The points are in my mind enough to think that I shouldn't reply here as I'll just be giving you some (winky, winky), but to be serious I still really don't mind at all putting up with bugs here and there as JU continues to experience growing pains and other glitches along the way.

Consider what you are paying for the site and then ask how you really have a right to complain.

Would I like it to be better and always work perfectly? Sure.

Would I like some more features (like polling and such)?  Sure.

Would I pay for the site to be given more attention and more support?  Sure, if the price was reasonable.  But, the follow-up is would I expect a lot of the other heavy users here would follow the lead?  I'm not so sure there.  If there was a cost for being a Joe-user, I suspect many people would be too cheap to pay it and would live with a slightly less feature rich version (as long as a free version was available).  Which kind of puts us back where we are now. 

We are running on a system that is by the benevolent graces of Stardock Corp.  That it runs at all is something to be thankful for.  If you don't like it, well, tons of other blog sites are available.

Meanwhile, I do hope that the admins, developers and others involved in keeping JU running smoothly get some time to look at things and make improvements and fixes.  But I'm not gonna complain about it until they do.

If the points are out of whack for a while until things are fixed, I can live with that too.  It all balances out in the end.

We are running on a system that is by the benevolent graces of Stardock Corp. That it runs at all is something to be thankful for. If you don't like it, well, tons of other blog sites are available.

yes, it is nice that this is a free site. but there are many of those. this site is also an advertisement for Stardock Inc. I would think that the ad shouldn't be so "buggy." I 'd be embarrassed if it were my company. i think it is in their interest to put up a "bug free" ad. and that is whether i am here or not.

and i orig. started blogging here because the site was pretty easy to use when i started here 3 years ago compared to other sites i blogged on. i got into some interesting debates and discussions early on and it kept me around. maybe i should take your advice and shop around if no changes or improvements are made.

how many people would stick around if one had to actually pay for the "right" to write here? i think the membership roles would plummit. it's in their interest to keep this site active. and there are too many free sites that do sim things as what is done here to ever justify a charge for posting.

i don't think it's some "blessing" that is bestowed on people who choose to post here...it's good business. at least that's the way i would look at it when i "put myself in their shoes."

I seriously doubt many of the Joeuser bloggers buy many stardock products, on average. Brad's already said the site's basically a constant drain on resources. The only reason it exists at all is because it's useful-ish for cross-pollination of articles by the major players in stardock.

JoeUser.com is my site that I share with others.  So you are correct, we don't really "care" that much.  If you really find the site that problematic, you should just go elsewhere.  If every single person who visited this site decided not to buy a product from us, it would affect us none at all. It's not an advertisement or a reference, it's just a blog site I have for myself that I had some IT resources put onto in order to share with others.

I remember awhile back some users got fed up and went over to ModBlog.com.  Now it's gone along with all their blogs (I had a blog there too). JoeUser is far from perfect as you mention, but relative to the "competiton" nothing comes close. If you want a place where your stuff will get read by lots of people, there's nothing else like it.  The problem is, there's also no way to "monetize" it.  The most popular "blogs" out there are still trivially poor in traffic relative to something like WinCustomize.com.

I do plan to assign more resources to the site once there's time. But we've been focusing on getting WinCustomize 2007 launched.  It's on the calendar, but if you're expecting JoeUser.com to be some commercial-level site, except one that you paid nothing to use, the contradiction is plain.

Which it did today https://www.wincustomize.com

 

"the moment you start to care at all about this place is the moment you've started to care too much about this place."

Nothing, more true, has been said here this month.

I have a question, Sean. If points mean nothing on this site, and mean even less to you personally, why gripe about it at all?

it's called using a headline to draw attention. the real crux of the article is about the bugs on the site that many have been experiencing recently

In essence, you could sit and talk to yourself all day long (and a few bloggers here do exactly that) and cause your blog to rise in the list.

i believe i mentioned "manipulating points" ...i just didn't want to be as specific as to not cause people to start running up their own points. i didn't feel it was my place.

the moment you start to care at all about this place is the moment you've started to care too much about this place.

see the 1st comment above in this reply.

I do plan to assign more resources to the site once there's time. But we've been focusing on getting WinCustomize 2007 launched. It's on the calend]ar,

that's what i wanted to know. thanks brad.

i don't buy all the downplaying of this basically being an ad or pr for strdock. but that's your perrogative.

again, thanks for lettin me know ya'll do care, but resources are limited. i can't begrudge a business for that.

take care:)

I remember awhile back some users got fed up and went over to ModBlog.com. Now it's gone along with all their blogs (I had a blog there too). JoeUser is far from perfect as you mention, but relative to the "competiton" nothing comes close. If you want a place where your stuff will get read by lots of people, there's nothing else like it. The problem is, there's also no way to "monetize" it. The most popular "blogs" out there are still trivially poor in traffic relative to something like WinCustomize.com.

He's correct about this. Google some of your topics and check out your insane Google rankings. The syndication from this site helps tremendously.

I would not worry about Points right now. Until JU is overhauled, I dont think they are accurate. IN the top 20, we have one user who just said good bye and appologized for not blogging since October or november I think, and another I have not seen in about 6 months.

So have a cookie, and just enjoy the blogging without worrying about the points.  

So have a cookie, and just enjoy the blogging without worrying about the points.

thanks guy, but again, this article wasn't really about the points. that was just an attention grabbing headline as i know many on here are all wrapped up in that.

and it worked. brad answered my questions. and thanks again brad:)