What happened to the welcome emails - or are they being ignored?

Hello, Diana. Something certainly needs to be done. I thought I was imagining there were more, but apparently not, as others are noticing it. I don't mind losing the odd cent or two with a deleted post, but I'm doing a lot of editing work and other writing at the moment, so I can only manage an hour or so a day here at the moment. Much as I like to help other users, I also like to keep in touch with my friends. I think the only way around this is to say that new users have to respond to so many posts before they can start their own discussions - say 50. At least then they'd have an idea what goes on here, and it would discourage the serial discussion posters.

That was suggested on Alice's discussion but it was not appreciated Something MUST be done or the quality here will soon be non-existent. All I am getting today is notifiaction after notification because I have been advising users in many interestes about where to read and where to find the info they are posting discussions about and those that are spamming I am disappointed, totally disappointed by what I am seeing! Not to mention the profiles that I have found with no activity and pages of friends. Something very suspicious there yet again I have already sent a 'contact' about that too. I have time to be here but I am not getting around to posting again as there is piles of 'helping' to be done...

I very much agree with the 'responses before discussions' idea, however it's implemented. There are several ways - just four come to mind immediately: (1) New users cannot start a discussion until they have reached a certain User Rating. (2) New users cannot start a discussion until they have earned $0.50 (3) No user can start a discussion until they have responded or commented on, say 5 others. (4) Starting a discussion costs you $0.01 (or whatever) but can earn it back (plus a bit, perhaps) if it gets at least (n number) of 'quality' responses.(Details would have to be left to speculation, as the details of our earnings are but it would give the mathematician/programmers joy to devise a system for it which would be immaculate!). The idea would be that, though it costs you to start a discussion, that amount would be more than earned back if certain criteria (based on 'quality', of course) were met.

I don't blame them for saying that Mylot is a scam site as they are ignorant and do not know they have stepped into a landmine when they broke the rules here. Ignorance excuses no man. It is their own foolishness for not getting acquainted with basic rules of this site before starting off.

Hello, Zandi. I agree with what you say. It's too easy to delete emails without reading them, and that's what seems to be happening. As you say, MyLot is so well regulated, they waste everyone's time, including their own, by posting sure fire deletions, then they go around saying MyLot is a scam site, which we all know is untrue.

As usual, Zandi, you're right. I like Owlwing's ideas, in box 1. However, it is silly not to learn how a site works before you use it, particularly if you want to earn money from it. I would never just join a site and dive in - I always look at guidelines, FAQs and forums first.

I agree that, if you try to be helpful, you either get abused or ignored or apologised to profusely (only for that person to go on and abuse the system again, very often). More and more I am inclined to report without even leaving a response or even tagging. Tags were one way in which I could determine how accurately I interpreted the Guidelines (by checking, from time to time, which of the ones I had tagged had NOT been deleted by Admin). I also saw that leaving a 'reported' tag ought to warn other users not to respond. It doesn't always work that way, however, and my judgement is not MyLot/GoAskAlice's (of course). It would be useful if a discussion could have a 'pending Admin's approval' yellow flag (triggered by a report). Discussions that hadn't been reported would not have a flag at all That would mean that: 1) people would know that it had been reported and might be removed for a violation. 2) it would save people from reporting it again (and thus cluttering the system unnecessarily) 3) If the flag were changed to 'approved (green)', we would KNOW that the discussion had been viewed and checked as OK by a human. 4) This could also be applied to historical discussions, many of which either appear to be or blatantly are violations.

Hello, Owlwings. Yes, I tend to just report these days more often than not, especially if I see repeat offenders doing the same things over and over again. I like the flagging idea - why haven't admin offered you a job? Alice - look at Owlwings' ideas here - he talks a lot of sense!

Hello, BlueAngel. The problem with emails is, they can be deleted without even reading them. I bypass them myself, because my time here is limited at the moment, and in many cases, they either ignore the advice or you get verbal abuse for trying to point them in the right direction.

Hello, Dawn. Yes, I think you're probably right. I like the ideasOwlwings put forward in box 1. I think the only way to maintain quality on here is to try to prevent the candidates for deletion being posted in the first place, as the wholesale deletion we seem to be getting at the moment only serves to discourage people who make genuine mistakes, rather than those who just ignore the guidelines and the advice of other members.

I have seen it Sandra. Thanks.

Hello, Neil. Alice respondedin box 7 with a copy of the welcome email. It's good, but as Alice says, you can't force people to read them. I've stopped responding lately, because my time on here is limited at the moment, and I want to spend it in discussions with my friends, not trying to help someone who will probably just ignore my advice anyway.

Hello, Hatley. I've been on some of the same discussions as you, and we've had some abuse between us. If you're losing money by helping, I don't blame you for not doing it any more. I can't spend as much time here as I'd like, so I'm prioritising my friends, as they are the ones who post the interesting discussions. I think if the emails are going out, they're being ignored.

Hello, Snoopyfan. The welcome emails only came in as part of the MyLot upgrade a few weeks ago. If you're interested, Alice has copied it into box 7 above. If only new members read it, they would make a much better start on here. However, the rash of discussions about things which are in the guidelines and FAQs shows that people just don't bother to check out the site before they start posting. The sad thing is, if they took the time to find out how MyLot works, they'd have more fun here and earn more money.