The brownie point upgrade for 7 days = too many strange comments?
Submitted by adlib on Sun, 01/06/2008 - 12:33.
I don't want to sound like an old whiny adgrunt yelling to the kids to get off my lawn, but is the 7 day upgrade+brownie point combo encouraging too much noise? I mean, people commenting purely for the sake of upgrading and not really adding anything useful to the site?
I'm not pointing fingers at anyone in particular, I just see the slippery slope and I'd really hate it if Adland fell down to the youtube standard of commenting. What do other regulars think?
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disclaimer: I totally understand Dabitch's policy to make adland a place that everyone can afford to join but people bitching about five euros really need to go somewhere else IMHO. It's still less than a Starbucks with extra syrup.
Any fool can comment without spending a single penny, so it doesn't matter what the cost of super adgrunt status is. It's just a good thing that Adland attracts a different audience than youtube. A more gentile, courteous audience. :-)
I'm talking about people who comment only in order to get an upgrade. These types of users who weren't interested in the community aspect of it all used to simply pay for an upgrade, now they are commenting, which might be fine if they actually contribute but I fear many will simply comment lots of crap simply to get a "free" upgrade.
I don't think we need to worry too much about that yet, I know what you're saying adlib, the thing is that yes, some people have tried. Lots of random noise rubbish comments that get immediatly spam-trapped, thus not gaining any users points. After a few instances of that the types you worry about give up and never return. It has already happened that several signed up just to say - for example - "hahahahahahahaha!" ten or twenty times. When they see that this doesn't cut it they go away. These are not the types to ever whip out a credit card anyway, I suspect. Also, we still have many silent users who don't try the brownie-point route and instead hop on the new very popular seven day option. (Which I personally hate because fee's totally eat that income up.)
I think all this upgrading business is for the dogs. But it is their policy so I better not argue.
So you prefer spyware infected banner ad supported sites then perhaps?
I guess I forgot to mention that after a few times getting caught in the spamtrap, your IP# is banned.
supernova86 is exactly the kind of "adgrunt" I mean. Useless one word comments because "upgrading is for the dogs". Dabitch works on this site unpaid and I've seen her here fixing bugs on Christmas and replying to emails on fucking new years eve. It's just plain disrespectful. If you don't think adding to the tip-jar to help cover the costs of running this site is your cup of tea, kindly fuck off.
Ban him already that is painful to watch.
For those who missed it, supernova86 posted three noise forum posts and a whole bunch of useless comments every so often saying that he's only doing it for an upgrade all in the space of 20 minutes. The IP# 24.233.106.123 is now automatically banned.
Supernova86 joined nine weeks ago, on an invite from me after sending begging mail to the hostmaster account. That was when I was upgrading and testing the system for upgrades, so for two weeks all adgrunts had access to everything, but the catch was you needed to already be an adgrunt or invited by one. This was announced quite clearly as a temporary thing.
But you think I should ban the account I gather?
I'm not so sure supernova86 did understand that the whole thing was temporary though. There were alerts when trying to sign up linking to the post and quickly explaining that it was invite only for two weeks, yet his email read:
Ban him/block the account/delete it. He gets a free ride and then shits all over the comments? No thanks. Sounds like a pretty stupid guy too "I know my own password" well, no, not when you don't have an account. Adgrunts like this make the site look bad, frankly, and turns others off. Stop being so nice.
Fine, the account is blocked and I'll stop being so damn nice. You didn't put supernova86 up to this did you? ;) I mean, here you are posting this and presto a few hours later a user goes amok in the way you worried might happen.
Then again, with a post like this he might have finally understood that he could get an upgrade via brownie points.
Nice to know my years here have given me some sort of power.
Heh. It wasn't just you asking, his comments were sending alerts to my screen interrupting my quality time with baby. On a Sunday. And like you say, the "job" is unpaid. Quite frankly he just pissed me off. Don't mess with momma's quality time.
I think that you should remove the ability to upgrade with the help of brownie points simple because it encourages people to shit all over the comments like that. Who else is with me?
Holy Crap, you go to lunch for a few hours with a friend, and all hell breaks loose.
And I'm not with you on the elimination of brownie point upgrades. I'm sure there are people who contribute constructively and use their points to upgrade. Personally, I'll keep paying to help the webmiistress out with her fees, but others may feel differently.
I think Dabitch has things well in hand, and she knows what she is doing. Supernova86 may have been an asshole, but assholes come and they go. I don't see the need for radical changes at this time.
"Happiness is overrated."
That's my point. Dabitch can never take time off.
Yet somehow, she finds a way to have a life! :-)
Sure she can. When and if Dabitch responds to adgrunts is her own choice. Nobody is going to die if she doesn't read and answer every adgrunt's message, or immediately fix every problem that happens in Adland. She has a family, a career, and a life. That's real. Adland isn't real life.
"Happiness is overrated."
"Adland isn't real life."
Good Lord! NOW you tell me this!?
My world is crashing around me.
Ah... The truth will set you free!
Here's a compromise, remove the 120 brownie points ability of the 7 day upgrade and let people who want the cheaper option still use it, and the ones too cheap might stop trying to get 120 points since it's useless.
I've seen the throwaway comments and I find them annoying as hell.
Also, despite Dabitch being quick as wink in preventing stuff, keep in mind that she does this 24/7 all year round and I'd much rather see her gather information for front page posts than play troll-babysitter for us all day. She doesn't get paid for it and the time she has for the site should be spent making content not cleaning up arseholes messes.
Who's to say which comments are "throwaway" and which have significant value? I might think a comment like "that was brent musberger and terry bradshaw as the commentators." is useless cannon fodder from a Budweiser obsessed fan, but maybe there are a lot of adgrunts who appreciated it. I don't know.
It's just hard for me to believe that anyone would sit here spending the time and effort to obtain enough points to upgrade, two at a time.
As for Dabitch, she does a fantastic (almost thankless) job for nothing but the love of ads. And unfortunately, maintaining the site takes up so much more of her time than adding new content. I agree with you wholeheartedly. If only she could spend her time more creatively.
The guy who was banned yesterday posted something like 27 "that's cool" comments in a row and many more saying "I'm bored and just doing this for the upgrade". His commenting spree was pretty obvious throwaway comments.
And that mets82 comment that you refer too is also clearly a throwaway comment when you look at his history, and while his marathon commenting was going on. He too looked clearly like he was doing it for the upgrade alone. He hasn't said a word since he did upgrade. When you've been here a while you can usually tell by the first comment which new adgrunts are here for the long run.
I don't think one has to have been here on Adland "a while" to be perceptive or have a brain. In my 51 years of life, I think I've accumulated enough experience to know the wheat from the chaff (and to from too). And obviously if you read my comment, I think all of his comments are garbage, but my point was that perhaps some people are interested in reading Mets82 point out every stupid detail about 20 year old Budweiser spots. I just don't think that you or I are the arbiter of what's "throwaway," and what has significant value.
I also don't think it's a crime to gather Brownie Points for an upgrade. That's part of the system. If it's done with 27 "that's cool" comments, or "I'm bored and just doing this for the upgrade" then the person should be appropriately dealt with, but at least Mets82 was actually commenting about the content. No matter how inane I thought the comments were.
I second the removal of brownie point upgrades for seven days. The signal to noise ratio here has always been good even on obvious flame attracting topics and I don't want to see it become a youtube like board where all comments are just "cool" or "whatever *yawn*" or "that's so fugly". As I recall the seven day upgrade was created to appease whiners here, and this is the thanks she gets.
It seems to me that most of the people doing the whining are whining about removing the brownie point upgrade for seven days. Give it a rest.
What? One single comment when asked for input and you basically tell me to shut up. That's not very friendly.
Touche. It wasn't meant to be friendly. I don't think it's very friendly to call people whiners just because they have an opinion that differs from yours. And to call a spade a spade, the thread you linked to didn't refer to anyone as a whiner. That was your word, and yours alone. So if the shoe fits...
I don't know what I've done to you personally to get the sudden gag order when adding my two cents to a thread where opinions on something are solicited. I stand by my description of the comments in that thread being the dictionary definition of "whiny".
To each their own. You have the right to your opinion, and I have the right to mine. You can certainly call anyone you please a whiner, and I can give you the same moniker. Enough said.
Please chill out, everyone. I'd really like to know what long time adgrunts think of new doohickies without having to watch people argue. Thanks in advance.
I'm honestly really sorry that I brought this up now. Apologies if I offended anyone.