An appeal to mylot.

India
April 1, 2012 9:51am CST
We all know that if any question on mylot is deleted by the authority for violation of its terms and conditions, all answers to that particular question are deleted, thus making no use of the hard work and labour of the mylotters who responded to it. But this practice on the part of mylot is not taken immediately after posting of that particular question but it takes time and so in the mean time some mylotters might have already posted their responses which thus get deleted very soon. Sometimes a mylotter responds in spite of knowing that the original question might get deleted but being unable to resist temptation, he responds and receives a notification from mylot that his answer has been deleted as the original question has been deleted. I myself did it on several occasions. Sometimes it gets deleted but not always. In some cases a question seemed to fulfill all the terms and conditions of mylot but it got deleted to my utter surprise and automatically all answers to it were deleted. It thus caused unnecessary wastage of time and energy of all the mylotters who responded to such a question. So I think mylot should sort out ways to save the mylotters whose combined efforts have made it possible for mylot to reach such a high level from this undesired problem or harassment whatever it may be. One thing that the authority of mylot can do as a permanent solution is whenever a mylotter starts a new discussion, it would first be scrutinized by mylot before final publication for discussions among mylotters, to see if it violates its terms and conditions. If the authority of mylot is fully satisfied that it has fulfilled its terms and conditions, then only it would be made open for discussions, otherwise, it would be deleted And for this purpose, mylot would take a maximum period of 24 hours. Under such conditions, a mylotter can work more freely than he is doing now and obviously the standard of his work would be much higher than now under the existing conditions. So I think it would be better for all of us if mylot considers my appeal seriously.
2 people like this
11 responses
1 Apr 12
So instead of Alex (the only Admin) checking through a couple of dozen reported posts, he'd have to personally read and moderate several hundred or thousand posts every day? That'd work. But it'd need an awful lot of admins and we'd all have to pay for them, so our earnings would bottom out completely. Or myLot would just stop paying to keep all the extra staff around. A small loss of effort for deleted discussions and higher earnings per legitimate response are preferable, IMHO.
2 people like this
@mysdianait (66009)
• Italy
1 Apr 12
Agreed!
• India
3 Apr 12
I cannot understand why you are saying so. How they delete a question? I think obviously before any deletion, they go through it and see whether it fulfills the conditions of mylot. So where is the problem, if it is scrutinized before publication of the article?
4 Apr 12
How many discussions get posted every day? I'm guessing several hundred, if not over a thousand. As it stands, Admin only has to check the ones that are reported by myLotters (plus any others he has time to look at or notices because of their titles or whatever). If every single one has to be looked at before it's posted, that's a significant difference in workload. And a consequent delay in seeing the discussions posted.
• India
1 Apr 12
your suggestion is appreciated however, that would increase the work load of the admin and then that itself might need an approval. i have another suggestion. we have seen a general increase in the mylotters and i think at times the new bees in a hurry to earn do not read the faqs and violates the rules for the discussion and then the deletion happens. I would say penalty always work....something like if three discussions deleted then some cents deleted. New bees would ensure that read the faqs and post quality discussion. and also over a period of time the overall quality of the mylot discussion would increase.
@mysdianait (66009)
• Italy
1 Apr 12
It is not only the new users who post topics which are later deleted. Among the older users are those who think that reaching 500 gives them the privilege of plagiarising. Of course those topics are removed (along with their account). When is a user no longer 'new' anyway?
@CTHanum (8234)
• Malaysia
3 Apr 12
Hi didi! I felt the same before but now I am fine with it which is my responds get deleted due to the OP discussion which is violate the guidelines. It is our responsibility and it on our own risk to answer and comment in every discussion we're in. Mylot admin does not have to get through and check every discussion as it will take time. So with the guidelines available they just need to read and if they ever make the mistake they should not blame the admin. I have my own discussion get deleted by admin a few times and I can't count how many times my responds get deleted because of other members' discussions but I don't blame anyone. Anyway there is nothing wrong with everything you said above...it is a nice suggestion but I am okay with the way it is now...(^^)
@inertia4 (27961)
• United States
2 Apr 12
With all the members on MyLot already that would be a daunting task. And besides of they were to implement s system like that it would be automated anyway. The system would be set up to check a post and decide to publish it or not. And that would cost money to do. Now as I see it, that's why there are guidelines here on MyLot or on any other site. For you, the poster to follow and adhere to. So, maybe the poster should really learn and understand the guidelines.
@bostonphil (4459)
• United States
4 Apr 12
I prefer that the system stay just the way it is even though I sometimes have my responses and comments deleted because the question or discussion got deleted. I was surprised, and maybe even shocked, yesterday when i got three (count them three) notifications from mylot informing me that my response or comment had been deleted because the question or discussion was deleted. I had an idea why one or two discussions / questions were deleted but three .... But even given my disappointments and a loss of a little time, I would prefer that things stay just as they are. I agree with some of your other responders that it would be too much work taking too much time for mylot administrative staff. I would expect that there are thousands of new discussions posted every day. If you look under new or recent discussions, that will give you an idea of how often a new discussion is posted.
@beenice2 (2967)
• Sackville, New Brunswick
1 Apr 12
I wonder who in charge of all those decision, how old they are, some people at a certain age have a weird view of what you should post and not post even if it is well written and have good intention in it, it sure not encouraging to work long term for mylot in those cases. They deleted some of mine to not long ago, and all that it does is hurts of feeling that you have worked for nothing, big time, and feel to tell them off, I don't think that I will be a long term myloter.
@mysdianait (66009)
• Italy
1 Apr 12
These are the Guidelines: http://www.mylot.com/o/guidelines.aspx By being aware of them you can be almost certain where to post your responses without losing them. However, in the TermsofUse, which we all agreed to when we registered. myLot tell us: "myLot reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to reject, refuse to post or remove any posting by you, or to restrict, suspend, or terminate your access to all or any part of the myLot services at any time, for any or no reason, with or without prior notice, and without liability." http://www.mylot.com/o/terms.aspx
• Canada
1 Apr 12
What you are talking about is called "queued moderation" and it is definitely used in some forums. Often, you will find queued moderation on sites that are frequented by kids and teens. The moderation can be fully queued -- meaning every single post made has to be reviewed by a mod before it "goes live" on the site or there is partial moderation that generally works with a word filter -- if any of the "forbidden" words show up in a post, that post gets placed in the queue and a mod will review it for context before it can go live. Queued moderation, either full or partial, is not only used to get rid of "bad words," as many people believe -- it is also used to try to cut down on the amount of spam that sites experience. However, as pretty much everyone has said so far, these types of moderation are expensive. Some sites have mods that work in shifts around the clock so as not to slow down their communities that have heavy posting volume. Professional moderators don't work for free and, when volunteers moderate, they generally will not have any desire to put in the crazy hours (nights, weekends, holidays, etc...) that are required in the job. Lots of companies simply do not have a budget allotted for that level of moderation... and the ones I've worked with were not giving their members the opportunity to earn like myLot does. So, for myLot, it would be an even greater expense.
@stealthy (8181)
• United States
1 Apr 12
As others have pointed out it is not practical for the admins. to review every discussion before it is posted. I do take issue with the deletion of some discussions to which I had responded to in good faith and which I just could not see how they violated the guidelines. These have usually been discussions in which an opinion is sought which to me should be allowed and, also, to me is not a poll which the guidelines do not allow. These and others didn't seem to violate the guidelines anymore than every discussion under the Interest Group Questions and Answers would violate them. In other words if the discussions I am talking about are deleted, then the entire Interest Questions and Answers should be deleted.
@celticeagle (157573)
• Boise, Idaho
1 Apr 12
I would really dislike it if Mylot changed its rules and went by your idea. I don't think Mylot needs to sort out ways at all. Members need to be aware of what goes and what doesn't. Everyone who has been here very long should know that poll-type or questions don't go and a member's experiences with Mylot doesn't either. If members would realize this and go by the rules set down there wouldn't be a problem. If 'the authority' went by your proposal it would take longer for our work to actually be added up and it could take longer for us to get payed. Longer than it already does. Lets not rock the boat and be happy with the way things work.
@JohnRok1 (2051)
2 Apr 12
One possible alleviation of this problem may not cost too much (in any terms): That is for mylot, when it sends its email saying that a post has been deleted, to include in the email the text of the person's post that has been deleted. This would not help sub 500s, who cannot paste (actually, we can sometimes paste very short strings of characters, which is useful for accurately transferring website addresses to our posts - thank you, mylot, for this sensible exception to general policy) - but then we know that one day we will be super500s and no longer subject to this restriction. Others, however, would then have the opportunity to consider whether to find another relevant discussion in which to paste their deleted post, to start a new discussion with it, or to just leave the matter be.
• Valdosta, Georgia
1 Apr 12
I understand what your saying, it does get frustrating sometimes but when I realized from this discussion that theres only one person checking discussions, that adds a ton of work for them. If I am really concerned with the few cents, if I even think the discussion will get deleted I don't answer it. I have more fun here than anything so I dont worry about the few cents lost. =)