________________________

8) Google Ad Sense: Allow community owners to monetize their own communities using Google Ad Sense. Something similar could be used for user profiles as well, but only at a members discretion.

__________________________

7) Google Base: Hook up Google base and allow users to store up to a Gig of personal items (such as music) for others to see. You could have the similar rule as Gmail does regarding .exe files, etc. as well as place a limit on the space.

Monetizing this feature may compensate you for storing peoples collectibles.

__________________________

6) Profile Settings: Allow users to edit the appearance of their profile. Giving them this liberty would make it feel more of a home as some may prefer a "gothic attitude" and others something more serene and scenic.

__________________________

5) Photo Community: Enable comments on users images. Would make the album a little bit more interesting, don't you think. ;)

__________________________

4) Orkut Popularity Rank: Allow users to see who is the most popular person using Orkut, and assign a rank next to their profile. Post the top 100 list over on the Media site for all to see (and envy) and exclude Orkut Buyukkokten from the competition because he will win.

__________________________

3) Business Focus: Accor