China DOS Union

All the super moderators and moderators, you need to step up the effort. The China DOS Union Forum has been up for almost a month, and there are only a little over 100 registered members, and the activity level isn't very high either. DOS Home's new forum opened a bit later, and now it already has more than 1,000 registered members. Everyone ought to think about what the reason is.

DOS Home's new forum actually opened much earlier than ours, around September. And it directs the site homepage straight to the forum, while we don't do that. Also, even though that forum has a very broad range of subforums (it even has things like "music", its total number of topics is not actually very large.

More or less doesn't matter. I think the most important thing is having特色—unique features! But I feel like there aren't many distinctive features here . Most importantly, I think this forum should focus on DOS technology and help netizens solve problems. After all, not many people use DOS anymore, so we ought to promote it on some websites.

I think we shouldn't just look at the number of registered users, because many people don't like registering and only like reading. When I visit most forums myself, I don't register either. Every time people go on a forum, they can see that under normal circumstances there are usually more unregistered users than registered users.
Of course, DOS is not exactly a hot topic after all. As for what methods there are to expand its influence and let people in our country truly understand DOS, everyone can think of some ideas together.

Of course, measuring how popular a forum is solely by the number of registered users is one-sided, but it really does reflect some problems. When DOS Home's new forum first started, it was far less active than our DOS Union. I remember that at the time only the moderator was posting there, and one netizen even said, when will DOS Home's activity pick up? So at that time I wasn't optimistic about DOS Home at all. But when I went to look again today, I was really shocked. Its rate of development is truly astonishing! Then look at our China DOS Union: only one or two new members join each day, and the number of posts is also decreasing day by day. More often it's still just those same old regulars posting. It's worrying to see, so I'd like to offer the moderators a few suggestions:
1. Although DOS Union is called a union, it is actually very scattered. In fact, right now DOS Union is basically two independent sections: one is WENGIER's New DOS Era site, and the other is the DOS Union Forum, and each has formed its own specialized user group. People who visit New DOS Era go there for software downloads, while people who come to the DOS Union Forum come to ask questions. Forum visitors can't see WENGIER's new software and articles (even though WENGIER puts her website URL after every post, for new users it is still very unclear. If it were the DOS Union URL, that would be different.) And when New DOS Era users have questions, they also leave messages for WENGIER directly and rarely bring them up on the forum. It is also not very convenient for the other moderators to reply to messages there. This inevitably causes a disconnect between new DOS software and related knowledge, and solving problems encountered in use. It is hard to achieve the effect of promoting new DOS. So I suggest we might as well merge them—namely, build a new DOS Union website based on WENGIER's New DOS Era, with everyone dividing the work and developing it together. For example, WENGIER could be responsible for collecting new DOS software and writing related usage articles; Teacher Mo could be responsible for popularizing DOS knowledge and providing old DOS software; Suifengshun and Fangshao could be responsible for the management and maintenance of the DOS software download system and providing space; ADMIN could be responsible for the design, management, and maintenance of the entire website. Party Secretary and Chanzong are graduate students and have a relatively high level, so they could publish some more low-level theoretical material and organize netizens to develop new DOS software. Small fry like us could also participate appropriately in some related work. Only through real union can we unify our thinking and work hard together. If there are disagreements during the process, they can be set aside for the time being or handled democratically.
2. Since this is DOS Union, we should not only promote new DOS, but also focus on introducing the use of good and practical old DOS software. After all, old DOS is already deeply rooted in people's minds and has formed the largest group among DOS users. What people are taught and what they use is also old DOS software. Only by putting things they are interested in into the forum will we attract them to visit often. Only in this way can we get them to pay attention to new DOS software, understand new DOS software, and compare old and new DOS with WINDOWS.
3. We should also fully bring out DOS's role in WINDOWS, teaching netizens how to use DOS to solve problems that WINDOWS cannot solve (this is also why DOS Home is so active). What can't be denied is that WINDOWS is the mainstream. Most people who come here are seeking how to use DOS to solve problems in the WINDOWS system. Just as before, only if they leave satisfied will they come back again. Only then can we achieve the goal of publicizing and promoting new DOS. In short, only when activity is high can we talk about development.
4. Organize DOS enthusiasts to try out some new software, and write up their experience and心得 from using it for netizens to refer to and learn from. At the same time, everyone can look together for better and newer DOS software. After all, WENGIER alone can't keep up with all of it. Gather these good new articles together for centralized management and reference.
5. It would be best to put some DOS e-books on the website, at all levels. After all, the DOS knowledge on the forum is only bits and pieces and is scattered all over the place. Many netizens hope to find some DOS tutorials on the Union Forum and on New DOS Era, but end up leaving disappointed.
6. Try to get in touch with some students in university computer departments. They always stand at the deeper technical level, but they don't understand the state of development of new technology or what users currently need. We should make use of their solid low-level theoretical foundation, combine it with the union's new information, and develop our own new DOS software. For new DOS to develop, it absolutely needs their technical support. During the development process, everyone can discuss together on the forum and study and solve difficult problems. In other words, collaborative development online.
7. Once the union develops to a certain stage, we can appropriately adopt some paid services or commercial activity. For example, we could provide CD burning services; we could appropriately charge some registration fees for good DOS software developed by the union itself; we could develop new DOS software for certain organizations and companies according to their needs for compensation. And so on. The development of DOS is a heavy responsibility and a long road. Without corresponding financial support, it is very difficult to accomplish much relying only on the enthusiasm and selfless spirit of DOS enthusiasts like us.
The above are just a few of my personal thoughts. To be honest, I truly hope to see a future where DOS, WINDOWS, and LINUX divide the world into three parts, instead of DOS becoming less and less influential along with the development of WINDOWS like it is now. I wonder what the moderators think. You really should think this over carefully!

yiyesong's suggestion is very sensible, really very good. I have the same thoughts too. Actually, I have always thought that the first thing is to figure out DOS's place, rather than always saying DOS is still developing. True, it is developing, but most users don't know that. They're still using old DOS, still saying DOS is useless, so the first priority is how to let the broad user base understand the latest developments in DOS. We moderators should also really listen to and look at the opinions of the "masses," hehe.
I am the first to support all of yiyesong's suggestions! Thank you! I hope you remind us often!

Yes, that was very fair and to the point.

Support, support, support...
Then is Teacher Mo willing to join completely and form a union website?

Agreed! I think so too. It really is time for some self-reflection. It can't always just be the same few people talking among themselves for fun. I don't even have much left to pour out anymore... Also, wengier's message board is really active. But this side doesn't seem too good.
I haven't gone to see the DOS Home forum, but since everyone says so, I believe it isn't bad either. But I don't think DOS Home alone has anything that attracts me. First, you need other people to come here and ask questions; second, you need to have people who can answer them; third, you need to have some materials of your own for everyone. Limited by hardware, there are many problems I simply can't solve myself. Some people ask how to drive a laptop's pcmiC card under DOS, some ask about netware installation and configuration, some ask about using a certain motherboard or a certain graphics card—none of these I can answer. I don't have a laptop, and I've never installed netware, and I haven't even seen the motherboard or graphics card they're talking about. So I can only do what I can and reply to some simple questions. Only if everyone joins together can we answer more questions.
I set up an FTP and moved some DOS software over from wengier's place, mainly to make downloading easier for everyone. But I was worried that people would download directly from me and not go to wengier's website, so I didn't put software descriptions into the various directories. Everyone can read the articles and software descriptions at wengier's place, then download the software they like. If they run into something they can't download, they can try downloading it from my FTP. I only want to make my place into a backup download server for wengier's website.

Whether everyone comes here to ask questions, answer questions, or post some of their own experience and心得, in short, write a bit more. Don't just stand by and watch. If we want the forum to grow strong, it depends on everyone's hard work watering it.

I went over to the DOS Home forum and took a look. At that moment, there were 60 people online: 5 registered users and 55 visitors. Then I looked again:
There are currently 58 people online in the forum, including 5 registered members and 53 visitors.
The highest number ever online at the same time was 882, occurring at: 2002-9-12 00:16

58 online total, among them DOS Home has 5 members and 6 guests. Today's posts 12
57 online total, among them Computer Clinic has 0 members and 3 guests. Today's posts 13
58 online total, among them Music Without End has 0 members and 0 guests. Today's posts 0
58 online total, among them Games Forever has 0 members and 1 guest. Today's posts 0
58 online total, among them Netizen Messages has 0 members and 0 guests. Today's posts 0
The Webmaster's Diary can't be entered. But if we count it in here, there should be (58－5－6－3－1)＝43 people
That means there are 43 people in that subforum that can't be entered, and all of them are guests. Looks like the more you don't let people in, the more they want to get in! And also,
there are way too many expert hackers—there are actually 43 guests who got into the Webmaster's Diary subforum??
Too bad my level isn't high enough, otherwise I'd go in too and see what the webmaster wrote!!!

So everyone doesn't need to think their own forum is bad. At least our forum really does have this many genuine DOS-related posts!!! I didn't seem to see any real classic DOS digest posts there...
Among them DOS Home has 5 members and 6 guests. Today's posts 12. Doesn't that seem like fewer posts than ours!!!

The highest number ever online at the same time was 882, occurring at: 2002-9-12 00:16
So far it has 1080 users, but as far back as 9/12, it already had 882 people online at the same time???
That would mean nearly all registered users were on there that day???
And at 00:16 in the middle of the night?
What were they all doing there at that time? Could it be they went there to celebrate the first anniversary of 9/11???????

The purpose of my making this post is not to compare ourselves with DOS Home, nor is it to belittle ourselves and say our forum is bad in this or that way. In fact, DOS itself is already a niche topic. Whether it's DOS Home or us, compared with forums in other categories, the activity level is poor. In this country, most people, not to mention new DOS, don't even know what DOS looks like. If you talk to them about how good new DOS is and how powerful its features are, they'll still just be confused after reading it. Some of the questions on WENGIER's message board are enough to make you laugh and cry. For example, someone actually asked why entering the CD command in DOS works, but entering EDIT won't run. If they don't even understand such basic things, how can we talk about developing new DOS? Are we supposed to rely only on the few brothers who frequently post on this forum?
I made this post hoping that the moderators and all friends who like DOS will think carefully: why establish DOS Union? What exactly is the union meant to do? Has everyone thought about whether we want to truly develop DOS, or whether we simply want to treat the Union Forum as a little paradise for ourselves to reminisce about DOS and enjoy DOS? If it's the latter, then I actually think the current situation is indeed pretty good!
If it's the former, then everyone needs to think deeply. We don't need to compare ourselves with anyone else. We only need to look at our own figures. The number of posts was 48 the day before the day before yesterday, 39 the day before yesterday, and 35 yesterday; the highest daily total was 78. Why is it getting fewer day by day? The reason is very simple: there are only those few people posting. After a long time they get exhausted too, and can't find any topics anymore. We can't expect them to cough up even their gastric juice and bile, can we! Just look at the posting rankings and it is obvious at a glance.
DOS Union has already been established for quite a long time. Have the moderators ever thought about what the union's purpose is, what its development direction is, and specifically how it should operate? What the plan is? I'm afraid not. Since it's called a union, then it ought to be some kind of organization, right? If it's an organization, then it ought to unify thinking and understanding, divide the work and cooperate, and have each person specifically responsible for one section. I believe that would be much better than everyone eating from one big pot and doing things randomly. Look at it now: the moderators of this section are Wengier, MYS, Party Secretary, Chanzong; and the moderators of that section are also Wengier, MYS, Party Secretary, Chanzong. Hehe, well that's one kind of union all right, but the posts haven't become any more organized or valuable. Everyone can take a look at Hacker Union, Green Guest Union, Red Guest Union, and Everyday Security Network. They're all doing very well now, and some have already developed into companies.
When everybody adds fuel, the flames rise high. Everyone must unite, cooperate, and work hard together in order to develop. Especially for the moderators, the first thing to consider is the issue of thinking, then the issue of direction, and finally the development strategy. Personally, I think the first priority is to clarify the purpose and development direction. Step one: popularize basic DOS knowledge. Step two: teach netizens how to use DOS to solve problems. Step three: promote new DOS. Step four: develop our own new DOS software. Then everyone divides the work and carries it out concretely.
Hehe, I may be showing off slight skill before an expert, and stealing the host's thunder a bit. Moderators, please don't take offense. What can I do—I like DOS, after all? The lover is not guilty!

We're not trying to compare anything, but one thing is certain: this isn't the era of the Great Leap Forward anymore, we can't just keep launching satellites!
I think the DOS Home forum is somewhat suspect in that regard.
It's just that since everyone has some connection with DOS, I didn't say much. I only listed the figures for everyone to take a look, so everyone can keep their eyes open! And also build confidence in our own forum! Rome wasn't built in a day. You can see that our registered users are steadily increasing... Originally we didn't require everyone to register, but why do people still register? That shows everyone wants to stay and hang around in this forum for the long term. It's not like some forums where you have to register before you're allowed to speak.
No one can make a DOS forum suddenly become hugely popular all at once. That's a fact. If anyone really can do it, I'm willing to help him carry it on without counting any conditions!
The development of DOS is a heavy responsibility and a long road. We can't rush for quick success.

You can see that the issues raised by the poster above are all very objective, and of course also very sharp. They really hit the nail on the head. I like that a lot. Only someone who truly cares about our forum could raise problems so frankly. We moderators should probably hold a meeting too, right?
Let's discuss what we ought to do.

At the same time, everyone is welcome to offer your valuable opinions and suggestions.

Let's hold a discussion meeting. Everyone might as well use MSN Messenger to discuss it! What time does everyone think would be best?

Let's see the responses within three days. As for the specifics, I think we can talk about them then. But let's not drag it out too long either. We can't close later than the 16th National Congress, hehe . . .

It would be best to open a moderator discussion room on the forum. What do you think?