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Sphinn Home » Sphinn Zone
Please Don’t Ask Me to Sphinn Your Stories (and How to Use Sphinn and Similar Social News Websites)
Sphinn Zone News Source: http://www.techipedia.com
Published: Oct 26, 2007 - 03:09 pm
Story Found By: tamar 2035 Days ago
Category: Sphinn Zone
With all due respect to my friends in the industry, compared to the amount of Digg requests I get (and you’d think I get a lot of those) and the amount of stories submitted to Sphinn in a given day, Sphinn has spiraled out of control.
 Comments22 Comments  

Comments

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from planetc1 2035 Days ago #
Votes: -1

Sphunn and thanks for the help yesterday. Your suggestions got me motivated to do some homework. Much appreciated!

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from SearchBuzz 2035 Days ago #
Votes: 8

Hey Tamar - i just got your IM --- yeah I’ll Sphinn this, NP.JUST KIDDING!!!  ;)~Great points made~

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from tamar 2035 Days ago #
Votes: 3

Mike, I totally don’t have your IM, but I want it now.

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from AndyBeard 2035 Days ago #
Votes: 3

The only time I have really been tempted to mention a story to someone, and I think it has only happened once, was when upcoming/most was broken, I knew the person would highly appreciate the story, and the story was sitting requiring just a single vote to reach the front page... for more than 24 hrs. It probably would have reached the front page anyway, but then it would also have lost the "news" value.Even then I was just a little subtle about it, using Stumbleupon to point out the story rather than other means.I must admit I don’t get a lot of requests for SphinnsYour article was full of very useful advice for anyone new to the community.

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from bigpond 2035 Days ago #
Votes: 1

Sure was - I finally got round to adding my own avatar after months of being on here!

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from tamar 2035 Days ago #
Votes: 3

I honestly don’t mind subtleties, because like you, Andy, I feel that sometimes there are oversights and we’d still highly appreciate the story. My concern is regarding the more forceful folks. I am getting a ton of these requests lately.

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from DavidWallace 2035 Days ago #
Votes: 1

I know you are referring to everyone else excpet me, right? Just kidding. ;-)

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from planetc1 2035 Days ago #
Votes: 2

Less than 3 hours to the homepage and zero sphinns by "generic green badges."

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from toprank 2035 Days ago #
Votes: 2

A reminder like this is good because sometimes people get so used to pushing to see what pushes back, they start getting too used to playing in the gray area. Thanks Tamar.

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from Woz 2035 Days ago #
Votes: 2

There ya go planetc1. ;-)

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from SEOdisco 2035 Days ago #
Votes: 0

I admit I asked for Sphinns on two of my posts to test out the site.  Though I do feel like they were front page material, I got what I needed to and no longer feel a need to solicit Sphinns the way I did before.I’ll be asking you only for Diggs from now on. :)

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from thejenn 2035 Days ago #
Votes: 3

You make excellent points Tamar, but I see the other side as well.Even with only 100 submissions a day, that can be a lot to sort through on top of the eleventy billion RSS feeds most of us sort through, the stuff we’re writing on our own and any client work we do.I don’t mind in the least when someone asks me to check out their stuff on Sphinn. It often gets me there quicker and lets me read something I enjoy. If I like it, I Sphinn it, if I don’t, I don’t. No biggie.So, note to all my friends in the industry (and even those I don’t know)...I don’t mind the Sphinn requests. Can’t promise I’ll Sphinn anything for you, but you’re welcome to ask. :)

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from JohnWeb 2035 Days ago #
Votes: 2

I agree in principle, but then again with 20 of 20 of your submits going hot it is a lot easier to say it then for people who don’t enjoy that type of success.  Granted I’m sure you only submit quality stuff, but we know that’s not the only determining factor.  Sphunn.

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from Lyndon 2034 Days ago #
Votes: 0

Tamar, can you not submit good stuff when I am having a night off with a vindaloo and beer, I missed getting in on this at the beginning and I hate that. I have already made a reply over at http://sphinn.com/story/11261 and I would just be duplicating.My point is, you may get the front page. But at what cost to your brand.Another thread regarding this is at http://sphinn.com/story/10062

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from aimClear 2034 Days ago #
Votes: 0

This is an outstanding post Tamar. Thanks for staring the essential dialog, as you often do. YOUR the only person who has a 100% success ratio on Sphinn. :)

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from steaprok 2034 Days ago #
Votes: 1

Great Stuff! I feel so left out, no one ever asks me to sphinn their stuff! =)I wholeheartedly agree with your points. begging for sphinns, or diggs, or whatever, defeats the whole purpose behind social news sites. And yes its one thing to suggest or mention a story, which might be of interest. Its definately another one you get an email  or an IM with a subject line: Sphinn or else!!! Thx Tamar!

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from tamar 2034 Days ago #
Votes: 0

"Less than 3 hours to the homepage and zero sphinns by ’generic green badges.’"I had nothing to do with it. :P  In fact, I was offline when it got to the front page. :)

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from St0n3y 2034 Days ago #
Votes: 0

I’ll occassionally make a request to a select few to sphinn stuff, but I *always* add the caveat to only sphinn if they think it’s worthy. If they like it they’ll sphinn it. If not, I’m not put out.

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from cmiddlebrook 2032 Days ago #
Votes: 0

I agree, I feel awkward when I get a Sphinn request because my ’anti-begging’ mechanism kicks in and I don’t want to Sphinn it on principle but then I feel all guilty for being mean! Really, I think it’s self defeating anyway because the regular users of Sphinn know how to use and they WILL find the good content so there really is no need to ask for votes. The only people who would actually benefit from asking are those who are new and they would probably be ignored for that very reason! So really, no matter how you look at it - it’s pointless.

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from monitis 1724 Days ago #
Votes: 0

Thanks for the insightful tips, Tamar. "There are very valuable stories in the mix that get ignored because people are helping out their friends and ignoring potential candidates that clearly have a good shot at the front page — if only you gave the stories a chance". This statement helps to understand how happens that all the hot ones come from almost the same people.  Recently, I also heard new sphinners’ account getting closed with no explanation.  Has there been recent issues regarding spam?  How do you treat users you consider spamming.  It’s important to share with community too, because newcomers would suffer, some of them of not knowing the rules. 

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from monitis 1724 Days ago #
Votes: 0

I hope you understand that I just discovered your post.  I wasn’t using sphinn much until recently. 

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from randyrichards 1560 Days ago #
Votes: 0

How do you get past the falling blocks in the sphinx, poptropica?I just went through the opening in the sphinx but how do you jump on the falling blocks? HELP!thanks...Music Mastering

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