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by Tom Gerace
Member since:
August 31, 2005

Talk to Me: Gather CEO Chat (Feb 21st, 2pm ET)

February 21, 2008 01:52 PM UTC
views: 0 | comments: 241

Welcome to our monthly Ask the CEO chat!

I would like to start by thanking you for joining me today. As always, I look forward to the helpful and thought-provoking comments these chats generate. Gather has seen some extraordinary growth in the past month, making our site even more of a world-class community. My time spent with you really helps our team focus our priorities and gives us insight into the needs and wants of our most valuable asset: our members.

To join the conversation, here are some helpful tips: 

1)    To see new comments and keep up with the discussion, you will need to periodically refresh your screen. You may refresh your view by using the refresh button on your browser, or the F5 key on your keyboard, or through the Ctrl+R key (on Windows) or CMD+R (On Mac) key combination.

2)    Once you have posted a comment to the conversation, refresh your screen (see above). Don't worry about accidental double-posting of comments, as Gather technology prevents doing so without a screen refresh between posts. This will ensure that you can more quickly "chime in" with your thoughts.

I will be here for the next hour to listen and respond to your thoughts and ideas in the comments section below.

For those who are joining this chat for the first time and even for those who are returning, this is your time to let me, and the entire Gather team, know your thoughts. I encourage you to voice your opinions about everything Gather. I am excited about spending time with all of you -- so let's get started!

All the best,
Tom Gerace, CEO
Gather.com
tom.gather.com

Expand Find more about: gather, ceo chat, gerace, tom gerace, improve, chat
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Comments: 241

Tom Gerace Feb 21, 2008, 1:53pm UTC
Welcome everyone! I am going to get started with a few questions that were submitted to Pam. Hop in whenever you'd like.

-Tom
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DiAnA D. Feb 21, 2008, 1:53pm UTC
no complaints here!
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Tom Gerace Feb 21, 2008, 1:53pm UTC
John S- Our next release (we call it Gutherie) will be released in about a week. Gutherie is focused on helping you share the stuff you want with the people you want. We will let you organize your connections into "friend sets." When you share on Gather, you can either share your stuff in groups or make it available just to specific sets of friends.
The team and I have been talking about how to keep people in better sync with the groups that matter to them. Stay tuned until our next release, (codename: Hawthorne), where we hope to have a solution for you.
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Tom Gerace Feb 21, 2008, 1:54pm UTC
Randy- Try me. What's your question?
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j - Frugal Mom - r. Feb 21, 2008, 1:56pm UTC
Hi Tom, this is my first chat. I just wanted to thank you and the Gather team, for this amazing site. My gatherversary is coming up, and I cannot even imagine my life without Gather anymore.
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Cheryl W. Feb 21, 2008, 1:56pm UTC
Hi Tom! I was just wondering why the Guide program was discontinued, especially since the community seems to be really wanting it to continue. Was there a specific reason? I ask because when I was a Guide I saw so many members reach out to us for assistance and guidance in finding their way around the site.
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Tom Gerace Feb 21, 2008, 1:59pm UTC
Ashley and George C- Thanks for bringing-up our recent technology hiccups. I know that Maryanne did a good job keeping people posted on what happened, but it might be helpful to explain in a little more detail.

This past week's challenges have not been related to problems in Gather's software or systems. We use a partner (called a CDN or Content Distribution Network), Akamai, to more efficiently serve images and videos around the world. Akamai has more than 20,000 servers spread across the planet for that purpose (having servers closer to people means a faster serving time).

What happened last week was that, in updating a few settings with Akamai, we accidentally severed the connection between their servers and hours. In the half our it took to correct the situation, most of the files on their 20K servers were removed. It took a long time to put them back in place.

We're really sorry for the inconvenience. We are updating our operational procedures to make sure it does not happen again.
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Sandy Knauer Feb 21, 2008, 2:01pm UTC
I'm here without a question but anxious to see what everyone else has to say.
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Tom Gerace Feb 21, 2008, 2:01pm UTC
J-Frugal Mom- Thanks! That is really kind of you to say. Everyone on Team Gather is dedicated to creating a great experience for our members. It's terrific to hear when we manage to succeed!
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Princess Spanky Pants ~ The Real, Original, Heather T Feb 21, 2008, 2:04pm UTC
Hi Tom!

About the only thing I'd really like to bring up is sorting issues. I publish different things, but typically have specified groups that the different items go to.

I think it would be great (and easier on us), if we could make up pre-sorted lists of specific groups.

For instance, if I'm posting an article about my children, I have about 10 groups I post it to. I would love to be able to add them to a list, so all I would have to click is a customizable link that will automatically insert those groups to the article.

Does that make sense? I'm not sure I'm complaining it right.
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Princess Spanky Pants ~ The Real, Original, Heather T Feb 21, 2008, 2:05pm UTC
Ahh.. The other Tom said what I wanted!
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DiAnA D. Feb 21, 2008, 2:05pm UTC
I do have a suggest for a search engine. Take for example I want to search a particular person whose articles I enjoy reading.
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Tom Gerace Feb 21, 2008, 2:06pm UTC
Hi Cheryl- First, many thanks for serving as a guide! The Gather Guides were a terrific introduction to many members over the past year. We learned a lot from the Guides too.

With our upcoming Guthrie release, we are creating a wizard for new members that will help introduce them to the site and get them started. We will have several additional releases as well that will make the Gather experience easier for new folks too.

With Gather getting easier, we thought it made sense to let the guides share the things they love (creating a richer experience overall), instead of focusing the Guides' talents on Gather.
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*Carol ~Bronx Southern Belle Y. Feb 21, 2008, 2:06pm UTC
Will we have a better point system? The big mystery of the point system on Gahter seems to be a problem. On other sites there is a definite point system with the guess work and the points are instant. That would be nice.
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Tom Gerace Feb 21, 2008, 2:07pm UTC
Welcome, Sandy! Thanks for coming out!
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DiAnA D. Feb 21, 2008, 2:07pm UTC
also maybe there could be a chart to show you how you accomulate points.. say major article so many points.. just viewing and commenting so many points
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Sandy Knauer Feb 21, 2008, 2:09pm UTC
Welcome, Sandy! Thanks for coming out! In an ice storm, no less. Only for you.
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Tom Gerace Feb 21, 2008, 2:09pm UTC
Tom H- Groups organization is something we are thinking about too. Some members join a few groups. Others dozens. A handful join hundreds (and actually participate in them, too!)

The tree system you suggest is interesting. I'll pass it on to our product team. We were also considering letting members find groups with a simple search (e.g. "poetry" and bringing-up all groups that included poetry in their name or tags. What do you think of this solution?
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Lainie - Just Lainie Feb 21, 2008, 2:09pm UTC
I realize that the use of alters was a heavily discussed topic in the past...

Now that you've seen and gotten many complaints regarding the use of alters (when used inappropriately - DB1s, nasty comments, general nastiness), have you considered changing your allowance of alters or users to have multiple accounts?

Second part of the question: If you are dedicated to allowing alters, has there been discussion amonst you about how to handle those that abuse the system? It has come up in the past that the Powers That Be don't do anything - and when they do something, it takes forever or is not handled efficiently.
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Bruce K. Feb 21, 2008, 2:10pm UTC
a way to revisit old content without having to one by one go through comment pages would be nice.

a simple improvement would be for the public comment section to just list the last comment on any one article so that you do not see fast chats taking up the whole page.

similar for the personal comments, just my last comment on any particular article would help to condense the pages and increase the information I get from any one page.

hope that makes sense.
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Tom Gerace Feb 21, 2008, 2:10pm UTC
Heather and Chive, please chime in on the search concept, too!
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Cheryl W. Feb 21, 2008, 2:11pm UTC
Thank you Tom....for explaining.
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Princess Spanky Pants ~ The Real, Original, Heather T Feb 21, 2008, 2:12pm UTC
I like Diana's idea, but would suggest maybe only showing off 1 or 2 things that earn the most points. Otherwise, I feel the site would wind up with people only doing the highest earning things.

I wouldn't mind seeing new gift card choices, but honestly, I think bringing in things like Target or Walmart (as many users have suggested in the past) would bring in people who are just here FOR that.

I will admit, though, that the points and gift cards are what brought me to the site. However, I found a quality site I enjoy using, and would stay even without the points.
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Tom Gerace Feb 21, 2008, 2:13pm UTC
Chive- Thanks for coming by. I hope a satirical CEO chat is in the works.

The next update will be focused on allowing members to organize friends into friend sets (see above comment to John S) and then allowing you to share with just the friends you want. It will also include the registration process I mentioned to Cheryl.

We have lots of great stuff in the works, too, for a couple of months out...but I don't want to ruin the surprise.
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Sandy Knauer Feb 21, 2008, 2:13pm UTC
Tom, in conjunction with Lainie's questions about alters, I have one that I don't expect you to answer in public (since it concerns individuals and history) but would appreciate your thoughts and a private answer. Since you have decided to allow alters, and we've seen many abuses (before and after that decision), will you consider allowing two very popular members who were removed to return? I understand the reason for their removal concerned the use of alters.
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Princess Spanky Pants ~ The Real, Original, Heather T Feb 21, 2008, 2:14pm UTC
Search option- I don't use it, honestly. I do search on tags quite a bit by clicking them, but I don't use the actual key-word search at all. I do notice from time to time, though, that newer users don't always understand or use tags.
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Richard Frisbie Feb 21, 2008, 2:14pm UTC
I was hoping this would be more about functionality and less about points - shrug - but enjoying the chat - Thanks!
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DiAnA D. Feb 21, 2008, 2:14pm UTC
duh.. i guess it helps if you know their name, etc.!
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*Carol ~Bronx Southern Belle Y. Feb 21, 2008, 2:14pm UTC
On the subject of nasties and alternate personalities, is there a plan. Many people have left becuase of the gestapo tactics of these people. They don't write articles: They just harass others. People who harass others regularly should be banned. Maybe a three stikes and you're out.
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DiAnA D. Feb 21, 2008, 2:15pm UTC
i agree points is why i joined and do enjoy that bonus!
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Bruce K. Feb 21, 2008, 2:15pm UTC
if alters means multiple accounts, could policy decisions like this be explained somewhere, why do people need this? maybe there is a reason other than to fool people, but in any case I'd be interested to find out why Gather would support this.
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Sue M. Feb 21, 2008, 2:15pm UTC
Tom, I'd like to know what progress is being made with the technical department on improving security to prevent our work being downloaded and used elsewhere for profit.

In light of the incident last week with one of my photos posted on Gather being stolen by one of my Gather connections and used for profit on Zazzle.com, and the massive response from the Gather community, we all need to know if efforts are being made on this!
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Tom Gerace Feb 21, 2008, 2:16pm UTC
Diana- Thanks for joining us. Have you tried Gather's people search today? On the very top of the Gather site is a search box. If you pull down the menu on the left, you will see "Search People." Choose that and then enter a person's name or user name. Hit the "search" arrow to the right and we'll go search the community of Gatherers and bring back the ones that match.

Did this help?
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*Carol ~Bronx Southern Belle Y. Feb 21, 2008, 2:16pm UTC
Oops! Sandy answered my question.
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Princess Spanky Pants ~ The Real, Original, Heather T Feb 21, 2008, 2:16pm UTC
I agree, Carol. While I am not opposed to alter egos, I don't like the tactics many people have in the past taken in attacking people with multiple egos, and basically making them leave the site.

I think harrassing members should be a banable offense- for all ego's involved. Erm, I mean "Alter Egos", not just egos. ;)
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Nippy Katz (Not his real name) Demigod about Town Feb 21, 2008, 2:17pm UTC
Darn, got here too late. I was hoping for some clarification of the bizarre vanity publishing initiative.
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Sarah G. Feb 21, 2008, 2:17pm UTC
I don't like the idea about a published point system. I like Gather as it is now, and feel that having a clear system of what to publish for each amount of points would only further degrade the quality of writing on here.
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DiAnA D. Feb 21, 2008, 2:17pm UTC
thanks Tom it did!!
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Bruce K. Feb 21, 2008, 2:18pm UTC
search also does not seem to take into account users who posted. for instance if i want to find an old article that i posted on and i put some search terms i know to be there and my name, my name does not seem to get searched, unless it is explicitly mentioned in the content somewhere.

forgot to say gather is a very interesting experiement and you guys have done a good job with it.
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kitchenMage (blog.kitchenMage.com) Feb 21, 2008, 2:18pm UTC
Tom,

Can we talk about the search algorithm?

Why are searches based on ANY of the words, not ALL of these words? If I search for 'kitchenMage" I get ~100 articles, but if I add a word I get MORE results, not fewer. That is backwards from what you would expect. Also, if I search on 'kitchenmage AND beth" (my test) I get ONE article, which is also wrong since I have published a number of articles with both words.

Also, are there plans to make quoted text string searches work on Gather? It is such a great way to narrow searches but it always returns no results. (For those of you reading along, I mean searching for "Gather has seen some extraordinary growth" which should give you this article and little else - only things with that exact phrase. Without quotes, you get all articles with those words...lots of noise.)

I can accomplish these things with Google, but really - it's not rocket surgery, ya know...

~km
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DiAnA D. Feb 21, 2008, 2:18pm UTC
is that all Chive :)
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Princess Spanky Pants ~ The Real, Original, Heather T Feb 21, 2008, 2:18pm UTC
Chive, you rock. ;)
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Richard Frisbie Feb 21, 2008, 2:19pm UTC
I agree that an unpublished point system is the best. There is far to much publishing for points going on as it is (oops - and I said I didn't want this to be about points - nevermind!)
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Tom Gerace Feb 21, 2008, 2:20pm UTC
Carol (My Humble Queen)- We have an internal task force that is working on recommendations for improving our points system. One of their early recommendations is that we increase transparency into how points are earned and not earned. For example, some Gatherers mistakenly think they earn points for commenting (they do not).

Points are earned primarily when other members of the community find the things you share (your content and your profile) to be of interest. The best way to increase points earned is to share things that your friends enjoy, consistently, over time.
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Princess Spanky Pants ~ The Real, Original, Heather T Feb 21, 2008, 2:20pm UTC
I agree, kitchenMage. The few times I've used it, I come up with such a wide and varied search result, with no way to narrow it down.

When the new search was first introduced, I did a search for members in Michigan. I came up with members from all around the globe, some who didn't even have the word Michigan in their profile.
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busy reader g. Feb 21, 2008, 2:21pm UTC
I too would like to have a way to know points lets say someone looks at a article but doesnt comment why can't they get points for the view. And new giftcards such as gap .... wouldnt hurt!
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Tom Gerace Feb 21, 2008, 2:21pm UTC
Diana D- More detailed points reporting is another suggestion the task force heard loud and clear from the community. Stay tuned!
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Randy- Being true to myself Feb 21, 2008, 2:21pm UTC
I agree that there is a serious issue with alters/people who have caused a couple issues. I am wondering how you can assure us that there is no way that any individual, specifically one that has represented your company on many threads, is capable of knowing who is on a thread, or where they are on the sight unless they write a comment, or article. The question arises from evidence passed onto Gather last year, as well as a long thread as of late. This is quite disturbing, and while others are kicked off for squabbles, one may be hacking into others private lives, etc. CAn you guarantee us that this is a completely secure site, that only information we pass on is what is available, and that no one has the ability to know if a person is on reading a thread, if they do not make their presense known?
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Donna Besso Feb 21, 2008, 2:22pm UTC
Just dropped in to read the comments.
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TD (aka: JaneDough) Feb 21, 2008, 2:23pm UTC
Hi Tom...

I was wondering if you have any plans to make moderating groups easier? When we bring up our list of owned groups, it would be so helpful to be able to see if there are any posts awaiting moderation rather than having to click into each group just to get that information.

Additionally, adjusting member's settings requires hunting through the pages of members, which is very time consuming. If the functionality to change the settings went with the member whenever they posted, that could be so helpful. I.e.: A member consistently posts articles which do not belong in your group. On the 1,546th post, you decide as moderator that you're tired of spending all of your time having to review and reject their submissions. If the member settings functionality was available with their posts, you could click right there and change their privilege to post any further.

Features like this could go a long way to making group ownership less burdensome.
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DiAnA D. Feb 21, 2008, 2:23pm UTC
Thanks Tom for all you do and taking time to hear our comments/complaints.. the public has to remember this is a free service to us and I for one think its great! Keep up the good work!
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kitchenMage (blog.kitchenMage.com) Feb 21, 2008, 2:24pm UTC
ooooh! copyrights! can we talk copyright?

Why is Gather's official stance that you will only remove content based on a DMCA takedown notice from the copyright owner?

Is there debate that people are not infringing when they steal, err, I mean publish a Windows wallpaper image? (and can I smack the people who comment about how great it is, leading to a comment thread where the poster lies about having taken it in their personal lily pond...?)

People here are getting away with murder in copyright violations and it is dismaying to see Gather shrugging its corporate shoulders at it.

Why the decision to allow copyright infringement?
Are you revisiting it?
What will it take to get you to do so?
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Janet B. Feb 21, 2008, 2:24pm UTC
Hi Tom. No Questions. Just wanted to give support.
Have a nice day.
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busy reader g. Feb 21, 2008, 2:25pm UTC
Tom are you still here?
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Sue M. Feb 21, 2008, 2:26pm UTC
Tom, I'd like to know what progress is being made with the technical department on improving security to prevent our work being downloaded and used elsewhere for profit.

In light of the incident last week with one of my photos posted on Gather being stolen by one of my Gather connections and used for profit on Zazzle.com, and the massive response from the Gather community, we all need to know if efforts are being made on this!
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DiAnA D. Feb 21, 2008, 2:26pm UTC
I for one hadn't even thought of that (alters)!! Boy am I naivee!! I thought people were on this site because they enjoyed the interaction with others and the bonus being you get to cash out your points in the future...
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kitchenMage (blog.kitchenMage.com) Feb 21, 2008, 2:26pm UTC
Tom H,

"Rocket surgery"?

Tom, you're a geek, right? It's a cross between rocket science and brain surgery - you really should read more Dilbert. :-)

Tom G.--do you guys support Boolean terms in searches? AND/OR /NOT?

No. It does something, but not what you would expect.
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Sarah G. Feb 21, 2008, 2:27pm UTC
I am very interested in hearing responses to Sue M's question and KitchenMage's question.
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Richard Frisbie Feb 21, 2008, 2:28pm UTC
A small point - when I publish an article to my moderated group I get notified and have to go the the page to accept the article I just published. Could that function be modified to allow all articles (images, videos) published by the group owner to automatically be accepted?

btw - I'm really enjoying this thread - thanks
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*Carol ~Bronx Southern Belle Y. Feb 21, 2008, 2:28pm UTC
That's helpful, Tom. I don't want a point system that says you get 10 points for this or that, just some clarification. You did that, and I humbley thank you. You are now, Sir Tom.
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Tom Gerace Feb 21, 2008, 2:28pm UTC
Lainie, you raise an important topic.

The honest answer is that it is exceptionally hard to prevent the use of multiple accounts/avatars. It is impossible to distinguish between two real people in a household and one person pretending to be two.

We decided to permit them because we had requests from people who wanted to engage anonymously in discussions they were afraid to join otherwise (often about having a specific disease or discussing family issues/abuse/drug use, etc).

As you suggest, our member services team will never scale to respond in a timely fashion to every comment/DB1 that happens on the site. We receive a comment every 3 seconds on Gather and comments are growing quickly each month.

To help members have a better experience, we have made several changes to the site:
1) When you share, you can now choose to let people rate your work or not rate your work
2) When you share, you can also decide whether everyone on Gather or just your connections can comment
3) You can moderate comments, deciding which appear on your work
4) If you don't moderate comments, you can delete offensive comments after they appear.

With our next release, we will take a big additional step in empowering our members to create the experience they want on Gather: we will let you share your work with just those people you want to see it. We think this extra level of control will let those who want to be broadly read remain broadly read, while allowing those who want to have a private discussion to have that conversation, too.
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Princess Spanky Pants ~ The Real, Original, Heather T Feb 21, 2008, 2:29pm UTC
It would seem to me, the only reason to have 50 alters is to harvest points. As was pointed out earlier, if 1 person posts an article, then has 40 alter egos post to the article, then the person is gaining points on 41 accounts for the sole purpose of gaining points.

I would think maybe limiting it to X amount per address might be a better way to go- they can have an alter or two, but why would anyone need 50 alters? I'm sure that number is probably more extreme than not, but I don't doubt 1 or 2 people have insanely high numbers of alters.

They could also be used to just "gang beat" on 1 person- several alters all leaving nasty comments, and floods of 1's to dishearten and bully a member.
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Tom Gerace Feb 21, 2008, 2:29pm UTC
Whew- you guys are totally out running me!
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Lisa J Feb 21, 2008, 2:30pm UTC
I stopped by to read. I'm amazed that anyone can keep this conversation straight. It's like a virtual version of a press conference...
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Princess Spanky Pants ~ The Real, Original, Heather T Feb 21, 2008, 2:30pm UTC
Oh, and a small problem. My husband gets this all the time- I've never gotten it on my cpu.

When he publishes a video, the groups almost never show up until the 3rd or 4th try for him. We both use the same OS, same browser, etc. (xp & ie)
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Audrey F. Feb 21, 2008, 2:31pm UTC
Just saying hello. Unfortunately I have another commitment at this time, but I will come back to read all the comments later. I have no unaddressed questions at the moment but want to see what everyone else has to say. Thanks, Tom, for having this chat. See y'all later.
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Bruce K. Feb 21, 2008, 2:31pm UTC
2) When you share, you can also decide whether everyone on Gather or just your connections can comment

Maybe whitelist/blacklist might be useful here for finer grade
if you use a whitelist only those people or groups can respond,
if you use a blacklist those people or groups cannot respond.
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DiAnA D. Feb 21, 2008, 2:31pm UTC
see what happens when you offer to be of assistance :)
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Lisa J Feb 21, 2008, 2:32pm UTC
Hey no fair. I don't have an alter...
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DiAnA D. Feb 21, 2008, 2:32pm UTC
good one Chive
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DiAnA D. Feb 21, 2008, 2:33pm UTC
i didn't even know you could have an alter nor would I want one.. one of me enough!!!
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Princess Spanky Pants ~ The Real, Original, Heather T Feb 21, 2008, 2:33pm UTC
You can use my husband's account in lieu of an alter for me, Tom G ;)
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Bill's Spirit Feb 21, 2008, 2:33pm UTC
My deep-hearted thanks to Tom and the Team for keeping Gather up and running for all of us; and for all the contests and attention to various writing niches. Gather is a God send to this aspiring writer.


I have one gripe about the way things have been going. I seem to lose or regain the notifications sent to my outside Gather e-mail address whenever there is a system upgrade or adjustment.

This is not a crucial function (I know), but they are an important convenince to me. E-mail notifications are what I rely on to let me know that someone has commented on old articles of mine. I cannot keep track of how many comments are made on each of my articles any other way. I have over two hundred articles and over one hundred images published here.


I would really like to support the idea of being able to search through an individual member's articles. I think that would indeed be a GREAT thing.
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Lisa J Feb 21, 2008, 2:33pm UTC
Tom, a summary article highlighting points brought up in this chat and the responses for each one might be helpful later...
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Tom Gerace Feb 21, 2008, 2:33pm UTC
Bruce K- Helping you to find conversations that you thought were interesting is something we spend a lot of time thinking about. We are actively discussing systems that let you find quality conversations.

We are considering systems that let you: ignore very short comments, view comments by frequently read Gatherers, or look back at other commenting systems.

On a related note: Jonathan- we are actively planning a new commenting system as well, examining threaded comments, better notifications (so you know when someone has responded to you or commented after you on a work). Thanks for the suggestion!
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Princess Spanky Pants ~ The Real, Original, Heather T Feb 21, 2008, 2:35pm UTC
I would really like to support the idea of being able to search through an individual member's articles. I think that would indeed be a GREAT thing. -Bill's Spirit

I second that. Even going through my older stuff to find something I want to reference can be a pain!
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Tom Gerace Feb 21, 2008, 2:36pm UTC
Heather T- Glad you would stay without the points. We think it's a great way to acknowledge people who contribute quality experiences on the site. The challenge, of course, is differentiating between people who actually create quality experiences for others and those that just do something repeatedly in hopes of earning. Any suggestions?

I will talk with the team about additional gift card and donation opportunities.
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John S. (arizona) Feb 21, 2008, 2:37pm UTC
Love the "groups" comments folks... Thanks Tom, I'll wait for Hawthorne.

On another foot, you commented in an article I wrote about the "front page" of changes coming there soon. How is that working it's way along? Thanks.
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Busy Buzzy Bee 'Gather Proud Mamarazzi' Feb 21, 2008, 2:37pm UTC
Greetings from LA ...

Well, no complaints...just wishing some more gift cards of good stores...:)
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April H. Feb 21, 2008, 2:37pm UTC
Just dropping in to read the chat. I think every one above has asked what I wanted to know.
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Lainie - Just Lainie Feb 21, 2008, 2:37pm UTC
Tom,

Thank you for your response, I truly appreciate it.

A couple reactions from the peanut gallery (or maybe just me).....
"As you suggest, our member services team will never scale to respond in a timely fashion to every comment/DB1 that happens on the site. "
-- You're correct and I think it would be a waste of the member services team to babysit each complaint. As a community, I believe we need to be accountable and take some responsibility (and maybe a few just need to GROW UP). Not everything warrants a complaint to member services and we should realize when it has crossed the line and become a valid concern.

As for the changes you listed... Yeah, they are great. But... If only my connections can read my articles or see my photos, how will anyone new know they want to connect with me? I guess in general, I don't know why I, an innocent writer, should have to pussyfoot around and modify MY settings in order to keep one or two mean-spirited alters from creating havoc.

The problem is a few - not the majority. I don't think that it's fair for you to expect the majority to make modifications in order to please the few jerk alters that tend to bully. In the end, it takes away from why you created the site in the first place (or what it has evolved into being).
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Randy- Being true to myself Feb 21, 2008, 2:38pm UTC
Tom will you be answering my question? If not-I would not be surprised.
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Bruce K. Feb 21, 2008, 2:38pm UTC
Thanks Tom, I wrote my own little webbie thingee to jump to very old pages because right now the only way I think to get there is by slowing paging backwards in comments. A selection of just the articles I commented on, rather than every comment was there it would simplify considerably. Older things get very stale relatively quickly, and no way to followup sometimes.
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flit . Feb 21, 2008, 2:38pm UTC
so... how are things progressing toward dealing with us outsiders, inquiring Canadians want to know, eh? Were ~we~ not looking at solutions quite some time ago? *sigh*
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Tom Gerace Feb 21, 2008, 2:38pm UTC
Hi Sandy- Thanks for raising the question on members removed for multiple identities/alters prior to our policy change. As you suggest, I can't comment on specific cases, but I'd be happy to review it with our team. If you know people interested in returning, please have them drop me/Maryanne a note.
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Sandy Knauer Feb 21, 2008, 2:38pm UTC
The challenge, of course, is differentiating between people who actually create quality experiences for others and those that just do something repeatedly in hopes of earning. Any suggestions?

Oh.my.goodness. Am I really seeing this?
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Sandy Knauer Feb 21, 2008, 2:40pm UTC
Tom, I will send the names of those members with my suggestions for differentiating between people who actually create quality experiences and those who are here for points. Thank you.
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Tom Gerace Feb 21, 2008, 2:40pm UTC
Heather- you hit the nail on the head. A lot of new members don't know how to find what they want on Gather. Most adults understand how to use search, so it's an easy way to help people find the stuff they want/care about.
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Mary McCartt Feb 21, 2008, 2:41pm UTC
I joined Gather 2 years ago this month. I am glad to see you here answering questions, Tom. Let's hope most of us can be satisfied with the plans that are being made.
My main concern is also security. I have removed all my content except two articles that no one would want. I would like to be reassured that our content is safe from plagiarism. Secondly, I would like to know why people are permitted to have alter egos on here. If you cant honestly contribute under your real identity, what are you doing here? 'Nuff said.
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TD (aka: JaneDough) Feb 21, 2008, 2:41pm UTC
I've still never cashed in my points and I have over 11,000 points. I still like to see them adding up, however. ;)
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Tom Gerace Feb 21, 2008, 2:41pm UTC
Hey Richard- Thanks for joining us! We can discuss whatever you would like. Is there a question I might answer for you?
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Princess Spanky Pants ~ The Real, Original, Heather T Feb 21, 2008, 2:41pm UTC
Suggestions? Well... what about weekly writing challenges, sponsered by Gather itself? Maybe for a small prize, but something that is relevant to keeping Gather up-to-date, and providing quality content.

For instance, one week could be who we support in the upcoming Presidential race. Another week could be how we feel about organized Religion in the Media. How we feel about raising children in a violent world, our thoughts on new movies, pop culture, etc.

Each week, people look at the challenge, submit an article to the challenge, and it creates buzz on the site- people are writing quality articles, and the site is getting good PR in the process.

Maybe instead of a weekly gift card prize (and I do think that would get more people), offer up merchendise, or extra points. I would even suggest bonus points for participation, which would be given manually, and not automatically. That would cut back on people posting whatever in hopes of triggering an automatic point bonus.
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Trudy P. Feb 21, 2008, 2:42pm UTC
Tom, will there be an improved way to get to old photos that I have published besides going back page by page? It takes forever to get to an image that I first published if I want to delete it or make it my icon. I hope my question makes sense. I love Gather! I've been here a year next month!!!!!
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Tom Gerace Feb 21, 2008, 2:42pm UTC
Diana- if you don't know their names, you can search for the content you looked at before and then click on that member's name beneath the title. You will see all of the public content they shared on Gather.
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Sue M. Feb 21, 2008, 2:43pm UTC
Tom. several of us on here are STILL waiting for your reply to my question and others regarding the security issue...
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Tom Gerace Feb 21, 2008, 2:43pm UTC
Thanks for the feedback on points, Tom H. Do you think the points system is a positive thing or a negative one for Gather, overall?
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Elizabeth A. Feb 21, 2008, 2:44pm UTC
But butbutbut.. Oh, Tom, I'm a professional commentator at heart... sobbing as I leave your great website......... 'Bye 'Bye Luvs
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Bill's Spirit Feb 21, 2008, 2:44pm UTC
bruce k. wrote; "if alters means multiple accounts, could policy decisions like this be explained somewhere, why do people need this? maybe there is a reason other than to fool people, but in any case I'd be interested to find out why Gather would support this."



I'd like to share some insight toward this.

As a writer, and not a bombastic abuser of others, being able to make alternate accounts allows writers to explore different "voices" or "characters" for writing in. Although I have yet to do it, I have pondered this often as a way to test run a character and see what kind of reaction it gets.

Additionally, multiple alternate identities allows for anonymous focus-group like polling among the Gather community.

It mitigates the fact that some people would answer a question by jJack quite differently then they would if Devin asked the very same question.
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Sue M. Feb 21, 2008, 2:45pm UTC
And, like Mary above and others... I have also removed all my content on Gather.
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flit . Feb 21, 2008, 2:45pm UTC
contests on gather are only good, generally, for people who live in the US ... they just irritate the heck out of the rest of us.

the whole code orange, promotion, for example, left this outsider far LESS likely to ever buy a Motrin product - certainly not MORE
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Tom Gerace Feb 21, 2008, 2:46pm UTC
Carol- if we identify someone who is harassing other members, the first thing we do is counsel them to stop and remind them of our terms of service. If they do not change their behavior, we remove them from the site. When we do, we look for other identities that member may have had and remove those as well.
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Sandy Knauer Feb 21, 2008, 2:47pm UTC
"Most adults" (I'll need the nitro with much more of this)

Most adults would also know how to click on the help button at the top of the page. And most adults would know that it is their responsibility to decide which groups their articles belong in instead of hitting "all" and making group owners do their work for them. And most adults do not play "name words that begin with the letter A". And most adults can accept critique without deleting the comment. And most adults do NOT believe they should publish work that does not belong to them.

I hope you were hinting that you think this is an adult site.
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Tom Gerace Feb 21, 2008, 2:48pm UTC
Bruce, see my note above to Lainie about alters:

The honest answer is that it is exceptionally hard to prevent the use of multiple accounts/avatars. It is (nearly) impossible to distinguish between two real people in a household and one person pretending to be two.

In the end, we decided to permit them because we had requests from people who wanted to engage anonymously in discussions they were afraid to join otherwise (often about having a specific disease or discussing family issues/abuse/drug use, etc). Prohibiting them would have prevented this kind of valuable conversation, too.
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Princess Spanky Pants ~ The Real, Original, Heather T Feb 21, 2008, 2:48pm UTC
I think that the points create both a positive and negative effect for the site. To expand, I suppose I would say that the positive aspect is that it gets people talking to one another, and participating in the site.

Negativly, the site has people who are here ONLY for the points, and only post things in the hopes of earning points, inundating the site with games (which I have posted a few of, and have participated in, I won't deny it!), etc.

Point earning sites, money earning sites, prize earning sites- they all attract all walks of life with one common goal- to earn something free, either in their spare time, or because they have a limited income with no choice to earn more outside the home, etc.

And with that, you get people who abuse the system to get more.

I don't want to see the points removed, I do love them! But they do bring in some negative aspects, but also positive ones.
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Sue M. Feb 21, 2008, 2:48pm UTC
Tom Hunter,

Apparently you have not had the experiece, as I did last week, to pull up an item on sale on an internet website and find your photo there being used for profit!!!
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Richard Frisbie Feb 21, 2008, 2:49pm UTC
Sandy I love you! "most adults" HA!
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flit . Feb 21, 2008, 2:49pm UTC
I agree with Tom re: stolen stuff... can't imagine how/what Gather could possibly do to prevent anyone from copying & pasting ... it's a reality ... a function of the Internet and computers.... has nothing to do with Gather.

They can (and I agree with what someone said earlier - they need to do a better job - the only if the author complains thing is a cop-out and not sufficient) deal with plagarised stuff on the site - but there isn't any possible way they can prevent someone from scooping it without locking it down so far that no one can read it... which would rather defeat the whole purpose of publishing it
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Elizabeth A. Feb 21, 2008, 2:50pm UTC
Tom, I'll donate my present points to The Homeless and Domestic Abuse Victims.

Thank you.

Good Luck and Cheerio!

Respectfully,
A commentator at heart
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Bruce K. Feb 21, 2008, 2:50pm UTC
Bills Spirit:
> It mitigates the fact that some people would answer a
> question by jJack quite differently then they would if
> Devin asked the very same question.

So someone is allowed to be a total disruptor in one ID
and then hide or even talk back and forth to himself,
to explore characters ... at what cost to the community.

I think Tom was honest back a bit when he said the
problem is finding out, and IP address does not work.
There is no way to prevent it yet, which is a sad but
true answer.
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Janna, VP, Ennui Feb 21, 2008, 2:50pm UTC
"On a related note: Jonathan- we are actively planning a new commenting system as well, examining threaded comments, better notifications (so you know when someone has responded to you or commented after you on a work). Thanks for the suggestion!"

Hooray for this. I'd love some sort of indicator that shows new activity on an article I've commented on that does not involve an email notification.

"For example, some Gatherers mistakenly think they earn points for commenting (they do not)."

I'm gonna quote you on this, particularly to all the comment spammers who leave insipid cut-and-paste comments all over the place in their frenzy to rack up points. Not that they'll ever see it, 'cause they never return to the "conversation". They're too busy in their mission to leave a comment on every single image on the site.

Hey, maybe this revelation will cut down on the plethora of "Name a word beginning with the letter 's'" games, too.
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Janet B. Feb 21, 2008, 2:50pm UTC
I don't think we need point police?
I think Tom has enough on his hands.
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flit . Feb 21, 2008, 2:51pm UTC
but there IS nothing that Gather or any other site can do to prevent that, Sue M.

It's a risk you take when you put ANYTHING on ANY website... even if they coded in stuff so that people couldn't rightclick and save, they would just do a print screen.
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Moh H. Feb 21, 2008, 2:51pm UTC
I also am anxiously awaiting some response on the whole copyright issue.......
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M O. Feb 21, 2008, 2:51pm UTC
" Having said that, please give us more points." The Chive

Tom - I concur. I have no complaints being a former computer programmer - I think you guys do an excellent job considering the number of enhancements you have accomplished with very little hiccup on the site. I really don't care about the alternate ego stuff, or the games. To each his own.

My question: when will I be able to apply my points to my mortgage payment?
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Lainie - Just Lainie Feb 21, 2008, 2:51pm UTC
Thanks again for giving us this hour of your time, Tom.... And for answering our questions.

I look forward to some less technical but more user-friendly updates.

Thanks again.
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Sue M. Feb 21, 2008, 2:52pm UTC
flit... the technology is already available and being used by other social networks to prevent the "right-click" function to download photos. Atleast this would help!! So why isn't Gather implimenting it???
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Sarah G. Feb 21, 2008, 2:53pm UTC
Sue M. I know you would like to have some built in protection here on Gather, I am not sure we are going to get the answers we want. What I can say is that we as artists and photographers both amateur and professional should begin protecting our own work, with embedded digital signatures. It is rather simple to do with photo editing software.
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Bruce K. Feb 21, 2008, 2:54pm UTC
I'll just add to this that I think alter's manipulate people's
reality here in a way that is unexpected, and mostly rude.
The price someone pays for not being able to mention they
have hemhoroids for example is a small one, understandable,
but the impact of having multiple people slam someone and
them not knowing it is one deranged person doing it is far
worse to me anyway. But I understand this is hard to
find, and prove if it ever came to some kind of legal issue.
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TD (aka: JaneDough) Feb 21, 2008, 2:54pm UTC
Trudy--you can show more images or articles when looking back into your pages than the twenty items that is Gather's set default. When you click to your second page, look in the URL and you'll see "20&currentPage." Adjust the number "20" to 200, 500, or whatever you wish. That is the number that will now be displayed. It will obviously take longer to load the longer pages, but it'll significantly cut down the time it takes to look through your stuff. (You could also search by tag.)
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Princess Spanky Pants ~ The Real, Original, Heather T Feb 21, 2008, 2:54pm UTC
Sue, you can disable right clicks, but that doesn't stop you from doing a screen capture.

We all understand your stance. For photos, I'd recommend a fairly large and obtrusive watermark through the middle, in an area where it can't be clipped out of the photo.
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Richard Frisbie Feb 21, 2008, 2:54pm UTC
Well done, Tom! Thanks for the open dialog. It was fun, too! (thanks Pam)
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Lisa J Feb 21, 2008, 2:54pm UTC
It is a risk to publish anything electronically. If it is something so precious you don't want it plagiarized, you probably shouldn't be publishing it to the world wide web. Even if they prevented copying the easy way, there is NOTHING preventing the person from pulling up an instance of word and typing your document into their computer. People who are worried about this that want to share should limit how long they post their articles...
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Beth H. Feb 21, 2008, 2:55pm UTC
Tom, thanks for entertaining our questions. I'm wondering about the speed of the site since the last upgrade. When an article begins to hit a lot of comments, the refresh time is very slow. I even find a lag typing in my comments--I can't see what I'm typing until it catches up. On my very old home computer, I can wait 5 minutes for an article with 200 comments to load. Any help for this?
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Bill's Spirit Feb 21, 2008, 2:55pm UTC
Heather T. wrote: ... what about weekly writing challenges, sponsered by Gather itself? Maybe for a small prize, but something that is relevant to keeping Gather up-to-date, and providing quality content.


Let me give that idea a STANDING OVATION !!!
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John S. (arizona) Feb 21, 2008, 2:56pm UTC
Tom - I meant the Gather Home Page (home.gather.com) above not "front page" if I confused you or anybody, sorry.
Thanks again.
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Princess Spanky Pants ~ The Real, Original, Heather T Feb 21, 2008, 2:56pm UTC
Thank you, Bill's Spirit
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kitchenMage (blog.kitchenMage.com) Feb 21, 2008, 2:56pm UTC
Sarah G,

It goes beyond protection. There is a saying about the company you keep...and as a professional writer/photographer, I am bothered by the amount of blatant copyright infringement here. Makes one hesitate before sending people to see their stuff here if they are asked, as I was, "What's with the people posting Windows wallpaper?"
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Money $. Feb 21, 2008, 2:57pm UTC
Hi Tom!
Gather is a great site. I write for a couple of print music magazines - one of which is called Rhythm, Art, and Groove. (www.ragnews.com). I wanted to check with you and see if it was ok to extend an invitation to our readers via the print mag. I listen to alot of the mp3's and videos. Have you thought about seperating the two? Also, I get alot of press releases daily, sometimes I like to put these up on Gather. What is your position on these? I get them sent to me via publicists, labels, etc. and I have permission to use them. I would like to put the majority of them on gather and have our readers come here rather than myspace, etc. Let me know your thoughts on that. Thanks and keep up the good work!
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Tom Gerace Feb 21, 2008, 2:58pm UTC
Sue- Thanks for the note regarding photo security. To protect member privacy, I can't comment on a specific incident, but let me address your question generally.

We take intellectual property seriously at Gather. We know that people invest in creative works and love when they choose to share them here. That's why we are among the most aggressive sites at enforcing copyright violations (when posted here on Gather) of any site that permits user generated content.

Protecting what is shared here from being copied and being used without permission is important to us as well. The first steps we take to do this are related to US Copyright law. We record each item you share as yours and mark the date and time when you shared it. We store that information in our database as well. That creates the legal protections you need should you wish to enforce content ownership against someone who steals content.

Next steps would include making downloading photos or copying text harder. We are investigating options here, particularly given the incident you cite. Most of the systems that do this are easy to defeat given that content on a website has to be transferred in some format to be viewed on another person's computer (that's how the web works). We could make it more difficult for them to take things, however, and we are looking at ways to do that, while balancing the need to make content viewable by users online and searchable by any who should see them.

We hope that our release next week will help, of course, It will allow you to share your images (or other content) with those people you like and trust in the world. You can decide what to share, with whom, once our Guthrie release comes out. If you choose to let just friends view your work, this will create a layer of protection immediately as well.
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kitchenMage (blog.kitchenMage.com) Feb 21, 2008, 3:01pm UTC
Tom,

"That's why we are among the most aggressive sites at enforcing copyright violations (when posted here on Gather) of any site that permits user generated content."

I beg to differ. My understanding is that Gather will ONLY take down copyrighted material if the owner complains with a formal DMCA takedown notice. Is that true?
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charles thiesen - gather's only god, proud to be from gay-supporting Massachusetts Feb 21, 2008, 3:01pm UTC
Tom, I tried to invite contacts to my new group and the list I had to work from was NOT alphabetical. It was impossible to use. There are other instances in gather where lists seem to be organized randomly. This would seem to be a simple fix, but the fact that it's been this way for years seems to mean it's not. Any chance it will change?
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M O. Feb 21, 2008, 3:02pm UTC
Along more serious lines, Tom, I have wondered how transparent you are with your data to government organizations. It is not inconceivable that you have gotten requests for information about Gather members in relation to comments and/or articles that they may find anti-government.

What is the Gather policy on privacy and data-sharing?
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Bruce K. Feb 21, 2008, 3:02pm UTC
> The first steps we take to do this are related to US
> Copyright law. We record each item you share as
> yours and mark the date and time when you shared it.

Does a user have to do anything special such as mark content
with a copyright mark or say anything special or are you saying
that publishing something to Gather is equivalent to a legal
copyright protection? That is interesting!
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Sarah G. Feb 21, 2008, 3:03pm UTC
In response to KitchenMage.. I understand your point completely and feel that as citizens of this online community we should take responsibility to prevent such actions by flagging the material.
I have been flagged for a painting of a nude form. I can't understand that, but it didn't matter because It didn't hurt my post.
If I go and flag a copyrighted image, and Gather checks out the flagged item and realized what it is and removes it. Haven't I done my job to further insure that my own personal work has a place here to be enjoyed and not copied??
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Tom Gerace Feb 21, 2008, 3:03pm UTC
Nippy- you are not too late! Gather has thousands of aspiring authors on the site. We run competitions like First Chapters to help them launch a professional career by winning a contract with a leading publisher.

But publishing is changing (just like the music distribution world is changing). A number of authors have started as self-published and then moved into a traditional press. Others have started as self-published and done very well for themselves.

We wanted to help authors on Gather that want to invest in publishing their own work do so by (1) having access to a trusted press and (2) having the ability to promote their work through sharing chapters and conducting chats here on Gather. We hope to do a lot more for those that want to invest in creating and promoting their own work later this year.
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Tom Gerace Feb 21, 2008, 3:04pm UTC
Sarah- thanks for the comments on the points system. I'm grateful for the feedback.
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Princess Spanky Pants ~ The Real, Original, Heather T Feb 21, 2008, 3:05pm UTC
Thanks for the Q & A session! I would say it was quite popular.

Hope we didn't tire you out too much, Tom!
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Sue M. Feb 21, 2008, 3:08pm UTC
Tom, I appreciate your response to the security issue. However, by encouraging us to use the new features that are coming up to "post our work to specific people and groups," doesn't that work against your earlier comment: "Points are earned primarily when other members of the community find the things you share (your content and your profile) to be of interest. The best way to increase points earned is to share things that your friends enjoy, consistently, over time." How can new members "find" our work if we are posting only to specific friends and not the Gather community as a whole???
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Janna, VP, Ennui Feb 21, 2008, 3:09pm UTC
Tom H. said: "When I look over the daily 300 or so notifications I receive, the first thing I do is search on "game" and delete all of those."

I choose not to get notifications so I don't see them there. Any bright ideas for making them disappear from the "Recent Articles" list?
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Bill's Spirit Feb 21, 2008, 3:10pm UTC
bruce k wrote: "So someone is allowed to be a total disruptor in one ID and then hide or even talk back and forth to himself, to explore characters ... at what cost to the community."


Well, I hadn't really thought about the writer talking back and forth to the character, but rather that the writer gets feedback reactions from readers.

Aas you admit, there is no way Gather could control this other than by IP address, a method that would prevent multiple users who are forced to share one computer, from being able to participate in Gather.

The result is that we have to deal with voices that sound like Imus and Limbaugh, with no way of knowing who those people really are.

Free Speech venues are always messy and controversial.
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Tom Gerace Feb 21, 2008, 3:11pm UTC
TIME OUT!

Whew- Ok team. I am afraid I have to step out of this chat and head to a next meeting (I am five minutes late by Gathertime already). I know that there are a lot of comments here I have not yet addressed (several, in a quick review, that I know I really want to come back to).

My challenge: you guys have me way out numbered. This conversation could (and would) go on for days if we leave it open ended. So we need to have a reasonable way to bring this to a close.

In past chats, I have returned later to continue the discussion; I will do so again today. But I want to be clear about where I will wrap up so it is fair to everyone. Here's the deal:
1) I will be back today and tomorrow to continue to answer questions.
2) I will answer all posts that were posted BEFORE 3pm ET today. I will NOT be able to answer posts after 3pm today (because I need to be sure I leave time to actually make some of these suggestions real)
3) I will make these chats happen at least monthly, if not more often.
4) I will look for a technology that lets us cover more ground in our time together, in hopes that we won't be delayed by my typing skills during future chats.

Many, many thanks to everyone for the great feedback, thoughtful questions, creative suggestions, and discussion today. I look forward to continuing the dialog on this post and in the future with all of you!
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Princess Spanky Pants ~ The Real, Original, Heather T Feb 21, 2008, 3:14pm UTC
Sue, like I mentioned earlier, you need to do a larger watermark centrally located if you feel uncomfortable posting your images (which are beautiful!) without special security from Gather. It isn't the site that is causing things to be used like your photo was. They can't stop it 100% unless you do something to assist them.
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Janna, VP, Ennui Feb 21, 2008, 3:16pm UTC
The Chive said: " It is our sincere opinion that the Points System is the root of 99% of all Gather's evils."

I agree. The last time I said I didn't care about points on a Gather-sponsored article, I was told I needed to "get laid...and soon". Guess I was in the minority there. Maybe I just need a "SQL Injection" (whatever that is...).
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Princess Spanky Pants ~ The Real, Original, Heather T Feb 21, 2008, 3:17pm UTC
OK, one last suggestion- the ability to "ignore" a person- thus filtering out their posts: articles, images, videos, and comments.

This would kill several birds with 1 stone. It would appease the anti-gamers because they could just ignore the gamers, and not have to see their articles posted in recent articles.

It would work towards keeping people from arguing- if you can't see what someone posts, you won't argue with it.

It could also work in reverse, but honestly, notifying a person they are ignored and can't view something they are trying to view would also start problems.

Ok, I'm done! I'll check back over the next few days for responses. ;)
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J W. Feb 21, 2008, 3:18pm UTC
Tom, I will say this, the point system is definitely a plus.....I love coming to Gather to read what people write and to see how my friends on here are doing and to see good pictures of beautiful things. I would like to see more gift card options such as bath and body works or a Target or Wal-Mart gift card option. I love this site , it is the best social networking site ever in my opinion. I like Gather just the way it is.
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J W. Feb 21, 2008, 3:20pm UTC
I disagree with the ignore option.......
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J W. Feb 21, 2008, 3:21pm UTC
one last question Tom will there ever be a Gather messenger program like Yahoo has or Aol's Aim messenger ?
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Janna, VP, Ennui Feb 21, 2008, 3:24pm UTC
On the off chance that you read this, even though it's after 3 pm:

Tom Gerace wrote: "The challenge, of course, is differentiating between people who actually create quality experiences for others and those that just do something repeatedly in hopes of earning. Any suggestions?"

I spend the majority of my time here reading and commenting, rather than publishing. I would love to be able to give my points (probably anonymously) to people who do create quality experiences for others and the site as a whole and whose content I enjoy. Something to consider for the future, perhaps?
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TD (aka: JaneDough) Feb 21, 2008, 3:25pm UTC
With regard to photo piracy...simple security measures (which really should be provided by Gather) could go a long way. Not everyone can figure out how to steal something if they have a hurdle or two to jump over. (And let's be mindful of not offering them a "how to.")
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Carolyn G. Feb 21, 2008, 3:31pm UTC
I have only one request. I really really really want a way to block mass mailings from my mail without having to block individuals who might be contacting me privately with legitimate messages. It should be simple to implement. Some people want the mass spam. Personally I don't and delete it all unread. I would love to have a way to block it all permanently.
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Bruce K. Feb 21, 2008, 3:31pm UTC
I like the idea of the ignore option in both senses.
Having posted to someone's article who keeps deleting me,
I would be fine with them putting me on ignore so I don't
waste my energy, and likewise some people who I see
"discussion disruption" from I don't want.

Thanks Tom, that was an amazing performance of
cool composure under stress - and no discernable typos!
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Janna, VP, Ennui Feb 21, 2008, 3:41pm UTC
Oooh!--I forgot my most important question:

Is the new release named for Woody or Arlo?
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TD (aka: JaneDough) Feb 21, 2008, 3:47pm UTC
I'd second Carolyn's concern over mass-mailings. I all but completely ignore my Gather mailbox as the mass-mailings are totally and completely out of hand. It's like the Ping option came as a stand in for what the mail system is supposed to be used for: personal messages. But the Ping messages don't offer the privacy that the mailbox does.
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flit . Feb 21, 2008, 3:53pm UTC
sites that disable the right click menu are very very annoying and I generally avoid them ...I hope that's not in the plan for Gather....
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Pat S. Feb 21, 2008, 3:53pm UTC
I posted a question in the other thread before 2:00 and was disappointed to see it wasn't addressed. I want the option to either turn off the 'related articles' thing, or remove them once they are linked if I decide they are an inappropritate match for my articles. I should be able to choose what my articles are used to promote.

As for alters, I have a couple of them. They were created for a very specific purpose (a creative writing exercise in creating a character and a realistic voice). I see no harm in people talking to themselves on their own articles. If they are using them for harrassment? Well, the author does have the right to delete any comment they see fit. If the autor allow others to be harrassed on their articles, and do nothing about it? Well, community, drawing together, is a powerful force.

Tom, thanks for posting this, sorry my own meetings coincided with the chat.
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Sandy Knauer Feb 21, 2008, 3:59pm UTC
Gather has already given us the ability to block the senders of mass mail. If a person cares so little about me that she continues to mass mail even though I have stated repeatedly that I do not want mass mail every time she publishes or republishes an article, why would it be Gather's responsibility to come up with a new 'feature'? Why not send that person your personal email address, tell her to contact you there if she has a personal message, and delete her in the Gather mail?
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Tom Gerace Feb 21, 2008, 4:23pm UTC
From Pam's other article:
Paul W.- You have some really creative ideas on the Hallmark front and raise some great questions as well. Your posts were really thoughtful and detailed; I hope I can respond in kind.
First, I am excited that Hallmark has decided to promote the Global Fund and build awareness for the fund and the Red campaign here on Gather. As David explained, Hallmark already does invest a significant amount (8% of the proceeds from Red products) to the fund.
AIDS is a massive problem, though, and we can always do more. There are a number of other things we might ask partners to do going forward:
- Consider matching donations (as you suggest) made by members
- Consider a challenge grant (I recommend this instead of making a guaranteed grant a condition to appear here for two reasons: I think any visibility for these kinds of causes is beneficial so I wouldn't want to discourage it and I like that it would encourage community participation for a larger result)
- Consider using symbols that tie directly to the work being done (again your suggestion)
We hope that our relationship with Hallmark will be a lasting one. I will work with our team to improve the program with these and other suggestions as we take next steps.
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Tom Gerace Feb 21, 2008, 4:23pm UTC
BTW- thanks to Jim Bostick for pointing out that I can't spell Guthrie. I'd go back and fix prior comments, but it would forever change the flow of conversation. Alas, my fifteen minutes of fame were tarnished by my inability to spell (and that out-dated, overly corporate image).
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Tom Gerace Feb 21, 2008, 4:23pm UTC
From Pam's article:

Diana (Raabe)- Thanks for asking about chat! We are considering instant messaging and group chat technologies for later this year. I'd be interested to know if you and/or other members of the community would be interested in these features. If so, do you have suggestions about how they might work or what features you might like to see?
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Tom Gerace Feb 21, 2008, 4:23pm UTC
Also from Pam's article:

Pat S- Thanks for your note regarding "Related Articles." We had a number of members concerned, when we launched this feature, that it appeared that they were promoting the content of other members. We therefore moved this feature on the page to make it more clear that these were Gather recommendations and not recommendations by the author.
Disabling the feature (optionally) is another alternative. I expect that, to be fair to all members, we may want to prevent people that disable these recommendations from appearing in the recommendations of others. We would need to weigh this ability to customize the experience against our desire to have a consistent experience for members. I'll take it up with our product team. Thanks again for the candid feedback.
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Tom Gerace Feb 21, 2008, 4:24pm UTC
(more to come as soon as I have a second...I am back to answering questions on this article before 3pm when I return)
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Pat S. Feb 21, 2008, 4:54pm UTC
Tom, thank you so much for taking the time to respond. I completely agree that if my article would have disabled links to related articles, that's it's only reasonable not to have my article linked to others (actually, I would find that desirable).

As for chat? Yes please! A number of us already use some articles as chat threads. Until the upgrade that had the link feature, we could get 400 comments on a thread before response degraded. Now it starts slowing at 200 and is a dead crawl by 300. Yes, we do like to chat with one another!

Thanks for such terrific responses.
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Beth H. Feb 21, 2008, 5:52pm UTC
Yes to group chat!!!
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paul l. Feb 21, 2008, 6:43pm UTC
Tom: Thanks for the kind words, and back atcha! I appreciate the responses from you and David (and the HPRM, if that is someone or somebot else), and think that it has been a constructive dialogue for all of us.
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Sara S. Feb 21, 2008, 6:58pm UTC
Oooh!--I forgot my most important question:
Is the new release named for Woody or Arlo?

Janna R., Feb 21, 2008, 3:41pm EST



Janna, you read my mind... again.
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Madame Donna C. Feb 21, 2008, 7:14pm UTC
Sorry I missed all this, Tom. Maybe we'll just have lunch when I'm in Boston again and you can fill me in. Hah!
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Jill Lynn A. Feb 21, 2008, 7:25pm UTC
My two cents: It would be nice if we had an edit function for comments. It would allow us to fix a typo or whatever without losing our placement on an article's thread.
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Danielle P. Feb 21, 2008, 8:06pm UTC
This was great. Even though I missed the chat I went back and read it all. I learned a lot here today. Thanks for being available to us Tom.
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Tom Gerace Feb 21, 2008, 8:26pm UTC
Hi Bruce K- Regarding searching articles by author name: you know, I learned something tonight. I asked our head of development what we "index" (or use as the basis for search), and learned that our broad searches do not include author name by default. I will check with the team and see how hard that might be to add. Thanks for calling it out.

Please note also that only public content (content you published for "Everyone") will appear in search results.
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Bruce K. Feb 21, 2008, 8:27pm UTC
I agree with Jill ... editing would be nice, or an
alternative that avoids long chats is to give
everyone one editable box to resppnd to any
article with, and move the chat off to a chat
client.
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Tom Gerace Feb 21, 2008, 8:27pm UTC
Tom H- We have a number of people on the site who use alters to create fiction on the site. They treat each alter as a character and create ongoing stories. I haven't seen it done to fool, so much as to entertain.

If you the kind of discussion you described, let me know!
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Bruce K. Feb 21, 2008, 8:29pm UTC
Thanks Tom glad to help, Gather is very cool!
That is what I inferred from some searched I have done, they only searched the actual text content, not meta-content, names/handles.
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Tom Gerace Feb 21, 2008, 8:30pm UTC
Kitchenmage- Thanks for the suggestions regarding search improvements. I am a big fan of "search within quotes" as a mechanism for narrowing a query. I also thing we should increase the amount of a piece we currently index (I believe it's the first 1,000 words). Let me investigate a bit and see what I can find out. I will also pass the enhancement suggestions on to the team.
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Priscilla (wishing I was in Costa Rica) ~. Feb 21, 2008, 10:00pm UTC
Tom, this was a wonderful & informative read.

I would like to 2nd & 3rd what some others have said about Chat functions. I would love to see that option here. Even Boomertowne has a great chat function. It would be nice to have them open chats or private even.
We use the article threas often as a chat, and we get to know each other very well by doing this & I think it helps to strenghten groups of people here on gather.
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Bruce K. Feb 21, 2008, 10:18pm UTC
The question of multiple accounts/alters and IP addresses is complex.

It is not so simple as to catch someone's IP address when they sign-up, or log-on because, by far, most IP addresses are in dynamic ranges rented out DHCP by ISP and can change.

You could analyze users' IP addresses as they login, and track if simultaneously two different users are coming from the same IP and track that ... and maybe disallow that.

It would mean that if someone had broadband to a house and a NAT router and more than one person at the house wanted to be on Gather at a time Gather would would be removing that capability or forcing them to upgrade their ISP service.

Countermeasures would include buying broadband with more than one IP address, or in cases at work where one might have two machines on different networks you would not show up - for example someone who uses their broadband and their neighbors wireless network.

I'll bet most people who do such a thing are using one machine, and multiple browsers to login into multiple accounts. All that would really do however is to prevent users from accessing both accounts at the same time.
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Madame Donna C. Feb 21, 2008, 10:49pm UTC
Umm, Tom, have you seen your dentist recently? Dental Hygiene
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James R. Feb 21, 2008, 10:51pm UTC
Tom, thanks for an informative chat. The "hiccups" of the last weekend were a pain, but Gather has also provided a home for groups with strong common interests. I look forward to more improvements.
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G. M. Lupo Feb 21, 2008, 11:38pm UTC
Bookmark.
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Marianne R. Feb 21, 2008, 11:55pm UTC
Sorry I missed this.
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Erin P. Feb 21, 2008, 11:55pm UTC
This is all very interesting ... lots of great ideas and definite brainstorming on the part of the community. YES to the chat feature. YES to keeping the points and keeping the system a highly-guarded secret. THANK YOU to you and your staff for what you do for Gather. I came as the result of pure curiousity and I signed up for the points, but I stay for the connections and the ability to share my creativity and life with others.
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Sandy Knauer Feb 22, 2008, 12:30am UTC
Not fair No One, the time frame includes night workers, and day workers who play on Gather while they work.
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Jim Bostick Feb 22, 2008, 10:44am UTC
Oooh!--I forgot my most important question:
Is the new release named for Woody or Arlo?

Janna R.

The release name Guthrie is a celebration of all the Guthrie family. Arlo, Woody, and the rest of them.
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kitchenMage (blog.kitchenMage.com) Feb 22, 2008, 11:57am UTC
" The release name Guthrie is a celebration of all the Guthrie family. Arlo, Woody, and the rest of them."

Roll on, Gather, roll on.
Roll on, Gather, roll on.
Your pixels are turning the darkness to dawn.
So roll on, Gather, roll on.

(sorry, I live on the Columbia...we loves us some Guthrie's)
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