by Insurance Maze » Sat Feb 07, 2009 02:47 pm
We value the questions and concerns of those who stop by this insurance community and we will always do our best to help them in a non-professional way.
Many times I have posted a reply to a thread without logging in (far too many times) and when I hit the ole' "Submit" button the post appears as a "Guest".
Think about this for a moment - I could sit at my computer all day long and constantly submit posts to different forums without logging in. This would appear we have many guests making comments - right? But the truth is, I was responsible for all the posts (one person).
I suggest that we totally remove the entire "Guest" capability to make a post to any thread in any forum.
If a question or concern is truly important to the one asking, why would anyone have a problem with "logging in" as a Member? There are many professional forums on the internet and most of them require that a person be "logged in" to make a post.
Only our members are obligated to adhere to the Terms of Service for this community. People just "stopping by" are not.
If we are to help solve problems and answer insurance related questions, the we just need to know who we're talking to.
That's My Story, And I'm Sticking To It! :lol:
Many times I have posted a reply to a thread without logging in (far too many times) and when I hit the ole' "Submit" button the post appears as a "Guest".
Think about this for a moment - I could sit at my computer all day long and constantly submit posts to different forums without logging in. This would appear we have many guests making comments - right? But the truth is, I was responsible for all the posts (one person).
I suggest that we totally remove the entire "Guest" capability to make a post to any thread in any forum.
If a question or concern is truly important to the one asking, why would anyone have a problem with "logging in" as a Member? There are many professional forums on the internet and most of them require that a person be "logged in" to make a post.
Only our members are obligated to adhere to the Terms of Service for this community. People just "stopping by" are not.
If we are to help solve problems and answer insurance related questions, the we just need to know who we're talking to.
That's My Story, And I'm Sticking To It! :lol:
Posted: Tue Feb 10, 2009 09:34 am Post Subject:
Great post Lakemen!
Thanks for replying and clarifying.
I have two more cents to throw in.
This is the first board I have ever posted on whereby a disagreement about whatever didn't deteriorate into vile and personal attacks.
That demonstrates a very high level of professionalism by all who post here. Many boards get very nasty very fast and that never happens here.
This is a very difficult form of communication whereby the "reader" of the post "infers" the tone of posters post.
I always look for humor, wit and sarcasm FIRST when reading a post then try to separate out the actual issue from the useless information.
I applaud Lakemen for NOT doing the dummy posters, dummy reply thing to build this site.
But I have a question and an announcement.
Beginning on Thursday, February 19th 2009 I will be hosting a one hour radio show in the Tampa Bay area from 1:00 to 2:00PM.
The Financial Power Hour on 1250 WHNZ Impact Radio on the AM dial and can be heard live streaming on the Internet at www.whnz.com
We're finalizing the contract today.
So how would AM-PM-Insure like to advertize on my radio show?
Posted: Tue Feb 10, 2009 09:42 am Post Subject:
Hi,
down where Maze was referring, it says 21 users online... but up on the top right where it says AmPm MARATHON it says 40 users online.
The display at the top depicts the visitors (including registered members and guests) across all sections of our site. On the other hand the one at the bottom shows only those who are present at the forums for the time.
I'd also like to point out to the fact that some of the browsers have their 'cookies' option disabled and hence are not being able to track the figure properly. Hence, the displays would reflect a fair figure to get us an idea of our user-presence during that time.
Fatman
Posted: Tue Feb 10, 2009 10:31 am Post Subject:
Frankly, I don't see a reason why we shouldn't allow the guests to post in this board. Internet is one such place wherein faking of every possible nature can take place. Even if we restrict the access of the board only for the registered members, there is no guarantee that all of them will be genuine. Only the other day I'd to delete almost 50 spam posts made by one registered member. Therefore, as long as the guests are adding valuable content to the forums we should welcome that. The terms and conditions, otherwise, should stand the same for all.
The authority can't exert any control over the members. Hence, it's the sole discretion of the member whether to post regularly or not. If we have lost 2,000 posters we have gained twice as many over the same period, and IMO that's the way it works.
Further, I agree with Gary that the major share of the success of AmPminsure goes to Lori, but we also have got members like tcope, fatman, Evan, Jeremy, ArindamSenIndies, Insteacher, InsuranceMaze and also Gary himself, who have strengthened this community with their inputs. Also, we must not overlook the contribution made by our visiting guests. Most of the new discussions are still getting generated by them and they are posing real life problems before us. Recently, I've also observed the trend of the guests returning to their posts and following up with new information.
Why do we need guests?
Guests or registered, all the same, as long as they're getting the required service from the community. Maze, the guest poster can't have the monetary motive to post in this board, whereas, this board do pay for the registered members.
What point are we trying to make in allowing just anyone to open this web page and start writing?
The same holds good even for the registered members. Since this community allows both the professionals and non-professionals to participate, we need to have patience towards what Gary would say ‘online nonsense'.
How do guest posts impove this community?
The same way its improving with our registered members posting, as long as the information is valid and useful.
How can we hold a guest to the TOS of this community?
Invalid and repetitive posts would still get deleted. And, I'm sure that the moderators know their duties very well.
How many "guests" have returned after we have attempted to respond to a question or concern?
Some of the registered members also don't return to their posts after the first one. Its sure very frustrating, but it would be wrong to blame only the guests posters for it.
Regards,
Juanita
Posted: Tue Feb 10, 2009 11:11 am Post Subject:
Terrific posts!!!! Juanita, Lakemen, and especially Sil......very well thought out...beautiful post...couldn't have said it better!
Posted: Tue Feb 10, 2009 11:46 am Post Subject:
Hey guys,
Some great points have already been mentioned. I dont think I have anything to add to this. IMO, "guests" have played an important part in the growth of our community in my 3 years with the site.
Beginning on Thursday, February 19th 2009 I will be hosting a one hour radio show in the Tampa Bay area from 1:00 to 2:00PM. The Financial Power Hour on 1250 WHNZ Impact Radio on the AM dial and can be heard live streaming on the Internet at www.whnz.com
That's great Gary! I look forward to your expert commentary. :)
We're finalizing the contract today.
So how would AM-PM-Insure like to advertize on my radio show?
Well, I doubt if Lake would jump into any sort of advertisement yet (would you Lake? :D )
BTW, any opportunity that comes our way in terms of getting the word out there to the masses would be good and Gary, you could help this community by being the first one to do something of this sort for our beloved AmPmInsure!!
Lets spread the word, please. :)
Thanks,
Evan
Posted: Tue Feb 10, 2009 11:49 am Post Subject:
gee thanx Lori :D Kinda like this forum a lot and want to see it soar high. I am not an expert in insurance but have tried to participate in as many discussions as possible. I have really gained a lot of information from this forum and I believe many others have too. I sure feel glad when I can write a few sentences to help anyone looking for help and I'm also glad that we have such good and thoughtful participants in the community :)
When Gary says
This is the first board I have ever posted on whereby a disagreement about whatever didn't deteriorate into vile and personal attacks.
I truly agree with him and appreciate the way members or non members interact with each other :) Cheers to all of us
Posted: Tue Feb 10, 2009 12:19 pm Post Subject:
I agree Sil...never will that type of ugly behavior be allowed on this site...which is one (if not the main) reason I've stayed... :wink:
Posted: Wed Feb 11, 2009 10:58 am Post Subject:
evan wrote:
That's great Gary! I look forward to your expert commentary.
:P Thanks evan, just be sure to have your ear muffs close by! :wink:
Click HERE for a sample of what you might hear!
Posted: Wed Feb 11, 2009 11:50 am Post Subject:
I agree Sil...never will that type of ugly behavior be allowed on this site...which is one (if not the main) reason I've stayed... Wink
:D
Posted: Wed Feb 11, 2009 11:08 pm Post Subject:
Wow, this is a lot of information to absorb.
First thing,
I previously made the comment, "If we do what we've always done, we'll get what we've always gotten."
Lori asked,
What does that mean? Is that a negative or positive comment? I'm really not sure...and if negative, what (in your opinion) would requiring ALL posters to register do to improve things?
I am not the original author of that comment. I have heard it all of my insurance career. It simply means that if we continue to perform in the same manner that we have, our results will more than likely stay the same.
In other words, if the forums aren't where we want them to be, we must do something different. If we continue to do the same things, in the same manner, the results will be the same. So, if someone is reluctant to change, it could be a "negative" comment. If someone is willing to make changes, then it is a "positive".
Lori, Lakemen, Juanita and Evan all seem to respond in a similar manner.
I would have thought that at least one of you would see that something different must happen for this insurance community to rise to the very top.
I do not have the time to research all the posts from our "guests", but I would say that the majority of them are "one liners", which do not give enough detail to submit an intelligent response.
I think that just going through the process of logging in would eliminate some of these one time, one liners.
I will have to agree that some of the guest posts are well thought out and seem to be sincere concerns and I have no problem with those.
Someone made the comment that we could hold guests to the TOS of this community and my question is, how? How can you ban someone from this community who constantly posts ridiculous material as a guest?
We are no closer to the top of Google than we were this time last year and I am not saying this is because of our guests. What I am saying is that if nothing changes, everything will stay the same.
Maze
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