I am not trying to be the bad guy. Im really not. But this problem is getting wy out of hand, and I've tried to be quiet about it but I cant handle it anymore. The reason I have this blog posted under every possible topic is becuase I do not want it to get lost in the shuffle because it is on a topic that affects everyone using this site. The problem is that a lot of people are over-blogging on here. People who have several entries a day dont bother me if they are legitimate entires; I am not going to give a definition of a legitimate entry, because its not worth debating. But what I cant stand is when people, I am not going to say names, post like 20 blogs in a row (okay that is somewhat exagerated, but you get the point). And if these were 20 legitimate blogs, that would okay too. But, they are usually not. They are ridiculous blogs that have nothing to do with the topics on this site. I know you can technically write about anything you want, but in some cases, blogs are getting to the point where it looks like something bloggers should be posting on their My Space rather than on here. I know almost everyone is blogging for scholarship money, heck I am too; Im not gonna lie. But the point of this site is also to discuss politics and real world issues and to be informed.
I am just starting to feel like people post just to get the 50 pts out of the post rather than actually have people read their stuff and give postive feedback or spur debate. If all you want is the scholarship and you are not here for discussion or a learning experience at all, I would be happy to point you in the direction of as many other scholarships as I can, because personally, although I would love to get a scholarship off of this site, that is not entirely why I am here, and I hope its not the reason others are either. To be blunt, its pointless for me to even post this, because almsot everytime I post anymore my posts get lost in the shuffle; the only way they ever get read is the time period they are in the recent posts box (or if they are chosen for the front page). But if the recent posts box is all from the same user, it is hard for anyone else to get reads either, and it is frequently like this. I am not adressing this soley for my sake, but also for the sake of other bloggers posts who are getting lost in the shuffle. For some people, this is not an issue because they were widely enough read before this problem started that they have a lot of people who subscribe to their blog, but for a lot of other people it is a problem. All I am asking is for bloggers to have some integrity.
Thanks for taking the time to read this,
Sorry for making a big deal out of this, but I could not take it anymore. IF you completely disagree with me than I have no problem with you saying so, but I would also hope there are others who share my view on this subject.
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Debatechick, you are my hero.
jujuman13
What an articulate young lady you are.
I agree that blogs should be about the issues that face us, but am likely to read any Blog that has as it's subject heading something that appeals to me.
Good point. So how does this scholarship thing work anyway? Is it simply the more blogs you post the better the chance or the more blogs you post that pertain to interesting issues gets you the scholarship?
You get 50 pts every time you post a blog. 10 pts for everytime you comment and 1 pt for every read your post gets (but if the same user views it 5 times, only one of their reads counts). So the quickest way to get points is to comment or post, not to get reads. People are posting ridiculous posts and picking up more points than those of us who get 500 reads on an entry just because they post so much.
See jarespond's comment below -- that pretty much sums up the best way to look at it.
Some people like to read or comment, but they need a little extra incentive to post. That was the original idea behind the 50 point bonus for posting. We agree that sometimes post things that would be better suited to MySpace or Xanga, but in the end those posts don't get a lot of hits.
In future contests we may change the point calculations, or we may exclude posts under a certain number of words from counting, but we can't change the rules midstream.
Hurrah! Glad to hear someone speak out about the blog-binge. I'm definitely hopeful for the scholarship, but given my slim chances I like to pretend I'm trying to do some legitimate journalism too--for which being read is a major incentive to write something worth reading.
How can we tell how many points we have?
I have no idea, I tried to count mine up once, but you have to take in the factor that reads only count once, and there is no way to know if you have 500 reads becasue 500 different people read it, or if it was because the same person checked for new comments 100 times, and you really only have 400 reads. I would love to know how too! But I can tell you who is winning by a light year just by observations.
Although I certainly share your concern, as someone who puts a lot of time and energy into the posts that I generate, I also feel that, in terms of the scholarship, such "spamming" won't turn out to be relevant in the end. Meaningless posts usually receive around 10-20 hits, whereas the average "solid" post is read between 50 and 200 times. This means that the typical "good" post is worth between 2x and 5x the value of a poor post. It is unlikely that someone who is simply spamming posts will have the will power to continue to do so for the extent of the contest, and you will simply do better than they will by attrition.
I would like to feel that way, but it takes 500 reads to get 500 points and 0nly 10 posts to get 500 pts. Sorry, but hardly anyone gets 500 reads on every post, while there are certian users that post 10 times as day! But I do agree that they will die out. In fact, I have noticed some avid posters who get a lot of reads disapprearing as well. I guess it is as much of a battle of popularity as it is skill and endurance, lol. Good luck!
That is so true. Atleast if you want to post something take the time to do the research and find something interesting. No one is saying that it has to be long.
Hear Hear! I've not been here long enough to be in the running for the scholarship, so it's really just the fun of the debate that's drawing me now...