Dear Linsi,
I must admit that I find it kind of hard to answer this posting, not because of the questions you ask, but because of the discussions between you and Jacques afterwards.
Let me try, though:
First of all, I want to emphasize how much I appreciate all the time and effort both you, Jacques and many other members put into this web site. It is because of you that Asia Observer gradually has developed into a much stronger community than it was. The growth in membership is an evidence of that.
I think in most web communities you will find about the same pattern, called the 1-9-90 rule. About 1 percent of the members contribute most of the content and participate on a daily basis. About 9 percent contribute now and then, and the last 90 per cent mainly read the content of the others without ever contributing much themselves.
This is quite natural, really. But the reason why the 90 per cent part keep returning is because of the content provided by members like yourself and a few others.
That being said: Let me try to answer some of your specific questions:
- Can you post as many shared articles as you like? Yes, you can. I have not set any limit of that, and probably will not do so either. This primarily becomes a problem if members start to spam. By that I mean posting commercial messages or numerous articles of meaningless nature. At Asia Observer we have been fortunate: We have had very few examples of this over the months. Whenever there are spam efforts I will take immediate action. So far this has not been a big problem, and I think that is not what you are writing about.
I would of course prefer to see more members sharing articles and I do encourage all of you to do so. The quality of the service will without doubt increase even more if more members share articles.
How to evaluate popular articles?
There are two ways. Visitors can rate the articles - and the better rated articles will display on the top. This is a way of harnessing the collective intelligence of our members. The other way is to note how many members actually click on the link. Ideally we would have an algoritm combining the two - our service is not so sophisticated yet.
For size of pictures I don't have a set target, but I think it is a good idea to not make it too big. When we get a new system in place there will probably be a limit to the size you are allowed to upload.
Then for the forum discussions:
The general recommendation would be this: Postings related to one particular country should primarily be published in the relevant country forums. The general forum threads will be for topics involving several countries.
That is the general rule. As for Jacques's Eye on Asia it works in many ways like a personal column of his, which means it should be put in one place. That is why I am considering whether it would be better to move it out of the forums and in to the blog. Originally I was planning to write the blog myself, but unfortunately my time is limited. No decision has been made yet on this.
Did I answer all of your questions? Maybe I am not too clear on everything. If so the reason is that I want the active members to have a clear say in how Asia Observer develops. I am hesitant to set out very specific regulations of how one behaves, as long as I feel people contribute to the improvement of Asia Observer. Too many restrictions on my part may discourage members from contributing to the best of their capacity. On the other hand I will of course try to guard for any abuse - and now and then I actually do delete some postings.
For a conclusion: I hope more and more members will decide to contribute on Asia Observer. It is our total collective intelligence that is making this a great site!
And Linsi: Thank you so much for your great efforts in making this happen! I am so proud to have you as an active member on Asia Observer!
John
Forums 
