News Source: 1
Published: Dec 05, 2008 - 12:55 am
Story Found By: Gab 1267 Days ago
Category: Sphinn Zone
1. How To Write Interesting Titles
2. The Comprehensive Guide To X - Because this never features anything new but just rehashes stuff from a bunch of different blog posts in a single spot, often without citing the inspirations.
3. How To Pick A Good Domain Name
4. How To/Not To Write A Link Request Email
5. I Hate Cheap Clients Who Want Lots Of Work For $200 - We all do, we’ve all written the same rant (though Rebecca did it best, imho), now let’s move on.
6. Top 10 WP Plugins For Your Blog
7. Top # SEO Tools. Again, done 999M times.
8. SEO is dead / will die. No, you go ahead and die. We will make bank.
9. Onpage ranking factors still matter. Well shucks ... who cares?
10. Any topic that’s already been written and read so many times it’s pointless repeating what everyone already knows. The newbies will find the existing articles with an easy search or by digging through blog archives.
And if you’re good with all these suggestions, you can post a badge on your blog or a link to this page to explain how you use Desphinn. That gets around people saying you’re an ass and desphunn this for personal reasons - your principles for desphinning stuff will be clear. (I wrote this up on Sphinn rather than my blog so it would be easier for folks to link/use the badge - it wouldn’t look like a cheap trick to get links.)
And on a related note, may I suggest a useful feature for Sphinn v2.0?
For step 1, make people aware that Sphinn has seen what they’re about to post. When you’re submitting something, have the title be compared a la Digg to existing threads on the site. Then they have to look at those topics and check off a box that says "I swear this is original" if they want to go ahead.
For step 2, if their thread then gets multiple desphinns, their future submissions for the next month have to be vetted for originality. That is, they finish the submission process and before the thread goes live, a randomly selected, anonymous other member who’s online at the same time sees a little popup with the topic and existing ones. They’d have to also vouch for its originality, which they’re less likely to do if they think it’s weak and don’t fear backlash due to their anonymity.
Another sanction for users who get desphinns for lack of originality would be that their future submissions need more sphinns to go hot. This would make it more challenging to get their rehashed, warmed-over content hot.
49 Comments
Comments
Great list Gab! Taking responsiblity for my actions, I’m Sphinning this post! Nobody would complain at this: "When you’re submitting something, have the title be compared a la Digg to existing threads on the site."...although, personally, I don’t want Sphinn to become strictly a daliy news site - a who’s been promoted / hired fest or generalist news that adds little value to my day-to-day...even we encourage discussions on *new* tools and marketing ideas, algo tests and research then we are certainly encouraging Sphinn-worthy content and add a great value!There definitely seems to be unrest in the Sphinn ranks though over the quality of stuff coming through? What are your thoughts Danny - any plans for the near / distant future? Also, #11 Your one stop shop for winter hanging basketsGreat spark for a great topic Gab!
Ben, I think Michelle Robbins and Sphinn’s dev team are going to let you opt out of seeing particular categories on the homepage in Sphinn v2 - so you’d avoid water cooler threads like "John got hired by Company X" while still seeing "Google’s New Organic Algo Based on PPC bids" threads ;D. Thx for the sphinn n comment, too!
I also don’t want to see any posts going hot (or submitted) that consist of little more than a screenshot.
Question is, what would that leave on Sphinn?
Gab, I can’t agree with you on this...I think the membership should ultimately judge the worthiness of (non-spammy) posts. If members want to Sphinn hot stories of low quality or familiar content, it’s their right to do so.
90% of the non-news stories on Digg have ’been done before’ but it doesn’t make it any less entertaning. I respectfully disagree that certian topics should be banned... Here’s the real fix, imho:I think DeSphinn needs to be made anonymous, like Digg bury or Reddit downmod... with mods checking out that it isn’t being unfairly abused.Give us the power to Desphinn crap anonymously, without causing a war in this tight knit little community.. and you’ll see a much clearner site. I desphunn this local guy’s (non-internet marketing-related) "story" almost a year ago and things have been icy ever since... sad, but true.
@Todd, @Brett - My point isn’t that these things should be banned, but rather to encourage folks to say that they are going to vote against these types of threads. That 1) Discourages folks who might otherwise be interested in promoting mediocre stuff.2) Makes folks take personal responsibility for keeping down the rehashed stuff they dislike.3) Avoids claims that you desphunn something cuz you dislike the author/submitter - you just desphinn stuff when it falls in the above categories.
Nice thoughts Gab. The question really is what we want the direction of Sphinn to be in the future. The direction you are proposing would set Sphinn up as an elitist community (and I don’t mean that in a bad way). Newbies would find it difficult to participate without backlash from the community. In reality they’d have to study the network extensively to be able to become a meaningful contributor. I suspect it would hinder the growth of Sphinn. The question is whether we want Sphinn to be a community for the elite or a community for the masses.
Gab, the problem is that we all have different definitions of "mediocre stuff." Why should you or anyone else have the privilege of telling the membership what should be sphunn and what should be desphunn? Sphinn was just featured on Problogger, and there were several comments left over there indicating that we’re getting at least a small influx of new users. I dare say the topics on your list may be old/boring to a grizzled vet like yourself, but not to people who’ve never been here before and don’t bleed search marketing (as you and I do).So, I’ll add one to your list of topics that should always be desphunn:11. Any topic that tells users what to sphinn and/or desphinn. :-)
Can’t agreee... >>>1. How To Write Interesting TitlesFor instance, if that’s by Copyblogger, you can bet it will be good and I want to see it.>>>>2. The Comprehensive Guide To X - Because this never features anything new but just rehashes stuff from a bunch of different blog posts in a single spot, often without citing the inspirations.Weip just did a good one.>>>3. How To Pick A Good Domain NameYet the most recent one by Lisa Barone got over 70 sphinns and touched new ground for the beginners/novicesIt isn’t the topics, it is the shit being written about them and passed off as quality that is the problem.If Bruce Clay hires Todd Malicoat, that is news. If Aaron Wall buys We Build Pages and jim retires, that’s news. If company no one has ever heard of before hires someone who has spoken at two conferences before, that is not news. If a person who’s URL could not be linked to by industry reporting sites without them looking it up buys a Twitter application that makes no money, that is not news.It isn’t WHAT is being written about, it’s the quality of the posts. My two, under anesthesia cents :)
Oh, and allow me to add that using Sphinn as if it’s a public feed reader and your feed is included annoys the hell out of me too. Some of the top in upcoming are EXACTLY the problem in Sphinn:http://sphinn.com/story/89170http://sphinn.com/story/89132http://sphinn.com/story/89462None of these posts are long, detailed or super insightful. I’m not saying they’re BAD, I’m saying they aren’t front page quality. And I’m not picking on SEJ - I could have put a few sites in this post. People sphinning these posts as if they are is either blind voting or says we have a lot of novice people in the community.
@James - That’s a good point. My take is that Sphinn is leaning too far to the side of newbie topics and should not be the place for promoting posts about them. You drive away more experienced users who want to read advanced / fresh ideas. Not that a big shift is needed, but Sphinn needs to balance things out.In any case, given the structure of blogs and links, newbies will find their way back through archival material and get the basics too. Lastly, if we choose to make this a community for the masses, Sphinn will become just another generic community. I was studying and rating the topics on SP’s SEO forum, for example, and the overwhelming majority of topics were repeated basic stuff. The result is that you get member turnover as people leave from boredom. Plenty of forums, blogs etc. serve the newbie community already. @Matt - My point isn’t that my suggestions - note the word - should be definitive. Ideally, my thread start would be wikilike and openly editable. But guidelines on what to desphinn are not bad, even if you adopt your own (anything from gab ;) ).What I was getting at is that people should openly say what they’re going to desphinn. Yeah, it takes balls to get specific and not just say ’mediocre stuff’ but I think that at least if these ’personal desphinn policies’ get some publicity and are more than a lofty ideal, we’ll have a better community.@Rae - You’re citing exceptions to try and prove the suggestion/guidelines are bad. If that were how things should be done, then murder would be legal, because sometimes a criminal who deserved it took a bullet between the eyes. For the most part, the topics I’ve listed above have been done to death and another post on them won’t add anything. Here’s a useful test: ask yourself if you’d link to it solely on the merit/quality of the piece (e.g. not to build relationships, get a trackback link etc.) - if you wouldn’t cuz your audience already knows that stuff, then perhaps you should desphinn it.
@Sugarrae, that’s exactly what has happened at Digg. it’s all about the domain, not the content. Hell, they don’t even have to be the original source of the content if they’re one of Digg’s favorite domains (huffpost, cracked, etc).I wonder if this isn’t more the result of social media relying on the masses.Also, is there a way that a site could prevent certain posts from being submitted? For example, if I wanted to only allow the really premium content from my site to be submitted here, is there a way that Sphinn could allow us to claim out sites and then opt in or out for posts etc? Just thinking out loud because right now SEJ has no way to control whether Sphinn is treated as their feed reader.@Gabs, sorry but I’ve got to disagree with you. It’s not the topics that are the problem, it’s the quality of the posts as sugarrae mentioned.Also, your statement that "your audience would already know the info" is a very dangerous road to go down. Sure you have to assume that people read your content and are experienced, but you also must realize that there are new people coming into this industry and this site specifically all the time. While I have probably read 5 different versions of "How to Write Good Titles" there might be people that haven’t, and recapping the topic or doing a refresher course every now and then can be useful even for the seasoned pro.Again, the issue comes down to offering up quality content that provides value over what is already out there or frames the information in a new manner.
>>>f you wouldn’t cuz your audience already knows that stuff, then perhaps you should desphinn itMy audience isn’t the same as your audience dude. What my audience considers remedial, SEJ’s might consider advanced. I can’t Sphinn and desphinn based on MY audience because Sphinn isn’t comprised solely of them. That is what MY blog is for. Just because *I* don’t need advice on picking a domain name doesn’t mean that Lisa’s post isn’t kick ass for people who DO, so I am going to Sphinn it. Personally, if people would treat Sphinn more like a BOOKMARK site where they bookmarked posts they might need later for whatever reason (like I’d bookmark that post by Lisa for later use to give to a newbie) it would prob stop half the crap from being bookmarked. I mean, take http://sphinn.com/story/89462 - would ANYONE really need to bookmark that when she did the same post less than two months ago and they already sphunn it http://sphinn.com/story.php?id=78874 - no, they wouldn’t. THAT is part of the problem.
@Rae - I agree about SEJ and desphunn one of those even though it’s by one of my closest friends in search, Ann Smarty. Decent article but not FP material, like you say. That’s the type of stuff I’m going on about in this thread. And - shocking! - look at the title: What should be in a title! :). (@Ann - I’m a big fan of yours, so don’t take that personally - like I’m saying here, I’d have desphunn the article regardless of who wrote it.)@Rae - The contrarian article by Dev Basu is original, imho. And Ann’s KR post gave me some fresh ideas on expanding footprint searches I do etc.
But is the contrarian front page material? Not to me. And the keyword research post would have been better if effort had been put into it. SEJ lately is all about churning out posts... maybe they need to stop posting fluff posts daily and start posting something meaty every two or three days.
@Ben /Skitzzo - See, that’s the catch, then you turn the community into a generic tutorial for newbies. I don’t know how interesting it would be, nor why I’d keep using Sphinn in particular as opposed to say SEW forums. What’s dangerous is being generic and not haveing a unique value proposition. I do like your ’opt out’ point though. I’ve had posts from my site sphunn that were jut for internal consumption, not social media promotion.
Rae, yeah, SEJ needs to beef it up and get more original analysis/thought into their content. I’ve been frustrated the same way with their content for a while. As to what you’d link to being different from what Lisa’s audience needs, I can make the same argument the other way. Just bc Lisa’s audience needs it, doesn’t mean Sphinn doesn’t have more advanced folks who do. And as you both represent yourself as well as, if only indirectly, your audience at Sugarrae, then you should feel comfortable helping shape the community in a way that works for you guys. Shaping isn’t just done through submitting original stuff like your recent Thesis hooks item - the first I’ve ever seen that discussed - but also through voting.As to bookmarking, that’s an interesting suggestion for the developers, though perhaps tangential to the main subject here? Or did I not get your point? Also, from the devs’ perspective, that’s partly fulfilled by the ’hot posts’ archives here - need good references for newbs on link building? Spend 5 minutes there and you’ve got enough reading to keep them in links till 2010.
@Sugarrae,Bravo! Somebody buy that woman a beer!I also agree with many of the other points here. I’m not at the level as some of you here, but I’ve been at it longer than others. What’s news to me, might not be news to you and what’s news to the guy behind me might be ancient history to me. Unless we all want to become Danny Sullivan or Aaron Wall clones here, it wouldn’t be good to foster an elistest environment. Our differences are what help us grow.My 2 cents: Grow a pair, desphinn without being an ass. Don’t be Digg and hide anonymously. If you desphinn, show enough courtesy to explain why and offer some constructive criticism. That way, the n00bs who submit crap can learn and do better next time. It could also earn you respect as a mentor.
@JMorris - You could easily learn the basics by reading through Aaron Wall or Danny Sullivan’s archives though, right? As to the whole grow a pair thing, that’s besides the point. If it’s directed at me personally, I have been a generous user of the desphinn on stuff I think shouldn’t fp. If it’s in general to folks who’re concerned about getting flamed/no longer being able to get stuff hot, you’re missing the point of the original post, which is that guidelines can be valuable to take away the personal element in this.
Gab, you’re also missing that the value of a desphinn is a joke - people know it has little effect, so they probably figure why bother.
Well a lot readers here on Sphinn are no doubt beginners and reading some of the things on the list is important to them. It’s boring to more seasoned SEOs, sure, but we’re not the only demographic here. And that’s why we see a gazillion repeats make it to the top: it’s the tyranny of the majority of this community. On a more technical level, the algo Sphinn implements to rank posts and make them go popular is not necessarily the best one. There are many alternatives and maybe it’s worth experimenting with those.Pierre
@Gab: I respectfully disagree there bro.It will drive off the newbies, obviously when people are coming to a social site, they want first, build up a name then, secondly their own stories go popular (i.e. traffic.) Even though they don’t devote much time to research, but we can’t help it.De-sphinning is a good option, but that would give a bad name and many would back fire. It should be used very sensibly. I don’t remember de-sphinning any topics yet...The way I can think of to tackle this is...5 de-sphinns and the topic gets deleted..as in Digg, the bury mechanism. This is also a very tough decision, if ever it is taken in consideration.Thoughts?
11. Any topic that tells users what to sphinn and/or desphinn. :-)lolGab, you’re also missing that the value of a desphinn is a joke - people know it has little effect, so they probably figure why bother.Good point. This needs to be changed. Up the value/weight of a desphinn.
@Gab,It wasn’t directed at you. I was saying "grow a pair" in general to anyone who is afraid to desphinn because it might hurt their reputation. I disagree with your point. We should not foster an elitist community. We also should not hide behind "anonymous". We should be accountable to our peers and claim our opinions. If someone desphinns one of my post, I want to know who and why. My fragile little ego isn’t going to get hurt. I’m more likely to thank them if they give me a valid reason why my story isn’t FP material and/or offer me some constructive feedback.Again, no offense is intended to anyone. We can disagree without being dissagreeable. ;-)
I agree with Rae that Desphinn, after the story has gone hot, is not effective. The rate that a post builds up Sphinns on the front page far outweighs the speed in which you can get people organised to Desphinn it (at 5:1). I know this is something beling looked at currently for Sphinn v.2.Saying that, Desphinn can be *very* effective on stories in the upcoming queue. Not only is the 1:1 ratio more powerful but more than that - it shows other people that they can also Desphinn or disagree with the story. It’s a hard line to cross, being the first to step up and Desphinn an article, especially if it’s by a well known or popular submitter or source. Once the first person does this though, others feel free to add their voice. Of course then we have to be careful of piling on - but that is another issue. I’d like to see more Desphinns though in the upcoming/most popular queue. Constructive feedback there could help shape what people submit to Sphinn. We need to keep pushing that quality level.
It would be useful to mark content as technical, medium, or newbie, in addition to the Sphinn/Desphinn function. Then you could apply it as a filter, so that articles marked as newbie by most users would appear lower down the rankings for you.
@NickWilsdon Hi Nick, regarding this:It’s a hard line to cross, being the first to step up and Desphinn an article, especially if it’s by a well known or popular submitter or source. Once the first person does this though, others feel free to add their voice. I’m pleased you would like to see more Desphinns, but the above is certainly a concern. I’ve just looked back to my profile and only Desphunn on one occasion [spam by the way]...this is something I must apologise for...as going back to the original point, people need to stand up to the mark and desphinn where they deem appropriate. I’m really pleased though that this post has drawn so much interest because, using me as an example, people aren’t really encouraged to use the desphinn facility...I’m looking for good content, and tend to skip out the bad stuff without giving another thought as I’m usually wanting a sharp hit of great stuff to read over a brew....Importantly though, that’s not a good community spirit, I realise that - I hold my hands up, and it’s set to change, but I’m not the only one out there that’s what we all have to realise.Can we all agree that endorsement and encouragement to use desphinn is helpful (if not vital) to make Sphinn a nicer place to live! If we get used to seeing desphinnd, I’m sure we’ll all take it less personally. (I guess this is a bad time to publish content then?! hehe!)@NickWilsdon I was going to put a tweet out asking where you had gone??! I was worried you’d got lost as you hadn’t been about much!
For the record, if you notice, I never submit my own stories to Sphinn :) Moreover, I do not target my posts for Sphinn. Most of the times, I write short tips that SEJ audience appreciates, if it gets Sphunn - thank you, if you think it’s useless - please desphinn. I don’t think Desphinn should be anonymous though - I for one never take desphinns personal.As for the topic list, sorry, Gab, I respectfully disagree. I know my audience, and they like the stuff I write - if one of my readers thinks it’s worth a Sphinn, what should I do? Stop writing what they like at all? Just to please "advanced" Sphinn audience? Anyway, don’t have time to comment more :) People should stop trying to control user generated content...
I’ve been going desphinn crazy this afternoon, mwahaha. I’m sick of wading through $hit topics on here so hopefully if enough members start desphinning now, others will be encouraged to find good articles to submit and not just anything they can ge their hands on.
I didn’t read this topic as an attempt to "control" what gets written or submitted ... simply as a baseline for discussion and some tips on what’s already been overdone. Chances are that any rehash of those topics is *probably* not worthy of FP. (And if you don’t think it’s FP worthy, then why submit it in the first place?). Doesn’t mean you can’t write that post, just that it better be damn good and add to the discussion. Otherwise don’t be upset if it gets voted down here, on this site.
AH HAHAHa! I love this list! I think everyone should take a look at it and consider their sphinnality.
The front page of Sphinn has become a relative shyte bowl of regurge. Generally speaking, the only thing that seems to be filtered out is spam and posts form unconnected people. Until Sphinn decides to aim for value on the front page, which in my opinion they haven’t taken a single step to accomplish, it’s going to remain that way.As for DeSphinn - it is mere window dressing. Sphinn is the one that needs to grow a pair and take some real action here.Now, back to my "How to use Twitter to build your blog traffic" post...
Maybe we should appoint Jason Gambert the Sultan of Sphinn...that way we can be assured that only the most Sphinntastic posts make the cut...
Desphunn...the ’sphinn moderation problems’ topic is tired. That’s only my opinion though.I enjoy the "Guide To" posts that compile a ton of posts in one...i do wish credit would be correct but that can be corrected via comments. For me, it is convenient to bookmark one post vs 50 posts...etc.
Hmm. So, I didn’t read through even 1% of what was said. Lol. But I’ll still try to say something new.<div></div><div></div><div>Obviously Sphinn v.2 is in the works. So, this is all timely. Rae says we need to raise the bar, your bringing up desphinns.</div><div></div><div></div><div>My honest suggestion for both issues to be resolved is <b>GET MORE FRICKEN PEOPLE</b>. Let’s change sphinn from an SEO crowd and turn it into a full blown IM crowd. I saw someone commented about Problogger, and him bringing in diverse traffic. What? That’s only a drop in the bucket!</div><div></div><div></div><div>The IM field is bigger than your high school that you went to. I don’t know if you all remember high school but I’m sure you knew ’who did what’ and ’why’ blah blah blah. It’s because it’s all small. But in college, it’s a MASSIVE crowd. Let’s bring that massive crowd in, so that EVERYONE in the Internet Marketing field can be happy and learn information regarding their topic.</div><div></div><div></div><div>When was the last time Email Marketing was on the homepage? Some stats show that it’s more effective than SEO. Yet....those posts are few and far between. Some say ’well post something’. Lmao. I’d have to write a mini-book for sphinn to throw it on the homepage. Yet sub-par posts on SEO make it without a blink of eye. WTF!</div><div></div><div></div><div>Seriously Sphinn, your a great idea. I suggest strongly GET MORE PEOPLE and you’ll solve more than one problem at once (you’ll create new problems, because nothing i perfect) but it will solve a lot of the current problems.</div><div></div><div></div><div>Spam might increase like crazy because of new volume of people. Just give more power to the users. Do something like 5 spam hits and the article is automatically put in the ’trash’ but people can go to the ’trash’ to redeem it (maybe two votes). This way, lower and unknown authors get a second chance, if misunderstood. But it also brings in automation.</div><div></div><div></div><div>That’s my 4 dollars. Spend it! :)</div>
Disagree. All of those items you list aren’t "set in stone" facts. Why can’t I write my list of top 10 Wordpress plugins and someone else do the same? The lists could be completely different. Same with a "Top SEO Tools I Use"-type topic; who knows, you might find a tool that someone uses that you had no idea existed.Limiting submitted content like you proposed would hurt the community. Plus hey, if those Sphinn Topics were "off-limits", Sphinn would largely be a "news" site. I already visit news sites - I visit Sphinn for community collaboration, discussion and participation.
@ChristianBK I don’t think the point was to prohibit you from writing those sorts of posts but rather to empower people with their right to desphinn more frequently in way that means more to the community and the content that flows through it.... :) I agree that another news site wouldn’t be good, I second those points.I think Joshua made some excellent points though - upping the community size would help a great deal and mix the content and variety up - more competition from content and from the spread of votes....
Don’t forget that the new Sphinn that is in the works might make all of this discussion moot. Maybe we should give them a chance to wow us with the changes.But just for fun, I’ll play. What if we had level choices? What if we could choose from a dropdown, for each submission, Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced or something like that? Perhaps FP could be a nice mix of the three categories. Think of it sort of like Universal Search. :)No idea if that would work or any similar system (three different FPs?, personalized FPs?), but might be fun to play around with those types of systems.In the meantime, I think we should see what Danny and gang has up their sleeve for the new system they’ll be rolling out.
@DazzlinDonna Do we know when that’s likely to be?Cheers!
I’m not privy to the schedule, Ben, but my (admittedly horrible) memory thinks someone said early ’09. Possible I just dreamed that though.
I was thinking the same thought as DD. I hate the spam button because sometimes it’s not spam, but just a post that’s thrown in here to see what sticks and what doesn’t. I keep wanting a "ho hum" button.The medium here is user generated content to a wide target readership of all skill levels. It’s unwise to control it (defeats the purpose of user generated), but being able to sift through to get to the quality material needs enhancement. A key upon submission for beginner, advanced level might help a lot by giving the ability to scroll down and look for pieces that meet your skill and interest levels. User generated with reader control panel, for ex.
Rae, Nick - very true that desphinn once something is hot is a joke. More power there (e.g. like 10 sphinns to - 1 desphinn ratio) would be about right imho.@ROS made the BEST POINT, imho. Let folks customize their Sphinn homepage to just show advanced, intermediate or newbie topics. Then you’re much less likely to deal with material you already know. @Annie - That’s cool if the SEJ audience appreciates it. I wasn’t trying to control UGC or tell you what to write - just expressing my opinion that some beginner oriented posts shouldn’t go hot. @Christian BK - Uh, it’s the "Internet Marketing News and Discussion Forums" if you notice the tagline. This here’s a discussion, the submitted stuff is [theoretically] news. It would be terrible if it lived up to its reputation, I know ;) lol.Also, while you could theoretically write an entirely original top 10 wp plugins post, it’d be extremely unlikely considering how rehashed that topic is. When you find 10 original plugins for SEO, and write it up, let me know and I’ll submit it - honestly.LET’S GET BEGINNER - INTERMEDIATE - ADVANCED FILTERS in here, pleeeeeeeeeeeease :D!!!
This topic is coming to my attention a tad too late perhaps. I’ll make my comments brief and in point form, as I really do have to get back to work.- Kudos to Gab for putting this discussion up. I honestly believe it’s his genuine effort to encourage internet marketers to think more about their content before publishing it.- The SEJ audience is a good mix of those starting out in SEO and those that have been in the game for a while. I can’t recall submitting many of my own articles to Sphinn, and the last one I wrote (as pointed out by Rae) was on-topic and did have some valuable takeaways in my opinion. As a blogger, it’s impossible to satiate everyone’s beginner to advanced interests in the same damn post. - UGC and social media by its very nature has backscratching. And backscratching existed far before any social media did. Think about every office email circulation, or petition form you’ve signed EVER. Oprah has referent power for a reason, and its the same reason the Edelman Trust Barometer puts ’similar likes’ as a key influencer in buying decision that folks make.- Let’s make that desphinn stronger then. In our small-ish industry, does it really matter if the same folks visit your blog/post once, twice, every day? They know about you anwyays, so I for one wouldn’t mind it if I got voted off the FP once in a while. You can’t always hit home runs (although Aaron Wall recently has), but you can listen and learn from the community.- LET’S GET BEGINNER - INTERMEDIATE - ADVANCED FILTERS : I support that :)
Unfortunately, while I believe in the gist of this post and also in desphinning, it’s clear that the person who first desphinns something here can and will be the subject of personal attack by the original author whose work was unsphunn. I see that this just happened to me this week and it’s simply not worth it. While it would be great if everyone at Sphinn were mature enough to handle a desphinn, we’re obviously not there yet. Big Sigh.
@yetanotherbenSorry Ben I am around at the moment but we’ve just done an office move. I’ll be more social next week once Anna stops giving me IKEA furniture to assemble ;)Back to the point though. I didn’t mean my comments to sound like it’s a great thing to desphinn every post in sight. It needs to be done for valid reasons and, hopefully, with respect for the submitter and source. I guess the goal is to try and make them constructive and useful rather than an attack. Not easy. Also as Jill write above, some people take desphinning a little too personally. I can relate to that, especially after you’ve spent a couple of hours putting an article together. However we should try and take the egos out of the equation. We’re *all* learning, even the people who have been at this game since Altavista. At the same time though, respect the experience people have earned and keep it professional.
As a new Member I did want to know the best rules for posting.This was helpful.Gary KeatingGo4tips
Just following rule 11 that I added in the main comments....
Tired of seeing sphinn moderation types of sphinns up here. And I agree with Matt McGee.