There You Go Again, myLot: Can You Ever Just Stop Being Mean to Members?

It pains me to continually have to write bad press about myLot, a social interaction community that pays its members to interact with each other. At the same time, there is an old saying about staying out of "the news."

If you don't want to be in the news, don't create the story.

I like myLot, and I want to be very clear about that. I would not have stuck around with the site as long as I have if that were not the case. And generally speaking, my experience there is mostly fun and rewarding, especially since it is a rather tightknit community of people who reside there. They almost become like family and friends, even if it is rather unlikely you will ever meet anyone there in person.

However, admin, and I would say even the ownership, is another story, and it wasn't always this way. But it has been this way over the past three or more years, and maybe a bit longer actually. Not good.

The way admin conducts themself, and I should point out that it has been different people during this time, is rude, condescending and quite disrespectful toward members, and blatantly so. And this has been true of at least the last three of them.

I often question why this is. Because as I have stated many times before, the members of myLot are the heart of the site. They are the only reason it even exists. What exactly is the point of driving a wedge between the people who moderate the site and the members who interact within it?

Most who have no ill intentions, mind you, who are operating within the site.

Sites such as myLot, as well as other social media platforms, all have rules, and there's no rocket science behind understanding why they are there, and even why they are important. It's the glue that keeps everything working smoothly so that everyone participating on the site can have a good experience and be free from certain people who may not have the best interests of the site or the community at hand.

And by the way, admin should have the capacity to know who those people are, and who those people aren't. You should also afford any good member at least some leeway when it comes to enforcing the rules since while we are all aware of them, we're not necessarily going to remember every single detail about them.

It happens. We're human. It's not to say that the rules are as complex as say, the tax code. But you're still not bound to remember every little detail. 

Granted, and I have said this many times before about myLot, I will admit some of the rules are a bit weird. But I'm not here to critique that, other than to simply say some of the rules are weird. It's my opinion. The site owners are well within their rights to disagree with me about that.

My issue is more about the manner in which admin interacts with the community and the lack of concern, it seems, from the owners regarding how members feel about that. I have expressed concerns in the past directly to them, and never received a response.

That is, by the way, a response. They simply don't care. Even if they don't say the words, the non-response speaks for itself.

What leads me to this current rant, if you want to call it that, was a post that was deleted by admin that was discussing a lapse in earnings updates at HubPages, a site where writers write articles or blogs and publish them.

There is no rule against writing about other earning platforms on myLot. But they do have a rule about adding a link to the site you are talking about. I am aware of the rule. However, I had simply forgotten about it. So, the reason the post was deleted was not because of the content, but rather because it did not link back to HubPages.

A very minor infraction, mind you. And not one that should, in any case, illicit a holier than thou response from admin.

As is my personal rule, I contacted admin to learn why the post was deleted and based on former interactions with admin that I have had before, I gave a response to it. I will grant, one might suggest my response could be construed as rather immediately "combative" in nature. But if you understand the full back story, the response to my post being deleted, and the reason I worded it the way I did, actually makes sense.

It's not like, when it comes to admin, that it has ever been unclear that I will not challenge them whenever I feel it is necessary. So, is it just to antagonize me in some way? They seem to dislike any member who doesn't bend to their power. And of course, I am not one of them.

I said, "If you decide to delete a post of mine, I do expect an advance notice and an explanation. It's called courtesy. Just letting you know."

Many members have posts deleted often with no explanation, and while it is clear that admin is not required to offer one, I am often perplexed what purpose it serves not to? Especially when most members are not out to break rules intentionally or are otherwise engaged in "nefarious" activities.

If the only problem with the post that was deleted was that it needed to have a link added, there is an edit function for our posts. Admin could have easily sent a friendly reminder for me to simply add a link, and all would have been good.

But instead of taking a practical approach, admin chooses to continually assert some form of "authority" over members that I think, serves no purpose other than to stroke the egos of a person who has been put in a position to be in charge of something that goes right to their head—and let's face it. The people the owners choose to do this are not necessarily at the top of the food chain. Hey, let's be real. It's myLot where, believe it or not, some people earn $5-$10 a month and refer to myLot as a job! 

The former admin was an elderly pot smoking dude who lived with his dad, living on the government teat.

Not exactly the cream of the crop, as you might say. It was often quite the ponderance, to try to figure out how many tokes of the bong he took before getting really nasty with some members, running myLot like a prison camp. "Do as I say or else!"

The response I got from admin was exactly of the sort I am always used to, and so it was no surprise. Nasty, rude, condescending, as well as demeaning. "I will refer you to the Terms you agreed to when joining which state I am not required to tell you when or why something gets deleted. However, if you want to know why, I will tell you. There is a 4-year old discussion by a previous Admin stating you must add a link to a site when discussing other earning sites. Yours was the third such discussion I have deleted in the past week for not adding links (all from members who should know better), and now I believe I am simply no longer going to allow discussions about other earning sites."

Besides the response being poorly written, it belittles members and is quite accusatory. But again, why is there so much animosity dealt toward members of the community, which seems constantly apparent when dealing with admin? I mean, I simply forgot to add a link. This requires swift and decisive action delivered with a commanding blow?

It's myLot remember, for crying out loud. A place where we talk about what we did that day and what we had for dinner. Sometimes there are deeper discussions. But that's pretty much the bulk of them. Menial and rather trivial things that even most people outside the site, if the posts came up in search, wouldn't even remotely be interested in reading about.

So, these are largely inside discussions. The site doesn't seem to care much if organic traffic waddles in. It makes its money by the ads members see. No one else. And I think the owners are realistic when it comes to knowing myLot will never be a multi-million-dollar enterprise. It's just a tiny site that lives on the Internet with a handful of people playing around on it that the owners might be able to make a car payment with.

I'll grant you, even my own response should be, it's just myLot. Who cares? A post got deleted. It wasn't important. It's not important. I might have lost two cents if I am lucky. But it's, of course, the principle of it. And I am big on principle.

I did write to the owners of the site on this one, simply asking the question, "I am curious why you continue to put admin in place that is rude and disrespectful, as well as rather condescending toward members here?"

I will await their response, but if past history is any indication of future results, I am pretty sure my concerns have once again fallen on deaf ears and admin will go about his or her business as usual, waving their iron fists over member's heads. 

I would very much like to give the owners an opportunity to share their thoughts on the issue. But I have no expectation that they will do that.

Either way, I have a platform outside of myLot to talk about it. And of course, that's exactly what I will do. That is exactly what I did here. myLot hates bad press enough that they don't allow any negative commentary regarding myLot within their walls. Yet, they always forget that some of us who are on that site have bigger audiences outside of it, and the commentary that gets put out here will be far more scathing than anything that might get put inside of it.

But hey, just in case Blogspot happens to have its own internal Gestapo lurking around the edges waiting to pounce on me, I'll be sure to leave a link below to myLot that you are welcome to peruse at your leisure.

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, you can click the link here to learn more.

© 2024 Jim Bauer

myLot Is Run By Weird People

I want to be clear here, a site called myLot, which is a social media site where people talk about their everyday lives, what they ate for dinner, or just pretty much anything at all, is a pretty fun site. I am not going to dismiss that aspect of it. And it is certainly worth a look if you want to talk about anything and nothing and also make a few bucks while you do it.

But what makes the site fun and interesting are the people who are part of the community. Not the owners of the site. And not the admin.

Honestly, they are quite weird. And I have talked about this aspect of the site many times. And like this time, from time to time I feel the need to remind people of the abnormality that exists as part of myLot's existence.

You know, anywhere on the Internet, anywhere in social media, on the very platforms I am using, I can say whatever I want about those platforms. I can air my opinions freely. Those platforms may not like what I have to say. But they at least acknowledge it is not my job to say good things about them.

It is their job to encourage me to say nice things about them through what they do to make me happy about using their site.

I could, for example, write a blog, right here on Blogspot, saying things about Blogspot that won't put Blogspot into a good light. So be it. And that would be perfectly acceptable.

But myLot? They're different. You can't say a single negative thing about the site. It's against their rules. And well, it's a public site just like any other site on the Internet and anyone can find the posts that are written there. 

It's all front and center, searchable, and the posts will and do come up in searches. 

As such, they are scared of any bad publicity, even if it isn't direct, but simply implied. It is them saying, under no uncertain terms, "You will not say bad things about us that others might see outside of the site."

I mean, it's a thing with them. They are scared of it, and I just find it to be rather peculiar. I said it's weird. And that's exactly what I meant. It's weird. They are weird for it.

Take a post I wrote there earlier today. It really was a benign post. It was not making fun of myLot. It was not being disparaging of myLot. It was not scolding myLot, or even complaining about myLot. It was simply a tongue in cheek post about activity being a bit slow in myLot for the day.

That's a no-no, you see. Because God forbid someone out there, the five or so people who might see it, see that post and think there might be something wrong with myLot.

That's why they took it down. Because in their eyes it potentially communicates something about their site they may have reason to be embarrassed about. Why? Who the hell knows? But it's why they took down my post.

The problem there is this; some of us are writers outside of myLot with bigger platforms and louder voices than others. People like me who happen to have a very large audience and the potential for many more eyes to see what I will say here than they might ever have found on their actual site.

And worse, the words I post here are far less tongue in cheek, far less careful, far less friendly, far more scathing, much more critical, and perhaps in some ways, more dangerous to their reputation than anything I might post within the confines of their iron fists.

Like I said, myLot is still a site that can be fun and earn some money. But just know that when you step within their doors, you're locked inside, and they will command you to behave their way or else. Make sure you praise them to the High Heavens. They like praise. They can't handle scorn. They can't handle ridicule. And frankly they fear the truth. 

Like the way I write or the things I write about? Follow me on my Facebook page. If you want to check out myLot as a place to write about anything and get paid without having to be a writer? You can find them at mylot.com. You can find me there as well. My name is Porwest. If you sign up and write an introductory post, let them know Porwest sent you there from The Springboard. 

Online Earnings Restructuring

At the start of the new year, many people set goals, or resolutions for the coming year. Things they would like to change, or things they would like to accomplish. I never resort to the making of resolutions mainly because they tend to be words on paper, and usually nothing more. That said, with the recent major issues arising out of Bubblews, which was a primary source of online income, I have decided that going into 2015 some changes need to be made to the way I intend to make money online through the new year.

In other words, I need to get back to what worked well in the past before Bubblews sort of captured my full attention and took over other efforts to make money online. I also need to look at new potential sources of revenue I have found that need a little bit more of my attention in order for the full potential of income to be realized.

You can think of making money online as a business. We all have something we do to make money online, whether it be writing on social media, or revenue sharing sites like WebAnswers, Bubblews, HubPages, or sites like this, or selling a little piece of our talents. Crafts we sell on eBay, for example, or designing things to sell on places like Zazzle. Some of us even write books which we publish through places like CreateSpace or the Kindle publishing program. Some of us also write, record, and distribute original music. Whatever the thing is that we do that makes us money through online efforts combined can be considered our own little business of sorts.

Businesses need effort and time. Businesses need nurturing and promotion. And sometimes businesses need to undergo a little bit of restructuring in order to fully maximize and capitalize on their full potential to succeed.

So, here are some of the goals I intend to follow through on in the restructuring of my own online money making business of sorts.

• Increase the number of posts written for The Springboard.
• Promote my original song "102 Idle Stones" more effectively and more vigorously.
• Release other singles to add to the success of "102 Idle Stones," with a high concentration on international markets.
• Establish a strong presence on sites likes PersonaPaper and Elitevisitors and continue to look for other revenue sharing sites that offer a place to write and share and earn.
• Increase my efforts at WebAnswers which was a major source of online income in the past.
• Revisit HubPages and reestablish relationships there.
• Increase my designs and promotion of products offered through Zazzle.
• Increase my presence in all forms of social media like Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus in order to maximize any promotional efforts I may wish to accomplish for any facet of my "online business."
• Consider establishing a presence on eBay.
• Increase my promotion of products sold through my affiliation with Amazon and continue to look for any other affiliate programs that offer a good deal of potential to increase earnings opportunities.
• When writing, write more indepth articles, especially through HubPages and The Springboard.

These are just a few of the ideas I have going forward that, done right, should be able to more than make up for, and I even think surpass the earnings that I found possible through a site like Bubblews. The truth is, even though Bubblews earned very well for me, I have to wonder how much I missed out on simply taking that for granted, and letting everything else fall by the wayside in the process?

I think 2015 will not only be a good year for making money online. It will be the best year ever for making money online since I have been forced to return to getting down to business.

Is Bubblews Hard Up For Cash

If you have never heard of the website, Bubblews, perhaps it is time to give it a look. In fact, the site is actually a fairly good money maker if you happen to be one of those who likes to find new ways to make a little extra dough working online.

So, what is Bubblews? I tend to call it sort of like a Facebook on steroids type of a deal. You basically can write about anything you want, and you get paid one penny per view, one penny per like, and one penny per comment.

Not a bad deal.

That all out of the way, there is one thing that affects those pennies. A little glitch the site has from time to time that returns a message, "you already liked this news," even when you did not.

For quite some time that glitch disappeared, and thankfully so. But now it is back with a vengeance, which makes me think. Do they, Bubblews, know how to turn this on and off? Because these guys are programmers, right? They know their stuff when it comes to building and operating a website, right? This can't be that difficult of a bug to figure out...

Not if you know what you are doing. Which, as I've alluded to, I think they do.

So the question for me becomes, is Bubblews hard up for cash? Or is it more along the lines that they want to save a penny here and penny here for themselves and hide behind a glitch that can be turned on and off as easily as a light bulb?

One of two things has to be the answer, because the only alternative answer is that they are amateur programmers that don't know their ass from a hole in the ground. I'm trending toward the latter not being the case.

So, it is a great site that offers up interesting earnings opportunities. But I cannot help but think that something is rotten in Denmark when it comes to this glitch.

So, to those fine people over there who run Bubblews, let me also offer you a word of advice. You are a public site. And many of us write in more than one place than just there. You say you want to be the next Facebook or Twitter. That's a great idea, and I think they may have an opportunity to get at least close one day. But this will not be how to do it. Not with glitches that are annoying and that deny writers a penny here, and a penny there. And certainly not by not knowing how to fix a simple little coding problem.

When you eff it up, you will be called on it for the world to see. You want existing members to stick around and new members to show up, you better get it right. You better do your members right. Because the Internet universe is vast, and so long as I place the word Bubblews in anything I write outside of it, or anyone else for that matter, it could well find its way right underneath your own link to your own site. And it may just cause someone to think twice.

I'm just saying.