Part of the message is also; I am a vocal guy. And I make no bones about that. I don't beat around the bush. And I am a staunch defender of my right to free speech and of course, in turn, the 1st Amendment. Now, why I am mentioning this?
myLot.
It is a social media site where people share their thoughts and ideas, and post about just about anything their hearts desire. It's actually a great site with some great people and I have said that many times and cannot stress that enough.
It's the ownership I take issue with. And the admin most of the time.
There is one thing that is true of any social media site and that is that they are going to have some level of editorial control over their content. And I really don't take much issue with that. When it is reasonable. Do I understand that to some extent 1A will not fully be endorsed in certain places? Absolutely. Do they have the right to "censor" certain types of content? Sure they do.
At the same time, do I have the right to vocalize my discontent when they do it? You are damn right I do. And I will.
See, the thing is, and I have mentioned this more than once—just type myLot into the search field and I am sure other content will show up that I have written before on the subject of the site—is that I find myLot's desire to keep any "bad talk" of their site or admin quiet to be rather weird.
In other words, it is disallowed. Or if not entirely against the rules, talking bad at all about the site, its pay system, its ownership, or its admin is strongly discouraged enough that if you do it, you could be banned from the site.
No one likes to be talked bad about, so to some extent I get it. The site says, "Take it up with us if you have an issue," which is fair.
Except that if you air your concerns directly to admin or ownership...you are ignored.
The thing I always say is that it's up to you to encourage people to feel good about you and talk nice about you. If you do things that make people feel badly toward you, it's not the person with the opinion's fault. It's yours.
Besides, it matters. It should matter to myLot, who I am sure, wants to keep their site fun and successful. If an admin acts in a manner that causes people to want to leave the site, it should matter to ownership. It should matter to the new admin to understand what went wrong with the old admin.
Beyond that, and I have mentioned this before as well, the site needs the members more than the members need the site. And it seems to me that myLot forgets that more often than it should. The money that flows into their bank account comes directly from what we do ultimately.
Therefore, our concerns should have quite a lot of weight. Not a single one of us who provides content and interactions on the site have any desire to see the site fail. We want very badly for the site to succeed and continue on.
Silencing the people who make the site go makes no sense. Pissing off the people who make the site go makes no sense. Running the people off who make the site go makes no sense.
Now, I will grant you. Many of the people on the site are not writers. They have only myLot as a platform. It's their only audience. But some people, such as me, have many platforms we write on. And a large audience. And opinions are my bread and butter. It's what I do. It's the entire basis of most of my writing.
And I share those opinions in all the places where I write. And many more eyes will see my opinions in a place like this one than will ever see my opinions on myLot. myLot even knows this. So, let's say I left a comment as a response to someone else's post, and it just so happened the old admin came up and I said a harsh word or two about them?
How many people would likely see that comment? Five or six? Maybe ten? Based on how comments get read on the site, probably practically no one.
How many people will see any commentary about myLot outside of myLot. Thousands? Tens of thousands?
myLot wants me to refrain from speaking bad about former admin whom I took issue with. And like I said, that's their prerogative. But it doesn't mean I won't air my concerns nor my opinions nonetheless in one forum or another.
So, why is it important to me? Well, because I think the onus is on myLot to get it right. I think the onus for admin to be talked nicely about is on admin to do that. In some ways I suppose I could say, "I don't make the news. I simply report the news as it happens."
myLot is a product not unlike any other product when you think about it. And while I do not consider myself to be a customer of myLot, I still believe my opinions matters. And it should matter to them. McDonald's can say or think whatever it wants about its burgers. Ultimately, it's not their decision to determine what people think about them. It's the person who eats them. It's their opinion that matters. And regardless of if you like the commentary about your burgers or not, or think the commentary is true or not, or regardless of whether or not you agree or disagree with the commentary, the onus is on McDonald's to make a burger everyone will talk good about.
You can have your editorial control. You can take my opinions or leave them. But as I have said before, it would be better for them to take my opinions within their walls rather than force me to share them outside their walls.
Because I will do it. Every single time. Because I can. Because I have a right to. Because even if it does not matter to them, it matters to me. Because outside of their walls their rules do not apply. Their wishes and desires do not apply. Outside of their walls it's up to others to decide for themselves what the truth is and whether or not the opinion is right or wrong.
They say that how members of myLot feel about the site matters. They say their doors are open to discuss concerns or issues. But it is simply not true. It's a closed door. And if no one within the site can talk about the issues together, collectively, the issues in the minds of the owners and admin don't exist and therefore, need not be addressed.
Because no one is allowed to talk about it. Or be banned. And if you do, you receive open threats through the back door to be banned.
I try to point it out all the time that although it may not always seem that way, I actually highly regard myLot. I am mostly a happy member there, and happy to be part of the community. But I am also not going to rest on my laurels just for fear of being banned.
The fact that they don't understand that actually floors me. As a sign on my office wall read, "Sometimes the best person to have at your side is one who will not always be on your side." In other words, your best friend is often the one who will tell it like it is. Not how you prefer it to be. And the only way for your business to reach its full potential is to step back from your personal feelings sometimes and listen.
I will be on the site for as long as they allow me to be. I get it. It's their rodeo. They get to call the shots. At the same time, so long as I am there, I will push as hard as I can to not be censored, even when some of my commentary will not be positive.
If I can say, without repercussion, "I love admin," I can say, "I dislike admin" without repercussion as well. Your advice has been heard. I don't have to take your advice any more than you have to take mine, myLot.
But keep in mind, a lot of the hands that feed you have already left. There may well come a time when all of them are gone, and at that point, none of your rules will have eyes to read them and heed them. Why did many of them leave? Your former admin you don't want to be badly spoken of. Your approach to the site. Your quiet push to take the fun out of the site and allow members to openly and actively talk amongst each other about our site.
Like the way I write or the things I write about? Follow me on my Facebook page to keep up with the latest writings wherever I may write them. Want to check out myLot? Visit the site by clicking here. It's a social media platform that pays people to talk about everyday things and is worth a look despite my commentary here.
Other commentary on myLot:
An Examination of the Writer and Platform Relationship
One of the joys of writing is simply being able to do it—and these days having multiple places that we can share it. In this still rather new Internet age, the opportunities for many people who can smith words on a page abound.
More Trouble With myLot
There was a time when I spent a considerable amount of time on a site called myLot, a site I have written about here before more than once. What was once a great community with great people and one where the owners and admin had a great sense of admiration and appreciation for the members, has now turned into a bit of a nightmare.
myLot Admin Has Stepped Out of Bounds
Should I write so much about another site on this site? Of course, it's myLot I am talking about. And besides, I am quite an opinionated guy, and I enjoy having places to share them.
Writers Are the Reason for a Writing Site
All of the sites that we have the pleasure of writing on of course have rules we all must follow. As I say all the time, it's their site. They get to make the rules that we must abide by. Like it or leave it.
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