Happy Holidays Entrecarders!
Written on December 25th, 2008 by Graham
Archive for December, 2008
Entrecard looking for passionate volunteer moderators
Written on December 19th, 2008 by Graham
Hi Everyone
As most of you will know, we are currently in an endless battle trying to fight of all the spammers and SPLOGs from joining up in the community. So we are looking to bring on board some more voluntary moderators. As the community has been growing there has been a need for some time to do this and we will be doing it in a more formal manner than previously.
The tasks of the voluntary moderators will be:
1. Monitor the incoming blogs and approve or remove
2. Monitor the ToS reports and action these as necessary
3. Follow up on Warnings that have been issued to sites and take futher action where required
4. Monitor the forums for any spam, and provide assistance in the Support section where needed
5. Escalate any issues to Graham, Phirate or Myself that require additional discussion or involvement
6. Any other tasks that come up.
Of course as this a voluntary role we are well aware that you will never be able to get all of this done each day, and this is why we need to bring on board around 5 new moderators. This will help distribute the load between all moderators and staff and ensure that no-one gets burnt out.
What we are looking for:
* People who are passionate about blogging and passionate about Entrecard
* People who have 3 hours a week (minimum/on average) to spare. Ideally this will be spread out evenly across the week but we are flexible with this too (you are after all volunteering).
* People who know the ToS and Entrecard Quality Guidelines Well (you can see these here –> http://entrecard.com/docs/doku.php?id=blog_quality_standards)
* People with previous moderator/customer service experience would be greatly welcomed (but of course this is in *no way a requirement*)
How to apply:
We have decided with this round to go with a formal application procedure. In order to apply to be a moderator you will need to log a support ticket at http://support.commentedmedia.com (to the support department).
In the ticket you must answer the following questions:
Why do you want to be a moderator at Entrecard?
How do you feel you could contribute best to the community as a moderator?
Have you had any previous experience moderating or in customer support, if so please provide details?
How long have you been blogging?
What do you see as the one biggest issue with Entrecard at the moment?
Following on from the above question, how would you change things to resolve that issue?
Finally are there any other comments you would like to make?
When you log the support ticket please insure you fill out all the appropriate fields (with the exception of which browser you are using).
The application process will be open until Sunday the 4th of January 2009, however may be extended at our discression if we find we are getting a lot of applications. Following this each application will be screened by a staff member and then the best ones will be selected for futher consideration.
If you have any questions please leave a comment and I will answer as best I can.
Cheers
Stuart
Entrecard raises transfer limits
Written on December 17th, 2008 by Graham
This is just a quick announcement:
For a limited time, we have lifted transfer limits to 25,000 credits per week that you may transfer.
Hopefully, this will encourage members to hold bigger contests more frequently, without the need for coordination from Entrecard.
If you have any questions, comments, or concerns please voice them below, as I will be answering comments.
Video of Wordpress 2.7
Written on December 14th, 2008 by Graham
Definitely something you should see if you are a current Wordpress user, or thinking about using Wordpress for blogging:
Entrecard Upgrades its RAM
Written on December 12th, 2008 by Graham
In our constant effort to maximize Entrecard’s performance and speed, we have just doubled the RAM on our Database server. We saw this as the single most performance-enhancing move we could make to improve the speed and service stability, and we’re quite glad we made it.
Just wanted to pass along the good news, in case you were wondering “Does Entrecard seem faster today?” -and sorry to everyone who was trying to use Entrecard for ten minutes this morning while our server was offline getting the RAM installed.
What’s this about Microsoft’s new open-source blogging platform?
Written on December 11th, 2008 by Graham
This week, Microsoft launched an open source blogging platform named Oxite. The software itself seems pretty sleek. It boats the basics like RSS, comment moderation, good permalink structure out of the box, and support for multiple bloggers and multiple blogs. It also has some bells and whistles like gravatar support, an authenticated comment system, pingbacks, trackbacks, and more.
but there is one really huge catch…
Don’t expect to see Microsoft’s new blog platform competing with Wordpress or Blogger any time soon. Oxite is very clearly a push to satisfy the needs of a good Content Management System for developers working with the Microsoft platform. The software only works on the Microsoft stack and requires Windows hosting. For those of you running blogs on free hosting (like blogger), anyone in the hosting business will tell you that Linux hosting is far superior, and cheaper, than Winows hosting. Also, because it was made primarily for use by developers, it is not nearly as user-friendly as the Wordpress system.
Microsoft, oh Microsoft. When will you get it right on the net? You should be competing with Google and Wordpress for a market share of the blogosphere with everything you’ve got…
Twitter Tips from Entrecard Members: Two tips from Social Arrow
Written on December 8th, 2008 by Graham
The Social Arrow had some great Twitter tips for us yesterday in the Forums.
Tip #1: Using Twitter Search
Use http://search.twitter.com/ to find out what people are talking about subjects you are interested in, follow and interact with the ones that appear to have similar interests and an active profile. By posting replies to random people twittering about similar interests, you will build a network of friends with similar interests who may, by proxy, be interested in your blog.
Tip #2: Using Tweetdeck
Tweetdeck is a way to really organize your twitters and see them in a more visually appealing manner. There’s a nice little overview about it over at this guys blog: http://www.corporatedollar.org/2008/11/video-post-how-to-use-tweetdeck..
Thanks for the quick-tips, Social Arrow! Don’t forget to follow Social Arrow on Twitter.
Twitter Tips from Entrecard Members: Steven Wilson says Use Twhirl
Written on December 8th, 2008 by Graham
Yesterday I was in the forums asking for Twitter tips. The first Twitter Tip comes from Steven Wilson of Steven Wilson’s Marketing Blog. Steven advocates the use of a “Twitter Client” named Twhirl. Twhirl runs off your desktop, the same way AIM does if you’ve used that in the past. So instead of tweeting from the awkward twitter homepage, you’re using a smoother and more convenient interface. But that’s just the beginning. Taken from the Twhirl homepage, Twhirl boasts these features:
- runs on both Windows (2000/XP/Vista) and Mac OSX
- notifications on new messages
- shorten long URLs (using snurl, twurl or is.gd)
- post images to TwitPic
- search tweets using Twitter Search and TweetScan
- timeline filtering
- color schemes
So if you’re serious about your Twitter use, Twhirl is a must. And don’t forget to follow Steven Wilson on Twitter.
Let’s all follow each other on Twitter
Written on December 6th, 2008 by Graham
EDITOR’S NOTE: I am going to leave this on the blog for another day, and then it’s on to Twitter tips. Everyone participating, please be sure you have an updated twitter following, as people keep joining. If you have a Twitter tip, let us know what it is and we’ll put it in our next post with a linkback.
Ok, so it is now very clear that a LARGE population of Entrecarders use Twitter. That’s good, because I know how we can strengthen our Entrecard community and increase our Twitter followings at the same time. Let’s all follow each other!
Here’s how it will work. Post a comment below with a link to your Twitter profile, and I will periodically take all the profile links below, and edit them into this post! Then just make sure to visit everyone else’s Tiwtter profile, click the button to follow them, and we will all instantly all be connected to each other via Twitter. you can then use your Entrecard-Twitter following to promote your blog! Ready? Let’s go
Blog Tips from Entrecard Members
Written on December 5th, 2008 by Graham
Today I help a mini-contest in the forums, giving away 2000 credits to the first 10 people to give me a good blog tip. Here’s the responses we got (with cards and linkbacks):
Make it Interesting
Acknowledge and respond to blog comments. It shows appreciation for them and results in further interaction/discussion of your blog topic(s).
stay true to your focus 
Write AT LEAST three times a week but every day if preferable. This helps keep the Google spiders fed and coming back for more – when they crawl your site, they index your information.