Gather in the Slow Lane

Stick with it. There are good stories here and there. Weed out the stuff you don't like by forming your own friend groups of people who you know write good material.

I checked out your profile and saw you have Heather W. as a friend. She's a good one. I enjoy all her animal things very much.

Kathy, welcome to our Gather Universe.

I agree with Chuck, there many great writers and contributors to Gather. You should join some groups and connect with people who have similar interests with yours.

I find that you can do both...have a little fun with some frivolous stuff and also write some more serious things....Welcome to Gather

Thanks very much, everyone. I am not opposed to silly stuff, but when I was reading under "recent articles" this afternoon, it seemed like I wasn't finding anything thought-provoking or carefully written or humorous or anything. It was looking like it was primarily about the points. Thanks to you folks, I've been able to explore around and find other stuff that I was missing.

Kathy you're starting to sound like us jaded older (in time here) members heh.
It is very frustrating to see poorly written articles, poorly composed photos, and just banter out rank the well thought out, and "purposeful" content. Too many people on here just want to get points or cash and will publish anything (such as name a word that starts with a letter "games") just to get points. .. but here is the irony in that attempt : Those that post such crap (and really. . . it is crap. . ) are the ones I see on here mostly complaining that they don't make a lot of points. I and many others only publish our best / good things that we care about, and do quite nice with the points and cash.
I have never seen a dedicated photographer or writer on here post about not getting enough points. I suspect gather rewards quality over quantity.
You don't have to be an award winning photographer or writer to do well on this site. . . you just need to be a nice person, post good work (not clearly "just for points" i.e. posting 10 photos of your cat cleaning its paws vs one really good shot of your cat cleaning its paws that may show his personality in some way. . . there in lies the difference).

Sorry it took me so long to get back to you today :)

"Suggestions?"

Here's a few:

Choose your connections (now called "friends") wisely. Take the time to see what (and how much) they produce before accepting a connection request. Once you find a few quality connections, follow their comments ("comment stalking") and see what they are reading and discussing--that often leads to some interesting things and people. Don't hesitate to disconnect from people who turn out to not be worthwhile connections.

In general, avoid unmoderated groups. A large proportion of unthoughtful members post whatever they want wherever they want, making unmoderated groups virtually useless as far as organization or purpose. Post to groups appropriately.

Use relevant tags to label your content.

Don't give up. Among all the crap, there's some really great stuff and people.

Don't hesitate to ask questions. You can always post questions to the daily help article in the help.gather.com group, too.

Welcome!

t puts me in a bit of a dilemma, however. If I actually want to write good, well-crafted articles, and get thoughtful feedback, how am I to choose friends and groups?

I love you!

Janna said it all.

Kathy you're starting to sound like us jaded older (in time here) members heh.

That would be me, Kathy. I came here when Gather was billed as a site for writers and intelligent discussion. And I fought (and lost) a long hard battle to try and keep it that way.

You seem to be doing well for a brand new member. The typical would be 0 comments at this stage. :-)

So yeah, you have to connect to people--not to everyone who moves, as some people like to do, but those whose articles you like and those who like yours. Even then, among such friends, the short, chatty stuff will get more comments, but the longer things won't be completely ignored.

You could make a
Slow Lane Group.
Good Luck. Welcome to Gather.

When it comes to groups if you have certain subjects you like make sure you find a group that is moderated because if you don't there are some that spam groups with off topic crap so we would like to keep our groups on topic have to moderate them. Its sad that some are so point crazy that they would trade their small children to get them.

There are some of here that I think should not be allowed to be on the internet. So do check out their material when you get a connection request.

most of my groups are nature and photography based Im not much of a writter though so cant help much with that.

You can use the search feature to search groups by topic and find the ones that interest you.