474,492
The Trulia/Market Leader/Zillow monster is just attempting to get more clicks so that they can charge more for advertising. We are doing the work for them to ensure that these sites get more clicks than realtor.com...
-
Bill Dandridge
Roanoke, VA
-
Kevin J. May
Hobe Sound, FL
-
Roy Kelley
Gaithersburg, MD
1,380,861
I usually dont worry about that. In any system, there will always be people "gaming" it. Just plan to do what you think is right, the rest will eventually take care of itself.
-
Les & Sarah Oswald
Eastvale, CA
-
Kevin J. May
Hobe Sound, FL
-
Roy Kelley
Gaithersburg, MD
1,731,203
Jay ...I think it should stop immediately ....or limit it to one question a week ....You could stay on here 24/7 and rack up a zillion points
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Roy Kelley
Gaithersburg, MD
-
Les & Sarah Oswald
Eastvale, CA
-
Women of Westchester W...
West Harrison, NY
735,052
Jay Markanich while I agree with you in part with respect to a sensible and worthwhile Q/A platform I for one have been an advocate of one for years. If diligently managed it's an invaluable tool for generating a strong website presence overall.
I've been a Trulia member/contributor for about as long as I have been an AR member and I have to say that I've gotten more milage out of the Trulia Q/A platform than any other social networking medium I've ever been involved with.
But there should be limits and or some sort of monitoring of the quality of the questions that are being asked.
-
Roy Kelley
Gaithersburg, MD
-
Mary Weiss
Seattle, WA
-
Women of Westchester W...
West Harrison, NY
7,836,431
More very good reasons to dump the current points system.
-
Jon Kolsky
Long Beach, CA
-
Roy Kelley
Gaithersburg, MD
-
Les & Sarah Oswald
Eastvale, CA
6,393,609
After checking back in after reading Praful's post, I think that it may be done already, who has time to wade through this mess of silly questions?
I thought they would have that sorting issues fixed by now, if it is going to stay the way it is then the q&a section is useless.
-
Les & Sarah Oswald
Eastvale, CA
-
Roy Kelley
Gaithersburg, MD
-
Debbie Gartner
White Plains, NY
332,989
Jay - I agree, I hope that AR put a sensible cap on the number of questions people can post in any given time. That might do something toward ensuring the quality of posts.
-
Les & Sarah Oswald
Eastvale, CA
-
Roy Kelley
Gaithersburg, MD
-
Debbie Gartner
White Plains, NY
630,251
Well, the page is still alive - thanks to some good guidelines.
-
Praful Thakkar
Andover, MA
109,250
I really appreciate this feedback, thank you. The point-mongers are driving us crazy, too! We cut back the point values quite a bit last week to 10 points per question and 10 points per answer to demotivate them. We also have some rules going into effect in a few weeks that will limit how many times you can score on an event each day.
The points system is sticking around. It is a good way for us to motivate people on ActiveRain as long as we can make it fairly cheat-proof. Watch for some big changes to the system in our next release that should make things a lot better.
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Roy Kelley
Gaithersburg, MD
-
Kevin J. May
Hobe Sound, FL
2,015,081
I think you make my point exactly Kevin. Those who game the system do so only for points, not for content and maybe couldn't care less about content.
For me, the SEO is important as many people call me for inspections because of my blogs. So I appreciate the position AR's power puts my blogs in. But also, I am here for the learning and for the fun of blogging. Does that earn me point? Yes, certainly, but in the way I think they should be earned.
Gaming is senseless. After all, the points really are meaningless, unless you consider being number 1 or 2 in your state to be a benefit.
-
Roy Kelley
Gaithersburg, MD
-
Kevin J. May
Hobe Sound, FL
1,153,794
It's all in the numbers Jay. Once upon a time AR had 330,000 members give or take. Today I see a figure slightly less than 264,000. Over 5,000 of them have fewer than 100 points. The sweet spot is at or near member #15,000 who has approximately the same # of points earned. To become an AR millionaire you need to get to page 3 and beat out member # 127, that's a lot of hurdling. The Top Dog is approching 2.5M points. Posting, commenting, asking & answering questions, contests and oh, the liking, don't forget the liking, will get you there! However, without quality content the gaming is moot.
Thank you for the 25 points!
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Inna Ivchenko
Encino, CA
-
Roy Kelley
Gaithersburg, MD
1,308,838
Jay Markanich ~ wow.... I feel bad trying to answer your question, so I think the best thing to do is hope for better questions
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Inna Ivchenko
Encino, CA
-
Roy Kelley
Gaithersburg, MD
1,895,067
As long as AR keeps it open with no limits.
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Kevin J. May
Hobe Sound, FL
-
Roy Kelley
Gaithersburg, MD
599,274
If they want a functional forum, they need to improve the interface. Right now I am limited to browing the newest or most popular questions. That doesn't help me find anything or encourage me to share, particularly when the top question is from point-grabbers asking silly questions.
They should create a normal message board with general topics. If the topic is "Code of Ethics" I can read through it without having to filter through all the unrelated junk.
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Debbie Gartner
White Plains, NY
-
Roy Kelley
Gaithersburg, MD
1,622,432
Well, you can not fix or please everyone. If the question or blog post are pointless and just for points, it will remain ignored. Some of us do aggressively work for points~ nothing new about that.
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Kevin J. May
Hobe Sound, FL
-
Roy Kelley
Gaithersburg, MD
864,658
Point system is good for those who love challenges...but giving it away is another story. I hope they amend the Q & A point system soon...
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Debbie Gartner
White Plains, NY
-
Roy Kelley
Gaithersburg, MD
2,015,081
Rob - I don't know how many people are doing that, but it is conceivable. Again, if there were no points at all, how many people would stick around AR?
I would.
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Roy Kelley
Gaithersburg, MD
-
Women of Westchester W...
West Harrison, NY
2,015,081
I didn't see your follow-up posts Debbie. See, who knows?
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Roy Kelley
Gaithersburg, MD
-
Women of Westchester W...
West Harrison, NY
2,015,081
Debbie - I just saw your other answers. See, who knows?
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Roy Kelley
Gaithersburg, MD
-
Women of Westchester W...
West Harrison, NY
2,015,081
That is exactly the point John A. Set up as it is it's silliness.
-
Roy Kelley
Gaithersburg, MD
-
Women of Westchester W...
West Harrison, NY
2,015,081
No Debbie. That was the Battle of Breed's Hill in Boston (people incorrectly call it Bunker Hill). Nobody really knows, but it's said to probably have been Captain Trumble.
John Paul Jones said, "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead." That was the battle of New Orleans in the War of 1812.
-
Roy Kelley
Gaithersburg, MD
-
Women of Westchester W...
West Harrison, NY
2,817,671
Was that John Paul Jones?
Why didn't you pose that as another q, LOL?
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Les & Sarah Oswald
Eastvale, CA
-
Roy Kelley
Gaithersburg, MD
2,015,081
Who said don't shoot until you see the whites of their eyes?
-
Women of Westchester W...
West Harrison, NY
-
Roy Kelley
Gaithersburg, MD
564,720
Yes, this is stupid. And, now even more people are asking these stupid q's. I hope they fix this by Monday.
-
Women of Westchester W...
West Harrison, NY
-
Roy Kelley
Gaithersburg, MD
279,878
4,319,419
Well, it is still there....
Gaming it was, in the beginning. Now there are rules to that game.
-
Praful Thakkar
Andover, MA
2,015,081
519,139
Apparently, your question stimulated a whole gang of comments, Jay! With all these companies buying each other out, we are the little sheep that follow along.
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Roy Kelley
Gaithersburg, MD
2,015,081
Jon - put them in order and you can see them. Push on Show All Answers.
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Roy Kelley
Gaithersburg, MD
1,308,838
Jay Markanich ~ I thought I answered this question but I don't see it? Maybe it was deleted? If not, I'll try it again... I don't think general assumption work to well... And assuming that the Q&A section is not valuable because you feel there are those gaming hurts this section... If you see a question you don't like, so be it... But maybe there are those that will like it? Remember different strokes for different folks
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Roy Kelley
Gaithersburg, MD
2,015,081
Not sure what you mean Jon - that I am making assumptions? Or the many people who have had posts about the gaming going on?
AR saw what was happening and made changes. If someone asks dozens of irrelevant questions every day for days it might not be an assumption to think there is something there not related to questioning?
By the way, my legal name is Jon, spelled the right way!
Tammy - I am a late comer to this circumstance. I just posted my question about it in a way that got noticed.
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Roy Kelley
Gaithersburg, MD
305,560
I try and go to the unanswered ones to help kick it off and you are right, there are a few folks asking the same question in 5-6 different ways. LOL
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Roy Kelley
Gaithersburg, MD
1,308,838
Jay Markanich ~ I wish that folks would not assume so much, and instead look at each question and decided whether or not folks are gaming... I think the general assumptions are a bit too much and hurt the value of the Q&A section...
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Roy Kelley
Gaithersburg, MD
2,015,081
Thanks Kris. I'm one of these old guys who doesn't see my point total, and never check my standings. The points that I have are from consistent effort, over years, and nothing spectacular. I would be here still if there were no points.
However, if points are the most important thing then the whole site is full of non-contributory participants. And therefore watered down and not the original concept.
Still, to my thinking, points really are worthless!
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Roy Kelley
Gaithersburg, MD
3,164,294
I don't think it will go away and I think it's pretty stupid to be giving points for it. I think it could be useful for peer to peer questions and answers if t here were no points.
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Roy Kelley
Gaithersburg, MD
3,340,443
Wouldn't it be cool if there was more SEO and more consumers could find the place they went for questions from local and national real estate folks than talking to ourselves...and the point is...the points...I guess ! grrr
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Roy Kelley
Gaithersburg, MD
1,280,748
Jay~ I really like the Q&A feature, however I agree that there are folks "gaming the system" and asking just plain ridiculous questions. I've asked 4 legitimate questions and I'm getting very little response. I'm very disappointed. The "gamers" are ruining it for the rest of us!
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Roy Kelley
Gaithersburg, MD
2,224,473
I'm wondering that, too. There are some people really taking advantage and posting tons of questions that I think are very basic and there just for the points.
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Roy Kelley
Gaithersburg, MD
2,015,081
Yepper Cindy. Hence my word "silly."
Bill - as always, follow the money.
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Roy Kelley
Gaithersburg, MD
599,274
In fact, this would help the moderators screen out the "point grabbers" by limiting questions that pertain to the topic. Any question that does not apply to a topic could be flagged by users. Get a certain number of flags and the moderators wipe it out as "unuseful" to the community and no points awarded!
Like other message boards, they could create a category specifically for people to share their politics, interest in collecting bottle caps, or selling their business but they wouldn't be awarded points for those posts. It would keep them to a minimum and keep me from having to screen through them.
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Roy Kelley
Gaithersburg, MD
564,720
Yes, I know...I've been there. I guess if they had cell phones back then, we would know who said what...and of course GPS to correctly identify the location. Oh, and this stupid thing mixes up the order of the comments, so it's sometime challenging to follow the stream.
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Roy Kelley
Gaithersburg, MD
2,817,671
Oh actually, there is some debate on who said it. See this link: Who said, "Don't fire till you see the whites of their eyes?"
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Roy Kelley
Gaithersburg, MD
2,817,671
oops. I had the battle right (in my head), but wrong person - William Prescott.
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Roy Kelley
Gaithersburg, MD
1,782,182
I think a quick fix would be to limit the questions per day. I hope they don't make me break out my list of stupid questions here Jay Markanich .
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Roy Kelley
Gaithersburg, MD
3,071,489
4,800,082
1,622,432
Answers, questions, blog posts~ do you really want to find some logic and rules here, on AR?
:)
2,015,081
The answers come up in screwy order.
I am not sure, but I don't think I've ever deleted a comment...
1,308,838
Jay Markanich ~ thanks for the insight! I am glad that my comments still stand and did not get deleted
7,836,431