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What is wrong with Virily?

There are few things I’ve seen recently that concern me.

  1. Views are way down.
  2. Virily is an ad-driven site. So if you see an ad blocker message, that is additional ad space being added by Virily.
  3. The comment limit is real and sadly, it was implemented because of abuse.
  4. The post limit is also real and sadly is also abuse related.

Last year around the holidays (starting around Dember 20 and heading to January 14) I did a short movers project where I gathered data. From 2018/2019 to this year, 2019/2020 views are down about 30%. That is a concern for all of us! Please take a moment if you do, share posts on Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest. Somehow we have to get views back up.

Since Virily is ad-driven, the admin team is always looking for new places to put ads. Based on that, you will see the ad blocker on the bottom or top of your browser window. If you see that every single day, check your settings for the Virily site. The problem with blocking the ads is that the AdSense application from Google, notes that ads were blocked and Virily doesn’t get credit. As an ad-driven site, ads must get through.

The comment limit concerns me, in part because this is the second comment abuse change the site has made. If you got back and look at 3-year-old posts you will a lot of comments are Nice, Good, for a time you then also see the first 20 character limit comments where people used Good!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! As a way around the new rule. The new comment limit has to do with users continuing to game the system. It is an unfortunate situation. Remember, the behavior of the few always impacts the rest of us!

The post limit is similar, in that it is a way for the admins to control the number of spam posts.

I am trying two experiments over the next week.

  1. I will not comment on posts that people don’t comment on my posts. I am very anti-that rule but I have noticed a radical decline in comments. One week only, if you comment on my posts, I will comment on yours. If you don’t, I won’t comment on yours. Again this is just for a week. I want to see if this is part of the problem (the if you don’t comment on my post I won’t comment on your post rule)
  2. I will not for the next week open or consider any post that is edited. There have been many edited photos and I truly understand the position. If your posts have errors, you should feel free to edit them. If, however, the post ahs a lot of views (more than 100) or a combination of views (greater than 100) and comments (greater than 25), it remains a false positive. You go right on the lists (comment and trending).
    1. Edited posts on the most commented and trending lists gain about 10% more views and comment total.
    2. A non-edited post on the most commented and trending list gain 40% more views and comments.
    3. This is why I am not reading them for a week to see if, in fact, the data I’ve collected to date is true. I am not in any way condemning or saying do not edit posts. I am just concerned right now that based on views we have a problem. Please don’t defend editing posts in the comments. I am not against editing posts, I want to understand the impact that is having on the site.

My goal is the long term health of Virily! I am not condemning or suggesting anything right now. I am simply removing variables from the data I am collecting.

  • Question of

    I promise I am not anti-edited posts, ok?

    • Yes
    • No
  • Question of

    promise you will not justify editing posts in the comments, ok?

    • Yes
    • No
  • Question of

    I check the most commented list of posts every day?

    • Yes
    • No
  • Question of

    I check the trending list of posts every day>?

    • Yes
    • No
  • Question of

    I know why comments are down from last year? (share in the comments please)

    • Yes
    • No
  • Question of

    I have no clue why comments are down

    • Yes
    • No
  • Question of

    i have no clue why views are down.

    • Yes
    • No

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What do you think?

30 Points

Written by DocAndersen

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

81 Comments

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  1. The number of active members could be one of the factors that affect the amount of view. I saw only a small amount of people who regularly active (based on the post, comments, and vote that I received).

    I have the same thought as Alibb’s point about a visit to visit. I notice some people only visit/comment on the post of people that they “know”.

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  2. Q: I PROMISE I AM NOT ANTI-EDITED POSTS, OK?
    Yes (12 votes) – 92%
    No (1 votes) – 8%
    Q: PROMISE YOU WILL NOT JUSTIFY EDITING POSTS IN THE COMMENTS, OK?
    Yes (9 votes) – 82%
    No (2 votes) – 18%
    Q: I CHECK THE MOST COMMENTED LIST OF POSTS EVERY DAY?
    Yes (7 votes) – 47%
    No (8 votes) – 53%
    Q: I CHECK THE TRENDING LIST OF POSTS EVERY DAY>?
    Yes (6 votes) – 40%
    No (9 votes) – 60%
    Q: I KNOW WHY COMMENTS ARE DOWN FROM LAST YEAR? (SHARE IN THE COMMENTS PLEASE)
    Yes (4 votes) – 25%
    No (12 votes) – 75%
    Q: I HAVE NO CLUE WHY COMMENTS ARE DOWN
    Yes (11 votes) – 79%
    No (3 votes) – 21%
    Q: I HAVE NO CLUE WHY VIEWS ARE DOWN.
    Yes (13 votes) – 93%
    No (1 votes) – 7%

    • i am not sure all of John’s points were as relevant as you think.

      views overall were up since April (when the last guest view change was implemented). While financially impactful to me (i share a lot) it hasn’t impacted the sites use overall.

      The system I use for poll questions was designed by the Standford Binet team. You ask questions in a variety of ways (go back to my site improvement series in July, you will see the same questions asked 3, 4 and more ways). The goal is to get a broad picture of the community’s thinking!

      1
      • It is always important that closed questions are not ambiguous and that one can have confidence that they have been understood by the vast majority of respondents. If this is not so, statistics based on the results have little meaning.

        2
        • first off, the assumption is you are gathering a single set. I am not. I gather at least 3 sets of data.

          The first time is on purpose vague. The yes no is a stabilising point for people. The Standford Binet model has been used for many years and while more intensive than most models, does produce reliable results.

  3. Hmm… I’ve no idea why both comments and views are down.
    But I do see a sharp decline and I think visit-for-visit might be one of a reason
    I don’t really care as much about most commented list and visit-no-visit/comment-no-comment as I’ve just so little time here …
    I go to friend’s posts no matter they replied to mine or not …
    and then posts that attracted me.

    But it could seems like visit-for-visit/comment-for-comment because I’m sticking to friend’s posts.

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  4. I am not sure that you will get useful feedback when you pose questions (your final two) that include a negative and then offer a Yes/No alternative. Not everyone understands that a double negative is a positive, so you really can’t tell what the answers mean.

    Why are comments down? Could it be that the posts in question do not inspire people to make meaningful comments? If the posts that do so are swamped by dozens that are nothing more than a pretty picture, the comment-inspiring ones will soon disappear a long way down the list and not be seen. We need better quality posts, plus ones that are controversial and will get people arguing with each other! (not angrily, of course, but is the spirit of give-and-take)

    Why are views down? If Admin were to restore the awarding of Virils for guest views, they would see whether this increased the number of views due to members being inspired to share on social media. A short-term experiment would soon answer that question.

    2
    • First of all, my degree is in Ed Psych. I understand the reality of questions. I don’t ask questions 1 time. I have a process.

      each question will be asked over the next week in at least 3 different ways to capture the information I am looking for. I understand the reality of simple choice polls. The yes-no option is a familiarity option and is more likely to produce responses.

      I would argue based on facts that since April when guest views were completely removed the site has had steady increases in views and that continued until the latest round of changes at the end of October. So the numbers don’t match your assertion about lacking guest views.

      I didn’t do statistics about users when the original guest views were available so I have no basis to argue the other side, which is that the original way to rewarding guest views was producing more views.

      The site overall (june 2019 versus June 2018 is up about 40% in terms of views. So overall the site has continued to increase.

      The rate to 100 views on a post was stable at around 24 hours for a number of users. That number is now closer to 48.

      The better quality posts issue is subjective. While there are limits and guidelines within the English Language for what is or isn’t good, those are not currently applied at Virily. I do understand because you have brought it up many times, that your standard for content is higher than many of the authors. At this time there is no standard. I am not sure that quality is an issue today. In 2018 there were no limits on the overall number of posts by anyone. By a subjective view, the number of lower quality posts was higher than, than now. Now there are limits.

      Thanks for the guidance, Watch for the other vartions of the questions.

      • I can see that these matters are open to debate and there are unlikely to be easy answers.

        As for which posts are likely to generate most comments, the answer is clear enough – it is posts that question what is going wrong with Virily!

        1
        • Luckily there are other posts that also get a lot of comments. Sadly, edited posts carry their comments forward so it modifies the list.

          I am working on rewriting the questions today to further refine the information There are some really good ideas in the information shared in the comments!

  5. I do not block ads on this site and I see the ad blocker message at the bottom. I am not sure what to do because, I went make through my settings Viritly is the only site where I do not use the ad blocker.

    I believe views and comments are down because of the limits that the sites has put on.

    1
  6. OK, this is the first time on here I see way down the page that an adblocker has been detected but I have no idea what to do about that. Next up, I find that on quite few posts that I read and make a comment I am the only one commenting but it could be holiday-related.

    1
  7. I have an Adblock notification at the bottom of the screen (can’t remove it). I found out a while ago that they lowered the number of comments and the views dropped a lot. I’m not looking at trends or the most commented post.

    1
  8. Something is wrong with the ad blocker here. It does not depend on whether we turn it off or on, the warning on the bottom is here all the time. It cannot be our fault if many people see it. Anyone has not it here? I am OK with edited posts, I always open if I see I have not voted it still. And yes, I noticed the number of views is down, and if we cannot view ads here, it is very very bad…

    1
  9. I admit to Doc that I didn’t understand your text very well.
    Especially about editing a post.
    I think there are big variations in the number of views,
    I can’t remove Ad Blocator whether or not I’ve turned it on.
    It’s always at the bottom.
    I’ll check for other ads in my articles.
    I post on FB and Twitter but have few followers.
    I have no reviews from those sites,
    It seems to me that people currently publish a lot more articles than before.
    It is as if they are aware that only in this way can they produce a better result.
    They admit that I didn’t understand some things, don’t judge me for that.
    P.S.
    Because of my weak eyes and my free time, I don’t comment much, but I do scrutinize a lot of articles and give everyone a vote up, just so they know I looked and read.

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    • Honestly, you mentioned that before, I went and pulled my mover’s stuff that was done last year in December and January. we are down about 30% from last year same time. I published this because you had asked that question and i found it to be extremely interesting and valid!

  10. I don’t know what is going on, but it’s true that the number of reputations is diminishing …. my vision is that sometimes I can’t even open all the posts daily so that I can comment on them … all the comments … sometimes i miss one day but they are too easy to delete … i only comment from now on those posts that comment on me … if i would comment on others then i would run out of comments for you .. ..I have a blocker at the bottom of the screen … I can’t remove it in any way … I’ve tried a few but it’s not working

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