[hitanshu]

http://www.vakow.com/ is the way.

So basically all of us and our friends sign up. And instead of the bulk PMs that NCR guys send for example, they just SMS blog on vakow and instantly everyone knows without signing on BCMT.

Helps the lurkers.

Ofc, due apologies to Yogi/mods if it in any way reduces traffic on BCMT!

There are ofc other sites but this is just one I got to know.

And better than mailing to all junta. The SMSes will surely be read and can be sent by city leads!

[Yogesh Sarkar]

Personally I wouldn't use this type of service, unless I know for sure that my phone number wouldn't be bombarded with marketing calls/sms. Handling spam at email level is easy, but on mobile phone it is a serious problem and annoyance.

Ps. topic moved to feedback and suggestions.

[hitanshu]

Well, that's the obvious one, no?

None I've seen with avid users till now. That said, the future is pregnant with possibility

[Yogesh Sarkar]

The thing is, you wouldn't know the spam messages are coming from them, unless they are stupid enough to spam under their own name.

[hitanshu]

Yaar theek hai. galti ho gayi. Will not even post any helpful/useful posts now.

Let me give you another point of view instead. BCMT is today a respected portal.

When it started back in mid 06, somoene would've felt uneasy trusting their email ID with an unknown brandname compared with many others, lest one spammed. But then again, clearly you're starting from a negative frame of mind.

Suggestion was anyways for you to take or reject but since you've neither bothered to search about the company or its pedigree, here is something interesting.
http://startupcentral.wordpress.com/...-meets-rediff/

IIT Mumbai grads, genuine serial startup fellows (google/read up barcamp reviews), idea similar to twitter, investment by rediff - doesn't quite merit the words you used in your post. As another person from the school of hard knocks, I'd presume you'd be charitable in your opinion atleast.

That said, kindly delete the thread itself. Has served its purpose - suggestion has reached its target audience. Good Night.

[Yogesh Sarkar]

Let me give you another point of view instead. BCMT is today a respected portal.

When it started back in mid 06, somoene would've felt uneasy trusting their email ID with an unknown brandname compared with many others, lest one spammed. But then again, clearly you're starting from a negative frame of mind.

Suggestion was anyways for you to take or reject but since you've neither bothered to search about the company or its pedigree, here is something interesting.
http://startupcentral.wordpress.com/...-meets-rediff/

IIT Mumbai grads, genuine serial startup fellows (google/read up barcamp reviews), idea similar to twitter, investment by rediff - doesn't quite merit the words you used in your post.

First off, just because a web startup has been started by IITians or IIM grads, doesn’t mean they can be blindly trusted. I can give you the names of web startups which were started by student from respectable institutes in India and US; however the project sank like titanic, taking investors and user’s money and data with them. Not to mention instances where people were even cheated out of the money and/or data. Even they had initially received backing from large investors and investment firms and received plenty of positive exposure in media (which happens a lot if you have the money).

Secondly with respect to this particular project, can you please tell me how do they make money?

Servers, staff salary, finances required for development and marketing activity etc. require money. Also I guess they aren’t really running a charity there and are planning to make money off of it, then where the hell would that money come from? Until they disclose that, how do we know that isn’t going to come from selling users phone numbers or from sending marketing messages?

Frankly I am more apprehensive of websites which claim to provide great service yet have no visible way of generating revenue than sites which are loaded with ads.

Now with regards to using their systems for sending out SMS alerts for the meets, I will not officially endorse a website, unless I am throughly convinced that it is actually good and does what it claims, even if it has big websites and people backing it.

As another person from the school of hard knocks, I'd presume you'd be charitable in your opinion atleast.

As far as being charitable with my views goes, I have done that plenty of time in the past only to be burned by them. Sadly there are only a handful of people who are actually interested in creating something useful, rest just want to get on the expressway to making money online.

Which type these guys are, we will only know in future, till then I will take their project with a pinch of salt.

That said, kindly delete the thread itself. Has served its purpose - suggestion has reached its target audience. Good Night.

When you post something on the internet in an open forum, remember that it may stay online indefinitely, if you feel you have point that you want to convey to only a few select individuals then please use private messaging or email.

[BHARAT]

What I Think is BCMT is definately beyond just routine chit-chat and massenger services. So regrading traffic reduction, I will be happy, if this kind of junta prefer something else. So have more serious contents here with quality and depth.. And we have now more explorers on our forum, so they will also luv this...
A'm I right ? what say YS?

[rahulg]

Hi,

My name is Rahul and I'm one of the founders of Vakow! (www.vakow.com)

I got this thread forwarded to me by one of our users who probably is a member of this forum as well.

About Privacy Policy:

We clearly mention in our Privacy Policy that your phone numbers will NOT be shared with any 3rd party for whatever reasons. Also, your phone number is not made visible on the website or to your "followers" (people who are subscribed to your SMS blog). We display your phone number when you send out a Personal SMS and we clearly mention that we'd be doing so (so that receiver can identify you).

Apart from the legal text and various mentions on the website (and giving your my word) there is little that I can do to convince you that your phone number will not be made public.

About Revenue Model:

We are a young company in a relatively new market and we're looking at various ways of making money. One of which is advertising on the website and on mobile.

Even though I mentioned that your phone number will not be SHARED with any 3rd party (which is correct), we reserve the right to send you an SMS ad, either stand alone OR attached to an SMS that you have received from your friend through us.

Having said that, we would HATE to (and hence will NEVER) do it in a way that you don't like it. We're just not that type.

We hope that the whole service (including the ads) that we provide will be of much use to you and you can stay in touch with group members better through Vakow!

If there are any ideas in terms of how Vakow! can enhance the interaction between group members, beyond the features that we currently provide, we could look at building it for you guys. Please feel free to mail me, whenever. (support-at-vakow-dot-com)

And now that I'm a member of this forum, I look forward to travel related conversations as well.

cheers
rg

[hitanshu]

I'd heard about you from other junta from IITB but I didn't wanna bring that up here.

That said its a tool with multiple uses. Just like how junta was updating the BCMT Leh ride last september, you could start an SMS blog for the same, or for any group ride.

As a technology to keep many junta in the loop and keep BCMT's activities high in people's mindspace I think its a fantastic tool (nowhere do I say endorse/publicise/support - just use it is all I say). But then again, just my thoughts.

@Rahul: Quite appreciate the initiative even though it wasn't required and IMNSHO the Rediff investment quite justifies the pedigree and speaks volumes. My best wishes to you guys.

[Yogesh Sarkar]

What I Think is BCMT is definately beyond just routine chit-chat and massenger services. So regrading traffic reduction, I will be happy, if this kind of junta prefer something else. So have more serious contents here with quality and depth.. And we have now more explorers on our forum, so they will also luv this...
A'm I right ? what say YS?

Bharat we already have a system in place where people can receive email notifications when a thread is started in a particular forum. All one has to do is to go to that specific forum; click on forum tools and click on subscribe to this forum and choose daily/weekly email updates. That way when ever a new thread is created i.e. in case of an upcoming meet, automatic email notification would be sent to them regarding it.

Is someone feels they are too busy to visit the forum, yet want to keep tab of meets, then they can certainly use that feature.

Even though I mentioned that your phone number will not be SHARED with any 3rd party (which is correct), we reserve the right to send you an SMS ad, either stand alone OR attached to an SMS that you have received from your friend through us.

Rahul welcome to BCMTouring, glad that you have joined in and clarified Vakow’s stand on this subject.

Having said that, I fall into the category of people who simply hate marketing email/sms/phonecalls unless they are from a company, whose services I am interested in and have thus subscribed to their newsletter or sms updates. A testament of this fact is that my phone number is currently registered in do not disturb list with my service provider. If this is my stand then how can I ask others register to a service which may or may not send them sms marketing messages in future.