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Is LiteracyBase Altering Our Posts?
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Twice in the last 24 hours I have heard from members of the site that the staff have altered submitted content in some significant way. Both those individuals were upset by staff changing their content, and I can understand why. Our writing is subject to copyright, which means that only we as the creators have the right to determine when and where our posts should display, and in what form. If @admin or @support are tampering with posts before they publish, that is a direct violation of copyright law and it should be stopped immediately. Taking such action could cost the site valuable members, and could also result in legal action being taken against the site. There is no agreement between users and the site for there to be any form of editing performed on content submitted. If the site wants to engage in editing our posts, specific mention of this must be added to the Terms & Conditions, and all current members must be notified of the change in policy. The policy must also not be retroactive – that is, it must only apply to content submitted after members are duly notified of the change. In the meantime, copyright should be respected 100% of the time, and any desired changes should only be made with consent of the copyright holder. I want to express my concern, whether or not these allegation are true. The TOS lacks specific information about copyright and content licensing, as well as the relationship between users and the site. It would be best that much more explicit information is added now, before any more issues pop up. Writers will not contribute to a site if they feel it cannot be trusted with their content. LiteracyBase is a good startup. I think it can be a great web site if the users continue in their efforts to write SEO-friendly content, and if staff are diligent in maintaining the positive atmosphere and proper functioning of the site. This is a matter that requires prompt attention, in order to maintain the confidence of users in the site.
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I know I am not authorized to reply here but websites like this have only a major revenue model – they make money through ads. As we all know, ads are very strict. If you use Google Adsence OR Yahoo Media.Net OR Microsoft Bing Webmaster OR any other for that matter, it should be noted that not all websites are approved. If you are running your own personal website – you can take care of these things easily as you are the only administrator there. However, you don’t know what a member writes here and how your search engine penalizes you for that mistake which you did not do in first place. Prevention is always better than cure I guess. So, most of the admins opt for editing of posts. You need to edit OR remove invalid posts. Either you do it pro – actively before publishing like this website OR you do it post submission (if it violates T&C) like blogjob. I understand copyright implications and transparency is important here. Yes, @support should make a point editing their policy and making it clear that the policy is updated and admin reserves the right to edit the post. While the 5th paragraph on their T&C does mention their right to edit OR remove whatever they feel removed; this is written in quite generalized manner and not all members know of such a rule. Still I feel that @admin must make clear what exactly is their content policy. This helps user writing the content in a proper manner. Additionally, if some part is edited, they must inform us what was edited and why (may be email OR a private message). Personally, I dont felt anything edited in my posts except addition of extra images. I too support this project but I feel it is lacking transparency. |
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@thinker Thank you for pointing out the mention of the word “edit” in the Terms & Conditions. Yes, I missed that when I was looking through the terms again this morning, as it is buried in a dense section of the text that is difficult to read for a couple of reasons. This is something that needs to be made more explicit, and there should be a proper set of writing guidelines published on the site in order to encourage more writers to submit content that won’t require such editing. Transparency is an issue here, but any time that a project is being micromanaged the way it is here on LiteracyBase that excessive control soon becomes an issue. Lack of ability to preview, edit or delete our own content is a huge issue, as is the excessively long wait for content to be approved. As users contribute more content and as more users join the site, the staff won’t be able to keep up. I would like to know what @admin and @support intend to do when the publication queues extend not for hours or days, but for weeks at a time? If better control of the content is desired, it is important to first communicate in clear language the expectations and then to give concrete feedback to any user who doesn’t meet expectations. There is no guarantee that all content will publish, or that it will publish the first time around. Why not simply return posts to authors and ask for a rewrite if there are issues? |
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@ruby3881 I also did not know that LB can edit our posts. I think before publishing we must be informed about it. In one case they uploaded an image of a dog with a rose in its mouth and the topic was about flowers that are easy to grow and roses are the most difficult.And in another, the image did not enhance my blog. They also create headings for paragraphs or some such thing. Where editing must be done they do not. I have noticed someone’s blog has a noticeable spelling mistake in their title and that is left as it is. To ask Admin to do the editing each time we notice mistakes is not what I am in favour of. We must be able to edit it ourselves. About not approving and not informing members is a point that needs attention. This has not happened in my case as all my blogs have been approved but if there are blogs that have not been approved members should be informed. I will add more as and when points occur to me.
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@bestwriter I feel bad that I hadn’t seen the mention of editing in the TOS, because it is there. But you know that I usually can spot such things, and if I didn’t see it I have to wonder how many others were completely unaware. I am glad you mentioned the specifics of your experience. Again it seems we are back to micromanaging. It should not be the job of the site admin to edit our posts or provide images for them, and if they’re just going to throw whatever graphic they can quickly find at a post I honestly don’t know that it’s going to improve the quality of content or have a positive impact on the site’s earning potential. Wouldn’t it be far better to treat us all like adults, and spell out the expectations in full? Instead of creeping in to add subheadings or to add graphics that aren’t particularly attractive or relevant, why not simply produce a set of writing guidelines that says what they want? This would mean the approval process could go more smoothly, and the increased transparency about what constitutes a quality post would go a long way to ensuring more writers are meeting the standard. It seems counterproductive to not publish writing guidelines. If there is a worry that some writers will be turned off by too many rules for posts, the answer is very simple: offer better compensation for those whose posts meet most or all of the standards, while awarding a lesser amount if many of the points are not met. This creates more of an incentive to post optimized content, while still allowing room for those who aren’t yet ready to go to that next level of achievement. |
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Let’s see what Admin has to say and they better say (lol) |
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oh gee…. I didn’t know that our posts were edit by the team Maybe I didn’t notice any difference at all or maybe mine wasn’t touched by them. Yes, it would be appropriate for the team to send a message to the author before edit and publish. Some do mind , while some don’t. As for me, I don’t mind to have my post edit because I do know that my level of English isn’t professional at all. Let us wait and see what the @admin says about it |
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I think these are minor edition, that’s why LB does not discuss with the writers before the edition. I have one post where I quote liberally from the original text, and that does not pass plagiarism check. They did ask me if I want to reference it instead of copy the whole chuck from it. I reply that I will do my own editing. |
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@peachpurple When I wrote the original message, I was overlooking the mention of editing in the TOS. I think if they are minor edits made in seconds on the fly, and it’s been made clear that content submitted is subject to editing, then it makes sense. What I wonder is how the staff can keep up with editing when the moderation queue now has a wait of 24 hours or more? It shows more respect to the authors to state expectations clearly upfront, and to distinguish between suggestions and requirements for post approval. And certainly, putting the responsibility for quality posts in the hands of those who are producing the content makes a lot more sense than staff having to make corrections after the fact. |
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@dancing.baby if a site feels the content will harm their site they should reject outright it so the authors could use it elsewhere as per their choice and whichever site accepts it in its original form. No site has powers to change the format or content, add or delete photos if they come from the legal sources. Besides the authors have no editing/deleting powers on this site so it is more necessary. I remember a site which rejected my review last month that was their right but what was not acceptable to me that they published that review under a new category “rejected for not being according to site’s rule” and even created a new category “Rejected Reviews”. That was funny and unacceptable and showed the unprofessional rather immature side of the site owners and its moderator. How could you keep a review on display while you have a system to submit reviews privately and a rejected item on display in open view of the readers? Absolutely ridiculous. |
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@sunil That does seem very inappropriate for the admin to make such a show of displaying your post under a category of “rejected.” I would not likely want to continue writing for such a site… |
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@Ruby3881 I am no more working on that site despite being one of the top rated members of that site and the one with highest earning. |
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Sorry to interrupt but this is indeed funny. It is really disappointing for the content owner to face such a humiliation. I cannot imagine a new category – “rejected reviews.” By the way, which website was it? Yes, that “edit” word is not so clear and might be hidden for others. Still, @admin and @support must let the users know of changes (if any). You are right. Not all like edited posts. Even I never mind edited post so long as the meaning did not change. |
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There was once when I submitted a letter to newspaper for publication. They edit the content, and sent it back to me for review and approval to publish. They did make it look much better and rectified all the grammar mistakes. I think that is the most professional way to do it. I do not expect online sites with limited manpower to handle it as well as the major newspaper in a country. I think for minor editing, there is no need to inform writers. But for major editing, it is better to let writers do their own edition. |
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@dancing.baby I don’t mind what that site did with me .) probably they ran out of funds and wanted me to leave that site. I am rather thankful to them that they did not kick me out of the site but only did it tactfully. 🙂 |
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