Getting Started at Gather, tips for newbies

Welcome to Gather.  Someone described Gather as a large community with individual street corners where people of different interests gathered.  At Gather you will find many different interests: politics, serious writers, poets, people who share recipes, travel stories, movies and reviews, humorists, photographers, artists, gamers, and many other specific interests that people want to share. 

 Finding what you are interested in.

Searching by tag or keyword can be a good way to navigate yourself to stuff you are interested in.  Groups are another way.  Simply find Groups on the menu bar and then click on the search groups to find groups that focus on your interests.  You might also find a person that authors the kind of article you like.  When you have done this you can Subscribe or Connect to them.  Subscribing or Connecting allows you the option of receiving email alerts when that author publishes something new.  Lastly, when you find an article that is specific to your interests check out the groups and tags that it was published to.

Most new people begin by filling out a profile and uploading a picture (or image) to use as their icon.  What you put in your profile is up to you and it depends on what your objectives are.  Most people use a picture of themselves as their icon but there are as many kinds of icons as there are imaginations.

 Publishing

There are many kinds of articles that you can find an audience for at Gather but it will take time to get the attention of a broad audience.  Initially it can be worthwhile to get a couple of short articles up that are representative of the kind of interests you have or the kind of article that you want to write.  It is also easier for people to sample your writing and get a sense of your style if the articles are short (less than 400 words).  Depending on your interests it might be more appropriate to publish images.  Having a sample of the kinds of things you want to share makes it easier for people who visit your site to determine whether they should connect to you.

 Building an audience

Start by reading the works of others and leaving comments.  You'll find that when someone new comments on your work, it tweaks an interest in finding out who that person is.  So your comments on others work will draw people to your site.  Leaving a lot of comments can help you develop momentum for your own work.

Writing shorter articles but publishing often tends to keep you in the spotlight.  Much like blogging you will build a larger audience quicker by being visible frequently.  However, it should be noted that certain authors have done rather well by providing interesting work without a high degree of frequency, so don?t be discouraged if you cannot be online all the time.

Maintaining consistency in your work also helps you to build an appropriate audience, although this might be a bit limiting for some authors.  If you publish a humorous piece followed by a political tirade followed by a thoughtful poem on relationships, your potential readers will be confused and might not return.  Some authors resort to developing different Gather identities for different genres of their writing.  This does have the downside of splitting your points and splitting your visibility within the community. 

Publishing your articles with the right tags and to the right groups.  One of the publishing steps is to add tags and publish to groups.  You can put any tag that you think is appropriate, but the tag should reflect how you think people might search for your article.  You will also have an option to publish to the groups that you are a member of.  For this reason, you should make one of your first activities to sign up as a member to any group that you think is appropriate to your interests.  Publishing to a group will help give you immediate visibility to people who do not know you but who click on the group page looking for information representative of the group.

Respond to comments on your own work.  Not everyone will check back to see if you responded but a certain percentage will.  Responding to their comments keeps your article in the comment flow and encourages others to get involved in a discussion.  Keep in mind that some browsing readers will check out the New Comments section for what is happening. 

 Good titles help.  Your title acts like a headline.  Try to be descriptive so you draw the right people but clever titles like A Sacrilegious History Lesson or My Journey Through Homosexuality will encourage readers to take a peek. 

Controversial Ways to build an Audience and Get Points

Use Gather email to notify people of your articles.  Often this is done for special occasions like when Gather is sponsoring the author?s article on the front page.  Sending email, however, can be easily abused and sending mass emails frequently will result in considerable backlash and your connections blocking your email.

Publish something outrageous or controversial.  These articles will often generate lots of comments and readers but if they cross the line of rational logic they may affect your overall credibility with your connections and in the Gather community generally.

Publishing sexy pictures not only attracts men to your site (and perhaps certain women) but also attracts people who will give such pictures low scores and negative comments while others defend your right to publish.  In either case, comments get you points and notoriety.

Over publish to groups.  Some groups are moderated and your article will be rejected.  Other groups will wind up publishing it whether it is related or not.  Unfortunately, this is being done much too often today and it makes the groups less meaningful. 

 Gathering Points

How points are earned at Gather is a constantly changing formula, so you are best to check with the official Gather source for earning points.  They try to keep the specifics of the formula a secret so that it can?t be exploited.  The concept is as follows: Gather attracts visitors/readers.  These visitors allow Gather to make money on advertising.  Gather shares the advertising with the members who generate visitors, that is, the authors.  So the point system is intended to go to the most popular authors, those who get high rankings, lots of comments, and lots of readers as well as those who set up and run popular groups.

Therefore, a number of techniques have been developed for gathering points, such as deliberately designing articles that elicit comments.  Examples of this would be articles that ask the reader to share their experience, or play a game, or incite readers with an outrageous statement. 

Leaving comments results in points for the author and there are times when an open discussion is the essence of the article, e.g., the Listeners Lounge.  Joining in these discussions can also be a way to gain attention for yourself. 

 Flagging and Reporting

Articles and images may be tagged for adult content.  In the event that the author does not tag it as such, the reader has an option to report an image or an article as ?inappropriate.?  As a new user you may want to be cautious about reporting too many images and articles as inappropriate until you have a feel for what is considered acceptable.  For example, nudity is generally flagged for adult content but is considered appropriate when so flagged.  An article that you personally find offensive may or may not be considered inappropriate.  In general, Gather has an open environment that encourages freedom of speech and strong opinions.  You should review their terms of service (TOS) if you feel an article or image is inappropriate.  If after reviewing the TOS you believe some content is in violation of the TOS then you should report it. 

Gather is looking at ways to minimize harassing reporting and you should be aware that repeated attempts to report a specific author or content without good reason will likely be noted by Gather and action may be taken against people who abuse this process.

 Guarded Viewing

When you first sign on for Gather, your setting is automatically set to have Guarded Viewing as ON.  This means that certain material, flagged by the author as having material intended for mature individuals may not be available to you.  If you want to change your Guarded Viewing setting to OFF (which allows you full access to mature material) you will find it under My Gather under Mail Preferences and Settings.

 Finally a self promoting plug for the author of this article. 

I specialize in erotic literature.  In order to read most of my articles you must have your Guarded Viewing setting to OFF.  My material is intended for a mature audience.  If you do have interest, find the Index on my home page (http://rush.gather.com) which will provide you a brief summary of each story and a means to easily navigate (by clicking on the link).

I hope this guide is helpful to new members and I welcome comments. Since I originally published this article there is another Welcoming article for new members written by April.  She does an excellent job of giving a lighter view and filling you in on some of the people here at Gather.  You will not find it duplicative: Welcome to Gather