Entrecard joined up with SezWho to help bloggers even more. The idea? Offering credits for comments will increase comments on even the newest of blogs and the best of blogs. Add in comment voting and offer even more credits for quality comments and you have a winner.
I have a feeling this new partnership will not only increase comments across the board, but also help Entrecard shed its skin and enter a new era of credits and EC blogging.
My only concerns are 1) will this cause even more inflation? and 2) will quality comments prevail or will communities be created and vote each other to inflate their own rankings?
This new partnership will without a doubt be welcomed by me and other Entrecard bloggers.
A Suggestion for Graham
With that being said, I already have an idea for Graham: create a top posts section where the top voted Entrecard posts (with a minimum of 10 votes or more) receive a link on the blog or within some other area of Entrecard. Although this might be entering the arena of competing with Digg and Reddit, I believe this would give quality posts the audience they deserve.
Written: Jul 15, 2008
Tags: entrecard, sezwho, Web Development
AZ Blogging
July 17, 2008 @ 10:38 am | Reply
I agree with you that Entrecard has done quite a lot for the blogosphere, especially for new blogs. Blogs with less than 10 visitors per day are now having over a hundred visitors. That’s great. The main problem with the Entrecard is that most of our fellow users are abusing it, and the same time acting in manners that reduces the value of blogging. The spirit of blogging is rapidly diminishing. Most Bloggers in Entrecard only care about dropping and gaining credits for advertisement. Most don’t give a damn about blog content, talk less of participating by comments. To make the situation worse, SezWho has made it possible for Entrecard to now “reward” Commenters by giving them credits. To me, this means that it will be very rare to find those honest comments you used to see on blogs. Most bloggers will now be commenting for the sole purpose of gaining credits and may even care very little about the quality of their comments. I think we need a system better than Entrecard and SezWho combined… Just my opinion.
I know you might question me why I am using Entrecard despite all the “flaws” I find on it. Well, I don’t think there is anything withing flaws. Entrecard is the first (or best) of its kind. I only have to find a way of turning all its flaws into bearable advantages…
Gary R. Hess
July 17, 2008 @ 11:21 am | Reply
I understand where you are coming from. I have seen many blogs abuse Entrecard just like many blogs abuse “blogging” in general. People have created clicks within EC where they drop within their own group and don’t seem to bother with anyone else (even though this is ‘hush hush’ apparently, but when you see the ‘i belong to the EC drop ring!’ or something similar you know exactly what it is). They stick within their own groups for just about everything… why? Credits. They know their fellow groupers will return the favor. I have a feeling that comments won’t make much of a difference with this behavior.
The thing is, EC is rewarding that behavior and others. With EC so many are creating nonsensical posts and they are receiving far more comments than someone who creates a quality, thought-out post.
As for SezWho, it hasn’t seemed to make “that much” of a difference yet. Most of those who have commented since the installment are the same people who have commented before. Are there going to be more spam comments? Of course. But as owners of blogs and keepers of our SezWho we must do ourselves a favor and mark either 1) mark the comment as spam or 2) give it a 1 star.
It is really up to us as bloggers to control the system. If we don’t feel something is right we don’t have to reward it. If someone on EC doesn’t fraternize with anyone but those within their group, don’t reward them with drop, comments, or links. It is simple.
And to those who think they are gaining something from the system by creating horrible blogposts, let them be. They aren’t receiving more non-EC traffic… let them be too. No matter how much advertising they can buy they can’t buy return visitors.
dew
July 17, 2008 @ 8:14 pm | Reply
I love your top posts idea! You should definitely post about that on the entrecard suggestions forum!
Jeff Miller
July 23, 2008 @ 7:17 pm | Reply
Odd, the “Reply to this Comment” link on Gary’s comment 404ed.
In reply to Gary, I don’t think that the SezWho will have the kind of flocking effect you are describing and even if it does, it won’t really affect most of us.
With SW’s comment rating system, spam comments and hit & run comments won’t really cut it. You only get good ratings for good comments. I don’t care if the same three people come buy to comment on my blog(s) if they leave good, insightful comments.
Now, having SW comment rating rings… …who cares. So people get a good rating by marking each other up. If they are only bouncing between themselves, they aren’t spreading themselves out there for other people to find.
That leads me to the whole value of making comments. The idea is to spread yourself out there and get known in communities that don’t already know you. If you swim in the same pool all the time, you get little benefit from your time. Fore one thing, Google doesn’t really care about the 57th link back from someone’s blog. They do care about the link back from the 57th blog.
My thought is that even if people do figure out how to game the system, they’ll just be a handful of pathetic loses high fiving themselves in an empty stadium.