Giveaway of the Day Forums

1. 

   OpenSourceSoftwareFan
   Member

   Hi all,

   It seems to be a pattern and trend that very few software users' comments are posted by the GiveAwayOfTheDay team on the GiveAwayOfTheDay software-download site.

   All comments meeting the forum's commenting criteria should be posted quickly and should be given an equal and fair chance to be read and seen by others. For example, 379 people downloaded today's GiveAway software, but only 9 comments (2%) were posted.

   Why? Why? Why?

   The whole point of allowing customers to post their feedback is so others may benefit by their comments. However, if this feedback is not posted at all, or if this feedback is posted late in the day, then this defeats the entire purpose of the feedback.

   The GiveAwayOfTheDay team must satisfactorily resolve this matter very soon.

   Thanks.

   Posted 15 years ago #
2. 

   Whiterabbit-uk
   Games Guru

   Hi opensourcesoftwarefan

   The same thing happened with the game giveaway site. It got to a stage where the comments were being moderated only 3 or 4 times a day; so I volunteered to moderate the game giveaway comments section and made sure I moderated as often as possible. Within weeks of doing so there was a big increase in the number of useful comments being made. I don't moderate the applications side of the giveaway though as I'm not willing to devote enough time to the software itself. I think you can only moderate fairly if you know the software. Moderation seems okay on the giveaway site during the week; it seems to be only at weekends when the comments aren't moderted much.

   The comments section for both the regular giveaway page and the game giveaway page are staffed by volunteers. It gets a bit tedious spending the whole weekend moderating for free, but I love the site and have gained a lot from it, so don't mind helping out; besides I've got lots of time on my hands now that I was forced into retirement by a motorist who wasn't paying attention.

   Maybe you could volunteer to do some moderating occassioally at weekends. Even a few extra moderating sessions would be helpful. That would be great and relieve the pressure off the likes of BuBBy, whose's been moderating for most of the giveaways life.

   Regards

   Whiterabbit

   Posted 15 years ago #
3. 

   HOSS
   Member

   Another thing to consider is that only about 9% of downloaders actually leave comments. I went back to the last 5 or 6 giveaways to check and there was 1 that surpassed the 10% mark. That was Paragon Drive Copy 9.0 which had a 15% comment rate. There was also 1 that only reached the 6% mark. The average was about 8 or 9%. So, while the 2% you mentioned might seem low, there isn't as many commenters as one might think.

   Posted 15 years ago #
4. 

   DJ
   Member

   Maybe it's getting close to the end? What kind of revenue does this site make anyway?
   I can't see it as viable unless there's some kind of profit - Damian

   Posted 15 years ago #
5. 

   watcher13
   Member

   Hey, Hoss. When you're giving those stats, do you have access to the number of actual downloaders, or are you just talking about comparing to the thumbs up/down votes? I'm assuming there are probably many who don't even vote thumbs up or down, so, if you're comparing to the votes, there's probably even less that comment. Which only serves to reinforce your point.

   Damian, I've seen a lot of ups and downs here. Considering that around a thousand people voted on Online Armor, I'm not sure that the site's having problems. I sympathize with you, it's hard to tell, really. As I say, interest seems to ebb and flow.

   WR - today's giveaway is, perhaps, the perfect example of what you're saying. Only 9 comments, apparently because nothing's been approved since the first hour and a half. Perhaps I'll volunteer, but right now my schedule's unsettled, so I'm afraid to make a committment I might not be able to keep.

   Posted 15 years ago #
6. 

   HOSS
   Member

   Whoops! You're right watcher, I was comparing votes to comments not downloads. I would have no way to know how many people downloaded the software. I am guessing that there are a lot of the thumbs down votes that did not download.

   Posted 15 years ago #
7. 

   watcher13
   Member

   But your points valid, regardless.

   Posted 15 years ago #
8. 

   Whiterabbit-uk
   Games Guru

   There is a site that gives download statitics for the giveaway project. I've forgotten the url though.

   As for commitment; you don't really need to commit, just moderate the comments whenever you feel like it. At least then there would be more moderation. If a few community members did this, it would make things better.

   To Rezidue,

   The giveaway site makes money via the forums as well. If you look at any post in the forums theres a Tag to the top right of each thread, which lists genuine tags for the post and then a pile of others that link to other sites. the giveaway project has got a high standing with the big search engines, so it's used as a vehicle to generate revenue through these tags; though you'd probably never guess.

   Post a phrase on the comments section and then make a search. You'll see what I mean with respect to the giveaways high standing.

   regards

   WR

   Posted 15 years ago #
9. 

   watcher13
   Member

   Some clarification please, WR, or anyone else. How would I, or anyone willing, go about this? My interpretation is that you would use the contact form to send an e-mail to GOTD requesting this status. Am I understanding that correctly?

   The impression I'm getting is that you and Bubby, and maybe some other people who I haven't seen identified in the time that I've been coming here, do as much volunteer moderation as you can. Then, GOTD staff drop in, occassionally, just to make sure there isn't a horrific backlog of unmoderated comments. The problem that I have with this is that many of us would like to see GOTD staff (how many actually are there? I sometimes think only 1 or 2.) become MORE, NOT LESS, engaged in this project.

   It's not that I'm criticizing, it's just that if some new member asks me how aware GOTD is of the comments people post over there, after a year of coming there, I would still have to say, "I don't have the slightest idea". I don't mind someone here setting me straight, but in my 7 months as a forum member, I still haven't seen any evidence to whether or not they actually spend much time reading anything posted over there. I've seen them step up and try to solve certain problems, but I don't even have any way of knowing whether that's because they saw a bunch of comments on that problem, or whether somebody like you or Bubby zipped off an email to them. Unless they have VERY few staff, I'm not sure of the wisdom of volunteer moderators. I figured you and Bubby were doing it because you were on really good terms, at least through e-mail with the team, because of the good service you both had given to the project. That you were exceptions to the rule, not just that you were one of few who were willing to volunteer, altough I doubt it's THAT simple.

   Also, I'm not following you on the tags. Maybe, I need to look at some other forum posts, but the only ones I saw just now had links to the GOTD freeware library. Are there others that go to out of house sites, or is GOTD getting some payment from members who post to the freeware library if they get a search engine hit? I'm not up on the mechanics of earning payment through search engine hits, so I'm probably just ignorant, but I'm not following you.

   Posted 15 years ago #

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