I have been a member of Gather for two and a half years and there are still some very elementary things I don't understand and don't know how to do there. For instance I don't know how to create a blue ink link. Someone told me how once, but I either didn't understand or I forgot. Apparently I didn't copy it anywhere.
Another thing is how to find friends I haven't made contact with lately. If I enter their name and do a search, all I get is other people's articles about them. What I have been doing is reading the comments until I find one by my friend and then click on his or her name. There must be a better way.
Yesterday I wanted to join a group called Truth Works owned by Carolion. When I did a search all I got were articles posted to the group. There was no place to click where I could indicate a desire to join.
For at least half of December I was in a daze from being forced to move out of my trailer, my last bastion of independence, by a falling tree branch that blocked me inside for almost a day. During that period Gather made drastic changes in how we get rewarded for our participation. I had reached a point where I was getting money. Now I'm back to points and I have no idea what they are worth. Cashing them in for gift certificates at stores does not appeal to me except for Amazon. But I get most of the books I need at the library. I own too many books already, and I don't have enough bookcases for them. I need large print books anyhow, and I haven't figured out how to get what I want in large print at Amazon.
If there is a place where all these things are explained in detail on Gather, I haven't found it. How many points does it take to make how many dollars? In 2007 it took over 1500 points for a $25 gift card at a store. I wish they would make an option where you could just get a Visa card for the amount you have earned. I did notice that you can't request money under amounts of $50.
Another thing I have wondered is how many Gather friends do you have to be connected to for the best comment response, provided what is written is half-way readable and interesting. How many friends do most people maintain? Does anyone have over 500? I have hesitated to have more than 200 because there is no way I can keep track of the content of that many people with this very slow land line connection. I have almost 300 and I think having that many people posting to my site makes me lose track of certain people I care about very much. There are at least 50 of those so far, and if I hadn't written down their names in my notebook that substitutes for my forgetful brain, I would have lost track of many of them.
Here is another poser. How do you approach Gather each day? I mean when you have 50 or more messages in your e-mail how do you go about whittling them down? I weed out the non-Gather messages first. Then I read several messages from the day before to find out if I have already read them when I was logged on Gather. Then I delete all the ones that might have escaped deletion from before that time. After that I log on Gather and tackle all the messages and comments, but I often get side-tracked by interesting articles that are constantly being posted. I never get to click on topics or groups to read articles. I'm completely haphazard. There must be a better, more organized way of keeping up.
One deterrent right now is that Jane and I have only one line into the house, and she works on it. She is on-line intermittently at unpredictable hours of the day or night. That will be solved when we get a second line.
When I consider that I am completely retired with minimum responsibilities, so that I have a lot of time to write. I wonder how busy people manage. I could easily spend 8 or 10 hours straight on Gather every day if my old bum could stand it, and I had room service to make sure I ate something now and then. How in the world do you folks with family and job responsibilities make time to keep up with Gather? Maybe I can get some suggestions that will make it possible for me to keep in better connection with more people.
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Comments: 32
I found that, through the gather changes, if I try to approach my friends or groups from my home page, I will always find a way. Click MY GATHER on the very top of the page, and you will get a page that includes a lot of things. Just above the box that includes your current points is a bar with My Home | My Profile | My Posts | My Photos | My Videos | My Comments | My Friends | My Groups. They may not be in alphabetical order, but you can find friends (and in looking at them, you can get a list of their groups). I also find this helpful if I commented on an article and want to go back to see how the discussion has progressed.
I have gotten a couple of gift cards (and, yes, amazon is nice), but I have recently been requesting PayPal, which starts at $25. If you link your PayPal account to a bank account, you can transfer up to $500 per month without charges (this is the basic personal account). If I remember right it is 1565 points for $25.
I don't send out emails about my articles, though I suspect that does increase readership among friends. There are some individuals on gather who will carry on conversations in articles -- ensuring you keep that going probably helps. I found that about 15% of my friends are on gather with regularity...some post but never comment -- but I like to read their posts.
Keep sharing your stuff! I, for one, enjoy reading it.
I have way too many friends so I am eliminating most of them. I am keeping the ones that always comment and getting rid of the rest. I don't like getting emails in my box unless they are personal .
The hub and I fight over the computer too as we are on a slow phone line here - back in SB we're on Broadband - we still fight over the big puter - that's why he posts mostly in the summer when I'm away.
I just sneak in here and do my thing but I type extremely fast and can cover lots of ground.
You may get many messages because of your friend setting - so if someone keeps sending you messages to read their stuff, just disconnect from them. Ok well, I'm sure this wasn't much help, but it helped me clear my head. Have a good evening. Salud
I go through my friend's articles using the still craptastic feed - and while I'm reading articles (I no longer read all of them - not enough time or energy for things that are obviously not of interest to me - and in fact, if someone is flooding my feed with those sorts of things they are gone gone gone..) ...and if I happen to spot a friend's comment somewhere, I will often right click and open their profile page in a new tab or window so that I can check for anything I've missed... I do that with Jax' now, so that I see her images - she is ususally the only person whose images I visit nowadays)
You asked about how to create a link that shows up blue, and it is done using HTML, and you have to remember the code to use. It starts with then you put the words you want to display in the linkand then and then all you will see when you post it are the words between > and < before the final /a>.
That should be enough for you to absorb for now.
To find friends, I click on the black "People' link at the very top of the page and enter the person's name I'm searching for on the page when it comes up. You will have to wade through other who share the same name (ie. first names Rob or Mary, last names Smith or Jones) to find the one you're looking for.
The same thing for locating groups...at the top of the page, click 'Groups'...and enter the name of the group in the search box when the page comes up.
As already explained, now that Gather has done away with the 'cash option' program, everyone has reverted back to points. It takes 63 points to equal $1...and multiples as the amount increases: 126 points = $2...315 points = $5...630 points = $10...1575 points = $25 and so on. Since doing away with the 'cash option', Gather has added PayPal payments so you can still get money and not have to choose gift cards. You can only cash out for PayPal payments of $25, $50 or $100; not random amounts. As explained, it's a free service and you can even have the money transferred right to your bank account.
As for how many connections it takes to get good response; just a couple of months ago, I had over 1,400 in my network and I whittled it back to 850. In just two months, I'm back up to 950 already. I have found maybe 20% will look at my posts while around 10% or so will actually leave a comment. The page views count toward points...the ones made to your posts and the ones you make to other posts. These alone, add up to good points. Just through views I make to others alone, I'm making about 200 points a day. That's in addition to the points I make for posting my own articles and others coming to view what I have written. I'm earning upwards of $200 a month using my system.
I have my publication notifications for all of my connection's content activated, so I'm notified in my home E-mail whenever someone publishes anything; article, picture or video; in addition to when they comment on my work. I get anywhere between 750 and 1,000 E-mails a day...and I open every one of them and give each post at least a page view if not a comment. (Ratings don't make any points, so in most instances, I don't even do that.) E-mails are coming in constantly 24 hours a day. The first thing in the morning, I check the progress of my points and then start going through my mail as I sit having coffee. Some days I write; other days I don't. I can go through a couple hundred E-mails in an hour to get caught up. When I do so, if I'm going to write; I do that next and publish. It usually take me a couple of hours to put a post together, so when I'm done, it's time to go back to my E-mails and catch up again. I don't sit on Gather constantly, but I do check back several times a day to catch up on incoming E-mails and look at what others have posted.
Being without a leg and not working, I have a little more time than many to devote to Gather, but I also go about my daily routine, go for walks, do some shopping, maybe stop for a cup of coffee, visit with friends, etc. It really is quite the unique site overall...and you are quite a marvelous and unique gal. I'm glad we're connected and things are still going well for you overall. Hope I may have been able to help you out a little with some of your questions. :-)
1. Open up the page that you want to link to - highlight (left click on the front of the line and then hold the mouse button down while you pull the cursor to the end of the line) the address (www.wherever.com) in the field at the top of the page - press the Control key and while you are holding it down press the "C" key.
2. Go to the sentence in your article that you want to become the link - highlight it.
3. In the menu section of the Gather text editor - on the right side at the top you will see what looks like a closed chain link and a broken chain link. Click on the closed link. A box will pop up. Put your cursor in the field that says "Link URL" and then press the Control key and while holding it down press "V". This will paste the link in that field. Click on "Insert".
4. Create and publish the rest of the article as you normally would.
If you want to make a link in a comment that is a different method which I can also describe here if you'd like to know.
Click on the Search button in the top right corner of the Gather page - make sure to leave it blank. The search results will come up blank but you will have the ability to click on the link "people" - do that and then type in the name of the person you are looking for. This should give you a list of members.
If you click on the "my friends" link at the top right of your Gather homepage - on the left side of the page there is a button that says "Edit Friend Sets". When the page opens you will see a link that says "Create a new friend set" - click on that and a box will pop up. Type in a name for the friend set and click "save". The screen should go back to the page you were on. You can then click on the list of names of the friends in the left column and they will move to the blank right column. Click individually on each name that you want to add to the set. And when you are done, click "Save".
When you are on your Gather page you can click on the drop down box that is directly underneath "Content for Me" and select the name of the list that you created. This will then show only the work published by those people.
As for link in comment. You need to use html. Kevin has posted an article on how to do that
Ellen B
Tonia - Thank you especially. I have copied a shortened version of what you told me into my all-knowing notebook, and flagged the page.
One more thng - How do I delete some of the outdated and no longer wanted lists I made when I first connected with people. I wish wherever Gather has a create button there would also be a delete option handy.
Also my 'rememberer' is probably pourous at my age, so I have to write down essentials.
Rob - You must be on Broad Band or some form of real high speed connection. I couldn't do in a day what you do in an hour or so. I suppose that is one of the perks of living in a city. It is remarkable what you have accomplished since you first lost your leg. I knew you could do it if you kept a good attitude, and you did that and so much more. It's wonderful that you can squeeze $200 a month out of Gathering. I wish I And not only do you shine on Gather, you don't neglect exercise by walking and other activities. I have great admiration for you!
Elsie - I'm sorry you have been laid up. Don't forget to drink your orang juice!
You are another person whose work brings in so many comments you put me to shame! You are a much more balanced and a more loving person than I, and you deserve it.
How many Gather friends can you maintain? I delete ones whose interests are too far from mine, or who clog up my system with silly stuff, or who never comment on my stuff. But it takes me a lot of time to keep monitoring my list of people.
Jim Ross - I didn't realize we actually joined on the same day, but I was aware you are a friend from my beginning time here. You are one of those I felt I had lost contact with. Periodically I write down lists of people I have shared comments with and your name is on one of my earliest lists. (I couldn't function without my notebook!) Have you done poetry? I am so bad at poetry, I finally squelched my yearnings to express myself that way and now try to write poetic prose sometimes instead. I even dropped Nudelman the Poet because he was sending too many notifications of his latest work, which often left me mystified as to what he was trying to say. Anyway I really value our connection and will put you on my new Quick List that Tonia suggested.
Jim G - I have noticed that you are a faithful commenter on my articles and I haven't been reciprocating. I'll try to change that. If you have only 100 people on your list, I am flattered to be one of them. Thanks for sticking with me.
Lynn - I love having you as a friend, and thinking of you living in Memphis where I took my aircraft mechanic training curing WWII so many years ago. I hate it that I haven't been keeping up with you lately. I've got to get organized! Thanks for reading my stuff so faithfully.
Claudia K - Thanks for the good info. I'll copy it down for future reference. The next thing I do after commenting on these comments is check for current articles by all the folks who responded here. Maybe you will find my name following an article by you. Thanks.
flit - I don't know how you can cover so much ground! You have so much going on in your personal life but still find time to make intelligent comments on the work of so many people. I appreciate being one of those poeple. I always value your advice.
Debbie - A note from you is like a ray of sunshine to my heart. Your country roots speak to my own,and your profession as a nurse impresses me because that is what I first tried to be but lost the necessary courage. And you make delicious banana bread! Love ya'
always.
Mariana - You must be a terrifically high speed typist and also have a high speed connection to be so generous with all your many heartwarming comments to so many people. And you always tailor them so well for each person and situation. Praise from you makes me feel good all day. Thanks for keeping me as a friend.
Debra C - Thanks for the helpful information. I am glad to know your assessment of the comment percentage to your connections. 15% sounds about right to me and it is sort of discouraging. I think it must take about 500 connections to maintain a really good number of comments. That is too many to do justice to each.
Leah - I have been responding in reverse order and left you for last. Yet you were the very first person to comment on my very first article. I like staying in touch with you and keeping up with what is happening in your life. You mentioned snow in an article lately. Is that Arizona snow or Canadian snow?
I do know that if I don't comment on other people's posts, most of them will never comment or look at my posts, either, so I try to give at least one comment on most of my friends posts even though I look at just about all of them.
Most of the time I just feel so overwhelmed by everything on Gather and that's why I stay away for such long periods of time. I wish I didn't do that, but it has a lot to do with the depression. :-(
Hang in there and please don't stop writing!