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Let me start this post by saying that I am coming to the party a bit late on this one, but this weekend I finally got to catch up on my feeds and had to comment on this.
MyBlogLog launched towards the end of May, a tagging system within MBL that users can tag blogs with keywords that can identify what specific blogs are all about. To be honest, I had not read MBL’s blog in a while, but when I logged into MBL and saw it, I thought it was a good, but pretty basic idea. What I did not realize until I read a post Andy Beal had written that MBL asked their users to tag blogs they believed were spammers with the term, “Schmoe” which stood for “Social Media Optimizer”. Yea, see you use the S and the M and the O and the rest of the letters don’t really matter other than that it helps spells the word Schmoe, whatever…
So Andy on his blog asked when did Social Media Optimization become spam? Which I thought was a pretty good question. MBL really did not have an answer for that, but I would like to ask another question. If MBL wants to actually put in some safeguards to stop spamming, wouldn’t you think the first thing they would need to do is actually define what is spam on MBL? I went over to MBL’s blog as well as their help section and I could not find anywhere what MBL defines as spam.
I thought that I would give them a hand so they might actually stop putting the cart before the horse and layout what I consider to be spam on MyBlogLog.
- A blog that does not have any original content of their own. If a blog is just pulling content from other blogs and not adding any of their own content and are just doing this so they can have five layers of Google Adsense ads on their site. That be spam!
- Any MBL member who signs up for a community and then posts a message on that users community which says something like, “Hey, great blog. Come check out my blog at www.ineedattention.com”. (Oh by the way MBL, I see the spam link for messages is still just a mailto.) Definitely spam..
- Any member that has a scantly clad woman as it’s community picture. This is spam except if the blog is about scantly clad women then it is just fine.
- A member that just goes out and joins communities and becomes contacts with hundreds of other users without having any interest in their blogs. Spammer…
To be honest, I can’t think of anything else. Can you? If you think I missed anything or you disagree, please let me know in the comments and I will update.
MyBlogLog, I really think this issue is more a semantic issue than anything else. Your “Schmoe” term is just bad. All Social Media Optimizers are not spammers. That is just like saying that all Search Engine Optimizers are spammers. More importantly, it seems that using this term is a direct insult to many people who have played a part in making MyBlogLog what it is today.
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Technorati Tags: MyBlogLog, tagging, MBL, keywords, blogs, Andy Beal, spammers, Schmoe, Social Media Optimization, spam
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Robyn recently wrote a post about what makes a good community member, which is like the polar opposite of being a spammer. If you haven’t had a chance to read it, check it out here:
http://mybloglogb.typepad.com/my_weblog/2007/06/what_defines_a_.html
As for the SchMOe tag, in retrospect it was definitely underserved. There are loads of great SMOs out there who hold to the best of tennants:
http://www.searchenginejournal.com/social-media-optimization-13-rules-of-smo/3734/
I be pretty hard pressed to disagree with anything on that list.
But we’ve gotten very tired of people who try to exploit every feature we offer — there would be a heck of a lot more cool new features if we didn’t have to spend loads of time each week tracking down the spammers and then figuring out how to shut them down without killing the feature.
We owe all of the top-notch SMOs out there an apology for letting our frustrations get the best of us and lump you with the pricks of the internets. On the flip side, SEO *has* become a four letter word and SMO is quickly following suit. Maybe it’s time to look for something with less baggage?
Eric,
I appreciate your comment, but I have to say that Robyn’s post about what makes a good community member still does not define what is spam on MBL. And again according to Robyn’s post, if you are asking members to label spammers “schmoe” shouldn’t they have an understanding of what MBL considers to be spam?
I applaud the thought behind this. I think it is about time that MBL starts giving their members more power to be able to police their communities and call out the “pricks” as you said.
I think if I can offer a recommendation is for MBL to start using the incredible community that you guys have created. You have a wealth of incredibly smart and talented bloggers at your disposal. Start using us, so we can be evangelists for what your are trying to accomplish.
Thanks again for your thoughts.
Dude, you really need to pull the cord on this. You are letting them off the hook way too easy. this is another example of how yahoo is buying great companies and destroying them. Maybe things will change with the new CEO but only time will tell.
PS. Your Wedding Ideas Page doesn’t have comments on it anymore since you upgraded to the new layout.
Adam, I don’t think I am letting anyone off easy. What I am doing is understanding the real world that MBL is not a start-up anymore. They are now owned by a large corporation that as we have seen moves at a much slower pace than anyone would like. I am not saying that is a good thing, but that is reality and we have to deal with it.
MBL is going to either sink or swim. We will see what happens.
Thanks for the heads up on the wedding page, I cannot figure out why comments are not coming up.
Cord,
I just discovered that there is actually an option in the profile page that removes the ability for anybody else to “tag” your community.
But now there’s a whole new kettle of spam fish - via community messaging. Would be interested in hearing your opinion (I’ve posted about it today, and also on the spam tagging issue recently).
Meg,
I could not agree with your post more about MBL’s new messaging service. I honestly was going to write about it, but I decided against it. I have easily written a dozen posts on MBL over the last three months and they keep doing things like this. I have come to the conclusion that I need to come to the conclusion that MBL is not going to be what at least I had really hoped it had a chance of achieving.
Hey Cord
Yep I’m over it - am “this close” to deleting my account. Will see what tomorrow brings…
And, if you read the MBL blog, those that have been most active have been left feeling like the one’s who’ve done the wrong thing - pretty p**s poor customer service. I quote
“4) So far, the majority of criticisms come from people in 300 or more communities. They are worried about the potential for spam and heck, I hear you. I’d be worried too. I’ll leave it for other people to debate why someone would join 5,000 communities and focus instead on pure numbers. The vast majority of our users belong to a couple dozen communities that they have a genuine interest in and wish to take part in. I’m not going to get all Spock on you and talk about the needs of the many outweighing the needs of the few (or the one), but it does impact our thinking.”
But hey, a site that introduced me to you and Andy Beard (amongst others) definitely served a purpose
Meg - The good thing is that MBL proved that there is an audience for what they do. No matter what, there will be some other players coming into play in the future to give MBL a run for their money.