Groups Contest

Urbandweller,

So how much do you think your Skype conversations have helped you?

I know in several message strings you have highly recommended going on Skype to have conversations with Chinese people, I've wanted to do that, but I'm kind of shy myself (not playing shy), and I sometimes prefer hiding behing the written word because I think my Mandarin speaking voice sounds weird.

Maybe it's time for me to come out of my shell, what do you recommend?

Don't believe what Cassie says!! She is just playing shy!! I know for a fact that she has a lovely voice, speaks good English and is quite the conversationalist! She would definetly steal the show if she got the chance to be on air!

Cassie, dont be mad that i am telling the truth!!

哈哈！

加油Cassielin!

Cassie, if you'd love to do it, you should do this one. I'm not good with interviews and I'm not good on the phone so I'd be doubly bad. ;)

ha, MIA, a army code word, cool！thank you auntie68!

Also thank you all for supporting me. I would love to go on-air someday if chinesepod can offer me such a wonderful chance someday! ^_^  It will be my honor to talk to our dear hosts. But you guys should do a good preparation that my voice is not that kind of nice,LOL just in case you will be scared!LOL

Of course Bazza needs to do the interview. Sorry, Baz, but those are the rules!

Regardless of that we definately demand to hear Cassie, also, e.g. on a DA. Do it in Chinese or English or Klingon, whatever, but we want to hear the voice behind all those helpful and friendly posts.

Oh, and I want interviews with Changye and Auntie68 as well.

Hi cassielin! I am "stealing" a few minutes from the Stunt Toddler to say hello to you. "MIA" stands for "Missing In Action", an army code word which -- over the years -- has become slang for saying that somebody has suddenly disappeared! It's not unkind at all in this sense; in fact it is quite cute. Take care. I do still hope that you (the daughter I always wish I had...) will go on-air with CPOD so that we can hear your voice at last!

Dear auntie68 and Adam, thank you for telling bazza that I was not mysteriously absent!LOL  What is MIA?

Anyway, I finally got the internet at my dorm! I can still keep on learning with you guys here on chinesepod!^_^

Hey, bazza, you should take the chance to be interviewed! You deserved it! You are the group funder and you help our chinesepod users a lot! I believe you can do it very well this time! Don't by shy! Think about that our dear Jenny will call you and talk to you, what a wonderful chance!!! We all know that you are a big Jenny fan!^_^

Cassie is MIA right now becuase her summer vacation is over and i think she is starting a new job...she wont have internet access for a few days...but she will be back!

:)

Stay frosty, bazza! You can do it! This Auntie is not a spokeswoman for our beloved cassie, but I think she has just started her first -- real! yikes! -- job. And it's a good one...

All the best --

Cassie appears to be mysteriously absent.

Urbandweller,

We've had quite a few Chinesepod members who've been interviewed on Dear Amber, and I kept wondering, WHEN ARE THEY GOING TO GET AROUND TO INTERVIEWING CASSIE?  Maybe she's just shy, but I think she definitely deserves to be part of that clique, the elite Poddies who've had the opportunity to be immortalized with own segment on Dear Amber.

Come on Bazza! This is a wonderful opportunity to get interviewed by cpod for a 2nd time!! Most of us other poddies would jump in a second's notice at a chance like this!! Do it man! just talk and be yourself!

I also vote for Cassie being interviewed. She is really cool and speaks great English but that should be a seperate interview. Maybe for a Dear Amber segment....

Cassie, you around?

Bazza,

I wholeheartedly second that notion!  Cassielin is THE BEST and VERY MOST HELPFUL member of Chinesepod.  She absolutely goes out of her way to be helpful, answer people's questions and help people find the resources they need to further their education. If anyone has any doubts, just look at how helpful she was when user "Chela's" son Nick entered the Chinese Bridge competition and she came her asking if anyone knows where she could watch her son in the competition.

I can't wait to hear Cassielin's interview!!!

Actually, if she wants to, I'd like to offer the interview to Cassie for being such big help to us all in general.

Bazza,
Is entirely up to you. If you want to contact the moderators and offer them the opportunity, then that is fine with us. Just let me know if you decide to pass it on.
Congratulations on the successful group, by the way!

hey Bazza, go ahead and do it. Im sure you will do better this time.

I'm happy to let one of moderators do the phone interview as I'm really bad at interviews.

Congratulations to the Chinese Music Group, who are July's winner of the most active group on ChinesePod.com.

The founder of the group, Bazza, will have a phone interview with ChinesePod hosts, Ken and Jenny, whilst Moderators marcelbdt, hitokiri6993 and boran have 2 months free premium access.
The additional members will have 1 month free basic access.

I stand corrected, due to a recent change there is a difference. Now one has to be a member to comment, but approval is automatic. This is better but I am wondering how a private group works.

if content has anything to do with it, 红楼梦 has my vote (if I have a vote). I would join but I can see no difference between being a member, and not being a member. 

My olympics group has the most comments by the founder with the fewest comments by others :)

My music group still has the most members at 72, but it's no longer the most active.

I think you should wait just a short while longer to find out who really keeps it up.

E.g. 100 years.

The winners of this competition will be announced shortly

1 day left ?

just came across this, thanks guys. I'm not after any prize really, though the community challenge certainly gets me going.  what I'm really after is a way to constantly improve my Chinese, across all channels (reading, speaking, listening comprehension).

what would make me really happy (call it a reward if you will) is an activity / job / task / occupation next time I go to China for 1-2 weeks, where I can practice and improve rather than just hang out and go sightseeing. Keep me busy is all I need, I'll take care of the rest. could be at any place really, Shanghai, Tianjin, wherever.

I'm not sure it's worth transfering 88news to the new groups environment, even if technically feasible, I guess the principle is quite different, and the news are quickly going stale.

But you may want to give my new NO to Cancer : 对癌症说“不” group a try, and check the corresponding book being copied

Here is a possible solution:
We continue the competition alive as advertised to give everyone a fair chance of getting involved in this group challenge.
At the same time, the work that Goulniky has done to grow 88news is unquestionable. ChinesePod recognizes that this is an invaluable group and thus, will offer Goulniky to appear on one of our shows or to receive ChinesePod subscriptions outside of the competition scope.
In this way, we are both recognizing Goulniky's hard work without taking away the opportunity for others to participate in this contest.

Comments welcomed!

That's a REALLY user-friendly layout. Wow! Thx.

How about tweaking the contest's award scheme a bit: Give Goulnik his well deserved prize for the excellent news 88group and leave the rest open for current competitors? Otherwise it would border on being 不公平. It's  not like you'd actually lose subscribers by giving away too many free goodies. I reckon that quite a few users indeed "live off" the trials, so the honest and dedicated ones should get a reward....

Thanks, but I prefer this one.

Bazza, 

Have you seen this site? 

http://www.bible.org/page.php?page_id=3976

(Now why is the chain icon greyed out? In both Safari and F/F?)

If Goulnik was to setup a new group based on 88news and transfer everything himself, then that would be fair.

I might do that with my 'Bible Chapters' group actually.

@Bazza, As "Activity is based on the number of members and discussions" we can consider that 88news discussion number will start from 0 here. But 88news should be part of this competition (and transferred here of course.)

bazza,

exactly: The whole "competition" is nonsense as Goulnik is the only legitimate winner. 88groups was "groups beta" and 88news is the only public group that survived. It will be the same here. So this really is a well earned "head start".

It is more than fair.

It wouldn't be fair, that would mean he's had a 7 month head start on every else.

88groups aren't the same as community groups.

(Not that I want to win though, as you know how hopeless I am at interviews.)

Yes, 88news get the best content so far and Goulnik spend part of his precious time on it. It would be fair to have 88news transfered as a group here for this competition.

Transfer 88news and declare Goulnik the winner.

Everything else wouldn't be fair.

285 meticulously prepared lessons, continued support for 10 months ("character insanity" --> 6 weeks??), full resonsiveness, compelling structure.

How to beat that?