Too Many Hurdles — Why writing Sites Fail (3)

A chap began a site.

He sent his Shill all about the ‘Net to round up users.   I was in one of the first batches.

I liked the TOS, (terms of service)  the payout seemed good, and the writing had to be up to a standard as it would be moderated.

I joined that site and posted a topical piece.

There was a story in the newspaper about a very spoiled boy who felt he had certain rights above others and should not be tried for his crime.

I did a piece, spell checked, grammar checked, and popped it on the site.

An hour later it was still waiting to be moderated.

Six hours later, it was still waiting.

Ten hours later it was still waiting.

I popped the piece onto another site, which was also moderated. The item was published within an hour.

Three (3) days later, on another site, the owner of that first site stuck his head into a comment section of a post I had published about writing sites.

He bombastic and blathered about his site, using the comment section as soap box.

I told him that I had written an item three (3) days ago for his site, which was still waiting moderation.

He wrote some convoluted explanation about the time and his busy mod; blah blah.  I let his response fester a bit.

It was about an hour later I answered his post.

I told him that three days and an item was still awaiting moderation was ridiculous.

The next day he posted something about the item being rejected as it was not up to their standards.

I wrote back, gave him the URL were the item had been published Four (4) days ago.

The amusement this gave me was beyond price.  The fact he’d launched this diatribe in a public comment section (which on this site  became a forum) where everyone could read it, proved beyond a doubt that:

1) he had absolutely no idea what his mod was doing or not doing

2) had never read he item and was lying

3) that the fact he had no idea that the item had been published elsewhere and was gaining hits, (no plagiarism checker and no eye for quality)

Cost him so many users the site went down within four months from the diatribe.

The problem with moderation, as I have mentioned before, is that if it isn’t fairly quick it costs a site.

Today, yes, there are not so many options to publish.  But in the day I speak of, there were a good dozen alternative writing sites I knew about.

And I didn’t know more than a micron of what was there.

At the time of writing the item, I had choices of where to publish and made them.

I assume that time will come again when there are so many choices of where to post.

However, in the time I write of, one of the most popular moderated sites had five different busy mods.

Other sites opted to be unmoderated, click submit and it was published.

The reality is where it takes ‘forever’ to have an item published, people will find an option that doesn’t take forever.

People will post on Site One, and after three hours, Post it on Site Two.  If Site Two doesn’t act, they’ll Post it on Site Three.

When there is choice, people make the one that serves them the best.