View Full Version : www.hellkom.co.za needs a forum
slimothy
08-09-2005, 01:00 PM
how come hellkom doesnt have a forum? As a website it recieves more average joe press than myadsl and i think it would be awesome if hellkom had a forum to build more of a community around it... so why hasnt it happened?
AntiThesis
08-09-2005, 01:02 PM
I think they just use the vent for this reason... no clue why they're not running a forum actually. Although, wouldn't the content pretty much duplicate this forum?
native
08-09-2005, 01:02 PM
Out of curiosity what will they be hoping to achieve?
Maybe dealing with dialup issues where telkom is still having a major hand :eek:
WiseCrack
08-09-2005, 01:02 PM
Personally I just like to vent.
If I need to post I come here.
desraid
08-09-2005, 01:11 PM
Personally I just like to vent.
If I need to post I come here.
same here.
MaD would not want to spilt the users from MyADSL.
I don't think it would split the users at all, just because I post here doesn't mean I don't post on other forums.
Personaly I would love a Hellkom forum.
slimothy
08-09-2005, 01:17 PM
I dont think the content would dupe this forum, I think it would get more of your average joes on it which is kinda who we need, and basically if nothing else it would provide another place for topics to come to the fore, perhaps topics that arent really nourished here (ayanda, line rental, yeah... i kinda wanted to hear more from her but doubt shes ever coming back).
What would it achieve? well at the moment myadsl kinda has a monopoly as far as forums discussing these topics is concerned, and whilst I am not against myadsl in anyway I think it would be constructive to have another forum perhaps one that covers stuff that myadsl doesnt (again, the ayanda thing)
Myadsl is known by more It professionals and hellkom, because of the name and lawsuit alone is probably on more normal, average users' lips.
Hellkom's motivations seem to be different too, it doesn't feel like that website is trying to gain press all the time and I have never seen a single ad on hellkom...
if myadsl happened to get corrupt, im not saying it has or will happen, but if it did (and theres always that chance) where would you discuss it? if rpm goes to meet with telkoms ceo and they come to a deal, where will people be able to discuss it, right now.. nowhere.
What i'm trying to say is if this is animal farm... what if the pigs start walking upright... where do we, the regular animals, go with our beef, i mean if we're not cool with monopolies then why can't hellkom open a forum? It could compiliment this one at best and at worst we'd have another place to talk about this stuff
slimothy
08-09-2005, 01:20 PM
I would buy a vbulletin license (or whatever forum) if that was the problem
AntiThesis
08-09-2005, 01:22 PM
I agree with you there Vio (the multiple forums)
I post here and on several other forums as well as run my own.
But the content that would be on Hellkom's forum would probably be pretty damned similar to this one wouldn't it? I dunno.
slimothy
08-09-2005, 01:23 PM
i dont think so at all, the content on myadsl's front page is nothing like hellkom, I don't think ive ever seena news post on hellkom telling me how many broadband subscribers sweden has
myadsl is now like a corperation, it gets a small amount of press and now the emphasis is about looking good for that little bit of press, its a long term thing, and i'm sure theres money being made on the ads (and thats 100% fine) but when you look at hellkom, it gets the press anyway so its not looking to portray any sort of image to get more... ts already seen as a bit of a rebel as far as anti telkom sites go and i can almost guarantee not one cent has ever been made.
The content is different, the image is different and the motivation is different so I'm sure it would be a great place to discuss stuff
AntiThesis
08-09-2005, 01:26 PM
I considered changing my post in light of slimothy's but meh. Too lazy.
You raise some pretty good points slimothy :)
I suppose there could be quite a few areas in which MyBroadband doesn't dominate the discussions. Dialup as you say is one of them. Perhaps we'll hear from MaD on this issue? :)
Silent_Bob
08-09-2005, 01:30 PM
how do you even make a forum, buy the software, i found some on the net, but if running a site like myadsl where there is a huge traffic need, how much does a forum like this cost to run/keep?
slimothy
08-09-2005, 01:35 PM
well there are a number of forum packages available, both free and commercial (and infact the free ones are better in many respects, security being one) and you set it up, its just a case of makign a database and config the php scripts and walla you have a forum
how much does it cost? well not that much actually and I think mad gets free hosting anyway, the bandwidth isn't that heavy on forums unless you're a large one (20 000 active members or more)
in sa the best any forum can hope to have is maybe 1000 active users and thats pretty small if you compare with international sites (i'm talking bedroom sites started by kids),
Basically money shouldnt be an issue at all
kingmonty
08-09-2005, 02:06 PM
If they go with a forum - perhaps a mass self-modded forum may be the best route - similar to slashdots.
slimothy
08-09-2005, 02:10 PM
slashdots karma comments system was coded overtime by slashdots creators, no forum i know of out the box supports that sort of moderation, but i think if you coulda hack the code of some existing forum package to do that, you'd probably have the best telecommunications related froum in south africa, hands down
bwana
08-09-2005, 02:22 PM
well there are a number of forum packages available, both free and commercial (and infact the free ones are better in many respects, security being one) and you set it up, its just a case of makign a database and config the php scripts and walla you have a forum
how much does it cost? well not that much actually and I think mad gets free hosting anyway, the bandwidth isn't that heavy on forums unless you're a large one (20 000 active members or more)
in sa the best any forum can hope to have is maybe 1000 active users and thats pretty small if you compare with international sites (i'm talking bedroom sites started by kids),
Basically money shouldnt be an issue at allConsidering the number of active users MyADSL has we helped generate quite a bit of usage in August - http://www.mybroadband.co.za/vb/showpost.php?p=291480&postcount=15 - I'm not sure the people we've assumed are giving MaD his hosting would appreciate that much traffic.
kingmonty
08-09-2005, 02:23 PM
there are tonnes of php- and perl-based forums around. I'm sure there are enough coders comfortable in either (or both) to put something together. mmm. or maybe if someone were willing to spec I can put something together too.
slimothy
08-09-2005, 02:24 PM
ok well if mad was interested and couldnt get bandwidth he could use my new za servers bandwidth all he wanted too
anyways myadsl only has about 400 - 500 active users
slimothy
08-09-2005, 02:28 PM
king monty i have modded forums before, and by far the easiest to mod is phpbb, you could easily implement a karma system in it because the way its structured you just need to make a karma class to handle all the karma stuff and then just instantiate the object within the conf file, so its available within all pages of the forum.
Then you could just mod the moderator controls to be visiable to everyone or everyone with a high enough score etc, and the best thing is you wouldn't need to mod any of the mysql tables, just add one for the karma stuff
kingmonty
08-09-2005, 02:40 PM
slim: kewl, will have a look
What happened to the other website that Telkom took legal action against at the same time as Hellkom? I think it was called www.telkomsucks.co.za. Well that was a forum but because it was used by most people to vent it was unstructured and the poor English used by posters made it die a quickish death. I think a Hellkom forum would go the same way.
nocilah
08-09-2005, 03:18 PM
well in my oppinion hellkom is far superioir of a site then myadsl, not saying myadsl is bad, just saying hellkom is better. if it had a forum it would pwn.
but then hellkom is venting against one entity where myadsl is catering for the entire communication industry from 3g to sentech.
then there is also antitrust which has a forum.
bwana
08-09-2005, 03:24 PM
I think if Hellkom had wanted a forum they would have had one by now.
However, there's nothing to stop anyone who wants a forum to go and create one for themselves - more the merrier IMO.
I agree with you there Vio (the multiple forums)
I post here and on several other forums as well as run my own.
But the content that would be on Hellkom's forum would probably be pretty damned similar to this one wouldn't it? I dunno.
I actualy think the Hellkom forum would be less uptight and a more "hi howzit going i hate telkom die beeches" type forum. MyADSL is more technical and political working for a cause. Where as Gregg's site is about informing people about how badly they been getting ripped off and perhaps (if he gets a forum) allow them to share and discuss tales. The vent is a bit crap imo its so disorganized you can't realy read it.
What happened to the other website that Telkom took legal action against at the same time as Hellkom? I think it was called www.telkomsucks.co.za. Well that was a forum but because it was used by most people to vent it was unstructured and the poor English used by posters made it die a quickish death. I think a Hellkom forum would go the same way.
Actualy not, if i remember correctly the owner didn't want to tango with Telkom and so the forum was closed.
That forum pwned.
justinct
08-09-2005, 03:39 PM
Lol the way u okes r going on its like u think mad is gonna do it.
Peapod
08-09-2005, 03:58 PM
What does pwned mean? for us non-U folk... :D
slimothy
08-09-2005, 04:00 PM
can MaD trust you to run such a forum if his head is on the block?no, because I am not trying to run any forum. I don't want to make one myself or make one for another person, I was just thinking it might be good to have a forum at hellkom, it would all be up to mad if he wanted one and i'd have nothing to do with it at all except being a member.
'ello fellow forumites :)
A Hellkom forum would probably (read: definitely) be one huge area for mudslinging. Consider the average Telkom customer. With the amount of problems and prices they have to put up with, kind words about Telkom are not top priority. Judging from the e-mails sent via the site, roughly 99.9% of Telkom customers are NOT happy with them, and swearwords when mentioning their communications company are not uncommon :)
Additionally, Hellkom is locally hosted, and at 19c/MB over the quota it would cost an absolute fortune to pay for the bandwidth, as many, many people will be heading over to the 'Gripes and Groans' section of the forums.. in fact, South Africa may well run out of bandwidth :D
A forum was an idea, and I did start working on one and skinned it to look pretty hot, but decided against it as there could be all kinds of reasons for Telkom to have the site taken down. If someone mentions bombing Telkom on the forums (which is of course illegal and not encouraged) and someone at Telkom takes a screen capture, they can have the site taken down on grounds of 'incitement to violence'.. the site is already pretty much on the far edge of the fine line of the law and imho a forum would probably make that line a lot thinner :)
ettubrute
08-09-2005, 10:19 PM
So what I'm saying is that if you get into trouble it's not my fault ;)You could place this disclaimer quite prominently on the forums... :D
But no, rather not start your own. MyADSL takes up enough of my time already! :D:D
bb_matt
08-09-2005, 10:22 PM
how come hellkom doesnt have a forum? As a website it recieves more average joe press than myadsl and i think it would be awesome if hellkom had a forum to build more of a community around it... so why hasnt it happened?
You'd have to be MAD to start a forum at Hellkom !
hmmm...
pookfuzz
08-09-2005, 10:29 PM
I don't think a forum would be needed. As it currently stands the Helkom site tends to be quite factual and accurate in everything it presents, I suspect a forum which may contain wild speculation would not lend credibility to the factual content on the site.
As others have already pointed out, I suspect it would simply end up being a rage venting venue.