I embarked upon my point whore campaign to demonstrate Gather's warped value system. I believe I have now proven this point beyond a doubt.
Yesterday, I published a thoughtful, well-written exposition on the state of mankind. It received a grand total of 14 comments. Compare that to the announcement of the aforementioned campaign, which garnered 193 comments (and presumably points to match)! If this isn't glaring evidence of the hypocrisy of the Gather community ("I joined Gather for the excellent [informative, entertaining, depth] of its writing") I can't think of a better way to expose it.
So, I don't want to hear any more whining and complaining about the decline in the quality of work here. If you really want to keep standards high, read and comment on the well-expressed, thoughtful pieces instead of bitching about the frivolous. Not that I claim any superiority in this area; I enjoy the games and quips as much as anyone, and delight in some of the witty repartee we engage in.
But the fact is, we all write for an audience. Sure, I'd rather attract readers to my "good" stuff, but if crap attracts more eyeballs, I'm perfectly willing to give 'em what they want.
So I'm off to drop my daily ration of meaningless comments. Have to make up for the time lost yesterday while writing that quality piece.
Almost forgot. To comply with your requirements, Sandy: kneecap.
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More by Dame Ruth, Chief Executive Elitist D. |
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Comments: 37
Yesterday I discovered a big secret, well not secret, it is on .gov websites, but did you know about this agreement to open the borders between the U.S., Mexico, Canada, to have one border around all three nations, to allow movement of workers to where they are needed, to obtain all the resources as desired.
Are you you feelings for the U.S. patriotic or nationalistis. Don't bother.
Here is a link North American Leaders Unveil Security and Prosperity Partnership"
It is Unbelievable that this has not been in the news.
Or Click this Link: Building A North American Community
Anyway Dame Ruth, I joined your point whore campaigne for fun, even a techie wonk plays
As for me it's not hypocrisy just a matter of being intensely busy today almost insane....
I'm sometimes amazed by what gets commented on and what doesn't and what gets rated and doesn't but who I am to question the stars?
Meanwhile, you have made an excellent point, as usual.
You left a comment in Webwriters article yesterday which is indicative of the problem. Webwriter is engaged in a huge project to address the illegal immigrant problem. It is not a simple problem, and her articles are long and complex. They are very well-researched and well-written, and they deserve special commendation. Your comment said that the article was too long. Now I am not criticizing you for that, and you did leave a comment, and probably a good rating. But I have noticed that most people are turned off by articles of more than a few hundred words. That is a shame, especially in this case, because she is trying to go deeply into this problem, and you cannot do that in a few hundred words. In fact, she has broken the topic up into a planned series of...don't remember...eight or ten articles.
I pointed out in my comment that she had only gotten eight or nine comments in a couple days. It is discouraging. I wrote some long travel articles with many photos. With the lame Gather editor, that is incredibly tedious because you can't upload the article WITH images...the images must be uploaded separately and manually inserted. Also, I write my articles in MS Word, and Gather is totally confused by MS Word formatting, so it is not WYSIWYG. It's a constant guessing game...try this...preview...nope...try that...preview...sigh.
Nothing here...in the ratings, the points or the management policies is specifically aimed at encouraging good writing.
So, as someone said recently when I commented that Gather was a site for writers, "You ain't been paying attention lately to the evolution of this site."
Bert... Your comments are sad but true. As for my observation that Webwriter's piece was too long, I apologize. I was busy scattering comments when I came across it and it really did look too daunting to tackle at that point. I guess that makes me as guilty as those I castigate for overlooking the meatier articles here. Mea culpa.
Donna.. I saw your comment on the "good" piece. Thank you. Glad to know I can still count on a few people to cast a glance in my direction, even when I'm not spouting nonsense.
I am highly offended when I take precious time to do this and do not get this in return. I try to pick the articles that I know will be well written, informative and sometimes just plain fun....so there's no rhyme or reason. I guess I live by the old school..."One good turn deserves another" and "One hand washes the other". Unfortunately I don't see that in practice much on here and I've only been around a short time.......sigh
Carolyn...I don't think there IS a clock at Gather HQ. I still haven't been notified of this article's appearance, though they continue to notify me two seconds after I make a comment on it.
Me too, Sandy. I'm a true believer in the I'll-read-yours-if-you-read-mine Theory of Reciprocity, with one or two notable exceptions (I'll read every word Birdie writes, even if she never reads a single one of mine, for instance). I just wish Gather woule make it a bit easier to carry on a cohesive conversation without having to jump through so many hoops.
I love ya Dame! keep writing ok?
I like Kozy Shack rice pudding.
Your theory of humanity applies very well to the microcosm of Gather.
I admit to not having a lot of time to read longer articles. I do try to read a little bit of everything here.
Gather crashed while I was trying to submit my first comment to this article, so hopefully this will go through.
I read Gather articles and comment on them when I find slack time in between my online job. I can pay attention only to small, frivolous articles and sometimes longer ones of exceptional interest or of humorous content. Others, if I find interesting, I put them off for later reading. That 'later reading' often never realizes because of the onslaught of new articles. I think same is the case with many people.
From an author's point of view it must be very disappointing, especially if the author has taken great pains to produce an article.
Sonia M. has a great coconut rice pudding recipe posted in her group 'Tropical Gardens" in case you're interested.
Mahalo nui loa, Lori.........hehehehehe!
Sonia....hey good is good and not is not and you're good! lol
Ruth, to be perverse, I am going to be focussed, I notice that one or two commentators join me there, and just deal the well raised pudding you have concocted here.
I don't visit Gather very often because as yet it does not connect with me in any meaningful way. That may have something to do with the way the site is constructed. It seems to me to be unneccessarily complex to navigate because it is attempting to offer everything to everyone, pander to every type of taste or proclivity; the latter is I believe Ruth, what you may be alluding to. It is an approach which, in my view, leads to shallowness and masks anything that may have strong quality and solid foundations on which to build a varied and interesting contributors' forum.
Yes, there is room for all sorts, but can the designers of this site sort out where they really want to go with Gather? The title suggests the bringing together of communicators, a laudable aim indeed, but not, I am sorry to say, very successfully progressed. Perhaps there should be more than one forum for all the ideas that are stirred into the fermenting pot that produced Gather - split it down and have have more than one web site for specific interests.
Here in the UK we have different radio stations to suit differing needs and tastes. We switch between what we want when we want it. We are not expected to navigate through one channel for everything. It avoids muddle, it clarifies boundaries and THAT is what is very much missing here.