Entrecard Bans Most Members From Forums-So Much For “Transparency.”
Entrecard: Give and take and take and take...
First, let me state, I am not accusing anyone of one specific wrong-doing, if, any have been made. I am merely presenting the text transcripts of chats I was involved in, while still a moderator at Entrecard. I will leave any opinions, facts, thoughts, etc., up to you, the readers. One fact is certain: Entrecard closed the once public forums, declaring the following:
The rules for the new structure will be:
You must be an entrecard member.
You must have purchased 400 ads
The only all user area will be community support. Anything that is not a valid community support thread will be deleted.
From here forward there will be no bashing of any kind.
Interesting, isn’t it? They’re worried about bashing? What about the 25,000 members, (claimed by Graham), who liked to interact- or new members, who need real answers, not half-assed as usual? Or, was this planned? I mean, after all, the first payouts for the new cash for credits system have been set. Which would mean actually having to follow through on paying those who deserve to be paid. Ponder this a little folks. How many of you have considered leaving Entrecard, or, have already done so? Then, read the text below, the full version, between Graham and myself, before I said so-long. And I can prove the validity by sharing, or creating a document in Google Docs. I’ll also apologize for having to provide a link, apparently the theme I’m using only allows a set amount of characters in a post. Sneaky Little Devils, Eh?
Anything catch your eye? The last text, is a portion from a meeting which occurred after the announcement of the new cash for credits “incentive.” Most of the text was BSing, so I copied, what I feel, is the most important. And yes, I can share the document in its entirety as well. I have nothing to hide. I tried to do the best job possible as a moderator- for no pay, no compensation, other than the 5000 credits I had to ask for-attempted to throw out ideas, hoping someone would say, “hey, that might work,” and defending someone who I’ve since reconciled with, after Graham handled the situation in the worst way possible. I did what any of you would have done- bitched, complained and finally, after dealing with enough childishness, moved on. Now, it’s up to you. You decide how you want to network and gain readers for your blog. You determine what is best and your motives.
I Smell Something…
When the locks are changed, it’s time to find a new home.
I was a moderator too, and I was never told about meeting or anything of the like. I was never given any information about anything important to the position, such as the clean up contest. I was never even “BCC’ed” anything.
Oh well, it’s time to move on and most of the quality ex-members of EC(you, turnip, ben) are now at CMF.
So, there’s no loss for me.
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Emma- it just blows my mind- to give someone a job to do and not even include them in discussions, (it happened to me as well), or even bother to mention it to the other mods. Maybe the others knew, but I didn’t, because for the longest time I felt as if I was handling it all. Just out of curiosity, did anyone recommend you to be a mod, or did Graham choose you? You can email me if you want-that’s perfectly fine. Or, PM me on CMF-because that’s the place to be
I have no idea, I just submitted my application in the help desk and waited.
Stuart was the one who told me that I was a candidate and that he would be guiding me. Other then that, not a peep out of anyone.
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“grahamlangdon: so we’re taking half the impressions…50%…its mean of us, but we wants it”
That should be the headline. So phirate and Graham joke over cutting members ad impressions by 50%. And all Andy Pandy can think about is mod compensation. Thanks for your contibution at the meeting, next! At least they seem to know a fiasco when they see one.
Turnip�s last blog post..Entrecard Founder Caught Faking Forum Posts
Two additional points to note- the fact that Graham seemed to have no clue as to how the changes would work- and he wanted a private stats page so he could keep up to date-blah blah blah.
I replied in the CMF Forums, but I wish you had screen shots.
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You know how I feel about all of thios – GREAT!
Man, I LOVED EC so much for a while that it was actually painful to watch the downhill slide at first. Now? Not so much.
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It’s like a car accident on the side of the road and I can’t tear my eyes away. I have a feeling this accident will have fatalities.
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Beth,
At first I was shocked, but after a while, I have come to understand these youngsters have little to no ethics. I’m not sure we can blame it on a lack of business experience either. To me, it’s more a product of the “I want it now, I want it all, and I don’t care who I screw to get it now” attitude of our younger generation.
Andy’s busy offering credits right and left in their little clique, and I’m sure he’ll soon run out of my 15000 credits… the ones he basically stole when he penalized my accounts for so-called spam.
I’m pretty much done with the children now. The last widget is gone from my blogs, and I gave away the last 1750 credits to folks who look like they’re staying put for the time being.
In the meantime, I see a need to keep the pressure on, and get the word out to at least bring an awareness to this scam…yes, it’s gone from a pretty good program to a scam in my eyes.
Shari, I think you missed one on the blog linked in your name.
Beth,
This cements my opinion that they’re just trying to get some bucks before the ship sinks. I’m definitely disappointed with Phi, though. *sigh* I don’t know why I thought he was above that crap. Wishful thinking I guess.
I’m sorry to see EC go. Really I am. I liked that service. Hopefully CMF will fill the hole.
Oh! And, beth, Can you turn the CommentLuv off in my last comment? Seems Live Writer dropped a little surprise on my blog. LOL!
It’s gone. You may have to clear cache/cookies for it not to show up. I pulled it before I wrote the post.
No tricks here. No lies here.
Shari
I wasn’t accusing you of anything. If I were to do that I would be very clear.
I did see the widget and thought I’d let you know in case you missed it. I’m on a brand new PC, so not entirely clear how my cache would affect that, but I don’t see it anymore.
And, no, I’m still not accusing anyone of anything. *sigh*
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look why doesn’t everyone just give graham langdon a break he is doing his best and i think he is doing a great job i have been with EC for a while now and i haven’t had any problems whatsoever and just because he is young that doesn’t mean that he can’t run a business and for all the petty things that you are doing by putting a private conversation on your blog it’s pathetic all of use seriously need to grow up and get a life i would like to see you do better cause i would rather be on Ec than CMF ads because turnip head just plays dirty because he is jealous of Graham turnip makes me laugh with how pathetic he is
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Well, Susan, GTalk has this nifty featured called, “off the record.” If anyone using the service wants to keep a conversation private, all he/she has to do is check mark a little box and viola- it’s off the record. I signed no confidentiality agreements, I’m not making accusations, I only provided the text for people to read and determine what they wanted to do as an individual regarding the Entrecard Service.
BTW, punctuation is your friend.
Hahaha! Really? You really pushed submit after writing that? What were you texting from a phone with no punctuation available?
*Sorry I’m off-topic, but this is getting hilarious.*
In the name of full disclosure, the illiterate post above was made by an Entrecard Employee. Susan is none other than “Make a Pound”, a member of the EC Technical Support Staff. “all of use” need to purchase an online grammar course. One more naughty outbust like that, I will will show you how dirty your boss plays. Go ahead Susan, open your piehole again and I will dedicate my next post to you.
Turnip�s last blog post..Entrecard Founder Caught Faking Forum Posts
Actually, I think I still have mod status although I haven’t tried using anything lately.
I am not surprised by much of this except Phirate as I thought at one time that he was more ethical than these exchanges have shown him to be. That’s a real disappointment.
Their cash-out method evidently isn’t going to get me much for my credits, but I suppose I have to look at it like anything is better than zero which is basically all I have now.
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my blog is actually susanshome not make a pound and everyone is entitled to there own opinion your entiltle to your opinion if you like graham or not so i’m entitle to my opinion on if i like you or not
susan�s last blog post..The Sims 2: Life Stories
The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, does it? Why lie about it?
If one goes to your site and clicks on the EC toolbar, it leads to your EC page showing you as the author of both susanshome and makeapound.
http://entrecard.com/details/116135
Sorry, wrong answer “Susan”. As anyone can clearly see, you and “Make a Pound” are one and the same person: http://entrecard.com/details/116135
You share linked blogs at entrecard. Whether you be a sockpuppet, a she-male with a split personality, or two separate people, the proof is still there you speak with one voice. Tonight’s post will be a good one and dedicated to you, though not about you.
Turnip�s last blog post..Entrecard Founder Caught Faking Forum Posts
@susan, you own three blogs, sweetcheeks: makeapound.blogspot.com/, susansbestfilms.blogspot.com, and susanshome.blogspot.com
Shows how lame you are if you actually tried to lie about that!
just because i have linked blogs that doesn’t mean they are all mine i own 2 of them the make a pound one is my fiances
susan�s last blog post..The Sims 2: Life Stories
It’s your idiosyncratic punctuation and individual style of sentence construction that gives you away.
I suppose its possible susan and fiance went to the same skool and got the same bad edukashun, hence the bad speling and punk2ation. In which case, school = fail!
Ian�s last blog post..You really do have to wonder sometimes
And, apparently, you post on your fiance’s blog. See this post. Sheila’s right.
I admire your dedication though.
(thinking I should write this ongoing drama as a soap script. susan is pitch-perfect as the villainous assistant and the plot is shaping up to be better than The Edge of Light)
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All of this is certainly demonstrating to me why it was a good thing I dumped EC when I did.
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Well….. Very interesting reading. And all just as I have been thinking for a time now.
Thanks for sharing!!
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Entrecard has always been a complete waste of time. I tried to figure out why Turnip and all these other power EC users were using the system, and couldn’t for the life of me figure it out.
Graham has proved to be nothing more than a bumbling child idiot when it comes to handling a business. But to his credit, EC was a complete waste of time from the get go, and he probably knows this and is just trying to milk it one final time.
The time spent dropping and networking within the EC environs is better spent on ANY other social networking system if all you want to do is drive traffic to your site.
Oh, and Susan, you’re a moron if you think those sites don’t scream your horrible punctuation.
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This is really all so funny, pathetic, tragic, all sorts of things. Its like watching a train wreck as it happens.
Ian�s last blog post..You really do have to wonder sometimes
New people will join EC as long as it stays online. They won’t know the background, the way the forums used to be or the way the credits used to be handled. For better or worse they will join and only know it for how it is. They will think it’s a good service and go on to use it. Graham doesn’t need to keep old members around who will criticize his set up. He just needs to keep new people coming in. Not having the forum will help in keeping them in the dark about how things could be different. But, for new people it won’t really matter cause they will only see it for how it is for them. So EC will live on. As someone said, all the talk and posting about it just brings more attention and more new members to EC. Negative posts just sound like a lot of people complaining. If you really want to do battle with EC you have to stop posting about it. I made my post about leaving and won’t be saying any more about it in my blog. After reading what others are posting I considered deleting my own post. But, I did want to let EC droppers know the widget was gone. Anyway, none of our posting is bothering Graham because it is all just helping EC to grow. He is thanking all of us for being of service to him I’m sure.
When I wrote this post, I told those who read it, to take from it what they wanted. I wasn’t complaining- I was telling the story of what I witnessed. Do I think, by posting the information, EC will go down? No. Sure, new members will sign up, but, will learn, eventually, how things work. Just by signing up and finding out you don’t have access to one of the most important features of any social networking service-actually socializing with members, should be a red flag. Then again, people are so concerned with money and traffic for their blogs, they probably don’t/won’t care.
I said in the CMF forums, this would be my last post about EC. I have spent the last 90 minutes deleting over 500 spam comments-all of which show the IP as coming through a proxy server. Plus, someone signed my blog up for some kind of spam traffic site, slowing down the load time of my pages, (it’s since stopped), so I now have to contact Ben to let him know- because it’s against the TOS of CMF.
I just want to move on, continue blogging, and interacting with other bloggers to gain more readers. That’s it- nothing more. I’m taking the time to add all the blogs who are advertising with me, to a Google Doc, so I can keep track, visit the sites and give extra link love 2-3 times a week. I’m making it a goal to read all the blogs, leave comments where/when appropriate and going back to the “old” way of socializing. And yes, I’m staying with CMF because I like it- the people, the forums-the advertising.
I’m fairly new to entrecard and I was smelling something fishy. You’ve certainly confirmed my suspensions. The funny thing is that the few bloggers who have remained seem to be bonding together in not accepting any more paid ads.
Seems to me that there are better ways to be making money. I’d be thinking seriously about how to keep members at Entre. Leave the advertising to AdSense.
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I’m doing the same Beth. Have been putting the blogs I like to read on Google Reader and trying to make the time to really use it. I’m still not a fan of using feeds, they seem to awkward, like going through a back door instead of the front.
Yes, this is just shocking. I would have left Entrecard already, but I keep clinging to the hope that maybe it can still go back to the way it was. If not, either way – the drama would have been entertaining to say the least.
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Entrecard is becoming a classic example of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.
And to cap it all,they now display an immature,juvenile siege mentality just because the nasty bloggers won’t accept their nonsense.
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Beth, this is excellent article and points presented! Entrecard has quickly become it’s own soap opera or rather what I’m viewing as an episode of Jerry Springer. There is something new almost daily and it’s always something that is just a little bit worse than the day before. Closing the forums the way they did sends a very strong message that they are trying to hide something along with a “you’re not welcome here message” to new users. I honestly fail to see how they think censorship in any manner is going to keep the EC community happy. The mature and businesslike fashion to deal with negative is to address the issue, try to fix it and make it more positive. The way things are going there certainly appears GL is bent on destroying EC so I do question why?
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Is it my imagination, or has Andy disappeared since you posted this?!
Maybe I’m just suspicious by nature.
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I never go to Entrecard, so I wouldn’t know-but it seems, based on what others stated, Graham disappeared.
I just tried to give EC a thumbs down in Stumble only to find they are banned in StumbleUpon.
Didn’t know that, thought I’d share. Once a site becomes unworthy of existence in my eyes, I make it a point to hit the social sites and demote their entries.
Not only is it satisfying, but they ultimately take the hit if enough people do it. I’m sure I’m not the only one that does this.
Wonder how long it will be until we see EC close it’s doors.
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Another very interesting piece of info.
Entrecard has given in to complaints and reopened the forums. Unfortunately, they also banned me for complaining at the same time!
You wins some, you lose some
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