ForumIAS has just announced its 2016 Mains Test Series Plan.Though the plan looks attractive,the cost is high nevertheless.Joining one test series for nearly 14000 bucks rules out the chances of joining any other popular expensive test series(as they are equally or lets say prohibitively expensive).
So what's your take on it guys?Any one else joining?Will it be good especially for first timers who are without much clue on what to do or how to score well?
Please pour in your inputs.
Thankyou.
Comments
I thank you for raising this concern and sharing my enthusiasm for keeping this platform a neutral one. I have the maximum stake in this Forum's neutrality - since I am heavily emotionally invested in it and secondly, because I created it.
As far as neutrality is concerned, we are very very clear on that aspect. We do not use the Forum as subservient to Commercial products, in case you may not have noticed. You could criticise the paid products - Forum's or other's as well as others's - as long as you meet two conditions - a) There is no personal attack involved b) You do not create a separate thread just to promote or dis-promote Forum/ Anyone else.
In case you did not notice, Insights Discussion threads were running parallel along ForumIAS Test Series discussions - in fact Insights threads were more active. We do not close threads that have some value.
Now, way back in 2013 and 2014 we decided to shut down the Forum multiple times, because it costs a lot of energy, time and money to run a Forum this big. Moderators of old times know this since it was discussed many times over.
A call had to be taken. Sometime last year, I decided to resign from Prime Minister's Rural Development Fellowship and make ForumIAS viable - and to give it 2-3 years more of my life and attention.
The quality of discussions in 2014 and 15 were totally way off the mark and I can tell that I did not like visiting the Forum anymore.
In 2016 we worked hard to restore good discussions on the Forum. The goal was one - let all study related discussions thrive.
With a Test Series, one good thing happened.
Most coaching institutes thought that their promotional threads would be deleted , so after the launch of test Series, a lot of institutes stopped spamming the Forum with new accounts, created for the purpose. They thought it would be deleted.
Buy & Sell was controlled too.
In 2016, we have one goal - to revamp the Forum Software to modern design, and keep the discussions meaningful. And to make the Forum Advertisement Free by 2017.
Some info for the geeks
The Forum architecturally, isn't designed to handle "conversations" at a fast face - something which keep happening. And the code ( for which I am to blame, since I heavily modified the source code without following standard practices ) isnt optimised - so it consumes a lot of CPU ( which is very very expensive ) - like 1 16 core computer runs it.
We know because the RAM consumer is hardly 16 GB - thought at a similar CPU power consumption, the RAM consumed should have been 64 GB.
This Prelims, we moved the database to a separate server and created two additional servers ( boxes ) using a load balancer. This still did not work out, and you saw the server crash and in fact site did not open for multiple days. We lost close to 97k in a week (billing for 3 servers) and yet the site did not run smooth. We failed.
The Database isn't optimised and every-time you load a page - a full database query is made, polling every comment, reply and "like" in that page.
We will be working on upgarding the software. This would require a sockets.io implementation that allows much larger number of database connections and real time chat experience - like in Whatsapp. We are doing this in http://forumias.academy
This will also require excellent coding skills and architecture design knowledge.
Challenge before us, and why we are doing what we are doing
The biggest challenge before us has been hiring the right people. The three engineers who decided to join us ( all ForumIAS members ) were former Adobe employees, but went on to work with Snapdeal, Paytm and Myntra. Love for ForumIAS was not enough to work for a sustained period.
The challenge still remains, since corporate salaries and even government salaries are so high that it doesn;t really make sense for anyone to work for ForumIAS, unless he has zero employ-ability in the labour market, becuase of total lack of both soft and hard skills.
Unfortunately, hiring such talent will be detrimental for ForumIAS too.
Sometime in April, we wanted to do a Community Meet. We could not arrange a proper place for the meet. We needed our own space.
Then for the Test Series, we took up a Test Center. As someone pointed out, we could use it only for Sundays. And then one day we were told to move out, because too many students came to write "FREE" test.
You are angry, we know
A lot of you are angry, including old members and mods for an expensive program such as a Mains Test Series.
Lets do the Math. You live in ORN. A Commercial Test Center Running in ORN costs 20 times your room rent, per month. Multiply it by three months and divide the cost betweet, let us say 50 people who join the Mains TS.
Do not tell us rents are cheap in ORN.
Add to that the cost of paper, staff and AC.
We know what we are doing. If you have a better way, email me at ayush@forumias.com ( Do not send suggestions like switch off the AC, ask people to come up with own answersheet and save paper cost, let electricity bill come and divide among all )
A Test Center may not have been best idea to take up "because some test series students demanded it"
Also, some of you own property in ORN. If you are willing to give it for FREE for 3 months, we could accommodate more people, a lot of them for Free.
Regarding neutrality
ForumIAS is run by one single individual as an admin, which is not ME. There are coders, who work part time ( some of whom work part time with us ) have no interest or knowledge of UPSC and related discussions.
Content writers are not active forum members, so they have no interest in promoting or dispromoting anyone.
And extreme negative views about any institute does attract legal suits -we have 3 of them - the highest being a 100 crore one, the cheapest being a 2 crore one.
The two prominent websites in UPSC each think that we are "promoting" another one and "de-promoting" them.
Coaching institutes think we have no job but to sit and write negative comments about them.
Some members also think that we sit all day reading every line they write apply censorship on it.
Honestly, elected moderators control the Forum. Some of them may have sympathies for us/other websites. This usually happens when you write extremely negative about something which has no resemblance to reality.
You are grown up people. You will believe what you have to. One cannot change it apart from appealing to reason.
We have two choices before us. Do our job, or sit and wait for someone to do something and criticise the hell out of other people. We try to do the former, There is a lot less competition there.
About ForumIAS.Academy
There is tremendous amount of talent in the individuals in the forum. We want to use that talent and have the infrastructure and work to absorb that talent. Some of our members are writers, poets and great mentors. Without a platform, a lot of it is lost.
At ForumIAS Academy, the goal will be to introduce low cost courses, created by the best of ForumIAS members and made available via an online platform. If you can teach, you can start there, eventually. We are right now in Testing phase.
We met a lot of people who cleared the exam after 2-3 rigorous attempts. And we asked them, why dont you teach before you lave for the academy? They said they dont know how to. So we created this.
About Neutrality Again
Rest assured, the neutrality of the Forum shall be maintained. Its as much my job as its yours. If you ever feel that being violated, please do not hesitate to write to me at ayush@forumias.com or to ravi@forumais.com and I will resolve it.
But I need to know the problem before I can solve it. I cannot solve a problem that does not exist in the first place.
I came and spoke to you in all honestly, because this issue concerns us all. And it shall be my duty to ensure that the platform remains more study oriented.
About Reviews
With unverified profiles, ForumIAS is not suitable for reviews as you may have all realised. We do not encourage extremely positive or extremely negative reviews. Please do not create threads to "expose entities" or awareness generation sensational threads". This is a platform for Civil Services Preparation, not mouthshut.com
If you want to know why this is not good, just imagine a scenario where everyone is trying to create a Beware of XYZ thread? Where does the meaningful discussion go? On the other hand if we have more History Geography or DAF questions, more people tend to benefit. Does'nt it?
And please try to think from the beginner's perspective. Are you going to leave the Forum in a better shape than when you first started using it? because it thrives on collective effort.
Lastly, it would be lovely if we could keep it a self moderated community.
If you would like to work with us and move to Gurgaon, please reach us.
regarding space i would suggest you to persuade schools ; MCD school near park , janki devi college , salwan public school,other is (near metro) ,behind gurudwara . bhai suruwaat choti moti jgah se hi hoti hai. aur logo ko koi diqt nhi , vaise b kaunse Gmat ki tayari kr rhe h , banege b to gaavo ki hi sewa krni h . To centre kaisa b ho chalega ,provided you be your name !!!!
i can give 2days to facilitate search a school than a high rent space at mid of ORN . people can come to write ,if its bit cheap. qualitative , trustworthy .
god bless you !!
no offense ,buts thats how forumias test series last 2 last yr when they started prelims test series first time. so this yr its mains test series , they have to commit something strong openly.
mind you all above reviews by seasoned player like andy nd others !!
Bhai tumhe agar itni problem ho rahi hai emotionally and financially... to band kardo yeh forum but emotions ke saath na khelo please. Jab tumne faisla kiya ki tum yeh forum chalaoge full time, tab tumhe iske risk to clear hi honge.
Tum forum ko neutral rakhtna chahte ho, i agree, lekin perception aisa hai nahin (perception is equally important as intention). Yeh mat kehna ki log sceptic hain, aakhir hain to issi community ke. Waise bhi flavido to chala hi rahe ho tumlog.Tension mat lo bhai.
To the aspirants, inquire about the test series and then make decision, its your career, your important year. Dont get emotional by anyone's talk while taking decision regarding test series (or any other classes). We all know how cruel prelims has become, you get an opportunity to write mains, dont waste it please. Be practical and take decision which best suits you and make you satisfied.
I do not have anything to gain personally here but you need to trust people at times. When vision charges 20,000+ there is no halla, even if there is halla they dont give a damn. Me, my friends and others have suffered so much due to bad checking by vision. 14000 is not cheap either, i understand, but that price can be justified considering good number of tests and quality.