Forum Moderators: open
When I read that message it sounded arrogant to me; these old f*rts thinking they are so special they need their own forum.
I am not so sure about that anymore. For the past month this forum is flooded with many new members posting spammy, insulting and plainly lazy threads.
I am sorry to say it like this. I once posted my first message and really, my first messages (and my current messages for that matter) weren't that clever.
And of course I know there are so many new members here who wish to play the game fair, who first read and then ask, and who never start to insult or threaten other folks. But I think we can't deny there are some new members doing damage to this forum.
The mods are doing a great job in removing spammy or insulting posts, but it looks like they are trying to stop a flood with a sponge.
Shouldn't there be some sort of trial-period in wich new WW-members can show that they are serious and motivated enough to post 100+ messages without the mods having to remove their posts all the time. And then they can move on to the "real" forum?
Perhaps I am getting to old for this game.
Apologies if I am insulting you with this post...
Maybe it is not so much the nature and quality of the questions as it is the nature and quality of the answers.
I don't understand that answer! :-))
Personally, I don't think there is anything wrong with asking stupid questions or providing stupid answers. That's part of the learning process.
In small volumes we can cope with anything - even trolls and fraudsters. The key question is not the content of questions or answers, it is how we cope with the increased volume that seems to be occurring on all fronts.
Hi! I just join and am looking 4ward 2 making somz money$$$$$$$$. I have 3 questionz!1. Where canz I get my handz on free articles to make me rich?! I have just been copying other people's sites but I need something fasterz because I want to buy a car!
2. How much can I click on my own adz before Googles getz mad? Right now I don't do anything wrong but click 400 times every hour. Will I get banned?
3. Wha do I write about if I want to make $300,000 in 2 monthz? I would love it if everyone could just paste your adsense stats, traffic infoz, and site URLs in this threadz.
Dankz! f00!
While that's all being digested, I'd just like to add a big thanks to the forum mods, and the rest of the team, that do a great job looking after a forum as busy as that one. Thanks also go to the members that also help by alerting us of problems and issues.
There is a lot of chaff in the wheat.
I would be in favour of either a gated section or pre-moderation.
I find that there are so many useless posts these days that I don't have time to wade through them all.
It is getting boring.
> When I see headlines like "Google Adsense Millionaires"
The advertising revival has been an unheard of boom to web publishers - especially the small ones that we represent. The title shock value alone that there are mom-n-pops that have made $1 million dollars on AdSense is a wake up call to everyone that reads it. The majority of the readers here would never have dreamed that not only had some mom-n-pops made cool 1m on the web, that it was still possible to do that! That sir, is why we are here. It has nothing to do with promoting google, adsense, or contextual advertisings. If anything, it causes the likes of Yahoo or Text-Link-Ads to redouble their efforts with their own programs.
We are not the wave - we are just surfing it.
> what happens next
We are going to try a bit more proactive moderating.
a) clean up the titles. Nothing spells "newbie" like "does this work"?
b) aggressively splicing similar topics.
c) working on a quality solution to a Faq...
We could appreciate you "old pros" supporting that.
(note, please do not apply to be a moderator of the adsense forum - we have several dozen aps on file from inside the team.....)
We are going to try a bit more proactive moderating.a) clean up the titles. Nothing spells "newbie" like "does this work"?
b) aggressively splicing similar topics.
c) working on a quality solution to a Faq...
Thanks Brett. That sounds good, and like a lot more work for the mods.
That sir, is why we are here. It has nothing to do with promoting google, adsense, or contextual advertisings.
For the record: The idea of promoting Google, Adsense, or contextual advertising never entered my mind when I made the statement.
As far as the statement goes, I am not going to elaborate or try to justify it at this point.
If anything, it causes the likes of Yahoo or Text-Link-Ads to redouble their efforts with their own programs.
This comes under “why we are here”. Why are we (the adsense forum) here? Does everybody have the same answer for that? Is it obvious from reading the adsense forum, why we are here?
I have my own warm and fuzzy idea, but I don't know that I would pass the "why we are here" quiz. It could be written down somewhere, and I may have missed it.
[webmasterworld.com...]
>>c) working on a quality solution to a Faq...
>>We could appreciate you "old pros" supporting that.
That could solve a big part of it, and it is something "old pros" could pitch in about, even someone starting a thread to bring together the most asked topics as a joint effort. Then it could grow from there and become a great resource, especially for those starting out.
That sir, is why we are here. It has nothing to do with promoting google, adsense, or contextual advertisingsAs far as the statement goes, I am not going to elaborate or try to justify it at this point.
Ditto. Brett should know what it meant.
That could solve a big part of it, and it is something "old pros" could pitch in about, even someone starting a thread to bring together the most asked topics as a joint effort.
Nobody's against newbies learning, but if they demonstrate a determination to be spoonfed then we could do without their posts.
But bear in mind that it's not just n00bs we need protection from. There are other categories of users who need reigning in. One example is those who use the forum as an insurance policy as described in msg # 57. There are others.
It could be written down somewhere, and I may have missed it.
Haha, if you didn't read msg #68 then you missed it.
why we are here
Some of us are here to learn how to maximise income from our websites - eg: I picked up a really useful insight from jetteroheller yesterday.
Some of us also 'give' help, either for altruistic reasons or because explaining things to others consolidates our own learning.
The problems mainly arise from those who are trolls, wanting to cause as much chaos as they can, or cheats, trying to find ways to get away with fraud, eg: by developing excuses or a plausible persona.
An FAQ list is fine, but lets recognise that it mainly helps people in the first group, and doesn't deal with the third.
Brett asked for our support in giving more rigorous moderation a try. I'm happy to do that, which I think means flagging suspicious posts or stickies.
I'm actually of the opinion 2 AdSense forums is not such a bad idea either but not for the reasons previously mentioned
If this were my forum, I would split it as such:
1) AdSense Pre-Moderated Forum
This is where people would post the more serious topics and not all the noise posts which would give the newbies and everyone else a chance to read the valuable content without wading thru a ton of clutter.
2) AdSense Miscellaneous Forum
This un-moderated forum for the daily "my adsense is up", "where's my check", "my site is banned" threads which many of us may or may not want to weed thru when we're trying to find those gem posts.
Anything truly inspirational or useful should be moved over to the pre-moderated forum but there is definitely a need to separate the signal from the noise in order to make this forum more productive. As it sits many of the best topics just get lost in the shuffle as they are quickly buried under a flood of crud on a daily basis.
I'm not calling into question the moderation decisions - as the WW terms say, that should be the subject of private email and not a forum debate. As the moderator of a (non-WW) forum myself, I realise how difficult it is to make judgement calls on such matters.
And I want to express appreciation for all the work that Mack, Jenstar and Martinibuster do in Adsense.
On reflection, though, I feel today like I was a "victim" of an incorrect call resulting from the move to stronger moderation.
Why should I have to struggle with this? And why should the moderators have to struggle with it as well?
I don't think it is reasonable to ask moderators to make the correct decisions all the time, so I'm coming back to the view that a gated forum is really the only way we're going to solve the problems we are currently experiencing.
Sorry, Brette, to open the can of worms when you thought you had put the lid on. But I and others have expressed willingness to pay for membership in a gated, professional forum. There are some really good people and exchanges in the Adsense forum, but equally there are some people that I miss because they have already pulled out. There is a 'market need' there, and I hope it is filled from somewhere.
The main reason I didn't participate in the forum was that I thought I had to pay $168 to subscribe/join! (ha ha!)
For all those months, I honestly had no idea I could subscribe to Webmaster World for free and so I just watched and learned. Once it dawned on me that I could join and post for free, I did. From that experience, I'd suggest that the fastest way to get the noise out of the AdSense board would be to charge for it.
...or make people wait a while (a few days at least) after signing up before being allowed to make their post, and then maybe only at a limited rate, so mods can zap trolls quickly by canning their a/cs... (Mods can can trolls, you see B^>)
What you might consider a suitable sum to act as a barrier may be no barrier to Western loudmouths or those with stolen credit cards (that Brett would have to deal with the chargebacks from too), and might be an insuperable barrier to honest toilers from India, China, Bulgaria, South America, etc, etc.
Plus, handling more people's financial details than necessary is a risk for BT&co.
Rgds
Damon
How would you determine a "beginner" from an "advanced?" What would you base the criteria on?
How would you determine a "beginner" from an "advanced?" What would you base the criteria on?
Just make it voluntary and let moderators move threads as necessary. I think this should be good enough, but additional criteria like not allowing people to post in the "advanced" forum within 7 days of registration could help.
On the other hand it might be a good idea to redirect new AdSense users to the already existing forum48 instead, where the environment is friendlier and answers are not so rude and insulting as unfortunately common in the AdSense forum at this moment.
I thought it was about protection from the noobs rather than for them ;)
Good point, humorously put. Though, I thought it was about protection from certain types of low quality, trollish or dishonest threads that make the volume unmanageable.
Trivia Quiz. If you Google
site:webmasterworld.com click own adsdo you get:
Wouldn't it be an interesting experiment (and minimally wrenching to the overall scheme) to just add an AdSense forum to the Private forums? Seems like it could:
a) reduce the volume in the public AdSense forum
b) see if restricting access to people who've paid results in a better quality AdSense forum
c) reduce the volume in the catch-all Supporters Forum a bit, and make it easier to locate supporter-posted AdSense threads.
Wouldn't it be an interesting experiment...to just add an AdSense forum to the Private forums?
Great idea. Seconded.
Yes, excellent cheap experiment.
And no one should feel embarrassed if it doesn't work and gets shut down. It's a prototype, and no one should get upset if a prototype gets canned...
Rgds
Damon
no one should feel embarrassed if it doesn't work and gets shut down
Good point.
There is one potential problem if we do this, though. One needs to be fair to anyone who might be tempted to subscribe simply to get into this new forum.
This could be resolved by stating up front that it will be an experiment for a fixed time - say 3 months. At that point it will be closed down unless decided otherwise by Brett and the mods.
My guess is that the close-or-keep decision will be an easy one, having seen what happens and heard the views of those in the two forums.
