This post is primarily directed to newer members of AR. As people become serious about building a standing at AR, they have a few ways to do this: Invite points, localism, but most of us rely on blogging and comments as the mainstay of our quest. A person trying to get to the next level will do ten blogs in the week and try to get in ten comments per day.
This has been said before, but I want to reiterate it here. If you are taking the time to read blogs and then comment, make sure you write enough words in the comment that it will count for points. For example, if you take 30 minutes and write ten comments, similar to the title of this post, and check your points you will find that you earned zero comment points. As I recall, the magic number to trip the system is twelve words, which is not that challenging. By the way, if you make really short comments, these also do not help the person who wrote the blog. Case in point: We often have people posting here (I was one of them a few months back) asking why they have a number of comments after a blog, but so few actual comment points. That is because a number of the comments are short and do not meet the AR minimum guidelines. If the writer does not get a comment point, then neither does the blogger who wrote the post being commented on -- at least that seems to be the case from my personal experience dissecting my blogs and comments.
Realize, the comments do not have to be that arduous a task, but they need to be more than a couple words. The following would earn comment points and is not so hard: "Steve, I appreciated the information on comment points. I had wondered why some of mine were not showing up."
Cheers, I look forward to your comments.
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Stephanie,
I had been doing this for some time prior to figuring this out too. A few times I was sure I had done all the comments for the day, and was two short. A few times it seemed that what I wanted to say could be done quickly, but one has to satisfy the appetite of the AR word monster which counts bites.
I never realized that. I guess I wasn't watching my points like that. This is a great thing to know if you are. Wait....24.....phew!
All the best!
Yes,
Totally agree that we want content, especially in the blogs. Regarding comments, there are times, let us say an AR member posts that he, she or a family member had a serious accident or an illness, when a short comment makes sense. Not knowing the person well, you might write something like: "Sorry to hear of your misfortune. My thoughts are with you."
That is 11 words, and could be shorter, but gets the point across that you are sorry. Such a post may be valuable and supportive of the person, so not meaningless, despite being short. However, when such a post is written, just figure it is for the betterment of the community and not for points. It is the charitable and compassionate thing to do.
Steve
Steve, I appreciated the information on comment points. I had wondered why some of mine were not showing up. :)
Nick
www.NickAdler.com
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