I know that many of you are still struggling with the new Virily. There are minor inconveniences and frustrating things going on. Some users had their September Virils revamped during the transition to the new site. I have notified the admins for everyone that reached out to me. I also went through the list of things we asked for back in July and realized we got all of our original asks except, for one thing, the ability to edit comments. Based on that, I am going to do a polling/what does the community want list. Here is the way it works; I put out poll questions based on the response from the community. I then share them with the admin team. They read them, and since we got all but one last time, they make changes to the site based on our feedback!
Let’s be crisp – posts are up, there are new users, but views overall are down. People sometimes get confused – on the right side, when you are reading a post is the most commented posts on the site. Honestly, 30 comments normally get you on that list. I will tell you that replying to your comment is a little suspect in terms of your motivation. But, for the site and the health of Virily, we don’t need to worry about the most commented list. The trending list, which is found under the left menu, is the list we need to pay attention to. If you are on the trending list, that means your post is one of the top read or viewed posts on Virily. Virily is a view driven site. The more views we get per post, the more money Virily makes from Google Adsense.
Comments are awesome, and I am in any way saying comments are not awesome. I love and respond to the vast majority of comments left on my posts. I was noting that in terms of site health, look to the trending list. The other thing that is a little alarming is the impact of edited posts. When you edit a post, it returns to where it had been previously in terms of views (trending) and comments (most commented), but it doesn’t help either the author or the site as much. I love that we can edit posts and I would like to applaud Carol DM personally, she edited a post and realized that it doesn’t reset the post in terms comments and reviews, her post leaped to the top of the most commented section, and she asked the admins to take it down.
Be careful when editing posts; there is an impact.
Poll questions to submit to the admin team below!
-
Question of
I would like to edit comments!
-
Yes
-
No
-
-
Question of
i would like to be able to report content?
-
Yes
-
No
-
-
Question of
i would like a larger text window (currently 3600 characters)
-
Yes
-
No
-
-
Question of
I would like to be able to submit larger pictures than 8 megs
-
Yes
-
No
-
-
Question of
i have an additional ask and will put it in the comments.
-
Yes
-
No
-
Well I got lost reading the comments in your comment section and forgot what I wanted to say. Anyway, what puts an article to trending list? Is it the number of views? Is the number of comments creates no impact? Because, see, if it is commented on, then readers are finding something in it still. Again, as I mentioned before, view does not equal to being read.
View equals eyes on ads that is how Virily gets paid.
Sorry, I do not disagree with you on comments, but frankly there a few on this site that forces comments changes.
1. they have to be 20 characters now because of that group of people.
2. now, because of some of the same people there is a daily limit on a total number of comments.
the reality is that because of bad behavior comments are very misleading at best.
They do listen, though you’d never know it. lol. I have gotten used to it. And if I really need something, they always answer. But I haven’t notified them since the chat window left. I do have a few of the admins on my friends list on FB, but have only reached out through that social media site twice in four years.
Thank you for all of your help with the Virily. You really help so many. I do not agree that we should be able to edit comments. And my only wish would be bigger photos, but would that slow down the site?
bigger photos might slow your loading of the site. But that is more your internet connection than Virily.
🙂
Ah okay, then yes. By all means larger pictures. It would save time in editing everyone to be smaller.
i doubt honestly they will do that one, it costs them more for storage. 20% or more per month.
Q: I WOULD LIKE TO EDIT COMMENTS!
Yes (12 votes) – 75%
No (4 votes) – 25%
Q: I WOULD LIKE TO BE ABLE TO REPORT CONTENT?
Yes (9 votes) – 64%
No (5 votes) – 36%
Q: I WOULD LIKE A LARGER TEXT WINDOW (CURRENTLY 3600 CHARACTERS)
Yes (4 votes) – 31%
No (9 votes) – 69%
Q: I WOULD LIKE TO BE ABLE TO SUBMIT LARGER PICTURES THAN 8 MEGS
Yes (6 votes) – 46%
No (7 votes) – 54%
Q: I HAVE AN ADDITIONAL ASK AND WILL PUT IT IN THE COMMENTS.
Yes (4 votes) – 31%
No (9 votes) – 69%
adding communication before changes to the next iteration of this!
Feedback is always good and I’m sure Virily appreciate it. I would love to be able to edit comments. Nothing worse than spotting a mistake you can’t change.
that is so true, we asked for that feature in July. (although with 7 other things) they did 7 of the 8 features asks.
I suspect comment editing takes a bit longer to implement.
My number of views is not growing so maybe I need to interact more.
i don’t think that is the only thing, views are done overall. 🙂
At the moment, virily is a site that rewards interaction between members more than anything else. So it makes sense to interact with others in order for them to notice you.
i agree i am hoping views are down because it is the holiday season. Although we’ve lost several writers in the last two months.
I have been away for a few months, but since I got back, things seem okay to me. No one says which views are down, external or from members.
i can tell you it is overall all views are down. The relevance is that we get paid by Virily based on what they get paid for views.
Less views, less revenue.
To make the trending list in July, you had to have 100 views.
Now you make that list with 50 views.
I see, thank you for this clarification! We need to invest effort in making interesting content that can attract outside people too, and promote it despite the fact that external views are not rewarded. Unfortunately, I only have audience for food and health related things, but in some sites like reddit (unless virily is blocked, because niume was) we can try to attract new visitors regardless of whose posts we are sharing.
i share a few posts on reddit. We (Virily) are blocked about 10% of the time (this site is a little spammy error message).
I also share on Mix, twitter, and facebook.
my December views are about a third of my average, what’s your metric?
There are three things I watch :
How fast an author reaches 100 views – that appears to be the critical plateau. Right now it is 48 hours for everyone except on author.
The other thing I look for is what is at the top of the trending list every day.
Right now, your post makes the trending list at 60 views. Since that represents the top trending (viewed) posts on the entire site, the minimum to make the list now (60 views) is less than it was just two months ago.
your metrics are so much better than mine
my metrics right now are scary.
The top (and has been top for more than 3 years) writer now takes 44 or more hours to get to 100 views.
that used to happen in less than 24 hours. Part of it is the over commenter issue, part of it is the negativity issue. but it is 30% or more reduced.
my numbers indicate more like a 66% reduction but my methodology was flawed
i think we have a top-heavy site right now.
most of my work is top heavy. wait, what were you talking about?
thank you, I needed a good laugh today.
yes, alex your artwork is the issue! 🙂
my file sizes are quite small and since space seems to be an issue, trying to limit images to no more than four in a post
one would expect the admins would focus on the content stripping of old posts, as this directly effects their bottom line
i wonder, we should try an experiment to see if that in fact is true. I have many old posts without pictures but they don’t gain a lot of views.
folks try to check out my old posts and then complain there are no images (which is how I discovered the bug)
virily users or external users? I am really wondering about this. It is not a bug.
virily users were commenting about it. so you wouldn’t classify this as a server side bug?
i think it is intentional from a setup perspective. A well-designed cloud application moves older content to cheaper storage quickly.
then it is definitely a bug, since some posts are less than a week old and getting stripped while posts which are years old still have content
ah as a former program manager I would argue it is not a bug. I would close it with the “by design” answer.
see if virily needs a PGM
my gut is the answer to that is no, by design!
hahaahaha, that’s a good one
Will you believe me if I tell you that I just noticed the most commented section, I have been wonderfing for a long time what people are talking about, haha. Anyway, I think that neat posts with no missing photos are better for the site in the long run, so I don’t like it that people are so stressed about the edited posts. Just to be clear, I haven’t edited anything yet. I’d love to be able to edit my comments tho, they are full of typos and mistakes.
if I edited all my comments with errors I would spend the rest of my life doing it!@ (kidding)!
I think that is a huge ask just like editing posts was. I can see the issue with editing posts, we’ve already seen the artificial listing change (someone edited a post that had been heavily commented on and it went tot he top of the commented list, but was at the bottom of the trending list)
The trending list is critical for the site. It shows who works are getting viewed! View drive revenue!!!
But old posts getting viewed still drive revenue, don’t they? And the trending list matters to whom? Search engines “seeing” poorly written posts in trending doesn’t sound great to me. I am a bit slow to understand the whole process of the site making money, to be honest.
They make money on the embedded ads in the posts. If you write a post that says Tractors in it,.
when people read the post they will see tractors for sale.
Virily gets paid on the number of views per post.
It is a long discussion for the second part. Really long. It has to do with way people use the site.
Like I said, I wish we could edit the comments. Sometimes some kind of “stupid” mistake sneaks in. I will not edit old posts. However, I’m annoyed because I can’t see or have received Virilis. I noticed several times that I did not receive them. I can’t check for every comment or view in the menu.
that is very frustrating, just to be clear you are checking virils in your profile page, the more button and the Virils selection>?
the other places they are reported are not accurate.
Yes, I’m checking Virilis with this button. However, this check is time consuming. Earlier, I immediately saw if everything was ok.
i agree. I would love to know what is going on without having to track things manually!!!!
Once or twice I have seen I have made some spelling errors and wanted to correct those, but otherwise have not wanted to edit my post.
I think personally its best to get it right the first time and I have not tried editing my recent posts
Thanks Pam! i haven’t touched my older posts for a lot of reasons. But honestly, I am concerned that if I edit them they will artificially change the comment and trending boards.
Great post … I’ve already told you all that bothers me, dear friend … I’ve gotten used to everything else
that is very true, but you can vote on the other things!!!
However, I attended the vote, dear friend
thanks pal! This worked the last time, I am hopeful it will this time as well!
I also hope …. ask them even if they restricted comments …. yesterday I wrote and could only comment 25 comments that I got Virily then nothing more
Because of writers that abuse comments, I believe they have restricted comments for all.
I would like to edit comments sound so clicky ,
i agree editing comments is our last July ask that wasn’t met!
I would like to edit comments sound so clicky ,
i agree great example being able to remove duplicate comments it is very frustrating I know!
I have to confess that I have not paid much attention to the Trending list up to now, so thanks for the reminder. I note that one of the posts currently on that list was written two years ago, so presumably it is an edited post that has re-appeared, with its previous views qualifying it for a high Trending position.
you have nailed that editing issue spot on! Carol could do that for some of her older posts that has a lot of comments and a lot of views and blow up both lists!
She wouldn’t but she could!
Great post Doc and thanks for the mention. The only thing I will add is what I have asked for many times. Communication!
trying to keep positive moving forward!
Do you suppose my leaving communication off the list was desperation or frustration?
A little of both perhaps. 🙁
sadly i do think it was a little of both. I will add it to the new list today!
I would like at least some credit to be given for non-member views, even if this is only a fraction of a Viril per view. I would like an incentive to publicise my posts to the world at large, given that I have a large Twitter following and already do this for posts contributed to other sites. I used to do this for Virily posts, but no longer since the incentive was removed.
As you say, Virily’s income depends on views. I cannot understand why they do not apparently want to increase that number.
i don’t know the answer to your last question. I will, however, add your suggestion – i still share Virily posts but some level of credit for that would be of value.
I do not understand it either. Virily earnings depend on adverts’ views number, and if they encourage us to share our posts online giving at least a fraction of viril, it definitely would increase non-members’ views. I do not understand why they stopped paying for such views.
I am adding this to the next round of fixes for Virily!! But I agree with both of your points!
I believe they removed that because it seems easier to “cheat the system” with outside views. Besides, members probably spend more time on a certain page than a visitor. It’s just my speculation, though.
they actually removed external views during the period now almost 4 years ago when the site had such poor performance that it was virtually unusable. One of the changes was removing the guest’s views.
The issue is complexity. Consider a city street. It is managed by stop signs and by crosswalks. What, if they had to actually manage every single person that ever went across the crosswalk and also, once they crossed, they had to be tracked forever. It would create a database of people, cross-referenced and almost impossible to manage.
That is what guest view credit is. Multi-comments (posting 10 comments in reply to 1) is a much bigger issue with cheating than external views would ever be.
Honestly, if you share something to social media and a 1000 people view what you shared how can that be cheating?
I did notice where even here on Virily a long time ago where, as you say: “Honestly if you share something to social media and a 1000 people view what you shared how can that be cheating?” that there were a few really poorly written Ukrainian articles kept trending, you would recall a certain Dog named Kal (featuring a German Sheppard dog and a Toddler in the snow and it mentioned something about: “My dog Kal eat food nicely, I likes her??!! This trended for months, I honestly believed it was a kind of mascot for the site.
so creating 20 comments when one is all that is needed is cheating.
sharing to social isn’t cheating.
It does cause problems for the site, however.
We’ve had a number of changes over the 4 years since Niume died and many of us came to Virily.
we have to have 20 characters in comments because there were authors that abused the Nice, good, comments.
By cheating I certainly don’t mean posts that have had genuine external views. But I am more than sure that there are people who have artificial external views, either made by different IPs, VPN or whatever people use to change their IP. (I am not very advanced in that area, haha). I remember with one of the bugs, there were people who were exploating the virils for creating a post issue.
Besides, judging by my own site, more views always mean a much bigger bounce rate, so I don’t know how many seconds it takes virily to count something as a view, but I think memebers spend much more time on a post. I also remember people freaking out when on one of the sites, Niume or Virily, I don’t remember, there was a rumour that they will only count a view when it takes enough time to actually read the post.
Last but not least, I have seen crappy posts with thousands of views. If those are the best posts on our site, I don’t think it really speaks well of the quality of the site.
In conclusion, I am not against rewarding people who bring traffic to the site, I just share why I think they stopped that for now.
Can you explain what do you mean about the comments and how it hurts the site? Are you reffering to conversation like the one we are having right now?
It seems that many people are motivated to share their posts outside of virily only if there is a monetary reward. If they really cared about the site getting popular, they would invest in order to get something in the future. By the way, just not to sound like a hypocrite, I don’t share my posts much, but I didn’t do it when outside views were paid either.
more referring to the reality of why comments are the way they are now.
we had the copy pasters that hit the site for a while (remember?)
the Nice
good
then the
Nice@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ commenters that forced changes!
i do agree there is a risk in that, but you have to be pretty advanced to pull that off and honestly Virily isn’t hard to get around if you wanted to in other ways!
I have received some comments with fillers, but in general I haven’t had really spammy comments, maybe because I am not in trending, lol.
It seems to me that with less views people are forced to make content and comments with better quality, and things get balanced in the end.
i agree. I just don’t have any way to implement that!
Scott, we were being awarded virils for external views as recently as April of this year.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/454574874913877/permalink/828868347484526/?comment_id=829081070796587
yes I remember that, you got one viril for the guest view share. But you only got one viril for that.
also please note these are not my asks, these are the asks the community shares with me in comments and messages 🙂
Doc: they actually removed external views during the period now almost 4 years ago when the site had such poor performance that it was virtually unusable. One of the changes was removing the guest’s views.
I’m just pointing out that the timeline you’re portraying is a bit out. I hadn’t even heard of Virily 4 years ago. I joined in June 2017, and for a long time after that, I got 1 viril for each guest view (when someone external viewed my post), and 1 viril for referring each viewer (when someone viewed any post via my referral code)
There’s a comment in the FB user’s group from Alex confirming this to be the situation in November 2017 (i.e. just 2 years ago https://www.facebook.com/groups/454574874913877/permalink/495471537490877/ ), and the first mention of the referral award disappearing was just 1 year ago! https://www.facebook.com/groups/454574874913877/permalink/713888188982543/ . Unfortunately, it is impossible to verify exactly when that stopped, as our virils record is accessible only back to the start of this year. Plus, as I mentioned above, we were still getting awarded for guest views as recently as 8 months ago. That’s a far cry from 4 years 🙂
yes, my mistake on the timing it all blurs together.
The original value was we got to share, and then got credit for every single guest view that generated up to the daily limit.
then it was (because of site performance) dropped to one viril per share (one for facebook shares, twitter shares and so on).
that was removed early this year and now we get nothing.
sadly you are correct it makes me sad but yes people share when they get paid sometimes.
I agree with Indexer, I have a large Twitter and Facebook following and would like credit given for my non-members. I have filled out your poll above, Doc. I edited some double published articles and corrected two polls where the voting portion was missing. I now realize how editing a post can mess up the books, and it explains how one person’s only 3 posts written 2 and three years ago, stays on the trending section. thanks for pointing it out. I also notice that Saudi women are manhunting in the ads. So what are your thoughts about those? Are they paying advertizers or not? Thanks again for your help.
the reality is they (Virily) get paid by advertising. But they no longer pay for guest views because it caused a massive performance issue on the site.