Or, more precisely, Tom Gerace did, over here, with a followup comment thread over here. Technically, this isn't a change in policy as much as an out-and-out statement that members who do it will have their points turned off without warning -- which means that if you want to share something with people, you'd better have something original to say about it. A good step forward, although people who like sharing their favorite quotations will have to bear in mind the crackdown on 'review it' over 'share it'. (On the plus side, now I feel better about making a point to go into the difference between reviewing something and just posting random links to it in my Common Cents column for the week, Affiliate Marketing and You -- okay, so saying that posting random copied is similar to posting affiliate marketing links without putting any effort into reviewing it is a stretch, but it's a stretch I'm willing to make.
Of course, that's not all Tom Gerace discussed -- one interesting note is that 'individual earnings will now be uncapped', which has interesting implications regarding how earnings have been to date. Specifically, it stated that members were originally earning a finite maximum (of points per day, perhaps), in order to keep the wealth shared evenly. I suspect this ties in with another portion of the announcement -- content posting will be receiving a higher priority and earning more points, whereas other site activities (viewing, commenting, rating, etc) will earn less points. This has many group moderators feeling edgy -- maintaining an active group has thus far been a self-rewarding process in that group owners and moderators are compensated for their efforts, and the new changes may result in significant decreases in the earnings of those who rely more on this than they think they do.
Finally, they still aren't going to show you the points formula - for the simple reason that if you knew exactly what you needed to do to earn points, you'd do it even if it meant you did nothing else on the site. Again, this isn't new, but with their announcement that they're uncapping point earning potential (and the implication that beforehand points were being capped), this gives even more reason for them not to want people to easily figure out how to game the system.
Oddly, this makes me want to start up a few features I've been letting lag behind. Such as:
I've been trying to do more of the group moderation posts to support members (and more content-clearing behind the scenes), for example, and the fact that views and comments are now worth slightly less will mean that people who spend time doing so are more likely to be doing so because they're actually interested in seeing what's out there.
For a while after his death, I was doing a series of articles with quotes from George Carlin, referencing the books they came from. I'm not sure if I really 'reviewed' too many of them, because typically they were short one-or-two-line jokes rather than sketches, but it occurs to me that I probably could do that more often, and likewise for other comedians, theorists, and generally odd people whose works I enjoy, or use it as a prompt for writing.
That's another thing -- I've been in a state of writer's block for a while lately. Domestic chaos, stress, worry, and a general feeling of having no idea where the world's going can make it hard to come up with something. Still, there might be some motivational aspect in realizing that there's now a better chance something good will come out of it. Never hurts, right?
For that matter, I've been doing a lot of things that can be reviewed, or discussed, or rambled about in loving or not-so-loving detail, if I'd just sit down and start typing. So, I think I'm going to have to do that - just keep on going, and try to dedicate some time each day to do some honest-to-goodness writing.
See, this is my train-of-thought sort of writing right now -- I was originally going to talk about features. The Chain Game is a particular fondness of mine - in fact, one of those features was an innovative way to repeat a quotation, because it challenges the reader to make a new sentence from at least one of the words to see where the train of thought takes people. It's entertaining, it's not too difficult, and it's probably better for your mind than watching television. Even a basic alphabetic pattern or a word association game is more challenging to respond to than a hasty 'thanks' can hope to triumph over.
I have a lot of intentions and goals, but seldom the time to implement all of them. That's just the way it goes, because I tend to ramble a lot once I get started -- but I'm cautiously optimistic that maybe this will give me a nudge to get back into writing again. Maybe. If nothing else, maybe at least I'll have some fun, right?
Now then, for more serious business. I run several groups that are focused on getting people the views and comments and ratings they want and crave. Numbers are just numbers, but let's face it, you want your numbers to be higher, and you'd want that even if you got paid next to nothing for it. With the implied tone that members who create content that gets overlooked will receive less points for their efforts, it's now more important than ever to ensure that everyone gets a fair chance at being noticed, and that's what I've been trying to do all along.
However, there's one big thing that always makes my job harder, and that's people who lift large amounts of content from elsewhere and paste it in, sometimes dozens of times per day. One can imagine the uproar if Gather had announced they were rewarding content posters more and hadn't clearly come out and said 'except those guys who just embed videos from Youtube, those guys are getting their points frozen.' And I see a lot of it; it's especially annoying when people post, say, fifty links to funny YouTube videos to a group about Wal-Mart or roleplaying, but it's equally annoying when I come to the realization that there's a lot of these articles or videos or images lurking in the 'needs more comments' or 'needs more views' or 'needs more ratings' section.
So, I think one of the things I am going to be doing while trying to catch up on my content clearing, or featuring, or whathaveyou, will be to make a significant effort to remove the copy/paste articles as I go, using the same guidelines Tom Gerace specifies, paraphrased here: "If you copy or refer or link to something, and then add your own commentary on it, it's original content. If not, it isn't, and you shouldn't be earning points for it." I may have to do a feature post so people can post links of suspect content to me, so I can remove them from my groups -- 50,000 articles or images or videos is a lot of ground to cover by myself, after all.
Whew. No idea how much of that I'll actually do, but at least it got me writing, right?
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Comments: 40
Yeah - we'll just have to see how this all shakes out. My big concern is that many people will spend more time posting than viewing and commenting on others' submissions.
You are right Kathy and Tony and it would be ugly.
Thank you for this information
Good article.
I'm just tickled the changes came AFTER I posted Big Butter Jesus
Shameless hussy, I be.
As Gather defined the rules (or didn't) I don't see a lot of significant changes taking place in the overall makeup of the content shared in the community.
The content will stay the same, you just won't get views because no one will bother... LOL!!!
It may take a little while before the members start noticing the difference. I know it took me until 7pm tonight to find out about the change in the point system that Tom had posted earlier this morning. It's just the first day, and at some point more Gather members will become aware - and those that were abusing the system before will no longer be enabled and will die down.
I think we'll probably see a more significant change as the week and month progress. :)
I just posted a lot of You Tube videos because I saw that happening and I found the videos very informative. I honestly thought the content of the videos was adding "quality" to the site. Of course, we all want the points, as well as myself, or I would not be here as much as I am. I have many other things I could be working on that would make money online for me, and will go to that if my efforts and work here on gather is not rewarded. That is just a message to me or anyone like me it seems to "just get out of here." Well, if all the site wants is authors and poets, I am not one of those and there are many on here like me, so then I will have to be moving along because I cannot produce poems and such. I am not a poet. However, the site advertises, "share" and "share whatever interests you." If the site only wants autors and poets, maybe they should change their entire advertising platform across the web to "share only if you are an author of poems, stories, play, etc." So if noone is rewarded for commenting and viewing all the poems and the stories, I suppose it will just be among the poets and the authors to comment and view among themselves. Some of the other social sites may start rewarding those who are there to "socialize" with whatever their particular style of socializing is, such as Facebook, Twitter, My Lots and whoever else pops up. ON the other hand, I can understand how that they probably have been paying out a lot of money to people who have been just socializing on the site. Just my thoughts on it.
If you are posting youtube videos, just add your own opinion of it and what it means to you. That's when it becomes original content and when you should be rewarded - for your own thoughts. It doesn't have to be professional writing or poetry, just your own thoughts on the subject.
Nothing is wrong with sharing things that interest you, just make sure to explain to us WHY it interests you. :)
I totally agree with you. I also do a number of other points/rewards programs online as well so at least Gather isn't the only place to earn points/$$$$. I am not a poet, either......I am really into refunding and have made a lot of money from this hobby, as well as getting loads and loads of great stuff for free. If things change so much, sometimes a person just has to move on.
Oh oh.....I was replying to Connie, not Michelle......hmmmmm, somehow my comments got "misplaced!" Oh well, I should say, "I totally agree with you, Connie!"
Nora: you don't have to be a poet to share original content, you could still share links to things you have found for free; or other great bargains- you would just need to add some commentary to it for it to be original.
<i>That's another thing -- I've been in a state of writer's block for a while lately. Domestic chaos, stress, worry, and a general feeling of having no idea where the world's going can make it hard to come up with something.<i>
That's exactly where I've been. And why is this typing in bold face? What's with the HTML button in the comment box? It seems I must have missed some important Gather update.
And some of the You Tube videos do "address" our every day stressful lives, as well as could "stimulate ideas" for those who write off the top of their heads, or from creative juices.
Now the cooking videos in my opinion are very helpful for me at least. Not everyone learns from the written word. I am very much a visual learner. There are some great cooks on Gather, and to me, that is quality material as well as the helpful visual learning from the You Tube videos. But, I think, again if Gather only wants authors, poets and play writers, then their advertising across the web should be more for this type rather than "share, and share whatever interests you."
Connie,
To be honest, you were one of the first people I thought of when I read the new 'policy'...and I don't mean that in a good way.
When you share 30+ posts a day containing only an embedded video with no additional verbiage and also moderate comments, this is interpreted by many as self-serving. Hence, you make yourself a target for being reported.
I personally have found little in these posts that would incite me to comment as you are not engaging me in a conversation. This is, I believe, at the heart of what Tom was attempting to address today.
Oh my gosh, Kevin, then do you mean, also, that recipes are bad? What about my FREE refunding stuff and my "great deals?" Are those bad, as well? I'm thinking I should be pulling my entire site down, "Nora's Great Deals," for fear of posting "no no's!" Perhaps getting things like free flat screen digital t.v's, free $400 Kitchen Aid mixers, free $1,000 HP laptop computers, etc....are really not interesting/informative?????
I am sorry you did not find the same subjects as I as interesting enough to comment upon Kevin. There is a lot posted that I can't find anything to comment about either, but I don't see the need to report it as not being beneficial, perhaps it is to "someone." I was not trying to become a star by posting the videos or to gain any kind of audience because of it. The videos were interesting to me and I was sharing what was interesting to me, which is also part of what Gather advertises for people to do. I felt the content of the videos did not need "me" adding anything more to it. They spoke for themselves enough to evoke conversation in anyone that wanted to converse about them.
If a person is posting something...anything, I believe it should have some of their own origianl content along with it.
Posting a video, or copy/paste news is not original until you add your opinions,thoughts...etc.
good article Shannon..my mind is on off at the moment and dont' know what to say
thank you for posting. Very interesting...I didn't think we were suppose to post YouTube videos anyway.
im glad people wont get points for posting song lyrics or you-tube videos.
Bravo, Austin! Bravo!! I'm really glad you will be monitoring your content and clearing out the copy/paste articles. :)
I think this change in the point system will be very productive to Gather's success.
Austin, what will be done to those that copy and paste comments that they call generic. I feel if you have nothing to say, dont even copy. what will happen to them?because we have a lot of them.
I don't think it will matter anymore, timi. As soon as they see that commenting and viewing are not generating them any points - now that the reward system is changing, I think they will slowly start to stop. It seems they may be a dying breed. Time will tell . . .
I've never been into the Youtubes videos posted here on gather...I do not consider these videos 'your' original content!!
Phyllis, Gather advertises to "share" whatever interests you. The You Tube videos did interest me. If they were not getting any points for me, I really did not know it. I just would view them and think gosh, nice to share. And as you drop off my friends list, I am glad to see anyone drop off that does not like what I put through the feeds.
If the videos did interest you why did you not take a couple of seconds to share what did interest you about the video? I asked on a few of the videos and you replied to one or two of them. Knowing that before I posted my comment would have made the video more interesting to watch.
Noone twist my arms to make me open up posts that I don't want to open neither to comment on things I don't want to comment on.
I think that this will be a positive change for all of us. Just in your example alone, Austin, you point out that you will likely be doing more substantial writing in the future to meet with the new demands of the system. That's great. I'd much rather read your original thoughts than have a lot of folks stating "good article."
I do not comment on You Tube videos
Me neither Cecilia! I like to see original content here on gather & I just skip the rest~
I am not bothered so far by any of the changes I've read about. And to be honest, my points have risen about the same today as every other day for weeks. (Slowly, that is.)
I'm not here for the points, and that isn't going to change. In fact, the only thing which would make me leave Gather would be more cut and paste stuff. YouTube videos, I seldom watch and even more seldom comment on, but I don't care if other people do. I just have several categories in my feeds, and make sure that people who post only cut and paste stuff are in the category which I rarely choose to look at.
Oh wow, I honestly feel for all the moderating you yourself will have to do if you so choose. I only have 2, well I just made another little group and I'm constantly battling them being used as a dumping ground.
You offer some really good commentary about the changes! I'm new to group moderation, and mine (Reviews to Peruse) is still small, and so I've only gotten the on-topic review articles. But regardless, it makes me happy to know that there should (at least in theory) be a decrease in those copy/paste articles... less crud to sort through means more quality content, and I rather enjoy viewing the quality stuff!
Good luck with your plans/endeavors... I can imagine that the groups you run must get to be quite a handful.
I am still just as confused about this system as ever. You still will get rewards for commenting, just not as much. what ever that much used to be who knows it what it is now. You can still copy and post but add you own thoughts to it to make it original content. Okay it was something that I hadn't ever done but did enjoy from others on occasion. So really what has changed other than stepping on a few toes? Face it everyone is making cut backs even gather.