An experiment with no interest or tags  

I am on your list
That was where I was expecting any responses to come from.
Thanks for responding and not tagging. Hopefully something useful should come out of this as the tagging experiments were pretty good and my earnings went up as a result

I have wondered occasionally when tagging my own discussions; if I tag more and accurately, then surely it means more people would be likely to read and reply to me? So do you reckon you'll earn better if you tag your discussions?

I dont really see the point of tagging discussions. You dont see them unless you are in the discussion. Though you can search thru them at the top but other then that they are useless.

DJ-I think I will prove you wrong soon but time will tell. I'm 99% sure that tagging will massively help discussion exposure and as a consequence it should improve earnings.

http://www.mylot.com/w/discussions/2038816.aspx

Check out response 2 Gorjess as you might find it useful.

Lots of information through that link thanks.. A lot of it could be very accurate but also all the theories regarding tags might be completely wrong, and tags might actually be as simple as just typing a tag.

Possibly but I don't think so.

Thanks for responding to this 'non discussion' as I do hope to write a more useful discussion as a result of my findings on this and my other tagging and title experiments. This site is far more technical than it may appear and there are features in it which people aren't really aware of or don't use to there full potential.

The database system used is quite complex and, you are right, far more goes on behind the scenes than most people imagine, especially in targeting advertising.

You dont check your friends discussions? Thats one of the main and only ones I do lol. Though if something catches my eye in the others then I check them.

DJ-I think that everyone has a different routine when using this site and thats why I'm trying to find a way of reaching more people with the help of good tagging.
owlwings-I had wondered about targeted advertising as I was sure that this was being used already on this site and am sure it will be on most sites soon. Google already use it massively and BT in the UK are looking at bringing in a fairly controversial system called Phorm.

I get forex adverts mainly,what do other people get ?

I have long believed that the Interests you select have an influence on the ads you see. I am getting ads for Glasses Direct at the moment. Whether that is because one of my Interests is 'Reading', though, I can't say - but it would seem logical. I tend not to pay attention to ads much but those I have seen tend to know where in the world I am and the interests I have selected.

Tags certainly affect what other discussions are listed alongside or at the bottom of a discussion as you can often see by looking at what discussions are listed and then adding a new tag to a discussion.

I wonder if it is just the interests you select or if they have a more complex system that can update itself and focus the advertising by reviewing where you post the most ?

I'm getting money making and software adverts with the odd dating ad thrown in.

This type of advertising is attracting alot of controversy from certain areas but it's mainly due to what the ISPs are doing with users activity data. Within a site I see no problem with it and it certainly makes commercial sense.
I've certainly learnt alot about this site today and it has gone up in my estimation.

PS-Thanks for accepting my friend request.

Thanks for asking ... I just hadn't gotten round to inviting you myself, LOL

Now I have that devilishly annoying and tasteless flashing ad that tells me that I'm the 999,999th visitor (to what?)!

The tags are sorted or weighted according to how many people put in the same one. I have noticed this when adding certain tags to discussions where someone has already tagged with the same word. If it's a word that was, say, third in the list, it becomes first when you use it again.

That has a number of implications both on the relative importance of a tag and also would tend to bear out the theory that MyLot can see who tagged a discussion and with what. I suspect that a user's activity is tracked far more than most people realise.

The 9999 ad is everywhere on the internet and is annoying to the Nth degree!!
I agree with the user tracing which I find really interesting and the significance of the tags is massively underestimated. There is a link on a response further up to a discussion where another member has a good theory about tags which is very interesting.
I'm trying to come up with a guide to how to post a discussion in the most productive way. I'm testing things first to avoid giving people misleading ideas. I don't think doing this is against the rules but I am going to word it extremely carefully !!

You might consider writing it as a blog or an ebook. It might possibly be too long for a 'discussion' and there is a critical length for discussion topics beyond which most people won't read or respond to. If you put it in a permanent place, you could refer people to it on a regular basis.

Excellent idea, thanks

the flashing ad for the 999,999th visitor ... i'd like to know what it's for too, but never click on it as I'm in too much of a hurry to get away from it's annoying flashing
What happens when you put a number in the tags? I've did that before and found it went to the front, was that because there were few tags?
I rarely look in interests too, notifications and tabs are easier to get to.

I never really look in interests anymore and stick to friends started or new and then no responses.
Haven't a clue about a number or symbol as a tag as I haven't tried it. I will try and see if it works. It could be because there weren't any tags already on the discussion you tagged or lots of other people tagged with the same number and yours made that tag go to the front.

I can still tag this discussion for some reason and tagged with 76 then and will again.It didn't go to the front the first time so we shall see what happens this time.

@ Alice: The 999,999th ad is for a Bingo site (I clicked it to see, which hopefully earned MyLot a dollop of cream, LOL). I have noticed an increase in ads for gambling sites since the 'economic downturn'. I wonder what that is indicative of.

People throwing good money after bad

lol@ mike

owlwings: ahhh bingo, I thought they were on the increase because of the bingo halls closing due to lack of patrons from the no-smoking ban, maybe that could be a part of it too though right.. or
erm.... poverty? stupidity? desperation?

Thanks for responding and for letting me know where you saw this. I'm doing a few experiments on the workings of the site which I will post as a discussion when I have finished.

Basically you probably wouldn't have found this if it was a bit older and wasn't getting recent responses on it. Everyone has a different routine when using mylot so it's important to maximise the ammount of people who can see your discussion. One way of severely limiting responses is to get a mature content tag.

Actually there is one to see where you have responded. If you go to add content on the top right, and choose the discussions sortie, there is a whole list of things you can add.

There really are loads of features in this site that people don't fully utilise. I think I have a good idea about alot of them and hope that people may find some of my observations useful when I put them together into a discussion. There is someone else who has put more work into the tagging side of things than me so I will probably wait until that discussion has been posted before posting mine as I will be poaching ideas otherwise.

Yeah there is, though I accidently have like 4 sorties for messages, and need to get it back to one, but it wont let you just delete them. Need to reset the whole page, but god I dont feel like doing that again lol.

I have left my profile alone but think I need to add a few features to it soon

Yes Darkjedi, i've used that too when only responded to a few discussions a day; however, if I come across older discussions, some months back - I'm still pager throughing to see if that's on my list or not. It's lazy more on my part, and I admit it - just wish there were a simplier way to see if you've responded or not.

That proves one way of increasing earnings is having supportive friends. Thanks for the response. I'm really surprised at no tagging so far. Must be hard for people to resist.

Somebody has tagged in the last hour since you wrote that! A pity (but inevitable eventually)!

Ah! I read further down that it was you, Mike, LOL

I tagged it in the end as I was nearing 11 responses which is important as I was testing another members theory. It's in the link alot further up. It's to a discussion and not a rule breaking link as it's for information only.

I'm lost now

http://www.mylot.com/w/discussions/2038816.aspx

mysd's response to another discussion may explain what I was testing

I went there from the previous link mike thanks

Sorry if this pings your notifications I'm looking for legitimate places to comment so I can add more tags

no worries mike, at least my notifier is working

Oh god its going to be one of those kinds of discussions. I hit skip, and every time after I hit post it still comes up with the add or skip tags.

It's a pain sorry !!
I have noticed the d around,especially where people leave their tags empty

Hehe yeah, and now you know where it comes from lol.

Thanks for that. The recent discussions bit is important as I also think it will pop up there if you leave a few responses with no replys and wait until the discussion has lost momentum then post a good few comments. A good way of reviving a tired discussion if it's needed.

In a while as hijacking has already shown what it can do to a discussion. What has been mentioned by another member which I think is an excellent idea is collapsible threads. The only time hijacking is a pain is having to scroll miles looking for comments especially if you can't go straight there from your notifications.

Hmmm normally I was say yeah lets do it, with the skip button for submitting tags not working that would be annoying lol.

collapsible threads is a great idea!

i almost never submit tags anyway so it wouldn't bother me that much. if i do submit a tag, do i only have to do it once? and then after that it will skip it automatically?

When on your own discussion and if you have submitted tags it will skip that bit for commenting.I'm tagging this now.

It's skipping the tag option now.

It didn't then !!!
Maybe because I had more tag room ?

Try again !!

cannette,take no notice of me as I'm wrong. I was sure that there was a time when the tag option got skipped. Back to the drawing board

Yeah when you either put in a tag, or hit skip, its not supposed to come back up ever again, but some discussions it keeps coming up over and over again no matter what you do.

i'm trying it when i respond to other discussions. i'll let ya know what happens.

Is what I thought right then or is it one of those weird hit and miss things ? The similar discussions that this discussion is now grouped with are a bit varied but not as varied as I would have hoped although I used very closely related tags. Apparently I need to check after response 11 and see if the type of linked discussions gets varied. Everyone can tag now but avoid getting the mature content if possible.

well, (insert appropriate curse words here) thats my favorite tag!

I saw someone tagged it, then read that it was Mike...I was ready to hunt someone down and do evil things to their rating...

LOL @ do evil things to their rating

Experiment over thanks
I was right about the tag option skipping it just seems not to work on all discussions. I just commented on one of your responses in master of mylot and it skipped the tagging requirement so I don't know what's different here.

MYKL-what I said in another response was have you ever heard of a book called Captain Pugwash ?

One of my discussions was tagged to death, but it still gives me the option to add

I don't get that bit as some discussions of mine I can add tags and some I can't.Can you add to all of your own discussions or just some ? Haven't had an answer for that one yet and would really like to know.

I've only noticed it on the one discussion mike, one i created months ago , please let me know if and when you find out

I will but I can't work out the reason. Maybe it's just a glitch in the system or something.

there are alot of glitches in the system.

9

i thought it was hopeless.

10 soon

Thanks for the response. It should stay in recent whilst it's getting responded to. I will be trying out my theory that comments by myself will get my own conversation back into recent when responses dry up.

TAGS WELCOME NOW