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Virily update, the rate to 100 views is slower now than it was…

I love the many interactions with authors here on Virily. I do try to read between 24 and 30 posts a day.

I am still thinking about continuing the if you don’t comment on my posts I won’t comment on your post-experiment. Comments are so critical to the health of Virily.

The other thing I’ve noticed is the impact of edited posts. Edited posts get fewer views than new posts. But the things that concern me is that we are seeing edited posts sit in the Most Commented category and keeping other posts out of that category. Everyone keeps telling me that they don’t look at the most commented list, but someone is. Most commented posts end up with 40 views once they make that list. So I understand a lot of authors don’t care, but someone does!

Two critical things that concern me:

  1. The rate to 100 views has been steady for more than a year. We had an author who achieved 100 views on an average of 28 hours. There is also a group of authors that were getting 100 views in around 48 hours. Hot posts would hit 100 views in around 24 hours.  That rate has slipped a lot. The top author now reaches 100 views in around 35 to 40 hours (plus or minus 2 hours in that) and the remainder of the next group is now closer to 60 hours. This concerns me as it shows views continuing to decline.
  2. It used to be that if you posted what is wrong with Virily post, you would get a huge response. I am noticing several of those posts have been made in the past few days. One of the issues is author fatigue. But overall, there seems to be a downturn in views impacting all types of posts. The recent most commented list (other than the always present edited posts) has had a lower bar to make a list.
    1. It used to take 30 or more comments to make that list. Lately, it has been 20.
    2. Trending used to be at 100 views. The edited posts are dropping one spot from the trending list but now you are on that list with 50 views.

My recommendation (this is not a demand) is that people not edit posts outside the first 24 hours. If you spot an error or have an issue in that first 24 hours go ahead and edit your post. For now, I recommend not editing old posts and that directly impacts other users.

I am also noting that twitter has been less responsive to Virily posts in the past two weeks. I would average 25 shares a day of Virily content (not mine). Those shares would average 40 views per share. (you can see this in twitter analytics). That is down to 20. I don’t know if that is my twitter audience burned out on Virily, or if that is another trend. I will keep an eye on that.

  • Question of

    have you edited a post?

    • Yes
    • No
  • Question of

    do you like the if you catch an error in a post in the first 24 hours go ahead and edit idea?

    • Yes
    • No
  • Question of

    Do you read edited posts?

    • Yes
    • No
  • Question of

    Does the rate to 100 views concern you?

    • Yes
    • No
  • Question of

    Do you only comment on friends posts?

    • Yes
    • No

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What do you think?

27 Points

Written by DocAndersen

One fan, One team and a long time dream Go Cubs!!!!!!!!!!!!!

97 Comments

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  1. It’s a good (more bad) thing that my submissions take 3 to 5 days to get approved. So, in a way, I have time to edit. After finding out about edited published articles affecting other latest posts significantly, I made a decision to look and search out authors and read and comment on their work. Honestly, that kindness is what I would want done for ,me. My numbers are way down. Quite disappointing.
    But when people read and comment, my countenance lifts up high to the heavens! 🙂

    1
  2. Why you so distinguish old and new posts? They both are written by the same Virily members and honestly, some old posts are quite more interesting than new ones. I am happy about the edit option, and I think VIRILY knows which direction they want to head their site. We are only writers and to me, most important is not violate rules, and if Virily gives me the option to edit, I use it to correct broken posts no matter when they are written, two years ago or in 24 hours. I am not concerned about edited posts (I read them, comment, and vote if have not done it before). I am not concerned about most commented posts too but I am concerned that we have not new Virily members here lately. Virily does not think about a good invitation program that would reward referrals. If it has it, we may see absolutely different view, and would not complain about decreased views. The same about guests’ views, they could bring many new views too. Edited posts do not impact views number so much to complain about this day after day, but not having new membres impact it a lot. That is my opinion.

    3
    • because every old post that is made and pops into the most commented category takes 40 virils from another author.

      Edited posts do not increase the views on the site radically. no more so than simply sharing those posts on twitter and not costing an author 40 virils for not being on the most commented list.

      Editing posts do not increase the rate of views the way new posts do when they reach the most commented.

      I have done tests, i have watched and honestly edited posts do not truly help the site as much as a new post does.

      I am sorry if that offends you. It is not meant to offend. It is simply numbers.

    • My apologies as well no intention to offend.

      I am not against edited posts. I am only against edited posts that appear on the trending and most commented lists as well as on the latest list at the same time.

      Those two lists for non-edited posts provide a huge bump for authors.
      Edited posts do not get that same boost.

      It isn’t opinion it is actual numbers.

      • You do not need to apologize as I am not offended. It’s great to have different opinions because only in such a way we get an interesting discussion. I do not think about 40 virils on one or two posts in the most commented section will save the site or greatly benefit author; we need many more views to make Virily an attractive site again. Attractive, first of all, outside Virily, because 20-30 active members will get tired soon. We need fresh authors here and numerous views outside.

        2
        • ah i understand your point, i disagree with your scale.

          but we aren’t talking about 1 or 2 now. It has been 10 days that an edited post was in the most commented and trending. So now we are talking about 10 authors and 400 virils.

          It is a problem.

          Now, there appears today to be no way for new authors to sign up to Virily.

  3. I am not sure if it’s because of the holiday season (Christmas + New Year) and hence the views are slower. I have been spending time on planning for the new year, hence I didn’t spend much time here.

    I haven’t pay much attention on the statistics yet, I just find time to write and comment here whenever possible. You guys are really those who contribute a lot to Virily and help this place to grow well. Thanks!

    1
    • we are down sadly from last year at the same time. There has over the last two years (I wasn’t tracking the site my first year here)been a holiday dip. But we are lower this year by a lot from last year.

      We do what we can do, no pressure.

  4. I have noticed decrease in views from other sites. It’s something to be concerned about as authors will stop being active which will impact both the remaining users and the site negatively.

    1
  5. As I am not a very active writer here on Virily, everything you present is basically news to me. I have edited only one of my post as I found several typo mistakes and it pissed me off. But that is only me. I have not noticed that views are going down but at the risk of repeating myself I am not very prolific. I always respond to comments on my post. I see this as being polite and saying thanks to people who at least read what I write. All I have to say Doc is keep up the good work but do not burn yourself up doing it….

    2
  6. I do not edit my posts and do not belong to the group with 100 views. Also, I notice that the number of views is very decreasing. It is very difficult to “get” a member to view posts. I’ve been a constant old visitor for some time now. I’m trying to comment on other members’ posts too, but no response.

    1
  7. I do not edit my posts and I do not open and comment on other edited posts …. I comment exclusively on the posts of my friends and return the comment to the one who comments on my post …. it already happened that I commented on the post and therefore I did not get Virily’s because I used the quota

    1
    • you can tell very quickly.

      Edited posts that are in the new category, or latest, and have 100 plus viewed are edited! If you see a post in latest that isn’t on the most commented and hotlists, then you know its edited.

      1
  8. I’ve not had the need to edit a post yet, but I probably would do if I spotted the error in re-reading the post. I find this research what you’re doing into everything in Virily and the posts very interesting!

    1
  9. I think one of the problems with such platforms is that authors think they are entitled to an audience just because of their content, but like everything else, it’s mostly hard work. And the reality is that in virily the only way to gain virils is by interaction with other members. Some people make a ton of polls a day and they only rely on virils from views, but never interact with others even in their own comment sections. Of course, this is totally okay, but on a site like this where almost everyone is also an author, people will get tired quickly of the lack of reciprocity and views will inevitably go down.
    If we want outside views, then even more things need to be changed. No one outside of virily cares about the dashboard or editing old posts, even though these topics are in trending and most commented. On the other hand, fixed lists that now have missing content might be interesting to outside people, but fixing them will hurt other members, as you said. Do you think that reposting an old post as a new one is better than editing the said old post? It’s an honest question.

    1
    • your last question is really interesting.

      As for a the first piece, yes no one outside of Virily cares about Virily issues. I agree. Additionally, there are a few authors who post way to many of those. I know i have in the past. I am limiting myself to no more than once per week.

      your other question has an easy answer and then it becomes harder.

      if they are low views and low comments, by all means, edit them. But the more i think about it if they are not high view high comment posts, they weren’t popular the first time.

      we should probably do a quick stufy on that question if you are game.

      • There sure will be people who will prefer to see a repost instead of an edited post, after all they will get some new virils for viewing it. Money and ranks seem to be the most important thing here, but at least I am glad people gain enough here to take it so seriously.

        1
          • I have posted repetitive content accidentally, and I have seen repetitive content on other users too. People can’t remember each post they see, and even if they do, most won’t say anything because we depend on new posts.

            1
        • that is the interesting balance we have to find. We have to find a way to encourage new posts!

          Repetitive content is an interesting problem. i know I have covered topics (climate change, cybersecurity) many times over the past 3 years. Doing that i often have repetitive pieces that are only a little different.

          1
  10. These are all interesting things. I will edit a post if I find it in the first 24 hours. If not, it is what it is, warts and all.

    I am having some success with Flipboard. That surprised me, but I willing to try anything to bring up site views.

    I am trying to be more careful with twitter and do something more direct to specific people that have shown some kind of interest in a post. I have been using analytics more. Not sure if it is working or not. Just trying to keep something going.

    1
          • that is an easy test – share it on twitter as is see if you get a bounce.

            Many posts over the course of two years get 50-80 addition views. The new person is where we see the biggest spike.

            So if you see that the post will generate a lot of new traffic than it benefits everyone.

            that sadly is really hard to measure until after the fact.

          • I guess what I should have said is this.

            I haven’t seen a single edited post other than two, that performed as well as a new post on that most commented list.

            i am seeing about a 10 to 20% bump for an edited post (views and comments)
            new posts tend to get to get a 40% bump or more when they make the most commented list

            *that is the net increase. When the post enters most commented, I note the number of views, and then 24 hours later check it again.

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