Is PDF the biggest online social/military platform of Pakistan?

[PaklovesTurkiye]

Hi,

I was thinking about this.

Is it safe to assume that there is no other online platform in Pakistan which can give competition to PDF (Pakistan Defence Forum) when it comes to outreach, diversity and number of members?

I mean I don't know of any other local platform where you're having Pakistanis and foreigners talking about stock markets to Beirut explosion and from tree plantation to wars.

Seriously, I am assuming that this forum is read and monitored by intelligence agencies as well - ours and of others.

A forum where we have members from Karachi to Kashmir and from South Asia to North America.

PDF is small world in itself. Yet it has more potential which needs to utilized.

What can be done then? How can we maximize its reach right up to PM house in Islamabad or up to different capitals of world?

How can we make it more BIG and visible?

Kuch samajh araha hai?

 

[PDF]

How can we make it more BIG and visible?

Promote and share it on social media. We regularly update them with postings so sharing them will help increase outreach.

 

[Bouncer]

How can we maximize its reach right up to PM house in Islamabad or up to different capitals of world?

Hire professional and credible analysts and make something out of PDF's think tank i.e. a brand of its own. A magazine on lines of Foreign Policy but more credible.

 

[Tamiyah]

How can we make it more BIG and visible?

Good question.

 

[Zarvan]

Hi,

I was thinking about this.

Is it safe to assume that there is no other online platform in Pakistan which can give competition to PDF (Pakistan Defence Forum) when it comes to outreach, diversity and number of members?

I mean I don't know of any other local platform where you're having Pakistanis and foreigners talking about stock markets to Beirut explosion and from tree plantation to wars.

Seriously, I am assuming that this forum is read and monitored by intelligence agencies as well - ours and of others.

A forum where we have members from Karachi to Kashmir and from South Asia to North America.

PDF is small world in itself. Yet it has more potential which needs to utilized.

What can be done then? How can we maximize its reach right up to PM house in Islamabad or up to different capitals of world?

How can we make it more BIG and visible?

Kuch samajh araha hai?

Not just of Pakistan the @WebMaster has turned this website into best defence forum of the world. I haven't seen any other defence forum with this magnitude as well as size.

 

[hamilcar of carthage]

I once asked the mods to create a section for research conduction, however, that fell on deaf ears except one person who was keen, the rest only viewed it.

 

[PaklovesTurkiye]

Interesting

 

[jamahir]

How can we make it more BIG and visible?

If some of the discussions weren't so hostile we could have had offline meetings in our own countries.

 

[litman]

Hi,

I was thinking about this.

Is it safe to assume that there is no other online platform in Pakistan which can give competition to PDF (Pakistan Defence Forum) when it comes to outreach, diversity and number of members?

I mean I don't know of any other local platform where you're having Pakistanis and foreigners talking about stock markets to Beirut explosion and from tree plantation to wars.

Seriously, I am assuming that this forum is read and monitored by intelligence agencies as well - ours and of others.

A forum where we have members from Karachi to Kashmir and from South Asia to North America.

PDF is small world in itself. Yet it has more potential which needs to utilized.

What can be done then? How can we maximize its reach right up to PM house in Islamabad or up to different capitals of world?

How can we make it more BIG and visible?

Kuch samajh araha hai?

that goes without saying. most likely this site is controlled by the establishment. and many members here could be hired for this job . they are given inside news with some mirch masala. but it is required in the modern times. when most of the mainstream media is full of people who are on the pay roll of our external and internal enemies its good to have a site which promotes opinion of the establishment.
but it cant be expanded much as everybody knows the truth about this site and the news and opinions shared here cant be considered credible by the civilians and secondly not lot of people are interested about pak defence. mostly it is visited by the family members usually young boys belonging to the armed forces families or by young officers. as anti military propaganda is controlled mainly by india and india has well established media warfare network. they are there on every forum and we cant defeat them. they are far greater and more organized. we cant match them as in pakistan only the military alone will defend itself in media warfare. even media cells of many of our poltical parties are against military while that is not the case with the indians. vast majority of their civilians and military are united and we must give them the credit where it is due.

 

[N.Siddiqui]

Not just of Pakistan the @WebMaster has turned this website into best defence forum of the world. I haven't seen any other defence forum with this magnitude as well as size.

Who owns and runs the PDF by the way.

How can they run it uninterrupted do they have huge servers or cloud support.

Was it run from South Africa, some rumors....

Rest of the questions have answers.

No doubt it the ease of use and wider sections from all across the world that makes PDF different and great...standing out from the crowd.

 

[Ocelot]

Siasat.pk is ranked better in both global (expats) and local engagement. However, a lot of discussion is conducted in Urdu and the crowd quality is relatively low as compared to here, which is down to two reasons: first its infested with political party supporters and there's always some fighting and abusing going on, secondly most of the expat crowed is from gulf countries who aren't as sophisticated as Pakistanis living in Europe or US (this site is an evidence). There are some members here who are members over there as well.

 

[Shantanu_Left]

PDF might be the biggest online defence forum but there is way too much hostility, soft/hard trolling and off-topic rants to consider it for a next level. I guess you can't take those things away as otherwise it would ruin the fun for many people (myself included).

Have you seen the profile of the participants here? Some are just here to start fights, that's one of the reasons I lost interest in some of the topics because none of them have any actual interest in geopolitics or military matters. Just because it's a defence forum doesn't mean you want conflict on every single issue, you also want discussions to defuse the fires where needed.

If you want a serious "panel" like environment, maybe you need some celebrities to throw their support. Again not every kind of celebrity will do. Someone like Mr. Zaid Hamid would get some of the ultra-nationalist Pakistani posters very excited, and even the Hindutvadi of BJP IT cell will be excited (it will drive up their registration numbers - an opportunity to troll Zaid Hamid is every IT cell member's dream). But it will be impossible to keep any discussions civil.

However you do need at least 2-3 well-known celebrities who want to regularly participate here. Stormfront has David Duke, an ex-Klansman and a fairly popular rightwinger in the USA. Not defending that person or his brand of politics but he fits the profile of that website perfectly. The celebrities should take time out of their busy schedules to not only post on this forum, but also interact with the users.

I don't think PDF is number one forum: Stormfront does have an edge over it in terms of traffic and whatever else. Also Breitbart gets huge traffic. I hate to give the examples of two extreme right-wing sources, but they get huge amounts of traffic through a "secret recipe".

A main challenge is that the vBulletin format for discussions is becoming a bit dated! Maybe the site admins need to move with the times and develop an Android/iOS app (Reddit has one). You can have your own microblogging section along the lines of Twitter (280 characters or less): the possibilities are endless but some innovation is definitely needed in terms of PDF's presentation.

You may also experiment with podcasts, video contents with comments section, and things that appeal to the iComputer generation. I am someone who bought a smartphone only recently in 2018, so I am behind the times technologically so the PDF format is reasonable and strikes me as something relevant for my generation (I'm nearing 40). The younger lads of the iComputer generation need better user experience.

@Foxtrot Alpha @waz

 

[Ivan]

Seriously, I am assuming that this forum is read and monitored by intelligence agencies as well - ours and of others.

 

[Dalit]

Hire professional and credible analysts and make something out of PDF's think tank i.e. a brand of its own. A magazine on lines of Foreign Policy but more credible.

This is a very good suggestion. Pakistan is in dire need of a reputable magazine which provides insight into

 

[Dalit]

PDF might be the biggest online defence forum but there is way too much hostility, soft/hard trolling and off-topic rants to consider it for a next level. I guess you can't take those things away as otherwise it would ruin the fun for many people (myself included).

Have you seen the profile of the participants here? Some are just here to start fights, that's one of the reasons I lost interest in some of the topics because none of them have any actual interest in geopolitics or military matters. Just because it's a defence forum doesn't mean you want conflict on every single issue, you also want discussions to defuse the fires where needed.

If you want a serious "panel" like environment, maybe you need some celebrities to throw their support. Again not every kind of celebrity will do. Someone like Mr. Zaid Hamid would get some of the ultra-nationalist Pakistani posters very excited, and even the Hindutvadi of BJP IT cell will be excited (it will drive up their registration numbers - an opportunity to troll Zaid Hamid is every IT cell member's dream). But it will be impossible to keep any discussions civil.

However you do need at least 2-3 well-known celebrities who want to regularly participate here. Stormfront has David Duke, an ex-Klansman and a fairly popular rightwinger in the USA. Not defending that person or his brand of politics but he fits the profile of that website perfectly. The celebrities should take time out of their busy schedules to not only post on this forum, but also interact with the users.

I don't think PDF is number one forum: Stormfront does have an edge over it in terms of traffic and whatever else. Also Breitbart gets huge traffic. I hate to give the examples of two extreme right-wing sources, but they get huge amounts of traffic through a "secret recipe".

A main challenge is that the vBulletin format for discussions is becoming a bit dated! Maybe the site admins need to move with the times and develop an Android/iOS app (Reddit has one). You can have your own microblogging section along the lines of Twitter (280 characters or less): the possibilities are endless but some innovation is definitely needed in terms of PDF's presentation.

You may also experiment with podcasts, video contents with comments section, and things that appeal to the iComputer generation. I am someone who bought a smartphone only recently in 2018, so I am behind the times technologically so the PDF format is reasonable and strikes me as something relevant for my generation (I'm nearing 40). The younger lads of the iComputer generation need better user experience.

@Foxtrot Alpha @waz

PDF is not Breitbart or Stormfront. PDF shouldn't have political or any other kind of affiliation. As a platform it should remain neutral on certain issues. On others it should have strict guidelines.

PDF should ban RSS extremists from Hindustan. A lot of RSS affiliated Indians come on PDF to troll and destroy the decorum. As long as mods don't apply a zero tolerance policy towards racists and RSS trolls PDF will remain just a good forum where trolls come and go.

If PDF wants to go beyond good, it needs to decide that it won't allow certain members to abuse its hospitality.

There are plenty of forum members who can deliver quality content and excellent discourse. When you discourage RSS members to become a member of PDF there will be less trolling. This will benefit the quality and decorum.

You mention Breitbart and Stormfront as an example. Try to troll against Christians, second amendment or any other issue that is sacred to these right-wing platforms. How long will any troll survive? He will be banned in an instant without an explanation. PDF needs to have a similar approach. We all know what is sacred to us. We need to protect it unapologetically. First and foremost this is a Pakistani Defence Forum.