Flouting the Rules
Today I mentioned the Wealthy Affiliate blogging rules to a new member. She was grateful that I made her aware of the rules but in a private message made a very pertinent comment:
"I see lots of folks posting all sorts of things from private issues to whatever and I am confused..."
It appears that one of our members, who should know better, has been encouraging her to post links to YouTube videos.
This is wrong on several counts.
The subject of the posts is off-topic, it's niche related and it's encouraging people to leave the WA platform to go watch a video.
If any of the ambassadors or experienced members are flouting the rules then they are setting a very poor example.
In my opinion it's time to stop!
Stop breaking the rules and stop encouraging new members to break the rules.
We don't need your "thought/poem/song/quote/history lesson for the day". And, even more, we don't need your daily trio of off-topic blogs.
The rules are in place to protect all members of Wealthy Affiliate and they apply to everyone not "everyone else".
The Full Wealthy Affiliate Rules
Please share your thoughts in the comments below.
Recent Comments
438
Well said some posts are just wasting my precious time trying to get my website up and running......I need people to share experiences that can help me succeed and motivate me to keep trying....so my question to you and the WA community...IS it safe to call it out when I believe a post/blog is not relevant to the WA business??
Gina,
Try and think "GIVE" and "TAKE". Great communities depend upon both from each of us.
Richard
Nice one, Marion.
Although not spam, there is an awful lot of completely irrelevant rubbish posted up daily, such as you mention above. i like to interact in the community as well as do the training and it's a nightmare having to delete dozens if not hundreds of items in my inbox daily before I can filter out the posts I want to read and comment on. Sometimes, I'm not able to interact because of the time I've had to take to do all the deleting and by the time I've done it, I need to get on with some training.
You've articulated my own feelings here very well, and probably those of many others - thank you.
Rich
Ah just read the rules Marion and I think that the horse has well and truly bolted with the regards of that one. Hopefully, things will settle down and we will get back to thinking about creating, maintaining and expanding our online businesses, or at the very least helping each other to do this. Just popped into to see some success posts for a little motivation I see everything but. The value is being eroded at the moment.
This is a Quote from Kyle... after I asked him a question about content in a blog I was considering.
We don't allow anything that is a hate blog or a race bait blog, but you can definitely blog about world or US issues that you see fit, as long as it isn't a hate blog.
This is my guide.
I would like to have seen that in context as it seems slightly different to the published rules about keeping blogs "on topic" and "off politics".
Kyle's answer there is not about content on the WA platform, it's in regard to members own websites, WA doesn't allow hate sites, adult content, etc.
I'll check in with Kyle, maybe that's changed, as in the past he's said pornography isn't permitted on WA hosting.
I've heard of people having "sex toys" as a niche. I don't think porn would be OK though.
yes, I think #3 in the rules may have evolved, and within reason it was interesting but then exploded and went wild
I can see room for positive evolution, for example if someone introduced something then showed us in all their following blogs in that particular series how they became an authority in that subject on google and we could type in the keyword and find them page 1 ...ideal world :)
No, that's fine, Amazon sells sex toys!! It's content that's liable to get the server corralled by search engines or banned in certain countries, as everyone on that server is sharing the same IP address. For example, a hate site getting the IP address blocked in some jurisdictions will end up getting all the other sites hosted on that server blocked too.
There was a lady in Canada who refused for child to be seen by anything but a white doctor. I had never seen anything like that. In fact there were several of these things regarding Canada and things that I really am not going to go into now. I decided not to post it because I really did not care I was just surprised.
And by the way I bought an Amazon plug-in that I think I can give you to try out. I trust you and obviously I have an unlimited license for it . It's kind of like a limited version of the Astore. But it works quite well. At least my programmers like it. I really don't get to do a lot of Hands-On stuff anymore. I kind of miss it but we have gotten bigger and I have to focus on feeding everybody.
Thank you Marion, things have been getting strange alright and that was an excellent example of how it looks not only to the new people but some of us older members who are struggling with the amount of crazy stuff going on.
It's the wild west in here at the moment...and there is no 'if' about who is involved either, ambassadors and wannabes should be made do a training course, and be held accountable for their actions even moreso.
Yeah, the link to the rules is visible every time we post a blog. The problem seems to be that people read the rules then totally ignore them. Then they get away with it a couple of times and before we know where we are it's chaos.
I set up a group within a closed fb group dedicated to a particular topic recently but then it got filled up with people just looking for a place to hang out and do their own thing...
We had a lot of freedom to blog stuff in WA and it worked in moderation, but it's not moderation at the moment, people are using the platform for self promotion in ever creative ways...some of that may be addressed when they update their rank algorithm here, just as is happening with google...
The link to the rules is a bit small though and not as visible as it could be. I know that I missed it the first several times I wrote something.
How about having them pop up the first few times someone blogs, with an "I have read and I agree" box needing to be checked before proceeding?
Thank you Marion. You are doing a good job. I'm on board to support your action.
It's written above: We don't need your "thought/....."
Then at the end I see "Please share your thoughts..."
My opinion/ My thoughts:
1. We are all Ambassadors of WA, specially members who have a boot camp website.
2. The "Ambassador" title is given by the WA ranking algorithm, whether you want the title or not.
3. An "Ambassador" is a member like any other member. SO RESPONSIBILITY IS FOR ALL.
4. An "Ambassador" is not paid by Wealthy Affiliate and as such has NO OBLIGATION towards any other member. However, we always do our very best to help others.
5. According to me "Thoughts", "quotes" etc. are NOT IRRELEVANT here. I see in them a great source of INSPIRATION.
6. I FULLY agree with the 5 rules above.
7. I always delete comments (after reporting as spam) that contain external links. If I'm not sure I always send Kyle PM to ask for clarifications.
My Humble Suggestion to Wealthy Affiliate Administrators:
1. Please remove the "Ambassador" title from top 25 members.
2. Give the top 25 members the title "Top 25"
3. Create a new badge, the "Ambassador" badge for all members who have a boot camp website.
Happy to have been given the opportunity to share my thoughts.
I wish you all the best, as always.
Usiba.
I was referring to the "thought for the day" posts that proliferate. We don't need them clogging up our mail boxes.
Thank you Marion,
It is very irritating to have my inbox filled with nonsense when I am new and would prefer WA topics to help my WA business. It is simply a waste of my time with the result, I delete, delete, delete and only occasionally do I find a post that actually helps!
Most of the silent majority here would agree with you Althea. Thanks for sharing your perspective as a new member.
couldn't agree with you more Althea, I spend so much time deleting nonsense from my inbox, it's packed to the point other emails get buried and I sometimes miss them altogether. It has even made me unfollow a few members which makes me feel uncomfortable.
Sometimes it seems that posting a blog LINE or two is only done for the ranking...
I have actually opened a dedicated gmail address just for these emails. My normal email address was being drowned as you say. It is far better and less stressful having them all in one place. I spend a good part of my evening, sometimes late into the night reading, answering, thanking for help and follows etc. It is exhausting. So now any blog post that looks like it isn't WA business, I delete. I am sure I am missing a lot of interesting stuff, but we only have 24 hours in each day!
I totally agree. As I am deleting an inbox filled with irrelevance several times a day, I occasionally get sucked in by a blog title that sounds like it might be relevant and then ends of being a string of gifs. Time-consuming with little/no benefit to what I'm trying to build
What? Encouraging someone to post links to YouTube videos is so wrong! I hope someone said something to her.
I agree with the daily trio of off topic blogs! I see a fairly new Ambassador doing this among others. To me it's gaming the system. An Ambassador helps others with website issues etc, not post pictures and sayings just for the sake of posting.
As busy as Kyle is, I'm sure he must notice?
I think this post needs to be sent to all Ambassadors as a reminder of the rules through private message. Also to the ones who do the daily 3-5 repetitive posts.
Great and well needed post Marion, you spoke up for many of us.
Unfortunately there are many people who are trying to game the system. They soon drop off because they can't keep it up for too long. But in the meantime the damage has been done because they are leading by example.
What about sending this post to all Ambassadors at least. It's a start.
The damage can be turned around if Kyle would maybe step in and fix the Ambassador list according to the nature of the blog posts. What the topics are. Just by looking at them it's obvious who is helping like they are suppose to.
I've sent a message to the ambassador concerned with a link to this post. I hope he understands that what he has been doing is wrong.
I don't have the time to spend sending each person an individual message. I just hope the people concerned read this post.
Just to clarify, the offender here isn't actually an Ambassador. Marion had a little mix up :) Everything's gonna be ok lol.
Hi Eric, yes I know it's all good :)
Things can get misunderstood at times.
Everyone needs to chill.
Now, I'm thinking that maybe my blog post about Amazon going to the dogs might not have been as appropriate as I thought.
As I was researching how to monetize Prime Day, I came across some error pages that were hilarious to me and gave me a new idea: create fun 404 error pages. I decided to share it with the community.
Now, I'm curious if I was "flouting" the rules. I'd love some feedback form an Ambassador. Is it appropriate? Amazon has Gone to the Dogs Then, I shared the post on social media using my affiliate link to the post. It turns out that I got some clicks from the content.
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Hi, Marion...
A reminder like this needs to be posted every once in a while from what I have seen over 2 years...Yours is a good one...
It brings up a point I want to add here as I think it may affect a lot of us...
There is a fine line sometimes of what may be considered promoting...I do know that at times gray areas come into play...i.e...
Some comments you reply to where you are asked to add your own observations, experience, or maybe are answering a direct question are some instances...
Here's an example...
I was just asked by a member (in a comment he made) a question about sourcing for e-commerce dropshippers and also whether or not I am setting up a dropshipping platform/similar...
In my answer, I described the dropshipping tool I use without naming it, as it is a paid tool, plus I am an affiliate...
There is another tool though that is free to sign up for, and that will provide some valuable FREE information...I am NOT an affiliate for that tool...I added in the website using 'dot' versus the actual complete link...
Also, since I was asked if we were setting up an e-commerce platform, I answered briefly what we are doing, but added no links, etc. (right now it is in beta stage anyway)...
In this case, some might say I am promoting - but in actuality, I am answering the questions...
If someone really wants more information, they can ask via other means (i.e. Facebook, my store(s) or my MMOL websites - some links are posted on my profile page)...
I would be curious as to how you handle this, and what your advice might be - I certainly do not want to abuse the platform here nor get dinged...
There are questions like this posted here either on their own or in comments/replies to comments where I see the gray areas coming into play...
As long as the answers are not blatantly promoting something a member will get paid a commission for, passing on knowledge can be helpful to others...The exact nature of the information COULD get you into trouble if not careful...
Cheers!
Dave : )
What Marion has said is absolutely spot on! I must add that your posts are generally very informative, non spamming and non marketing type which provide a significant level of information to anyone interested.
In my opinion you have nothing to be concerned about but I do get your point.
Kyle has chimed in on this thread. Please have a look at his comment at the top.
Yes Marion, I saw this...It seems that they are moving in the direction some of us are thinking in regards to a few points from this post...A good thing! Cheers! Dave : )