Something needs to be done, really. MMORPG.com staff need to step up with moderating these 'user blogs'. Most of the entries these days are either copy pastes done by gold farmers with links to their unsafe websites, or posts by paid community representatives advertising their particular game. I don't think this was the intended use of this feature. Oh well, could just be me.
I am not interested in reading about events or features of a bland and uninteresting free-to-play grindfest. If I wanted to play one of your mediocre time sinks, trust me, I would be.
And the gold farmers, oh the gold farmers! Sometimes these morons post three entries in a row, composed of back to back copy pasted articles from the same website. Why are the accounts not banned and the blog entries removed? I am sure MMORPG.com does not want people clicking on links to websites that are not only promoting services that are against the TOS of most games, but are also horrenduous security risks.
When the blogging feature was first introduced we had numerous interesting blogs with either monthly or weekly entries with well written and original content. These days, you can only wish. I can only hope something is done quickly before the blogging community that once existed on this website is completely destroyed.
Agree. Hardly spend time in here now, nothing worth reading except the same 'spam'.
Wed Jul 23 2008 11:01AMI write maybe 2 blog entries a month. I'd hope that the things I write about people find interesting. Lately I just haven't had much to write about and at this moment in time gaming isn't really my main focus in my life right now. It's summer time!
Wed Jul 23 2008 11:08AMWell, I'm trying to blog fairly regularly. Its hard though because every time I find something interesting to report, something else excitiing comes along before I get round yo writing about the first thing!
You can subscribe to a blog's rss feed here though - wouldn't that stop you having to read spam?
Wed Jul 23 2008 11:19AMMaybe if there should be a feature if you can ignore someone in the forums, their blogs would be ignored and therefore not displayed on your screen as well?
Wed Jul 23 2008 11:24AM-
Wed Jul 23 2008 11:33AMWell yes, subscribing to blogs and browsing through them helps a lot, Guernica, but the spam still leaves a bad taste in the mouth for me. Its hard to find new and interesting blogs, when they are only up on the main page for a few minutes during peak posting times thanks to the spam.
This is a problem on every site, however, and I'm not blaming MMORPG.com for its existence. I just wish there was that lovely little spot in the internet somewhere, where these buffoons hadn't yet made their mark. Places like somethingawful are nice for people who enjoy that kind of humor, but if you do not like the general tone of the community there, which I don't, the place isn't for you. The same applies for every 'exclusive' board out there.
It is annoying to write a well written Blog only to have it get bumped off the charts by bullshit posts about gold spammers. They should either crack down on the bullshit ones, or allow people to rate blogs while adding an ability to see the highest rated or most read blogs.
Wed Jul 23 2008 11:48AM/signed
Wed Jul 23 2008 12:29PMRating the best blogs probably wouldn't work... considering the nonsense that goes on with game ratings and ways to cheat/inflate it.
What I still would like to see is a way to report viral/spam/goldfarming blog entires with a click of a button next to the entry. Something really needs to be done about this.
Wed Jul 23 2008 12:53PMBlog features in a website always run the risk of having spam. Perhaps it is the very nature of "blogging" i.e. free speech that makes it so.
I understand the strain that this might take on MMORPG.com staff to constantly monitor each and every post. Why not just have a "report this blogger" function so that members of the community can contribute to the policing?
Just a thought..
Wed Jul 23 2008 1:43PMExcept that you'll have commenters or bloggers who don't like each other reporting one another for spam.
Simple solution. User moderators. MMORPG.com readers and posters moderating their own. Chosen by MMO.com staff based on user activity.
Volunteers would not be accepted. The mods would be chosen and approched by the admins only.
Wed Jul 23 2008 2:20PMWe do allow a fair amount of freedom of expression and writing in the blogs since they are your own space to express yourselves. We do not however allow gold and powerleveling advertisments to be made out of our blogs. I am sorry we've softened up on the moderation of the blogs and today I will go through the blog system and clean it up.
Wed Jul 23 2008 3:04PMI still think an ignore option should be made for the blogs. The ignore option should simply suspend the user from viewing that particular owners blog. Freed om of speech preserved. You can write anything you want. We just don't have to read it.
Thu Jul 24 2008 8:05AMI'd take an Ignore feature. At least I'd be able to ignore all the jokers who casually cut/paste articles from other sites. But realize that the insistent ones would keep creating new accounts just like they do in MMOs that have free trials.
The solution that springs to mind for me is to have a system where not only can I ignore bloggers, but I agree to ignore bloggers that my Friends have ignored. You do the same thing. So when I log on and see a spammer, I ignore him and that gets him ignored for me and my friends. Or perhaps just that article.
There are many more of us than there are spammers. All we need is a system that lets us work together to block their junk. MMOs should be doing the same thing; let a community of characters act voluntarily to moderate who gets to speak to them.
After a fashion, I suppose this is a collaborative version of a spam filter. Have everyone noticed that we now receive junk mail in our MMORPG.COM mailboxes? Incredible.
Thu Jul 24 2008 9:39AMMMORPG.com writes:
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