Posted on 01/22/2010 6:32:30 AM PST by CharlesWayneCT
I'm writing to address a problem of increasing scope -- duplicate threads. Let me be clear: I'm not talking about the rare threads that are blessed by management, and are duplicated because of their critical importance. I'm talking about the everyday duplication of the same story over and over again.
There are several reasons I see for us getting duplicate threads:
This is BAD, for three reasons:
What good are duplicate threads? i've heard it argued that it helps "get the story out". But that presumes that Freepers aren't smart enough to be able to find stories if they aren't on the front page. Plus, it is self-defeating, because to the degree stories NOT on the front page are lost, posting the same story multiple times bumps more different stories off the front page.
Anyway, we have breaking news sidebar for stories deemed important by the moderators. We don't need to duplicate threads in general to get real important news out.
Are there any good reasons for duplicate threads? Well, the freepathon is a good use of duplicate threads, because it does bring it back up top regularly to remind people. But that is a special case, and as I said, I'm not talking about the rare duplicates made and blessed by the site.
I've been thinking this for a while, but it came to a head in the past few weeks, and was made clearer to me first when I tried to find a couple of posts from 2008 and saw how much easier it was to find things then, when there were fewer duplicate threads, than when I tried to find a comment from a month ago.
So, what can we do about it? Well, I know that at some level, this is a moderator issue. THe moderators could, at any time, lock and even delete duplicate threads. I realise that since they are not doing so, it might mean they are happy with duplicates, and therefore I am at cross-purposes with the powers-that-be.
But I don't think so, I think instead the mods are too busy with more important things.
I think that freepers can police ourselves. If enough of us challenged duplicates, we could put a stop to it.
I had some suggestions of ways we can help:
A special point about blog duplicates. I specifically note blogs that essentially find a video, or an article, post the video or article to their blog, and then link the blog here, adding absolutely no value.
But this really also covers blogs that make cursory comments about single articles. Because in the end, that's what Freepers do when they post an article -- they put the article in the body, and their comments on the article in the 1st comment.
So FreeRepublic does NOT need a blogger to post a link to their blog in order to see the blogger comments. The blogger could simply paste their comments into the comments of the thread discussing the news story, so they would be part of the discussion.
The blogs that are valuable are those that find links to several articles and pull a story together from it, or which are movers and shakers whose opinions are themselves considered newsworthy.
But this isn't a vanity about bloggers, which is why I confined my list above to bloggers who provide no value-add to their posts, and are just trying to generate blog hits for their google ad revenue.
That is what I am doing, trying to encourage the blog posters to instead take part in existing discussions.
I don't jump down the throats of bloggers the first time they post, I try to tell them where the real discussion is, if there is one, and encourage them to post their blog comments as full comments, with links to their blog so we can check them out.
I certainly don't want to chase bloggers away. I'm a blogger.
LOL
Who’s offended? Welcome to FR.
Bloggers that post a one paragraph thought on a story that has already been posted on FR add nothing of value.
If they break a story, that is an entirely different matter.
I strongly advise everyone to read their instructions which were very clearly put forth last year.
The welcome wagon didn’t last long as I remember it and became a contentious posting when used.
Bloggers are more than welcome and are becoming major players as the admin mods pointed out. But what is wrong with them tagging their info to an already existing thread on the topic, especially if they don’t really add to the info already presented?
You’ll find bloggers posting their info and never commenting on the story. Hit and run bloggers looking for hits back to their blog.
FR has grown so much from it’s beginnings that it takes a major effort by Jim and crew to keep it up and running. I’m sure they’ve thought about these issues and would implement changes if they could. But major changes such as pre-approving threads would take a major effort and probably isn’t viable at the present time. Thus the need for FR users to be more alert to helping their fellow users. jmo.
A group did that for the FLDS compound raid, they had a daily thread and posted links to news articles. It kept the discussion focused, and in one place, and I think it was a great way to foster discussion in the community, instead of dozens of threads.
Anyway, I've got lots of pings from my posting the link to the Admin Moderator posting, so I must be utterly mistaken, I had NO idea that what was set forth in that long posting no longer applies.
I searched before I posted, but didn't see any other threads from Admin Mod about bloggers.
Take care, and thanks for letting me know that I didn't offend you.
Why did you send that to me?
Giggety!
Yes ma’m, I read it.
IF this is so, I wonder where they are being advised to do so?
It would be interesting to know.
Also, do you have any idea what kind of money that bloggers actually make from google ads, nowadays?
I thought I read that google ads are a mere pittance nowadays, that the ONLY way to make "real" money is to post videos on UTube.
That'a why I only rarely open up an messagethread which says stuff like, "SEE this V=I=D=E=0, it's sooo kEwL, go 2 UTube, n@w, do NOT pass go, gimme money!!!"
I never click on the video come-on threads as I've read that there are actually some UTube video posters who make hundreds of thousands of dollars over there, but I don't know who they are, I don't follow it closely.
But bloggers trying to get "hits" to their blogs, they aren't making more than a pittance few bucks a month, I'm certain I've read that several times this past half year.
...THREAD COP. Wednesdays at 9 on Logo.
However, I have now written your name down dmana, and I sincerely promise you that I will NEVER post anything whatsoever, not anything whatsoever, no matter what it is about will I post anything to you EVER again. So not to worry!!
It’d be nice to have a duplicate button that auto adds “duplicate thread” to the keywords for a post, but there would be some room for abuse. Perhaps a citation to the original thread as a requirement would fix that, I don’t know...
I haven't been able to find any update on it, but perhaps my search skills are really super lousy. I try to avoid blog postings, but when there is BIG news, they are seemingly unavoidable.
I wonder if they irk Jim and the mods, too.
I’m giving this one a rest HP. I’ve never been banned here in six years (maybe close) nor have I given any Moderator advice. I plan on keeping it that way. They have an entire army of Viking Kitties as a back up and frankly I surrendered years ago.
Chill out. Jeez.
Good by.
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