Suggestions to Improve the freerolls - Part 2

ive closed the last thread and started a new one to give me thoughts on the whole thing

i have been very pleased with the number of new members in the last few weeks. However, i have been very dissapointed, frustrated and annoyed at a small selection of members who are posting absolute garbage so they can get in the freeroll

at the moment i get up for work at 6.30am, get home about 6.30pm - in the last few days ive had to spend a few hours editing, deleting hundreds of posts of garbage every night. Ive also received loads of private messages from people with 25 posts saying 'wheres the password - tell me now'. Its been a complete waste of my time

New members here might not realise that i play poker all the time and enjoy posting about it here - which i havent been able to do in the last few days.

Take this asshole - check the last few pages of this thread (Suggestions to Improve the FreeRolls here). Now he was blatant about it but theres been a lot of people who have added a lot of 'yeah i agree' type posts just to beef up their posts.

Now i have a clear vision about the way i want this site to grow - and in the last two weeks its been heading in the wrong direction. If these shit posts continue we'll be no better than the usenet group.

Examples of shit posts include one line responses, 2 or 3 or 4 posts in a row by the one person - each one of them one line long, completely unrelated post like the random 'Whats your favourite site' and 'whats the password for the freeroll' type posts which are in every single room.

I have stressed members to make quality posts but i might as well just hit my head off a wall. These freerolls seem to be attracting people who only want to get into the freeroll and dont want to contribute to the site whatsoever. I know this doesnt apply to everyone.

Now im trying to think about how i can stop this but im really stumped - and if i cant find a solution im gonna use the freeroll to boost tournaments for members or use the cash for future monthly competitions (which are supposed to encourage quality posts)

Henry suggested that i manually submit requests to him just before the freeroll - however, this would be simply too timeconsuming - ive had about 20 messages in the last few days from people - what would it be like if i got a message from every single person who wanted in the freeroll.

Now clearly this 25 post rule is being abused and i need to put my foot down before it gets out of hand.

I apologise to those this doesnt apply to - you know who you are Im talking about a small percentage of members here - but theyre spoliing the party for everyone

Please let me know your thoughts on the matter - i dont expect members to post essays every post - but i think youll agree a lot of the threads in the last few days have been messed up by pointless, unrelated one sentence garbage posts

One way is to add more staff to the team (dont pm me about this - you will be picked) which is something i think we'll need to do in order for the site to continue


thanks for listening - and once again i apologise to the majority of you guys as this doesnt apply to you - im just trying to ensure this place remains a good place to hang out

I really do understand your frustration and I would never want to offend someone who A) provides and maintains a quality site like this B) puts up the cash for a freeroll. However I think you are looking at this in only the short term. You have managed to generate some interest in your forum and realistically on the internet these days that is hard to do. You have recieved a lot of posts from a good number of people who will never return to this site but you have also gained some loyal fans.

Advertising is expensive. If you were to have a e-commerce site and chose pay per click advertising as a means of promotion you would have 99.5% of your traffic never complete a transaction making those customers who actually purchase products rather expensive to attain. Where it begins to pay off is when those purchasing customers return and buy again as a result of top notch customer service.

Keep up the good work and don't get frustrated. Crappy post will eventually stop and the quality of this forum will increase. Creating something from the ground up is never easy but you are moving in the right direction. Thank you.

p.s. 25 posts might be excessive but a minimum requirement should be in place. I say this because had you required only one I probably would have never returned to this site again. After posting a few times I have seen the value and am now a loyal memeber.

i am pleased about the new members etc - i hope your right in that the crap posts will dissapear. Think its clear i have been getting frustrated by it - as have the staff - it has been very timeconsuming to edit posts etc.
Though believe me, i am thinking long term - that is the main reason im trying to steer the site in the right direction just now as ive saw similar forums before being wasted by getting too many spammers on the site - texasholdem-poker is a great forum - loads of good buddies over there. Due to the popularity of the site the moderators spend a lot of time reemoving spam posts etc - i dont know if you can ever stop this kind of thing but im doing my best to at least reduce it by setting up rules and guidelines.
I think the best thing to do is to get some staff for certain rooms so that they can help monitor whats going on - i cant be on 24/7!
and yeah i know about advertising - i run many sites including www.aceshopping.com

oh and im glad your now a loyal member

great post too homeville

I like it as a new member but 25 posts seems a little bit harsh!

I agree that this site has been getting a lot of people who are posting crap just to be in the freerolls. So heres an idea. Why not use the reputation points in conjunction with the points rule. Then encourage members to add to the reputation of people whom they feel are contributing to the site. I dont know. You may still get people making deals with each other to increase their reputation without ever contributing, but this would be easier to spot and you could do something about it.


This may not work, just an idea.

__________________
"I started with nothing. I still have most of it left."

"I find your lack of faith disturbing"

http://live.xbox.com/member/JediSlayer76

theprofessor@texasholdemforums.com

I only recently discovered your site recently and have made a number of (I hope) meaningful posts in that time. As I said in a different thread, I don't think 25 posts is unreasonable and like others, I'm appalled at the number of one line, nonsensical posts being made here. None of us benefit from that.

Since it's in everyone's interest to weed out those who only want to get into the freerolls, I would suggest two things:

1)Add a time requirment before new members can participate in freerolls. If the requirment were 25 posts and two weeks (one month?) of participation in forums, then you might be able to avoid those who stumble accross the freerolls at Poker Stars, for example, and then rush over to the site to get the password. If they realize there is a time commitment and that they will not be able to participate in the freeroll, they might (hopefully) just move on.

2)The other way to do this is to make people "apply" for access to the freerolls. This would require a qualitative assessment on your part (and no doubt a lot of arguing with the hotheads out there), but you should have the option of saying to someone that yes, you've made the minimum 25 posts but too many of them are one-liners etc... and they have yet established themselves as a serious member.

Obviously, #2 is harder to implement than #1. I think having a minimum time for membership is a reasonable way to go.

BTW, I also like the Professor's suggestion of using the reputation points. It would be incumbent on all of us who want to make and keep this site meningful to vote thumbs down on those who are abusing the system.

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garykmcd

Have tournaments on this site without any restrictions. Anyone can enter and the top 5 or 20 players per day get the password to enter the freeroll tournament on pokerstars. I don't know if this is possible but it would be great.

But for the spamming, if you demand 25 posts before entering the freeroll tournament accept the garbage posts or let go of this demand. If this requirement is not necessary anymore, some people won't post garbage anymore. You might not agree but this is just my opinion.

I like your site though. Didn't know there were so many pokersites, I'm gonna try them all.

Fonzi, this website is fun. We get to sit around and talk about poker, and whatever else we wish. The freerolls on pokerstars have served as a great advertising tool to attract new users. But with this new attention by throwing money around, it's attracted jerks who wish to exploit the website, and not contribute to it. If someone is posting one-liners and hurting the quality of the site, I think you should oust them. That's the only way. Remove them from the site, and don't allow them to come back. That would work as an excellent deterrent for one-line posters, wishing to exploit. Also, you should probably raise the post limit each freeroll. That way people will be contributing even more. Perhaps though, you should have an alternate tourney for newbies and veterans alike. But make this freeroll's prizepool smaller, so that people will post to get into the other one. I have a question though...where does this money come from? If it comes from the advertisments on the site, then you should be able to generate more revinue as more people are influxing into this site, because then more people will be seeing the ads. Anyways, good luck man. ~ Biggs

i just signed on today and i have put a couple one liners on here, but i have read through a lot of stuff and not posted on it if i have nothing to say. i did get on for the freerolls but i will be around as long as the sight is here. i didn't know something like this existed till i saw the freerolls, so i'm glad i caught that' because i think i can learn alot here. thank you.