DocAndersen
I often wonder if there is a value in telling the whole story. Does taking the entire story change the impact of the situation? I realize over and over; it does not. That, in fact, the way people are, is the way they are. No one is going to change because they suddenly see the light. People change because something stands in their approach and they cannot move forward without changing. My dear friend that has been studying social interaction on the internet emailed them yesterday. He was curious about the impact of the change that he and I discussed. We asked the admin team of the site to remove the downvote option on comments, and they did (4 days later)! My friend asked me to track two things.
The first thing was the rise in the WTF emoji (we asked the admins to remove that one as well). The other was the incidence of comment upvotes. I have tracked those over the past month, and the exciting thing is the emojis are pretty stable. Anyone (without being a member of the site) can upvote a post, add an emoji, and upvote and downvote comments. They only thing a non-member really can’t do is a comment. I did notice that, for the most part, two authors are getting the WTF frequently. One of them, I am pretty sure I know both why and who is leaving that emoji. The other I am not as confident but I suspect it is for the same reason overall.
My friend was very interested in the following data.
- Post upvotes stayed roughly the same (it is an easy formula – views divided by upvotes creates the interaction ratio he wanted)
- Comments overall are down. My friend asked me to track authors and comments to come up with a ratio of who comments. I spent some time checking the rate of comments on my observations.
First off, I found there were two authors that I was commenting 20 or 30 times without them returning a single comment. I did some more digging and realized I was adding 10-20 views on their posts, and they weren’t helping me at all. So I stopped commenting on their posts. At some point, when you only discuss one time against 20 or 30 comments by another author, that isn’t even reasonable.
My friend asked me to track the results of that change and let him know next month. I am following it, so far I can say that both of the authors have commented on my posts since I stopped on theirs. Interesting, ultimately.
The last thing he was asking me to do was to be the process of sharing posts with his students so that they could review the site. I did but was informed that they couldn’t use a number of the posts on the front page of the website. It is tough to justify conspiracy theory materials for college students to pull apart for views and comments. I have had to cut back and only send eight authors to the students for their review.
Podcast
https://docandersen.podbean.com/e/the-danger-of-seagulls/
This work is Copyright DocAndersen. Any resemblance to people real or fictional in this piece is accidental (unless explicitly mentioned by name.)
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Question of
What about adding categories to our posts?
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Yes
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Question of
Do conspiracy theory posts scare you?
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Yes
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No
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Question of
Do sincere comments scare you?
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Yes
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Question of
would you say the site is rising now?
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Yes
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No
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Question of
have you tried flipboard?
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Yes
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No
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Question of
Do you think 20 or 30 comments without commenting is fair?
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Yes
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Question of
would you say the comment monster ate all my questions?
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Yes
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No
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At least, one thing I can say is that although we use different platforms, we do try to support each other’s posts. Of course, the last few months I was erratic because I kept taking lotsa breaks 😂
i love reading your stuff, it makes me think and I love that!
Q: WHAT ABOUT ADDING CATEGORIES TO OUR POSTS?
Yes (4 votes) – 100%
Q: DO CONSPIRACY THEORY POSTS SCARE YOU?
Yes (2 votes) – 50%
No (2 votes) – 50%
Q: DO SINCERE COMMENTS SCARE YOU?
Yes (1 votes) – 100%
Q: WOULD YOU SAY THE SITE IS RISING NOW?
Yes (1 votes) – 17%
No (5 votes) – 83%
Q: HAVE YOU TRIED FLIPBOARD?
No (5 votes) – 100%
Q: DO YOU THINK 20 OR 30 COMMENTS WITHOUT COMMENTING IS FAIR?
Yes (1 votes) – 100%
Q: WOULD YOU SAY THE COMMENT MONSTER ATE ALL MY QUESTIONS?
Yes (4 votes) – 100%
To comment, or not, does not depend on anything, but my wish to comment, so I comment, if I want to comment, if not, I do not, and yet I do feel a certain pull to reciprocate comments to those who comment on my posts too.
We change because we are ready to change, and the readiness must come from a growing understanding of love in us, for only love can truly change us, for the better.
ah, but I can honestly say that you have never gone 20 comments without commenting on the other person’s post.
there is an ethics issue in letting someone benefit you, without in any way returning the benefit to them.
Yes, you are probably right, I would not let it go that far.
i never really thought about it, until my buddy asked me to monitor it for a month. When I realized I stopped!
Very interesting post. I have some similar observations as you (in terms of comments and views).
my views have finally stabilized. I did lose a bunch of external views – but they moved to my backup blog so I didn’t lose them, just lost them here.
The comment one bothers me more than it should, so I am moving on from that one!
The looks on my posts have dropped a lot. Now I have about 15 views.
it takes around 4 days now to get to 100 views. part of that is July vacations.
I will start sharing yours more see if we can bump that up
After the holidays, we will see how it will be with the tours. I hope they really improve.
Thank you so much for your “help”.
of course, I watch the site and various authors. there are some whose posts should move faster than they do.
I agree. I really hope the situation improves.
i do not know. i am literally in the middle right now. I see a chance for the site to live. But i also see a chance for the site to die.
i don’t know which is more likely now.
I agree. I’m also thinking about these two things and which side will win.
As my favorite saying goes. We can do what we can do!
I find it difficult to comment on this post because I am not active enough, dear friend … all I have noticed is that there are fewer and fewer of us
i think the population has stabilized, there are still a few. We need to get the moderators to move faster with posts!
I have no words and I don’t know what to say …. I’m just waiting for what will happen
so am I at this point, i see some authors coming back, I see a few more posts every day, but we need more!
I don’t know why they don’t approve any post? For how long?
nearly 2.4 weeks then they approved a bunch it has been two weeks again since that batch of approvals.
That seems very strange to me, dear friend
the strange thing is that old authors that haven’t been here for a long time are coming back.
Even the one who returns is nothing from him, dear friend … because I follow the events well
we shall see some have returned, some have left.
That was an interesting study. I’m looking forward to the next analysis.
I agree with Carol this is a community. I know some engage solely on their own in this world of Virily.
i do understand the desire to take care of one’s self first. But when I started counting comments and realized i was commenting 20 times, and the two authors never bothered to comment on my stuff it bothered me. When I realized that one of those didn’t even answer the original comment I stopped.
That’s the saddest part that made me not to comment anymore on some authors’ posts as you had experienced – commenting on someone’s post but they don’t bother to reply to your comment, and don’t comment on your posts.
i don’t even care about me comment 10 to 1 i understand time constraints. But when it starts to get into the 20 and 30 or more to 1, i stop commenting. There is no value to the interaction on both sides.
Interesting post. I have noticed some of this interaction myself. Will be interesting to see what the next study shows. Many do not return comments and are only here for their benefit it seems. I try to see this as a community, it takes more than one.
you know where I stand (right by you) on the community issue. I find the behavior very sad. In the new model, we have to help each other more!
Community needs to be defined for those who forgot the meaning perhaps. Sorry, just a little frustration has crept in today. This too shall pass.
we should ask the only royal we have to help us! 🙂