Dear Community – Re: Our Failure
We as a community have failed to live up to the standards that we should all strive for. The very foundations of Triond itself continue to shake loose every day, and not one of us is making an active effort to do something about it.
Dear Triond Users,
Several months ago, I noticed an influx of poorly-written content by users who originate in countries where English is not the native tongue. I applaud them for their attempts to contribute quality material to Triond’s network.
What disturbs me, however, is the trend of the community at large to respond to this content with a string of comments that boil down to variations of “Well written,” “Keep it up,” and “Nice work.” When I scroll through dozens of these saccharine comments, I can’t help but wonder if the person who posted the comment even bothered to read the article in question. I’m sure the authors enjoy the positive reinforcement, but I’ve got a question for you: how do you justify leaving comments that are, at their core, lies? You aren’t helping anyone by encouraging more low quality and occasionally incomprehensible content on Triond’s network of sites.
Do not mistake this for a plea to stamp out these authors and their works. It is instead a cry to the community as a whole to provide honest and useful critiques of each other’s works. Let’s face it, if any one of us scrolled through the comments left on our own work, we would find that the bulk of the responses would fall into the same vein as those mentioned above. Let us no longer live by the saying “If you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say anything at all.” Instead, if there is something you don’t like, say so, and add to it an alternative way of doing things that may be more appealing to you and others who may feel the same way as you. For the love of all things sacred, put a stop to comments of “well written” attached to content rife with spelling mistakes and glaring grammatical issues. Point these things out, and encourage the authors to submit fixes, because in the long run, a higher standard of quality helps all of us.
Let’s be honest with ourselves for a moment. For example, if you were searching for information about digital SLR cameras, and you found an article on Quazen that said, “Nikon are teh bestest SLR digitals on market. Never buying other brand LOL.” You would assume the rest of Quazen consisted of similarly worthless content, and would never bother going to the site again, right? Every day that very scenario is playing out across the Triond network, and the more we encourage low quality work to continue, the more frequently the network will lose traffic to sites with better content.
So, I put this final question to you all: Are you doing your part?
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January 15th, 2010 at 10:57 am
and would you be stephen king or an editor may I ask, I find this article not very uplifting to those making an effort to make a few dollars here and there to help support the family,
January 15th, 2010 at 10:59 am
Good article.
Saccharine, not saccrine.
Standard of quality, not stadard of quality
January 15th, 2010 at 11:38 am
Firstly: I like this article. I think you’re absolutely right, and people shouldn’t leave comments unless they’ve viewed and read the work in question. I was being hated in the forum the other day for not commenting, and being told that I was lying about having viewed the work. If someone wants views, I am happy to click on their work, but am not going to waste time actually reading something that doesn’t interest me and never will.
Secondly: You need an apostrophe in ”Trionds” (it should read ”Triond’s” in the first and second paragraphs.
”Meantioned” should be spelled ”mentioned” in the third paragraph.
”Stadard” should be ‘’standard” in the third paragraph.
I also suggest that you revise speech as well, as you sometimes misuse punctuation/capital lettering at both the beginning and end of speech.
That being said, your writing flows nicely, and I love the way that you use several rhetorical questions in your piece in an attempt to engage the reader. You do this well.
I like the fact that you vary your sentence structure to include long sentences and then the occasional short, snappy line, which adds excitement and also suspense in parts.
You paragraph nicely, moving on at just the right time to allow the reader a short break in the prose without losing their attention. I also like the opening description, as it gained certainly my attention immediately.
I am guessing that this is the kind of thing you think we should be posting. I am happy to do so for people who want it, but some people are just here for the views, sadly.
All in all, a good article. Well done. Have a nice day.
January 15th, 2010 at 11:44 am
Darn – Uma beat me to the punch. I was going to say that!
This really was a good article, despite a couple of errors.
I think that the Triond editors need to raise the bar for articles they will accept. I know it would slow the process down, but I think that a human editor should at least glance at every post. I agree that poor quality work gives us a reputation for shoddy writing.
Dawn – it is noble to make an effort to help support your family, but the reality is that if you don’t have the skills to write a good article, you should take some writing classes and find a good editor. Or perhaps you need to look elsewhere for employment. We are not employees of Triond, we are freelance writers selling our craft. They are not obligated to print our work on their web sites if it doesn’t meet their standards.
January 15th, 2010 at 11:59 am
Nice article and very true. I for one am guilty of not being completely truthful when commenting on another persons published work. There are many gifted people in the triond community that i have great respect for their published work, and some who i just hate to hurt their feelings. As far as myself, i just do this for a hobby and don’t expect to become a famous poet, but i need to be more honest like your article said, because that is the only way that some of these people will ever learn and improve. Well done.
January 15th, 2010 at 12:02 pm
@Dawngordon – This isn’t supposed to be uplifting it’s supposed to be a wake up call. If I were Stephen King I wouldn’t be wasting my time picking up a few nickles here and there writing for Triond. I have no sympathy for anyone who is just trying to make a few bucks at the expense of quality.
@Uma – Your comment is an exellent example of what I’m talking about. Too often people respond with “Good Article” but you took it the step further and pointed out a couple mistakes you noticed. I don’t think it’s too much to ask for others to do the same.
@Silent writer – You’ve gone above and beyond the kind of thing I’d like to see more often. You’ve picked out all the mistakes normally caught when I make my wife proof read my work, but added plenty of input about what you liked as well.
@Karen – You’re absolutely right that the Triond editors need to raise the bar. If I were in their position much of the content I’ve come across lately would never have made it past my desk. Someone needs to remind them that their pay checks are at stake if Triond falls apart due to poor content.
January 15th, 2010 at 12:17 pm
Also a revision is awaiting my grammar Nazi wife to come home from work, because frankly my grammar and spelling is abysmal and I could never produce quality work without her input. This article is a prime example of how horrible my grammar is, I submitted it last night after she went to bed without her giving it the once over first.
January 15th, 2010 at 12:28 pm
You know, if a foundation is crumbling you shouldn’t pick at it. You should find someone qualified to fix it and freakin’ fix it.
Those who write well and people enjoy reading will rise to the top while those who write poorly, irritating others with their lack of fundamental skill will not. As with anything, there are exceptions-in all categories. Rather than complain that those who are of lesser skill are bringing the rest down, one should concentrate their efforts celebrating those who are great, or even just accepted, and leave those who are not to be sifted out by society’s strainer.
People tend to complain rather than celebrate. Pick apart the weak in order to make one’s own self seem greater rather than strive to become greater and lift the others around them up…So here I celebrate those who are tagged as hot users-http://www.triond.com/explore/users and I give the advice to all others who need it-educate yourself whenever you can and you will get better at something. That means take a look at the hot users list and you will probably learn something from those artists.
January 15th, 2010 at 12:37 pm
I\’m not even going to mention errors in this article because the topic and your opinions are spot on. Over the past few months I have noticed a significant decrease in views across the board with all of the triond sites. Not only that, but the page ranks of these subsites are dismal, which leads me to believe that Google may be dropping some of the articles from indexing considering all the useless content and spamming.
This is the main reason I went to other sites and started blogging. I make over 20.00 for 200 words now on my blog through many freelance sites and paid post sites that have high reputations with Google.
I think, actually I know, that when you stumbleupon articles on Quazen, trifter, Purpleslinky, etc that the content is short and the pics are a plenty. I admit, I have submitted some pieces that have less than 500 words, but honestly, I\’m at the point that I don\’t think that an article I have worked on for hours and has rich content deserves to be on this site.
January 15th, 2010 at 12:54 pm
I totally agree. Anyone can make typos.. I do, and for heaven’s sake I haven’t read a book lately that I have paid good money for which doesn’t have at least one typo. But the poor content and some of the dribble that comes across should be “denied.”
January 15th, 2010 at 1:40 pm
I agree with you @Valerie. I just bought a history book for a class and I found 5 typos on one page. I really don’t think people know the difference on here, as they tend to nitpick the great articles and tell the others, which can hardly write a coherent sentence….. that it’s great, oh and I like the pictures. Geez!
January 15th, 2010 at 2:12 pm
The quality of the content published on Triond is the responsibility of the editors as it is with any publication. You would not expect the freelance contributors of a magazine to police the magazine; but your point about some of the poor quality of the writing is well taken. It is up to the editors to improve the quality. I will take a comment from anyone. I just want the hit.
January 15th, 2010 at 2:36 pm
@Guy Hogan – I respect your honesty about your motivations, but I’ve seen your work and you don’t sacrifice quality for the sake of hoping to draw a bunch of hits. You’re right freelance writers wouldn’t be expected to police a magazine, but they’d take their work elsewhere if the magazine wasn’t able to pay as well anymore because it’s overall quality has taken a steep down turn and it’s lost readership as a result. I suspect my complaint will resonate closer to home with the Triond writers who try to maintain some illusion of community. I don’t write here to make money, I write here to get honest useful criticism. If I wanted to make money I wouldn’t be writing primarily science fiction.
@JLEck – The problem with your plan is you assume the poor content will be sifted out. Thing is it isn’t going to be. It will endure as long as the internet endures, and the more of it there is, the harder it will hit the reputation of the sites. Ignoring it isn’t going to solve anything. At least by make honest assessments of the work you may help the authors learn from their mistakes.
January 15th, 2010 at 2:43 pm
wow am I glad that I read this. I think all of you here should go over to twitter and tweet the government on political issues. You seem to have the knack for outthereness.
January 15th, 2010 at 3:51 pm
Excellent article and kudos to you for writing something like this. I totally agree with you. There are a lot of people writing for Triond who don’t know how to write. As a Journalist, I wonder how on earth do some of these articles get published especially when their grammatical and spelling skills are poor. In the past, I tried to correct a few people on their articles especially the spelling and people started attacking me so I have literally stopped. Even though I am a good writer and I could probably be working as an editor too because both my spelling and grammatical skills are pretty darn good, who am I to judge anyone else on their writing? Also, there seems to be a difference between the spelling of United Kingdom and U.S. In the U.S, the word recognize is spelled with a z not with an s and in England it is spelled with an s just like mom is spelled correctly in the US and it is spelled mum in the U.K.
January 15th, 2010 at 4:20 pm
Thank you for this article, when I first came to this site I was looking for help to write so that people would enjoy reading my stories. I prefer honesty rather than flattery. I can learn from people who take the time to say what is good about the writing and what needs improvement. If people tell me,my writing is great all the time when its not I will get a swollen head which would end in a large head ache. So please visit my stories and article and help me become an artist with words. Have a great day. Oh in New Zealand some times we spell things differently,not that,thats an excuse for bad spelling,grammar is also a problem. So would you please help me to be the very best writer I can be. Please forgive my odd sense of humour.
January 15th, 2010 at 4:28 pm
“Socially relevant narrative interrogatories for marginalized intellectual super-ordinaries seeking remedial companionship”
~Versus~
“Pick-up lines for nerds who want to score with hot babes!”
The problem with Triond is the problem with the English language itself—we let almost everyone use it—badly! (!–this is an exclamation point, for those who don’t recognize it, think of it as an “emoticon” without a good agent….)
January 15th, 2010 at 5:39 pm
You’re article is completely right. About a week ago I saw an article trying to sell a runescape account. I wondered how that could possibly have gotten past the editors, especially since it is against the runescape terms and conditions and maybe illegal. Also, I personally love when people point out my mistakes so I can fix it, I sometimes put a note at the end or a comment saying that if there are any mistakes or things I should add to tell me in a comment. Also, this article has more intelligent well written comments than any writing I’ve seen before.
January 15th, 2010 at 6:41 pm
I applaud you for writing this article. Thank you.
January 15th, 2010 at 6:42 pm
I do agree that the terrible content will stick around in memory banks for all eternity and that sucks, but I was referring to the authors/artists themselves. They will be remembered for their greatness or lack thereof. Page rank of a website is not necessarily the point of writing unless one is truly writing for money. That is a kind of hypocritical gray zone, no? Quality of content is as one would say…In the eye of the beholder. Someone who uses English as a second language may be celebrated in their culture as a “phenom” for their ability to cross the language barrier whether or not they do so with perfection of skill. And also this site is technically from the middle east, not the US, right? Should everything be posted as language from that cultural zone?
I don’t know I just like to give the other side of things and piss people off, I guess. No offenses intended, but I’m sure there will be some;)
January 15th, 2010 at 6:58 pm
I really liked the article and honestly, I didn’t catch the typos or grammatical errors on first glance. More than just liking your article, I like the conversation that it spawned– the comments *are* deeper than a teaspoon and worthy of consideration.
I’ve been on Triond for a while now, but only recently started submitting content. I typically take about an hour to write an article (more if there’s research involved) and two or three more to fix mistakes, edit out awkward phrases, check for typos, and poke at it with a stick. Honestly, I don’t write for money and if I thought about publishing anything I probably wouldn’t write at all. I pretend that everything I write is meant for my eyes only and then have to spend time convincing myself that its worthy to share.
It seems to me that the problem of poor content (and I’ve seen a few things that definitely fit in that category) doesn’t have a single solution, but could be attacked from different angles. Triond editors might want to double check articles, even approved ones. Triond members that do care about quality content should post *more* good content instead of less. Even if that means writing 2-3 short yet brilliant articles over 1 long but good article. To allow readers to report or rate articles fairly (maybe to draw attention to drivel and typo laden pieces for editors to review yet again) seems fair.
January 15th, 2010 at 7:06 pm
If a writer posts an article which requires correcting then I would suggest that sending a private email would be more constructive than publicly commenting on it. People who are making the effort to post should be encouraged. Which is correct, nite or night? Allowances must be made for users who may not have English as a first language.
January 15th, 2010 at 9:01 pm
@JLEck – Truth is, even though I am appealing to the community minded among us, I don’t really consider myself a part of it. Due mostly to the fact that I just don’t spend much time reading other peoples work, or even writing my own much lately. I only wrote the article to begin with because it seemed no one else was willing to jump out there and say something.
Perhaps users who are not native English speakers should be encouraged to write in their native language. I know Triond supports other languages, and I have to wonder whether or not anyone out there is even taking advantage of that. The poor quality content can’t all be blamed on non-native speakers though, I only mentioned them because those were the cases that caught my eye most often in the last month or so.
January 15th, 2010 at 10:43 pm
Heck, -the COMMENTS here are better than the article!
January 16th, 2010 at 12:06 am
I agree with stickman.
Its better to try and fail… you know the rest bro.
January 16th, 2010 at 1:35 am
There should be no compromise in the tools of the language, even the content is gory sometimes.
January 16th, 2010 at 1:42 am
This is what a community is all about…Writing, reading, commenting and screwing with the artists and comments that go with their works. Drake,now you are part of the community-whether you like it or not! Muhahahahaha;)
January 16th, 2010 at 2:08 am
I’ll leave your grammar and spelling alone, since that has already been adressed. THANK YOU for saying what so many of us have been thinking!!!
January 16th, 2010 at 7:56 am
I agree with you my friend I have seen useless crap piling up on here lately. I cant believe it is being published in the first place. The forum is also a waste of time to visit because it is filled with people arguing and fighting about such petty stuff. When I joined this site over a year ago there was some really great articles being posted and there still is some great articles but they are getting far and in between and lost among all the crap. I was appalled at the top article on the hot content list. This site needs a wake up call and soon or the people who don’t really care about what they publish are going to be the down fall of Triond and it is too bad. There are some really great people and writings here but you know what they say one bad apple can spoil the entire bushel.
January 16th, 2010 at 10:20 am
@GWitt and thestickman – Oh damn, you guys got me. Way to contribute something meaningful.
Gwitt, I’m not really sure where you are going with your “Better to try and fail…” but as far as I’m concermed I accomplished exactly what I expected to accomplish. I stimulated a mostly meaningful string of comments, yourself excluded of course.
January 17th, 2010 at 1:29 pm
I don’t speak very good French. Ergo, I don’t write articles in French.
It’s not rocket science, surely. As for the comments, I am myself tired of comments that don’t really mean very much. I mean, would you go up to Rodin’s “The Thinker” and, with a nervous giggle, exclaim “nice”? I think not. Then again, I think the modus operandi of this sort of commentator is more to show that he has been there than to offer advice. It’s a good thing, too, for would you really value advice given by such a vacuous person?
January 17th, 2010 at 1:30 pm
Incidentally – what’s this “our” business, paleface?
It’s got nothing to do with me…
January 18th, 2010 at 7:11 pm
@Tabitha – It may not have anything to do with you, but I think it’s fair to say it does apply to the majority of the “community” of Triond users.
January 19th, 2010 at 5:16 pm
I know exactly what you mean!
Although I’m not from England, nor the U.S.A. I still hope my works has a certain quality.
Off course, I do know it’s probably not as good as an English speaking person would have written it but my articles aren’t bad.
And I’ve seen bad articles.
I’ve seen the comments saying: nice work on an article which said: “Moafter month in the header, well that’s an example of the quality of Triond these days.”
I’m not saying grammar should be 100% perfect, we’re all humans and we make mistakes, I’m sure this comment will have a few faults but make it at least readable.
January 22nd, 2010 at 1:21 am
Quality of the content must be checked and reviewed by the editors of Triond. After that they should publish any article.
January 22nd, 2010 at 6:17 pm
I agree with bailieman… whatever criticisms we make about post, whether constructive or not, it should be sent through a private message rather than be posted in the comment box… I do this everytime I find some errors in the blog…
Regarding the quality and the spelling issues, no one can help that except the writer himself/herself. And I am guilty of this also. That is why, I review some of my posts once in while and make some improvements. I am never contented of my own works.
But I do not agree saying harsh words in the comment box . That wont help the writer. You have good point here, yes! There are two important lessons I learned here. 1)You get what you give 2) It\’s easier to see the flaws on others than our own flaws…
Cheers! This is Triond…!
January 27th, 2010 at 6:23 am
really very nice info
January 28th, 2010 at 4:08 am
my comment for you nice post.and well written,and thanks for your reply also which i will find in my post