Forum Moderators: open
We wish to focus more on news issues that concern most of our members than help-me issues. The subtle difference in the title should help in that cause.
What you can do to contribute:
a) Skip any "me too" or "lol" posts and stick to more substantial posts.
b) Read the FAQ.
c) Check the forum titles for the last week before posting a news item. Duple posts are a problem.
d) Use good titles. Please use good titles. Your title should reflect the content of a posts. It should be a question about an issue, or a statement. It should not be a statement disquised as a question.
Titles have become such an issue, that I've told moderators to delete the entire thread if the title is wildely inappropriate.
Threads with titles such as "help me", "hey, check this out", "wow dudes", are headed for the trashcan and noted on user accounts. Two abuses and the nick, email, account, and ip address will join the posts in the trashcan. Titles are being abused intentionally and we are done taking the time to correct them (10-20 a day).
If you don't know how to write a good title, visit a search engine near you on 'how to write a good title'.
Bad: Google incommunicado
Good: Can't reach Google from china.
Bad: We are back
Good: Back from PR0 by blocking bot.
Bad: Google -- spammy or not?
Good: The whole post should go since it was another spam reporting post.
e) Spam. Any spam reporting threads are headed to the trashcan. We are not the Google spam reporting system. Far too many problems associated with it.
Thanks for your cooperation.
Thanks for renaming my post 'Can't reach Google from china'. I only realised later that this could be a specific China-related problem and was wondering how I could retitle the thread.
teeceo.
p.s. I promise i'll be good.
I think every angle of PR0, fluctuation and waxing and waning of the moon has been covered to date.
Just curious
In that case, perhaps you ought to create 2 forums, the other being for the help-me issues.
>Bad: Google -- spammy or not?
Good: The whole post should go since it was another spam reporting post.
>e) Spam. Any spam reporting threads are headed to the trashcan. We are not the Google spam reporting system. Far too many problems associated with it.
The problem here is that while I can see the desirability of not having people post "my pet keywords "widgets" and "doohockeys" are being dominated by spammers", the issue of spamminess of Google in general seems quite on topic. Discussing the relative spamminess of different search engines seems quite on topic.
On the site search engine, if you add the keyword
/forum3/
to your search, it will restrict searches to this forum.
The problem is the same questions are coming up in the same order, over and over again.
>in general seems quite on topic.
Discussing spam in general is not a problem rfgdxm1. What is a problem is that we already have about 3000 messages that discuss it. Surely 90% of the the new posts are covered by most of those?
What we get alot of these days is the classic shopping the competition to GoogleGuy. Many of the "am I spamming, or check my profile site" posts have not actually been by the site owner, it's been by their competition.
Hey, we are dealing with SEO's here - junior and senior word guru's in the making. Some know everyway imagineable to "optimize" a post so that a discussion about one thing is actually a discussion about another. (stop laughing gg).
If you do a site search on "do you report spam /forum3/" you get every possible way to discuss spam from how, where, when, what, and even a new way to report spam. We've been spammed about spam:
1. How do I report spam to Google? [webmasterworld.com...] - size 22kb 2002
2. New way to report spam [webmasterworld.com...] - size 26kb 2002
3. Where do I report spam on GOOGLE? [webmasterworld.com...] - size 6kb 2002
4. How long for spam to be removed using form? [webmasterworld.com...] - size 10kb 2002
5. Where do I report spam? [webmasterworld.com...] - size 8kb 2002
6. Not linking spam [webmasterworld.com...] - size 33kb 2002
7. Hidden Text [webmasterworld.com...] - size 17kb 2002
8. does google takes spam complaints seriously? [webmasterworld.com...] - size 24kb 2002
9. To complain or not to complain about a competitor' [webmasterworld.com...] - size 32kb 2002
10. does google takes spam complaints seriously? [webmasterworld.com...] - size 24kb 2002
We got spam issues covered cold. What we don't have covered is members taking the time to read and investigate before posting. What we have are members asking questions looking for silver platter answers without taking the time to do a little research first.
Heh. My point was just that a topic such as "Is Google a lot more spammy since the last update?" should be appropriate. Specific spam reports should be sent to Google and not here.
msr986,
The key is not to have a title that says "help me".
A concise title will not only help searching so others can be, more easily, informed by previous threads but it will raise the level of feedback that you will receive. A lot of people may pass over a thread called help me but if they a topic they have done specific research on they will share their knowledge instantly.
It does surprise me that a community who should all know how to write valid/pertinent titles would not apply that to anything but meta tags. ;)
<added>"Is Google a lot more spammy since the last update?"
try
new algo seems weighted more towards "X"
or
"X" seems to have gained more weight
both researched first of course and where x!="spam"
Thanks for the tip for searching - /forum3/! I wondered why you couldn't search on a forum - I should asked.
I need to say that I am really impressed with the detective work carried out by Brett and I assume also the mods. I was completely unaware that many "Am I spamming?" posts were created by target site competitors. That revelation has my respect. Very cool. Well done.
One more detail. I read Brett's posts here twice each, and I am not entirely clear on the help questions. Brett wants help seekers to do a site search first, and those who need to ask for help...ask in the Google News forum? Or elsewhere? Maybe I just need another cuppa coffee and a third reading.
Before starting a thread people should check off the following boxes:
[ ] I know about site search [searchengineworld.com] and always use it a few times before posting a new thread.
[ ] I have read through the title guidelines* and the wording of my title proves it.
[ ] I have read and understand the posting guidelines [webmasterworld.com].
[ ] I have read through the (Fill in specific thing here like Google FAQ [webmasterworld.com])
* This thread is a good start to the title guidelines
Before posting the poster should check off the following box:
[ ] I have read and understand the posting guidelines [webmasterworld.com] and I know what site search [searchengineworld.com] is.
Perhaps you should modify the posting guidelines in the following ways:
Further emphasize the importance of avoiding repeated content and frivolous posts (But do it in a why that makes posters feel that can still be fun and humorous at times). Mention the “site search” feature and why it is beneficial to the quality of posts and the poster as well. I would put these points above the obvious slanderous, offensive language, copyright warnings.
I am relatively new to Webmaster World and I am only just beginning to feel the pain that some of you veteran posters/readers must go through with having to read the same things over and over again. I think the answer is to find ways to educate new members quickly but yet remember to have patience with new members as they join our discussions. The people at Webmaster World have been very friendly with me as I have been learning about and exploring this great forum.
These changes will make our jobs alot easier. The only other thing I would ad is an all-out ban on google update threads. :)
WHAT?! These are tradition here. ;) Actually, so long as it is all contained to ONE thread, this should be little problem.
Perhaps as others have said, you should make a Google help forum -- more targetted for newbees. I find myself still learning here and I would hate to second guess every one of my posts, and would feel better if there was a less formal forum related to Google I could post in, especially for personal help.
That is, unless you don't want the newbees ;) Just my 2 cents.
I too find the repetitive posts like is there more spam this month, my site has gone up/down, I’ve been hit by PR0, etc, etc, etc takes up far too much of my time and I’m sure I miss many good posts either buried in this or because I just don’t have enough spare time to read everything due to this.
However, having said that I still get something from these posts, some degree of reassurance, a general feeling of how other people are doing and any reported changes that I may have to investigate further.
One solution to this problem could be a monthly survey allowing people who are in an inherently isolated industry, gauge their efforts with their peers.
Possible questions could include:
Google spam
Less More Same
Your PR
Higher Lower Same
Your Keyword search results
Higher Lower Same
PR0
Now PR0 Still PR0 PR0 Lifted
Algo change
No change slight change big change
What do you think?
for one hand this makes it harder to use the site search (maybe a glossary would help?) for the other hand sometimes i find out that those keywords should be in my title to make it more descriptive after someone has replied using them. unfortunately the "owner edit" function doesn't cover the title.
i welcome the title change from "google" to "google news". now at least i can destinguish WebmasterWorld from G itself in my windows-bar :)
We do have a glossary [searchengineworld.com] muesli.
Nice gmoney! Some elevator music with that? ;)
Hey that’s another idea. Instead of making check boxes, Webmaster World could play the words as a song on the posting pages. It would go great with the “I can be your hero baby” song.
All sing along: “I have read the posting guidelines (pause) and I know (pause) what the site search is.” :)
The cycle of algo changes will rotate certain topics in and out of the forum.I have always looked at this forum as the pulse of the Seo/webmaster community. We even have Googleguy in and out monitoring that pulse to help them provide the best results.
If my current (generic,no names,keywords or site in my profile) post that was trying to visualize link manipulation for profits was out of line I am sorry. I will not make such posts in the future.
However it appears to me that it is the flipside of last Decembers heavy PR0 posts. I could be wrong but I think the noise that was made here then helped shape a better and cleaner index for a time.
The way you described the usage of spam posts does make it difficult for you to allow them at all. How then can we have ballance ? I wish I had the answer.
Cleaning up the overall quality of posts in the Google forum is welcome.
Thanks for the Leadership
David
I also think you'll be making a mistake if you police this forum with a heavy hand. I've been a forum manager myself (on MSN, back when MSN had contract forum managers), and it didn't take me long to learn that removing anything but the most obvious spam angers users--and it especially upsets users who have taken the time to write thoughtful posts. If "moderator" becomes another word for "editor," users are likely to seek alternative venues.
The idea is to improve the quality of the posts in the forum, i for one have missed some really good threads because I discounted the title of the thread because it wasn't informative. Also I am much more likely to skip over posts in the Google forum because there are a lot of 'noise' posts.
As a moderator the fewer changes I make to posts the happier I am (and I guess most of the other mods feel the same way.)
all them repetitive questions, which only serve in distorting the level of quality news, and ability of Mods to deal with unique problems, concerns that are to the greater good of the members of webmasterworld. Notice the shout on the Man!
IMHO, it seems inconsistent to have this be a "Google News" board without extending the same approach to the other forums. If I were a new user, I'd be a little confused by the name, which suggests that this is a read-only forum. And I'd probably be looking around for the non-news Google forum.I also think you'll be making a mistake if you police this forum with a heavy hand. I've been a forum manager myself (on MSN, back when MSN had contract forum managers), and it didn't take me long to learn that removing anything but the most obvious spam angers users--and it especially upsets users who have taken the time to write thoughtful posts. If "moderator" becomes another word for "editor," users are likely to seek alternative venues.
I also agree about policing. In fact I was under the impression this place was already waay over moderated (censored) what with all of the editing of posts by moderators, removing relevant snippets of info. And now its going to get worse?
Well, good luck, just a lowly user here, will ride it out and hope it is in fact for the best! :)
One more addition....
I'm not sure if it is available, but a tutorial on HOW to best search the site would be VERY useful. I'm guessing that you have it, but I personally don't know where. Usually when I ask a dumb question (or one that's been asked a thousand times), it's so that someone who knows can just point me in the right direction. Maybe it goes back to people posting insignificant titles, but I have a hard time finding things in searches, or accurately asking the question in the same way that it was probably first posted. Just my $.02.
[edited by: stuntdubl at 7:56 pm (utc) on Sep. 1, 2002]
