My3cents - Any update on the direction this site is going?

Posted by At Your Service on 2012-11-18:

I haven't been active on the site for several months. I was considerably active prior to that. At the time I took a vacation from the site, things had gotten pretty catty. There were some accounts, which seemed to have been removed, that were causing all kinds of issues.

I happened to stop by about a week ago and immediately saw a great deal of difference. I couldn't find the community forum area and left a message about it. I also noticed what appeared to be a lot less comments with each posting. I wasn't aware if traffic had deteriorated since I wasn't aware of how long any one posting had been up.

I can tell you that I like and accept each comment being moderated and approved. Hopefully the moderators are approving or rejecting each post equally. I would hope this is one of the big reasons why people are being more respectful on their comments and why others have obviously left or been removed.

Not sure what the reason was why the community forums were dropped, but it may have been just as reasonable.

I hope everyone on the opposite side of the site is feeling their changes are proving to move the site in a better, more respectful and constructive direction.

Posted by Wally86 on 2012-11-18:

I think each comment being moderated puts a strain on mod resources.

Posted by Alain on 2012-11-18:

I miss the forums and the ability to edit a comment immediately in case I made an error. I still stop in to maybe make a comment or two and then go elsewhere. I don't know where the site is going, but right now it's pretty much scan a post, make a comment or not and go on to the next one if you feel like it. The folks that pay the bills are the only ones that know what the site is going to do. Maybe they'll mention it to the members or maybe not. Beats me. Good to see you, Wally!

Posted by old fart on 2012-11-18:

Wally and Alain.... don't bet that Any comment wouldn't be moderated and/or blocked. I HAVE 3 OR 4 THAT WERE BLOCKED EVEN THOUGH THEY WERE MILD CRITICISMS. CENSORSHIP LIVES.

OLD FART

Posted by Vinnie11 on 2012-11-18:

I don't like the delay in posting but it certainly improves the quality of the threads. Don't really miss the community forum because they were not overly welcoming to newer members but I truly miss the profiles, the ability to click on names and access their boards and the ability to message users privately. Perhaps they could eliminate the delay in posting for members of a certain "status" (1 or 2 or x stars for example).

Posted by At Your Service on 2012-11-19:

Since I've been back, I haven't noticed any of my postings rejected. Maybe it's because I haven't been back long enough ;-) I still think the required approval before someone's comments gets posted is a good idea and the moderators seem on top of it. I'm pretty impressed as to how quickly one's comments can become approved. I think it keeps everyone reminded about keeping their comments civil.

There were account(s) months ago, which are no longer around. There were stared account(s) back months ago which were creating a lot of the issues, so giving such accounts additional privileges would never resolved the issues I was aware of.

I actually would applaud the site for taking such steps. It will hopefully continue to be a healthy change.

Now that someone mentioned it, I do miss having the personal blog. I tried to keep mine more professional, with consumer related topics. Others seemed to use it more as an alternative to Facebook.

In any case, I can appreciate what the website is trying to accomplish.

Posted by Wally86 on 2012-11-19:

The posting format your outlined Vinnie seems like a good idea to me.

Posted by DebtorBasher on 2012-11-19:

I think having the comments approved before posting has cut down alot of people getting penalized for posting inappropriate comments. If you remember, after getting a certain number of comments deleted with penalty would cause that member to be booted off the site. This way, it's nipped in the bud before penalties are given. Of course, if a member fills the queue up with a bunch of comments that are violations of the TOS, they can still get the boot...but, I haven't seen that happen.

Posted by Alain on 2012-11-19:

I miss the profiles and personal blogs, too. There are some interesting and fun people here with opinions worth viewing.

Posted by lexophiliac on 2012-11-19:

With the new format there is no point to profiles or personal blogs. Yay communism?

Posted by Wally86 on 2012-11-19:

An admin response would be nice for this review :)

Posted by Vinnie11 on 2012-11-19:

It's helpful lexophiliac. For example, I remember a discussion about why front-loading washers stink. I believe that trmn8r posted an explanation for the stench in 2010. If I wanted to find that, I can no longer click on his name and review his comments. (I don't REALLY need to know. That is a random example). I do not remember the specific thread or brand of washer and it wouldn't help if I did because ALL front-loading washers reek and there would be too many complaints on them. It just makes things a little easier. Even though you have drive-by posters who put a complaint/review and never intend to return, having no access to each other pretty much makes everyone a drive by (just a regular one...lol!) It certainly narrows the focus though which was most likely the intent and I understand completely.

Posted by Slimjim on 2012-11-19:

When the day is done, I don't see any drop off in new review/compliments/complaints then when the profiles and forums were here. What went away was all the baggage associated with this being a hang out vs a general advocate site. As much as some faithfuls and most detractors would like to believe otherwise, the site appears to have moved in a better direction, and its reinvention seems to have put it on a positive track for years to come.
While some good folks have lost a nice hidden gem of an internet group forum, the upside is all those who have spent time and effort trying to disrupt the venue, have basically lost all their ability. They are less than irrelevant now, to the point they are non-existent. Too bad, so sad.

Posted by At Your Service on 2012-11-20:

Amen Slimjim. Well stated.

Posted by Administrator on 2012-11-20:

Thanks for the question/feedback. The full-moderation policy will remain for now. We are reviewing some scaled down redesign options for the user profile pages. The community portion of the site has been officially retired. Our apologies for the few remaining lost community notices out there. We'll track them down.

Beyond that, much of our resources have been in improving the infrastructure of the site. As many of you experienced, we had some technical issues over the past year. Most of the major issues have been resolved.

Moving forward we plan to shift our resources towards continuing to improve the consumer experience on the site, as well as more integration for companies to interact with their customers.

Thanks again for the feedback. Hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving!

My3cents Team

Posted by DebtorBasher on 2012-11-20:

Thanks for the update, Addy...and a very Happy Thanksgiving to the M3C staff and their family.

Posted by FoDaddy19 on 2012-11-20:

I'm still not sure why I cannot rate other comments as helpful. If I click to rate a comment all I get are "Report Spam" and "Inappropriate Content/User Harassment"

Posted by Vinnie11 on 2012-11-20:

You are unable to rate comments as helpful until you have a star, FoDaddy19.

Posted by lexophiliac on 2012-11-20:

All you have to do pull up a review is bookmark it Vinnie, and add a name to it before saving so you remember what it was in regards to.

Posted by FoDaddy19 on 2012-11-21:

Ah, that explains it Vinnie11. I've been wondering about that for a while now.