Why User Ratings Go Down

@myLot (127)
Kansas City, Missouri
December 14, 2006 2:38pm CST
In preparation for this month’s earnings payout, we’ve undergone a massive “clean up” of older discussions, responses and comments that do not meet the myLot Community Guidelines. Basically, this allows us to reallocate earnings from the “bad” discussions to the “good” discussions. (The more spam we can get rid of, the more we can pay everybody else!) As we grow, we’ve become better at addressing low quality posts near the time they were generated (with your help, of course!) The issue is with older discussions from November and before. We’re nearly caught up with addressing these older discussions. As a result, many of you have noticed fluctuations in both your earnings and user rating. Most user’s earnings have either gone up or stayed the same. A small group of user’s earnings have gone down. If we delete an old discussion, this also causes the user rating to decrease for everybody who participated in that discussion. But the amended user rating won’t display until the next time that user creates a discussion, response or comment. Here’s an example: Let’s say myLot receives multiple “report abuse” notifications for user XYZ. Upon further manual review, we find that user XYZ has repeatedly violated the myLot Community Guidelines by copying and pasting other users’ contributions to create 100 new discussions as his own. Therefore, we make the decision to cancel user XYZ’s account, forfeiting all of his earnings. Unaware that these discussions are plagiarized, many users contribute to these discussions. When we delete the plagiarized discussions of user XYZ, our system also deletes the non-offending responses and comments to these discussions. When this happens, user ratings go down the next time each user makes a post, as user ratings are re-calculated. We realize it can be frustrating to see your user rating fluctuating. This should occur much less frequently after this month’s earnings payout. In addition, we’re investigating ways to help further improve this process. Any comments or suggestions are welcome. We’ve come a long way in a short period of time, but we still have BIG plans for the future, and we still have a long way to go. We’re dedicated to continuously improving the myLot user experience and listening to your concerns. Thanks for your patience while we work through our growing pains! We will never guarantee perfection, but we will guarantee our commitment to continuously improve.
71 people like this
259 responses
• United States
14 Dec 06
Thanks for the explanation. I suppose I should create a user ticket for this but is there anyway delete your own discussions. For example, say I create a discussion and as soon as I post it the screen displays similar discussions. I don't want to flood this place with a bunch of the same stuff so I would like to remove my own discussion as soon as I posted it. Is something like this in the works? I'm guessing that no one would want a discussion they have participated in heavily deleted by the original author, so it would probably be best if the author only had the ability to delete a discussion that has zero comments. I'm new though and was having trouble finding much in the way of a "Help" that showed how tos or what tags if any we can use so forgive me if this is all answered somewhere else. Thanks
11 people like this
@emeraldisle (13139)
• United States
15 Dec 06
Same here. I had one where I posted at almost the same time as someone else. Very similar discussions any way, but enough to make me wish I could delete mine. Also I wish we had an edit button for discussions/comments so that way if we make a big mistake and want to fix it we can afterwards.
@suedarr (2382)
• Canada
15 Dec 06
I too like the ideas that have been presented here, especially the ability to edit our own discussion threads if we notice a typo or something.
8 people like this
@JashleyB (1441)
• United States
14 Dec 06
That's a great idea! I was thinking I needed one a few days ago when I posted a dicussion. :)
7 people like this
@SageMother (2277)
• United States
14 Dec 06
Where do we find a chart shwoing the pay structure?
10 people like this
• Netherlands
15 Dec 06
They say it's a propriatory scheme. They probably don't want another site to copy them.
7 people like this
• United States
15 Dec 06
That's a great question... Where can we find out how much each thing is paid. like referals, photo's and our own discussions that we start, anddddd what we post to. Thanks!
7 people like this
@mvsrao (4365)
• India
15 Dec 06
we know only one thing - 25% of our referrals' daily earnings are added as bonus every day ...
7 people like this
@Asylum (47893)
• Manchester, England
14 Dec 06
I am sure that I shall not be the only member here to be very pleased with the improvements that you have made over a short span of time. When I first enrolled in Mylot it was difficult to find many worthwhile discussions to respond to due to the vast amount of pointless nonsense being posted on a regular basis. This has already changed and the site is far better as a result. My rating has gone down a few times recently, but this is a small price to pay for a much improved forum.
10 people like this
@deeeky (3667)
• Edinburgh, Scotland
15 Dec 06
santa - santa and toys
I am very pleased as well. Its great that mylot looks like it's going to be one of the best sites around when they contribute to the discussions as well. My estimation of the site has increased ten fold. Thanx mylot
@mansha (6298)
• India
14 Dec 06
Thank you for tellig this in so much details. I am one of the happier ones at my lot as my ratings have actually gone up,if only by few cents but it surely feels good.Thank you friends.
7 people like this
• United States
14 Dec 06
Detailed, yes it is. But it is also a copy & paste of an alert sent to out today. It didn't require any thought process.
6 people like this
@mvsrao (4365)
• India
15 Dec 06
^ perhaps you should be aware that "Mylot" who started this discussion is the authority of this site ...
• Austria
19 Dec 06
I equally need to know how many post I need to send to get paid
3 people like this
@Crilli (2890)
• Italy
14 Dec 06
thank you very much for this great explanation, now i've understood why my points went down
@rekhum (2420)
• India
20 Mar 07
We appreciate the teams' cleaning up chores.It must be real nasty for a chore.
• Canada
14 Dec 06
Good Idea, Mylot. Maybe making a process where if a person recieves 3 "-" ratings on the same post, the post should be deleted and the earnings forfeited.
7 people like this
• United States
23 Dec 06
Only problem with that suggestion is if you upset someone they can easily go around flagging all of your material negative.
• India
23 Dec 06
Hi, I think that a posted being rated "-" thrice is not really a feasible option, since if someone gets "hurt" by a post, then all the other posts of "that poster" are vulnerable to deletion and all his earnings would be effectively nullified!!
4 people like this
• United States
12 Jan 07
This discussion will enlighten so many new members. Thank you for this clarifications.
@Sunset50 (1397)
• United States
15 Dec 06
MyLot, you have done a great job with this site. With so many discussions about the same, it is very hard to figure out what is a copy cat one, so if I post in one that is removed, then I will just post more in other discussions to make up for it. I came here in August and you have improved this site tremendously since that time. Thanks for being as fair as you can be to all of us that enjoy this site.
2 people like this
@vipul20044 (5794)
• India
15 Dec 06
Well i knew it this was going to happen And it is so good on your behalf to do so much for the community to make it better day after day:)Thanks for everything
2 people like this
• Brazil
15 Dec 06
Thanksfor keeping us informed, niceto see that spammers are being taken care of. Have a nice day!
2 people like this
@shmeedia (1044)
• Canada
14 Dec 06
here is my suggestion!! as honest members of mylot, each of us should start doing this: when you see a post that is in violation, DO NOT RESPOND TO IT!!! report it and that way, mylot admins will still be able to track down the spam posts, but the honest members` ratings will not go down every time one of these spam topics are deleted from the database! what do you all think? i am going to start doing this myself, and i hope other people will join me!
• United States
15 Dec 06
Excellent idea. I'm joining you.
1 person likes this
@greengal (4286)
• United States
14 Dec 06
Thank you!! This is such a relief..we don't have to put up with any more spammers.
7 people like this
@jeffaim (215)
• United States
14 Dec 06
Thanks very much for the update. I know that one thing that has been suggested by several users is some sort of system to organize discussions within categories, so that there are not so many repetitive discussions (i.e. discussions with the exact same topic). Are there any plans for this? Thanks again!
• United States
15 Dec 06
IE Organizing it like a forum. :)
6 people like this
@acosjo (1903)
• Canada
14 Dec 06
My only thing is your total responses going down because you answered a post, regardless of weather or not it meets myLot guidlines. Perhaps myLot should approve discussions before hand so people who respond to it are not penalized.
2 people like this
• United States
15 Dec 06
I vote with you on having discussions approved before they're posted...it's a great idea who's time has come!
1 person likes this
• United States
15 Dec 06
Can you let us know the structure of thepayment. Its really nice to know about this . Thanks! Also i would lie to know if we are taxed on the earnings that mylot pays and how do we go about it. If you can include this portion in the FAQ it will help. Many of the people whom i refer to mylot ask me this question.
2 people like this
@moneymind (10510)
• Philippines
15 Dec 06
this is great but how to police those members who are abusing the use of the '+', '-' rating is still not quite clear or how to determine those who abuses the uses of those rating scheme specially the negative rating.... greetings. : )
2 people like this
@ossie16d (11821)
• Australia
14 Dec 06
Thank you myLot for putting out this alert for us. I think that many of us had realised this had happened and I am pleased to say that while my rating went down my earnings actually increased. Of courseb some people won't be happy with this idea of losing money and ratings but it should improve the quality of discussions here at myLot. I suggest that anyone who sees what they notice or consider to be an inappropriate discussion, that they do not respond but instead report it to myLot. I know that is what I have been doing lately plus I also report "cut and paste" responses to myLot. Keep up the good work myLot. I for one am a very happy little vegemite with the changes you have made here.
@KrauseHome (36449)
• United States
14 Dec 06
I am impressed with all of the changes you have been making here, and the New payment structure, etc. It is amazing when you clean up some of the Junk on here. I Love being able to find stuff now to respond too. As for suggestions. Someone else suggested maybe removing a Discussion if it gets a Certain amount of "-" ratings. That would be a good one, or when you get like 4 or more complaints about a post. I Love what you are doing with this site, and am looking forward to seeing what you will continue to do with it more in the future.
@arman9890 (452)
• India
16 Dec 06
Its great to feel that Mylot is growing up very rapidly and they are taking much care about the people who are doing good work for each other.. and hell for those who are spaming this site.. I hope complete cleanup will be soon possible.. Thats really great Mylot.. Great Work Mylot Team..
1 person likes this
• India
16 Dec 06
I am little confused why this url is showing in my diss?
1 person likes this
@sadeeq (17)
• Nigeria
16 Dec 06
sadeeq - a big boy stnding
am realy impresed with what mylot site is doing, i know if it keep on like that it will realy be the best and will draw attention of many people.
1 person likes this
@sadeeq (17)
• Nigeria
16 Dec 06
SPORTS I LIKE BASKET BALL ANY ONE IS INTRESTED
1 person likes this
• Indonesia
15 Dec 06
Ahhh thx a lot for the explanation Maybe I'm lucky I never got reduce post. ^^ But I hope trouble with Ikobo also will finish soon ^^ I'll reach my first 10$ soon. ^^ Good Luck
2 people like this