I Really Hate This CHILDISH Crap On Gather!!

No kidding. Today, after talking with my sister, we discussed that what we really need to get our points and ratings up is to start fighting with one another.

This might explain a few things

Hey there webduck. I have not been on this site very long. I have met a lot of
nice people here. I don't care about ratings. I just like to know that my work gets
read. There are a lot of great stories and poetry here too. I enjoy reading the work
of others also. Hang in there . I think this is a great site.

I also cannot stand these "lunk heads" asking questions like how many girl names do you know that starts with the letter "W", etc. and they get about thirty to forty comments. Writing comes hard to me. I have to literally squeeze out my thoughts to put it down on paper, but I do it, and I am proud of myself.
But, I just get 2-3 comments, if i am lucky, the most i ever got was 12, but, I enjoy writing down my thoughts and sharing them with like-minded people. I also enjoy reading other people's articles and i love to comment on the one's that interest me.
Maybe, i'm too serious, maybe i have to lighten up a bit and ask "how many people do you know with names that start with the letter "X". Then I will get over 40 comments, at least!

I have no problem with gamers. Once in a while I'm lured in and play one of their games. Most of them are very nice and have every right to be on gather. I prefer writing political and other types of articles. I think gather needs to put channel buttons on the front page and let us put our articles on certain channels so that all articles work there. I realize the tags work similar to this - but I love those channel buttons and I would love to press the politics button and just get a list of only politics and the games would have thier own buttons too. Sometimes I feel like politics, sometimes like short stories, sometimes like a game.

I could handle most of it, if it was just ORGANIZED!! I mean the site, not the flaming!LOL

I agree with Marilyn. I also only get two or three comments about my stuff, ( which can be depressing at times)but i enjoy writing fiction. It doesn't matter whether someone out there likes it or not but my friends like them and thats what counts. I just ignore anything that doesn't interest me.

( now, if you can't sleep at night, and don't mind tales with a twist, please feel free to check it out, ta)

Navigating around can be hard sometimes. I do like the fact that there is such a variety of things to do here though-I can go argue politics on some nights and then wind down with a silly game or two. I never liked the rating system that allows too many people to abuse it

I don't mind the games, I don't mind the political discussions. . . but the internal politics are ridiculous. I also don't care how my articles are rated, but the fact that my ratings have dropped since I had the audacity to link to one of Sandy's flagged articles . . . it's just so juvenile. I linked because I was curious as to what would happen, not because I particularly supported the article; my article with the link was flagged within five minutes, and since then, I've been hit by some drive-bys, though it's not nearly as bad as many members endure when they decide to "talk to the wrong person."

I enjoy the people I've come to know here . . . and I ignore content I don't like, rather than kicking up a fuss about it. But the fact that there are people on the site who would like to have a controlling opinon regarding with whom I may "correctly" associate, and the fact that those people do not have the balls to contact me or email me directly to tell me this, but flag my article for no reason instead . . . it reeks of high school, and you know, Ducklet, how I felt about high school. It's arguable that the drama isn't affecting me personally, but I'm not sure I want to stay in a community where it is allowed to proliferate.

It would be nice if ratings under 10 had to be given in a comment box. Don't have to comment, if you don't want to--just sign your rating. :) I wouldn't think that would be so hard.

Does anyone know if there are actual moderators on this site? People whose job it is to read stuff? or do they just rely on the community policing itself?

The crap (email postings, games) does not bother me as much as the inappropriate flagging. Last night it was out of hand. I think anyone connected to Sandy got flagged. It would be very nice if Gather would respond to these articles and emails about the problem. I have not received a response.

Just in case Gather goes the way of Smiths (only west coast people would understand that jab) I have cashed in most of my points. I will continue to keep them low in case I need to make a quick getaway.

I am not a coward though, and I will stay because I like so many of the people here. We can make this a good place to be, just by being the good people we are. Yes, I know, that was poor sentence structure. ;-)

I've only been here four days and find the whole thing amazing. But I don't think there's ever been a site that didn't wind up with cliques, flame wars, etc. I always hate to see good people leave, especially if I've just discovered them (that is so frustrating), and just hope that by avoiding the bad neighborhoods and refusing to sink to the level of the trolls and the children of Belial, everyone will eventually find themselves safely landed on a sunny beach in Gather Land.

flaming will always be around...whether it be gather or google or even WRitersRus...(ok, I made that last one up) but what I'm telling you is there are always people who will do and say things under cover and protection of a computer. It's sad but it's true....and I'm sorry you had to deal with this, but it's a fact of life. I think gather is honestly trying to make this a good site but they can't be everywhere. The site seems to have grown so fast and I'm afraid they dont' have enough man power to handle all the problems that occur.

I had just gotten the words out of my mouth to my husband that things were starting to go crazy on this site. I just read Bob B.'s post about the comment on his icon, and I just don't understand people getting angry over nothing like that. I have noticed that there seem to be more articles lately that are games, recipes etc. I have no problem with that at all. Like some of the others said, I on occasion post on a game, and if the recipe sounds good I read it. I really enjoy the life stories, poetry, short short stories the most and there seem to be less of them lately. I don't know if it is because others are having the same trouble I am in clearing the winter out of my head to write...or if people are discouraged by the lack of feedback on the articles that take a lot of thought to write. I do see really great writing get no comments, while easy little paste and clips get many. Go figure...

Well said Marilyn, I am right here with you :)

Hiya Web :) Yes, grown ups act like kids, and people get all excited about trivia. Happens in "real" life, gonna happen in "cyber" life. If you stop caring about ratings and points, and just enjoy the people, it works better.

I think they are working on some kind of channel structure; I know I wrote into one of Tom's "talk with the CEO " things and afterwards got an answer sent to me about that. Didn't give a time frame or details though. I do think it would help a lot.

I don't write for points either. In fact, I don't even know how to cash them in. I know i should read the "help" column but I am too lazy.
I just enjoy writing, it makes me feel good to let out feelings that I have held in me for years. I enjoy speaking out...being a bit shy, gather has provided me with an excellent outlet for my feelings. Yes, Nancy this is a kind of therapy, a very good one.
Seeing that other people have the same feelings about the amount of comments on their articles, I feel better, I thought I was the only one.
That's the beauty of this site. I have met so many nice people here. It's good to know that there are really nice people out there all over the world. So let us keep on writing and discovering each other.

I agree, Duck. This has gone too far.

It has gone to far..when I came here to gather I was led to believe it was like myspace for "grownups" not true..I have a myspace account, and have never had a single problem there..yet here I get drive by 1's all the time, and snide comments about stuff I write...we're supposed to be adults here...unfortunately not everyone acts like one.

Gather needs to crack down on the repeat flaggers... The folks who go on Report sprees like if they click that button one more time they might win a brand new gum drop!

They have stated they would start kicking accounts that do that, but I have not seen any evidence of enforcement at all.

sad to say Gtaher is looking and sounding more and more like myspace .I came here to be around older nicer people humm must have made a wrong turn somewhere.

It is important to remember that the perfect is the enemy of the good. No matter how much we would like to improve Gather we can't make it perfect. Censorship, no matter how we try to disguise the word will not make Gather better. We can try to eliminate the most extreme cases, we can try to design the system so as to not encourage bad behavior, but to some extent we can never get rid of all bad behavior; not without significantly impacting the quality and the throughput of quality posts/comments on Gather.

I think we can divide the problem into three major questions. The first question is how to improve the quality of the comments to posts. There have been various proposals for article writer moderation and all have advantages and disadvantages. The problem that I see is that lousy comments are rewarded the same as insightful comments. For those who love points; quantity not quality is the key. You almost need a system to "rate" the comments, or at least allow people to reward the good ones over the bad ones.

The second question is how to improve the quality of the good articles. That answer is easy; get more people to write good articles! Even in groups I have joined I frequently find that there are periods where few good articles are published in them. It's really not a matter of poor articles; one can easily skip over them; but it is a matter of getting enough good content to encourage more good content.

Finally there is the problem of organizing Gather so that all the good content shines above the mediocre content or even the poor content. I don't know if there really is a good idea for how to do that. Organizations and subdivisions can help.

People need to grow up and act like adults around here. If you don't like something you see keep scrolling. No one makes you play games or read poems or write stories. That the great thing about Gather It is like Heinz 57. Ya get it all.
I have haters. They know who they are. They write about people naming them. It is no secret. But it is no sweat off my back. If their picking on me they are leaving someone else alone.
I have Faith one day they will get these things fixed so the drive by and popularity contest stops.
"Can't we all just get along? "
Rodney King

I agree with all that has already been said. I learned really quick not to disagree with certain people or my work would get hit with "1" ratings and I would be reported to the Gather gods.
I don't mind any kind of posts on Gather. The reason that I joined Gather was that there seemed to be something for everyone. I admit that I do post recipes, and the last few days, I've posted quite a few games. But I've also written serious articles about many different topics. For me, it just depends on the mood that I'm in on that particular day.

We can create our own reality. Surrounding ourselves with positive people and not giving credence to that which we don't want to embrace.

On the drive by rating thing. I think some are missing the point. Yes it is about the points, but in a round about way. Let's face it when someone gives you a one it's like someone slapped you in the face and said, "your article sucks." This can be especially hurtful when it is something you put a lot of yourself into. So you see it is about the ratings and it isn't. It isn't about ratings to increase points - it's about ratings being used as way to insult people and conceal your identlty. That's why I agree with those who say that any time you rate something you should comment.

Webduck - you do have a good point. But isn't the truth that people will resonate to those who are on their wavelength? Just as the radio bands are filled with a mixture of stations judged by each listener to be on a continuum of high to low quality - so too is gather peppered with a mixture of writers - judged by each other Gatherer to be on a continuum of high to low quality. In this perspective Gather is a perfect reflection of the world as it is in fact. Happy pickings!

Wonder why I haven't been around here much since the first of the year? For most of the reasons posted above. I have to force myself to sign onto gather anymore, only to find arguing over these points, flaming, nasty pictures that I have to delete, and on and on and on... but I'm not putting down those who put games up or posts I don't agree with because it's their right to do so and just because I may not like or want to participate is NOT their problem. I'm also not real fond of the ads starting to be IN THE MIDDLE of the columns where articles are. I think this is a very poor choice on the part of the gather execs. There's plenty of space along BOTH SIDES that is dead empty. When it gets to the point that the advertising is more important than the users, as happened on AOL, I'll disappear completely.