What's Happening TODAY on Gather! Friday, October 5th, 2007

That's interesting, Pam. So, all of the articles, and there are many - that ask for say, 100 comments or things like that are against the terms of service?
As to comment spamming, I have a question about that. Wouldn't comment spamming apply in certain of the games, such as the ones that say things like "Name a word that starts with the letter M."? Those will be one word answers and people comment over and over again, thus giving the poster many comments - all one word. Is that in fact, comment spamming? Thanks - Mark

Thanks for clarifying the system somewhat. I guess it's a fine line between letting people play games and spamming. There's no good, solid answer to point grabbing unless the games are banned, and that would probably cause an uproar. I guess you have done the best you could to compromise.

Since the games are allowed, wouldn't it be reasonable to expect some intelligence from them though? Instead of the one word answers over and over again, by the same people, with a bit of thought, anyone could come up with a game that *takes* some thought and would require some thought and also fun to play it. It only seems fair. I'll wait for a reply though, as I'm curious.

Pam,

Thanks for the clarification.

My understanding of the points has always been if we play the one word games or the freebie stuff it is allowed but we gain no points by doing this, it is just plain enjoyment to play these games and posst and get freebies. ( Not spam) Spam is when you write articles asking others to look at you articles & content; likewise spam would then be asking people to check your article & content out for the sole purpose of gaining points.) Thanks for clarifying what I thought it was.
Writing quality articles and posting neat photos and videos that because they are good content gain points and if there is a lot of traffic to this good stuff you gain points from those who comment. And inviting our family, friends and neighbors to join gain us additional points. Oh I almost forgot commenting to our connections great content gains points. Guess that is why I usually gain a $50. GC monthly and have watched my points rise steadily.

Creating community value to me was the key word that I took literally. I play games here and post freebies but I never expect and do not think I gained any points for doing this. My points have accumulated by inviting my family to join and writing and posting What I think is good stuff and communicating to my connections on there good stuff. ( Not one word comments or games /freebies to me that gets you no where but FUN.

Christine,
I do not see how it is a compromise when games were not banned or spoken out against by Gather in the first place.

I personally do not post games, and think that the majority of them are quite silly and useless... I personally think that reading through any of the "name a ____" games does not seem fun and that there would not be smiles and giggles from even the poster.

Christine I agree with Shawnee there was no compromise you can play all the games you want they are welcome, but it is community value that gets points. But I disagree slightly with Shawnee there is value in games. Playing games and posting freebies to me is a down time to let my brain relax while I have another window open creating good content. ( My system allows me to open several tabs, and one sometimes is just for mindless games as it allows my brain to simmer /mull over things I am creating in another tab.) But I do not think I have gotten any points for doing these games, as to me it is not community value only personal.

I was saying that I personally can not see the use and fun in them... but I also think people can post/comment and interact how they want to.
I am glad you found a way to enjoy yourself on the site April (and all the MANY others who do enjoy games and such.). It would be alot slower moving without all of you here.

Thanks Pam.

"Points are a fun and rewarding benefit to being a Gather member."

Pam: I know that the vast majority of members here are Americans, living in the USA, but there are lots of us outwith the borders of your country who DON'T get any fun or benefit out of points! We merely clock up a total with no method of cashing those points in for any 'benefit'!

I am not really moaning, just asking that the management REMEMBERS that there are many 'foreigners' on here, too...!

Hi Everyone,
Thanks for the great discussion and thoughts on today's article. I'll try to answer those questions still lingering.

Mark: You're correct. Those articles that say "Get me to 100 points" (or something like that) are against the TOS. The authors of those posts are contacted privately by Gather.

When it comes to comment spamming vs. games, I think there's a big difference there. Comment spamming is leaving multiple one word comments just to reach a threshold for the author of a post... You've seen what I'm talking about. It looks something like this:

Hi

Mark

How

Are

You

Doing

Today

and so on. There's absolutely no value to the community and the conversation here. Game are totally different. You might not enjoy participating, but they are fun, enagaing, challenging and meaningful to those who play. I really see these two examples as apples and oranges. Again, games might not be your idea of a good time, but we are talking about a game here... with rules, peramaters, and thought consideration.

Marilyn: You say "if games are allowed, shouldn't it be reasonable to expect some intelligence from them?" I beleive the games do require intelligent thought. Again, if the games are not your thing, you don't have to participate. Not everyone likes games, and certainly some people like some types of games while others prefer other types.

April: Thanks for all your insight and explination. I think you hit the nail on the head!

Ishbel: Thank you so much for bringing this up. You're absolutely right. Gather is still working on a method to include our international members in the Gather Points rewards system. I'll check into this today and get back to you with an update on where we are now in this process.

Here's a question for you Pam. Why don't you do away with the whole Gather Points scheme altogether? Who needs it? Do you really have to bribe people to participate here? I would much rather see people coming here to engage in meaningful discourse for its own value. Dump the points.

I have been posting my games for over a year now, How the silly stuff as far as games go got started was people making fun of me and complaining about games.
I was playing games and William was posting email forwards. I ignored them and have never stopped posting my games daily. Why should I? I agree with Pam on what she states above
If the games are not your thing, you don't have to participate. Not everyone likes games, and certainly some people like some types of games while others prefer other types.
Gather is for everyone and you can find it all here you just have to keep with what YOU like.

I wonder if with this tidbit, we'll now see game spamming that includes, instead of a single item, a piece of copy and paste along with a single item. For example, instead of seeing "John" in a comment, "James" in the next comment both by the same person for the "fun, enagaing, challenging and meaningful" game, names that start with J, we'll see:
"John

I love to play games oh yes I do, I love to earn points by not contributing to anything but taking up bandwidth. Is this enough text for me to earn more point in a comment gather? I sure hope I've typed enough and I'd like to thank Jesus who makes all things possible including me getting a $50 Home Depot Card because I'm very creative and can think of a word that starts with a letter"

in the first comment and

"James

I love to play games oh yes I do, I love to earn points by not contributing to anything but taking up bandwidth. Is this enough text for me to earn more point in a comment gather? I sure hope I've typed enough and I'd like to thank Jesus who makes all things possible including me getting a $50 Home Depot Card because I'm very creative and can think of a word that starts with a letter"

in the second.

Thanks Pam.

Hey, I have another great idea. How about not getting any points for articles that are written solely to degrade other members and to put down Gather. Why should those people be making money off of topics like that? All they do is "degrade the level of conversation" on Gather as well. Those types of articles are getting 100-200 comments.

Makes sense, Moggy - I wonder if the points are done differently for different types of articles?
The games I'm talking about would go like this.
Name something that starts with the letter L. One comment per post, but play as much as you like. Note, these also get hundreds of comments.

So, the thread would look like this:

letter

look

love

lamb

lab

loud

And they could all be made by the same person. I was wondering if that would be comment spamming - no? Thanks for any/all help here, Pam.

Pam - thank you for your prompt reply.

I think you have misunderstood my meaning.... I don't care a jot about the points... or the rewards... I would just like gather to stop making all announcements so US-centric!!! There are lots of us foreigners here, and it would be a nice gesture if information was not posted as if we didn't contribute or as if we were also treated the same as US members - we're not!

Thanks for clearing that up.

Good information. Thanks, Pam.

Just yesterday I was trying to explain how Gather points worked to someone. I see that some of my explanation was in error.

I have to ask, though... is this all that's going on on Gather today?

I guess it's up to us to make the day more interesting.

Hmm, what could I possibly stir up... LOL ( just kidding. :-)

Gather points are often a mystery to new gatherers so this is good information.

I don't think you'll ever please everyone, nor probably explain thoroughly enough for everyone. But thanks for trying.

Hey, I have another great idea. How about not getting any points for articles that are written solely to degrade other members and to put down Gather.

But then isn't the making of that kind of judgement hitting the slippery slope... who decides what's degrading or a put down? Yes, sometimes it's very obvious but other times I see people who ask legitimate questions about the way the site functions, being accused of "putting down" or "hating" gather .
As in comments like **if you hate gather so much why are you still here?**
I've seen many articles asking for clarification of T.O.S., or the point structure, where other members make comments like the one I used above... kind of reflective of the attitude of some when others question the actions of an authority figure.
If you start censoring content...

Oh, and thanks Pam for trying to clarify the point system...
It still mystifies me on some levels because for a while there, it seemed it would take weeks for me to accumulate 100 points with out a decrease in my gather activity and then suddenly (last week) they start climbing almost hourly for the same amount and type of activity... and I am not a 'gamer' per se...

Oh, what about comments made on articles where the owner of the article deleted the comment... does the person commenting still get credit for their comment?
I ask because it seems to me that if they don't then you have allowed the owner of the article to penalize those who's comments they don't like and decide to delete... the commentor made a legitimate effort to participate in site activity...

Again, thanks to everyone for the great conversation and participation.

Paul - You're not the first to suggest getting rid of Gather Points entirely. However, we do get consistent feedback from members that points are fun, rewarding and help to differentiate Gather from other sites.

Moggy and Marilyn - Gather does not reward points subjectively. Meaning, negative articles receive the same treatment as positive articles. Everyone has a right to his/her opinion and should be allowed to share that opinion on Gather... even if that opinion is critical of the site. We actually end up learning quite a bit from these complaints!

Marilyn - The "L" game you outlined above is not considered comment spamming. It's a game. There are rules and an objective... and the longer the comment thread, the more challenging for others!

Ishbel - Thanks for the clarification... you make an excellent point. We need to be less ethnocentric in our thoughts, language and messaging on the site. This is a global community. We need to remember that... and we continue to work on it.

This cleared up nothing for me, but that's okay. I just take whatever points I get as they come along. <:)>

Kathleen - Great question! Your points are not affected in any way if your comment is deleted from a piece of content.

Thanks, Pam for taking all the time to answer everyone. - Mark

There seems to be factions within Gather: those here just for points, those here for the social networking aspect, and those here for writing. I suppose there's room for all three groups and for members to participate in multiple factions, but there will still be border skirmishes from time to time.

Personally, I'm just here for the beer. Or at least I was; turns out there is no beer. I feel so betrayed.

Thanks for clearing that up...

Pam, sometimes they are not just critical of Gather, but of specific members of Gather. I'd rather see 300 games than one article published solely to say how much someone dislikes someone else and then have all their friends come in and bash them for the next 200 comments. Then Gather rewards them for it so they keep doing it over and over.

But if what you say is true, then instead of publising lots of comments on one article, people should publish lots and lots of articles and not worry if anyone comments or not. By telling them they don't get rewarded for the games by commenting they'll just each publish individual game articles. Doesn't sound like a very smart move to me.

Oh and Chris, can I have one of those beers please? It is Friday afterall.

Oh and I find it hard to believe that the Gather software can tell the difference between one word answers that are games and one word comments that are part of a single sentence spanning 10 comments.

Hi Moggy,
Just a reminder to my article above:

"Gather members earn points by creating popular, properly tagged content (articles, images, and video) spending time browsing the site, and inviting friends, family, and colleagues to join Gather. This is all outlined in the FAQ's under "points""

The key word here is "popular"... if you write a ton of articles that nobody reads or discusses you won't earn a ton of points.

Hope this helps!

Pam,
This has been a very informational article. Thanks for taking the time to comment on all the questions.

"Ishbel - Thanks for the clarification... you make an excellent point. We need to be less ethnocentric in our thoughts, language and messaging on the site. This is a global community. We need to remember that... and we continue to work on it. "

Thank you.

Thanks .. I am new to gather and still learning the site!

This adds more clarification than I've seen before (including in the FAQs, which is written generalistically and, IMO, does not directly address specific actions that actually earn points), but I still have some specific questions re: earning points, as written below. Pam, I hope you'll respond to each of them; they're written simply and to the point.

You wrote that, yes, you earn points by:
-----creating popular, properly tagged content (articles, images, and video)
Comment: In a later comment, you defined that if the
content isn't popular, it won't earn "a ton of points".
Question 1: Do you earn points (even a single point) for submitting content
(articles, images, and video) that does not end up getting a single
comment (or only 1 or 2 comments)?

-----spending time browsing the site

-----and inviting friends, family, and colleagues to join Gather

Question 2: Do I earn points if I leave a rating on another
member's articles, images &/or videos?

Question 3: If I own a group, do I earn points each time a Gather member joins my group?

Question 4: Do I earn points if I join another member's group?

Question 5: Do I earn points when I click on Gather's advertiser's links? (I do
not mean 'ad slamming', which is clearly and reasonably against
TOS rules.)
Question 5a: Do I earn add'l points if I order something from the
advertiser's after clicking on their link?

thanks for all the helpful information.

Hi Pam. This edition of Today on Gather is quite the departure from your usual format and topics. While enlightening, your article also raises some questions.

Thank you, Pam, for your views.

I have received negative comments when I play the games that I am spamming. I answer quickly and usually can keep going for awhile. It doesn't not prevent others from playing and the ones who play often and like myself, we have a good time and will comment to each other. I resent comments and have recommended that the game creators put rules in their games. Personally, if you limit me to answer a given low amount, I don't play. For me the game is to see how fast I can come up with answers. I am exercising my mind and hopefully I will avoid altzheimers like my mother had.

I resent the games being degraded by people. They are challenges. When you play you try to remember what was already said so you won't duplicate the answers. Making words from a word or group of words are the most fun.

Does this mean I am an idiot? No, I have a great IQ. Does this mean I don't write articles? No, I challenge anyone to duplicate the amount of postings I have done since May. I have a total of 26 pages of article listings.

As far as good articles go versus the comments made and points given, connections are important and maintaining those relationships are important too. If you don't give attention to others you won't get attention unless you post negative argumentable content. I err in not commenting enough.

I can say if I send out at mass e-mail to all my connections alerting them to what I judge a good article whether it is mine or someone elses, my connections listen and my comment count goes up. I do not abuse this, sending mass alerts often. If you send me alerts all the time, I may not read all the articles, I don't have time.

I agree, if you don't like the games, don't play them, but please don't insult the people who make them or play them. If you played them you may find they are not as easy as you think. I will gladly entertain any anti game person's challenge to go head to to head with me on a game on Gather and prove to me that their equal to my abilities to prove their "superiority" that they imply when they degrade the game creators and players. I find that when others use words I am unfamiliar with, I look them up and it broadens my vocabulary. Anyone here can certainly expand their vocabulary and the words are not all "baby" words, thank you!

Heather, very well stated. Thank you!!!

Tanya - I'll try to answer your questions as directly as you asked them, but please keep in mind, the formula to points distribution is fluid and complicated... it's just not as simple as saying "this is how you earn points, do A, B, and C"... your activity on the site is linked together in a complicated manner. That's just the truth of it, so what I tried to do here is tell people what does and does not earn you points... and what violates our Terms of Service.

Question 1: Do you earn points (even a single point) for submitting content
(articles, images, and video) that does not end up getting a single comment (or only 1 or 2 comments)?

Yes. You do earn points by submitting content that only gets a few comments... but not many.

Question 2: Do I earn points if I leave a rating on another member's articles, images &/or videos?

No, you don't directly earn points by rating another members content... but you do earn points by reading and browsing that content.

Question 3: If I own a group, do I earn points each time a Gather member joins my group?

You don't earn points by having members join your group, but you do earn points if people within your group are active and engaged around the groups content.

Question 4: Do I earn points if I join another member's group?

No, you don't earn points by simply joining groups.

Question 5: Do I earn points when I click on Gather's advertiser's links? (I do not mean 'ad slamming', which is clearly and reasonably against
TOS rules.)

No, you don't earn points by clicking on Gather ad links.

Question 5a: Do I earn add'l points if I order something from the advertiser's after clicking on their link?

Nope, you don't earn points by clicking or buying from our advertisers or sponsors.

Hope that answers your questions.
Pam

Thanks, Pam. I'll keep checking back to see what answer you're able to turn up about the global community and their points.

I Agree Heather Very well Stated!

Pam, thank you! I'm well satisfied with these answers (to include those that came up within the comments section, as well as the initial article). I have bookmarked this page to refer others to, when/if I see these questions come up again. Thank you for taking the time to address each of my questions individually.

I signed up at gather simply to stare. People watch. Got bored started writing. Right now I can't get past what paul said about throwing out the point system. My answer would be "Paul, I think they should. Just as soon as you take over a system that rewards people for meeting, mingling, bringing forth their best in artistic works, oh OH, and yes, for the few hundred folks on here who actually gain a much needed gift card inorder to get something they may not beable to afford otherwise. You could do that. Aye Paul? And give out turkeys at thanksgiving?
I love the uniqueness of gather. the points are incredibly important to me. I have fun playing games. I love catching up on arguments concerning world issues. A great literary work or poem or a haunting photo, they all fit within what I call 'cool' and like Chris, tho I do not drink because I drank too much...I did show up for lemon marangue pie. And you think you feel betrayed. HUH?

Thank you Pam - this was all very informative information for me. I'm always learning something new here, and that's one of the many things I really enjoy about this site. Thanks, you rock! :)

I really appreciate your help... I've been here for months, and I had no idea how I got the points. If I ask, I've often gotten mixed reviews on how it happens.

One question: You mentioned it's against policy to ASK for points. But is it against policy to say, "I'm saving up for _____" in an article, and ask what others are saving for? I mean, I know I've had this discussion with many of my connections about what we are saving our points for at the moment, sometimes in hopes for getting more comments, and hopefully more points towards our goal.

Have a great day!

Hi Jennifer,
Great question. I know the line gets very blurry sometimes. It's fine to discuss with others what you're hoping to purchase when you earn enough points for a gift card. What's not okay is blatantly asking others to comment on your work for the sole purpose of earning points. I hope that helps answer your question!

And Hollie, Thanks for the shout out... you made my day!

Yo, Peggy Anne--methinks thou dost not need a turkey. Thou art the turkey. Gobble gobble.

This has been very educational - THANKS!

I liked finding out answers to some of the questions about Gather points.
I would love to read more on this subject. (more detail on various aspects of the points system)
I have many unanswered questions, as I'm sure many members do.
Thanks for the points (pun intended) you did bring up Pam. :-)

Thanks for taking the time to answer these questions!

Thank you for posting this!

This was a very informative article. And the comments brought up many interesting 'points' and discussion.
I just joined the Calendar yesterday and am so glad I did!!! It directed me to this great article.

Another question, Pam:

If I decide to delete an article, image or video, (say the topic is no longer relevant, or I no longer want an image up), do you deduct points for the deletion?

Tanya,

It is my understanding that Gather Points are not removed from your earnings when you remove content. You earn points as a reward for the activity surrounding your content on Gather, not necessarily for the content itself. Therefore, the points you earned for engaging, entertaining, and educating the community will be yours to keep.

Thanks Kevin. I hope you're right.

Hi Pam,

I've probably spent more time reading this one thread than any other this month. Thanks so much for helping to make the points question much more clear. I don't really think all that much about points. I don't really earn that many either. I have only had one month where I actually earned $50 dollars in gift cards. It took me over 6 months to get my first one. I had read the terms of service and the faqs but for me, I really am not here for the points alone.

I love making new friends. I've only recently begun to write. I do get more participation from the articles than I ever did from any of the photos I've posted and I've posted 10 times the photos. I upload them to share with people. I hope they enjoy them. I find that many times, I'll check on a photo and find that 7 or 8 months after I originally posted it, I get new comments. That pleases me too!

So, points are nice. It's nice to receive a gift card but that has never been my motivation for being here.

I do so appreciate your taking the time to better explain the points system and taking the additional time to join the discussion and answer everyone's questions.

I enjoy Gather more today than at any time in the year plus I've been here. I've had a few problems but the folks in Boston have worked tirelessly to help me and the Gather Guides are simply great!

No questions. I only wanted you to know how I see Gather! I have fun here even though my topics can be very serious and that's all that matters to me.

Wow, that clears up a lot of the mystery about points- thanks for posting this, Pam!

Thank you Pam.

thanks reading this was a good way to learn a lot

Pam, thx from me as well!

Very helpful as well as the members who posted comments. Great info.

This was very interesting article, filled with a lot of information. I love Gather, if they took the star's, gift cards etc a way, I still will be here, to learn, grow, have fun, meet interesting people, I have grown as a beginner writer at least that is what I have been told. My dream is to leave behind a children book written by me to dedicate to my 10 Grand children. Thanks gather for opening the door for us all to come in. God Bless you all. Blessing of peace-joy-health-love & happiness. Thank you gather guides for giving up so much of your own" time " for us.

I like all of the Gather aspects also. I love the points, I love talking to people who are just like me , I play the games..infact I look forward to them. I love looking at all the photos..I really don't get all the controversy. ps..it takes me months to get a 50.00 GC..but that's ok

I have learned alot tonight by reading all of the comments listed here.I hope everyone has a good night.

Thanks for this interesting article and comments. I do believe there is room on Gather for all the different blog sanctions. There is no requirement that everything has to be viewed or is a comment always required.

I am not wild about the rating stars. They just seem to cause to much trouble but I do enjoy the points/gifts. I think of it as Gathers way of passing back some of the revenue they receive from the advertisers. My gut feeling is that many including myself will leave if the points are stopped.

Thanks for the info and clarifications! It was definitely informative. Still don't really like the 'popularity' contest aspect of it, didn't like them in high school and even less now, but I enjoy this site anyway. I just have to be resigned to the fact that I will never win any of these 'contests' here due to that fact. Thanks again for the clarifications!

Thanks! I think I understand where Jennifer P is coming from. I feel like I take the time to write quality articles and post fun pictures, but don't get a lot of traffic. I don't want to send out emails to my connections telling them all to come read my stuff, because I don't like getting those. The popular stuff seems to crowd out good work just because of its volume. Oh well. I'll just keep trying to find a way to draw a crowd of readers who like book reviews, poetry and essays about how I think life should be. Oh. I see. It isn't all that interesting after all.

Thanks Pam for the clarifications! It helpepd me understand a few things and I know ohters will also understand from your article! I really try to encourage others especially when I enjoy their articles!

Thank you Pam for all the info.
I understand a few things better now.

Thanks for the info, Pam

Thanks for the clarification.

By the way, does quality of the posts play into it at all? Just curious.

THANK YOU Pam & Gather for being more helpful with explaining the point system. While I understand that there are deep, dark secrets concerning HOW points are earned and there are highly complicated formulas being used that are heavily guarded (for obvious reasons since so many in this world love to exploit established systems), I know this has provided EVERYONE with better ideas on how to earn their points legally while still contributing their best to the site for ALL Gatherers to enjoy!

Great article, very informative and helpful!

Thanks, Pam!

cant we just all get along! ;)

I like the points and hope we keep them on Gather. A lot of things have been cleared up. Thank you. I sometimes play games if too tired to write or comment a lot it is relaxing. So keep the games. I like other content too and even at times controversial ones. Thanks again Pam.

Thank you for writing this article. It's nice to 'kind of' understand how this all works, altho' I'm still confused. :)

Still not real clear on how many points, how long the comments must be, etc. Some of the games only call for 1 word comments, so what then?

I am in many other point earning sites and they all clearly state what will earn points when and how much. Why can't gather be similar?

Thanks Pam...this was very enlightening :)

It sounds like a rushed article written on a volatile or incendiary topic will earn more popularity (ergo points) than a carefully written one on an important topic that makes a good point or informs. If that's the case - to heck with the points!

If not, then keep the points to encourage participation.

Many kind thanks to Pam for taking the time to write this.

thank you Pam, things are little clearer now.

I would rather have info about the algorithms used to assign weight--

For example, what garners more points, a comment or an image?

Does your article garner the same number of points with zero comments/ratings, as one with 100 comments/ratings?

Will your article receive fewer points, for low ratings?

What if your article is 20 words and a link, does that garner the same number of points as a 1000 word essay ??

Do the points you garner get posted in real time, or does it take a few days for the points to be posted?

That's the kind of REAL info I'd like to see---

Personally, I'm betting the most weight, therefore the most points, would be achieved by inviting people to join, particularly if they actually DO join.

Don't suppose any answers are forthcoming on those things, eh ???

While this answers one or two of my questions - there are a lot more to be answered. For example does rating content give you points? Does the rating have any affect on points whatsoever for anyone?! And so on.

Thanks for the answers you gave, I am hopeful the others will be answered soon.

Wow this is quite a thread, hope I am not too late in jumping in.

Pam thank you for taking time out to explain all of this, it's been helpful to read the responses.

Above you stated:

"Question 3: If I own a group, do I earn points each time a Gather member joins my group?

You don't earn points by having members join your group, but you do earn points if people within your group are active and engaged around the groups content.
"

Would that mean that if someone posts content to a group I made and the content is getting comments, I am receiving points for that? I ask because I know there are people using groups Ive invited them to as "catch-all" posting groups, but I don't notice point increases from that.

Also with regards to games, bandwith, etc etc., I guess I fail to see why people exhaust themselves talking about how useless and unnecessary games are. I understand the right to opinions, but doesn't it get tiring and become a waste of energy to keep criticizing games? Is that hate making you feel better or could you use the negative energy for something positive? Just my 2 cents :)

Also, one other question Pam, how are articles with "comment spam" screened or singled out by Gather? Is it solely done at the discretion of Gather staff, just by articles flagged/reported by members, or a combination of both? When I was new here I had my wrist slapped for "comment spam" which is fine, I was learning the rules and deleted my article promptly. However I noticed 3 other people with similar articles received no warning from Gather... that's why I am curious how "comment spam" is decided? I don't see any reason certain members of a social community site should feel alienated for TOS misdeeds.

In addition to that, I'd ask kindly of the Gather staff to consider giving warnings to any member accounts you see going around flagging or "low-rating" articles consistently.

Thanks for your help!

I must have missed something along the line. What do you gain by getting points?

What do you gain by getting points?

gift certificates --- and if you start earning a 50$ certificate consistently EVERY MONTH, they will offer you the chance to earn COLD HARD CASH, instead of just gift certificates.

Thanks for the useful information about Gather Points.

Thanks for the clarification. I am not on gather to get gift cards or money, in fact in the almost two years I have been a member, I have only cashed in for one card. I kinda feel bad for those who are on here just to get cash and cards. They are missing out on an enriching experience!