GoodBye Entrecard
December 15th, 2008 by GregNo, I am not giving up on EntreCard but there appear to be more and more people that are lately.
There are always people that drop out but over the past week or so it seems a day does not go past when I come accross at least a couple of bloggers that have decided to leave or are thinking about it.
Some of the reasons given are what really concern me:
1. Poor Management, yes it does appear that those running EntreCard couldn’t organise a ‘Piss up in a Brewery’ but I’ve noticed a lot of those giving this as a reason all mention the fact that another blog has been removed from Entrecard and they believed the reasons given by that blogger and therefor think Entrecard are in the wrong.
I am not saying that any one blogger has lied about what brought on the deletion of their account, but how many have all the details, do we know if Graham from Entrecard discussed this with them and neither could agree? do we know if something has happened previously between EntreCard and the blogger? Have we seen Graham publically winge about the blogger he has deleted?
2. Poor systems, this is a major contention with me, the EntreCard servers are not upto scratch for the job and Graham needs to seriously look at his network of servers, assuming he has more than one server. I realise that he doesn’t make much from the site but again that is due to Grahams lack of planning and marketting and/or decision not to have to much advertising.
We all know that at times servers require maintenance and upgrades etc and we can accept downtime but please, any good organisation would give it’s users some notice or at least a ‘under going maintenance – do not drop’ message on their site, but EntraCard fails to do this every time. I wasted time dropping on 100+ blogs the other day because although the widgets continued to function the database didn’t so none of them where logged.
This is more than likely going to be the reason I leave if I do leave.
3. Slow blogs, there are a number of blogs that are members of EC that take forever to load, many ’cause of the flash and video ads they display and some when they do they don’t fully load. This is annoying but sorry to say it this is what happens when people host for free. There isn’t much that can be done about this and has nothing to do with Entrecard so why leave because of it.
4. Out of date blogs and blogs without widgets, it amazes me that the amount of people that have time to drop on 300 blogs a day but can’t update their own blog more than once in a blue moon, and why do people take part in EC and not show the widget? come on people update your blogs so they are worth visiting more than once every now and again.
5. Time, there isn’t much that can be said as this is a genuine reason in my mind, slow blogs along with EC server going at a crawl some times it can take forever to visit and drop on those you want to.
Are you considering leaving EntreCard? would you take part in a similar site if things where done differently?
Posted in General | 36 Comments »
I’m annoyed by blogs that play music or sounds and blogs that have the Christmas Tree Christmas Countdown (which is painfully slow and holds up the loading of all blogs in my group).
I’m somewhat annoyed by the unannounced down times but seriously, it’s only EC drops this affects, I’m still able to read my daily blogs.
Entrecard has brought to my blog many readers that I would have not otherwise been acquainted with and vise versa.
I don’t see myself leaving anytime soon.
Totally agree with you about the music and sounds on blogs that autoplay.
I don’t plan to leave any time soon unless the servers keep going down for whatever reason.
I’m still fairly new to Entrecard, but I’ve actually enjoyed it so far (other than the recent system crash.) It’s not only brought a lot of new readers to my site that I’m certain would never have come without it, but it’s helped me to discover a ton of new blogs (like this one) that I know I never would have found without it. I’m sure there are those that simply go through and drop as fast as they can, but I try and take the time to see if there’s anything I can comment on.
By the way, my answer to the music-playing, video-playing, slow-loading sites is to surf with Firefox and the Adblock Plus plugin. I simply block the offending player or widgets and never have a problem with that site again.
The really annoying sites, as you mentioned, are the ones with no EC widget to drop on. I’ll check my inbox and find a drop from them and go to return the favor only to waste five minutes searching their entire page for an EC card. Since I have the EC toolbar installed, I immediately report that site with a simple “No card” message.
I’m new too but I also recently posted about some of these issues. I wouldn’t have found a great many blogs without it so i am still happy with the whole thing. I spend way too much time dropping but I’ve really got nothing better to do at the moment. I would like to see a way to filter sites better. A geological search would also be nice as well as one for sites that aren’t updated at least once a week. But then I write and post often because I want people to read my post, many of the blogs out there don’t seem to care if you actually read them they just want the clicks.
Aside from the obvious issues with EC… no, I don’t think I’d consider leaving. I’ve discovered many great blogs (yours included… my first time commenting…) and also credit EC for bringing more traffic to mine. Several of my followers have specifically come from EC drops.
I agree with Man In the Moon that it is frustrating to come across another site that does not have the drop spot. I also do not report them because the last thing I need is one more toolbar. Although the Adblock Plus sounds like something I may have to check out.
I also use Firefox to do my drops. Glad to know you won’t be leaving any time soon either
My biggest beef with Entre card is that not all the TOS aren’t being enforced by the users. I try to report every non-English site, every site consisting of copped articles and blogs that are nothing but bullshit paid post posts. The overall service needs trimmed up and some webpage guidlines need to be put into place. Sounds/music/long page times should be grounds for removal. Waiting 1 minute plus for someone’s java/flash ridden blog to load is just a god awful experience that causes me to flash back to my 14.4 dial up days.
I don’t think EC is alone when it comes to not enforcing ToS but when so much of it is being broken so often then it makes a mockery of the whole thing
darn tooting
I guess I am willing to put up with a lot of things, so EC’s site being slow is not a big issue for me. What I do object to, and will be actively reporting is blogs who drop but have no cards showing. I use Firefox and AdBlock plus also, so not much problem with the music, etc. My question is, if EC goes away for any reason, will we just have to go back to putting people in our readers and visiting that way. It seems like whenever someone creates something really useful on the web, somehow or other it just dies a year or so later. I would really miss the traffic I get and the friends I get to visit.
You make a good point about what would happen if EC was here today and gone tomorow? How many off us actually have our ‘favorites’ bookmarked and how many rely on the ‘Friends’ list on EC.
Newbie here too and I have to say I agree with all your points. I am a bit putoff by slowing loading sites(mainly cause they end up making my net freeze and crash) and the Bloggers who drop me that have no widget are extremely annoying. I know which is which so far and I just bypass them altogether now.
I’ve been with EC from about January I think. I’ve never been a top dropper, I have better things to do with my time, but I do think it’s a very good system for finding new blogs and being found. I’ve also made some very good friends.
Like Thomas, it annoys me that the TOS aren’t being enforced. I’ve reported non-English blogs frequently – and they are still there. The same with obvious scrapers and splogs. When Ben Barden was a mod, I spent a lot of time with others weeding out the rubbish and we made some considerable progress. Now, once again, it’s as bad as ever. I don’t report TOS violations nearly so often because it has little effect. They really do need some moderation BEFORE accepting new blogs, even if it means there’s a delay in accepting them.
Hi Greg:
)
My main reason for slowing down with dropping (maybe even leaving) ec is the spyware and viruses I catch at other blogs (and yes, I have antivirus software and update it often ;o). My home laptop is just 2 mos old and is at service for a second time already. I do some dropping from work and see how much the pc there slows down, too. I made an executive (lol) decision to just drop on blogs that I know and that do not have pop ups and such to try eliminate any more problems for myself. Sorry, I won’t be a top dropoholic, but safety of my laptop is more important to me
You just scared the crap out of me with that title…. I’m pretty new within Entrecard and it’s disturbing to see people that I started to appreciate very much are leaving this network that has brought me a lot of traffic I would not otherwise have gotten.
There are a number of things not up to par with Entrecard which I can relate to being an IT man myself. However, for relatively fresh bloggers like myself it’s a very good way to gain experience while at the same time actually have people reading your stuff.
The slow loads are a known issue, though Entrecard has nothing to do with that (except they ad another slow-down-widget while on most sites there are allready too many). My sites are slow, too and unfortunately I can’t speed them up (no more bandwidth available). I guess I provide good enough content to keep some visitors coming back.
I don’t drop 300 cards a day (I think I did it once, too much work) but do preload sites in multiple tabs so loading is not an issue for me. Google Chrome does wonders speeding things up…
Glad to see you’re not leaving, allthough you’re in my RSS-reader, so you wouldn’t be gone for me anyway…
Cheers
Hello Greg! Nice post indeed. I did leave Entrecard a couple weeks back. Although, I am thinking of returning MAYBE after Christmas. Only because I do love the community within Entrecard. I do still visit and some still visit me, but I feel myself slipping away from blogs I enjoy as much I try hard to get to them.
But I will take in steps as you did my take on Entrecard.
1. I did not leave as I feel some may have over the fact that one blog did get deleted. I won’t take either side, but I have seen from both sides, the reason was because of comment on another system. For that, I see Entrecard in the wrong. An owner of one site can not control what another person does on another site. Specailly if he or she is not paying for another’s internet service.
2. Graham wants a large site on the internet. You can’t do that if your site is slow or crashed as much or more than it’s up and running. The forums for Entrecard are so out dated. I saw Graham (I think it was on Twitter) make a statement that new forums were coming last week. Last week came and went, the old forums are still there. When something is reported,nothing is ever done so I feel they don’t care.
3. I have no problem with blogs loading. Blogs load very quick for me, but 80% of the Entrecard widgets don’t load. Refreshing widgets to load costs time. Myself, I have reported them 3 times. First time was maybe 2 month ago. Nothing yet done. Widgets were not a problem when I first started Entrecard and were good for a long time. But then the problem came on and they don’t get fixed. So widgets not loading and taking all my time is the main reason I left.
Thanks Greg! I do enjoy reading your blog.
Chilly
I did see that you had decided to leave and thought it was unfortunate for the whole community to see you go. I do hope you do decide to return.
1. Based on what I have heard I think EntreCard was in the wrong, but my point is I and I am sure many others don’t know the full story. I don’t know if the blogger in question has upset Graham previously and/or had any kind of warning about being removed and hence do not know if I know the full story so could not leave EC on the basis of what I have heard, some do appear to be doing so though.
2. Totally agree, I personally think he has not upgraded servers/systems/scripts as the site has grown or something like that (not knowing his set up) and now he is in a position where everything needs upgrading NOW which is costly and time consuming. I may be miles off but that is what it looks like to me.
It’s good to see you here, hope to see you back on EC soon
Greg
I’m not leaving. I don’t drop as much as I used to and when I’m not dropping, I don’t allow ads on my widget because the advertisers won’t get click throughs and then I feel guilty.
When a sight loads slowly, I skip it. Not worth my time. I also took a long hard look at my site and took off lots that was slowing it down. I get annoyed too with all the Christmas tree countdowns and fluff. I want content.
But, I have found lots of great blogs through Entrecard, made lots of good friends and my blog audience continues to grow. I owe all that to Entrecard.
Hi again Greg.
Thanks! I may not be using Entrecard at this time,but I haven’t forgotten the great people and blogs I’ve met.
Yes I totally do agree with you and I forgot to say it in my comment above. You are very right. I guess no one except him and Graham really know the whole story. We don’t know that something behind the scenes hasn’t been building up between the two.
Also we don’t know what is happening behind the scenes of Entrecard. But….. When things aren’t working and no one from the top is seen or even gives word that something/anything is being done, people are left to wonder what is happening, what are people to think. Have to admit it doesn’t look good on Entrecard itself.
Thanks! Keep up the great work aa it’s a pleasure to read.
I AM thinking about leaving…. its to the point now where I just dont drop anymore. and the reason is that they wont make a toolbar for INTERNET EXPLORER users because Firefox is so slow when I hit the >> button on my broadband connection for it to open up the 10 tabs that it opens up at a time takes it almost 2 min just to get every tab loaded then sometimes the widgets dont work or say INVALID and I have to hit REFRESH before I can then have it take my drop. Its to the point where I just drop every other couple days. I just cannot stand firefox
— Christopher
I’m on the fence about whether or not to leave Entrecard. I know I LOVE the community of bloggers Entrecard has introduced me to.
Following are my reasons for contemplating a departure:
1.) Lately, I’ve been bombarded with trojans, spyware etc. while dropping and I’m currently having my PC’s hard drive wiped clean to start fresh. This is not the best reason since you can get this crap anywhere on the web but it is highly irritating.
2.) Graham deleting the user in question from Entrecard without warning (even though I’m aware there was a history of problems between them). I think Graham was very immature in the way he handled the situation.
3.) Graham not doing what needs to be done to help Entrecard live up to its full potential (servers, staff etc.).
I think Graham is making some changes so that’s why I’m hanging around just to see what happens and if things improve.
I enjoy your blog, Greg! Thanks for the Dropaholic widget. Very cool indeed!
I am becoming fed up with Entrecard, mainly due to the issues you have highlighted. Yes I would join a similar site if it was run better. Been with them for a year now and enjoy the blogs and bloggers that I have met. The forums are a joke and I abandoned them ages ago after the Firestorm fiasco. I will be leaving early in the New Year so if you are planning to come up with something better please let me know.
Mark
At one point I did think about setting up a similar site, I did start something but never completed it as I thought it would be hard to get of the ground, as well as struggling to get my head around the credit system, ie to calculate how you value credits etc, and of course funding it as we have seen from EC could become an issue amongst other things.
Greg
what makes me mad? Websites which are NOT blogs!
I found a TOPSITE with a widgets- cool, is that a new blogstyle?
I already reported to entrecrad,but still No reaction!A lot of blogs who NOT updated 5 or more month,not in ENGLISH!But the question is,why peoples advertisie there?
I am still at entrecard,but NOT sure for how long!
Greg ,if you go on with you plan let mw know please! Happy Holidays!
I’m not likely to leave EntreCard anytime soon, unless Graham does something even more stupid than he has recently. However, I am placings a lower emphasis on EntreCard and am focusing more on other communities.
If someone came up with a similar system as EntreCard that was run better, I would hop over to it quickly. I’m currently looking at other sites.
For example, the other day, I started with adgitize:
http://www.adgitize.com/?affid=342
So far, I’m pretty impressed, and it is working nicely with EntreCard, but I still think there is room for someone to come in and come up with a much better service.
I’m still at entrecard but would like to see changes. The ability to find the people that dropped on you that are new would be nice. You know unique visitors.
It would also help to be able to drop on people who updated their blog in the past week. I know I’ve missed out on at least a hundred unique visitors because I’ve dropped on blogs that haven’t updated or logged in for months.
People should understand that there are always bumps along the road of any startup.
To those who just sign-up and leave after a few days or weeks, I say lower your expectations and don’t be so quick to gripe.
A story:
“How can spirituality help me?” said the busy entrepreneur to the master.
“Why, it can help you to have more,” said the master.
“Really?” said the entrepreneur who was now thinking how much richer he could be. “Tell me, how can it help me have more?”
“By teaching you to desire less,” said the master.
I’m fairly new with the whole blogging experience as well as the EntreCard mode, but I have really enjoyed finding great blogs to visit and read through EC, and have enjoyed the traffic it has brought to my blog.
I concur with you and other comments that it has been frustrating when EC is slow/down with no announcement or anything posted to let us know they’re working on it at the very least. I also get annoyed when I click on drops that have been left for me to encounter extremely slow loading sites, or sites with no EC widget to return the favor. If a site is so complicated that it takes forever to load, I close that tab and move on – I don’t have time to sit and wait, and hope that my blog isn’t making others wait, either.
I don’t even get close to dropping 300 EC cards a day, I’m lucky if I hit 100 because I don’t use the automated dropping widgets that I see advertised on other sites, I prefer to keep my visits ‘personal’, meaning I actually want to discover other bloggers that have something interesting to say, and if they are updating their blogs regularly, I will ‘follow’ them (if they have that feature on their blog), or at the very least add them to my EC ‘favorites’. When they’re really interesting and I want to make sure I don’t miss any future posts, I’ll sign up with the RSS feeds or add to my Google Reader.
If EC were to disappear, I would miss it, as well as miss the new blogs I discover daily, and would definitely miss the traffic I see increasing on my blog as I maintain consistency with my EC drops.
I’m happy with Entrecard, but some competition in the field wouldn’t hurt, specifically those with terms that do not prohibit placement on Today.com. I’d love to see one that you could actually use with regular old Wordpress (which I am told you can’t do).
Tara
You can use EC with wordpress, I use wordpress myself. You can’t use it if your blog is hosted by Wordpress.com and that is down to Wordpress.com restrictions rather than due to EntreCard.
I’m not familiar Today.com but I thought I had seen today.com blogs within the EC community.
Greg
Greg, no sense in saying what everyone has already said – it’s a given.
If you do go forward with your system, I’d join in a heartbeat! Love the community, love the blogs and people behind them, and love the system that brings us together. That’s hard to give up! A different/better system has to be in place before I would fully leave Entrecard.
I can’t speak for Graham, don’t know him at all, and like others, I stay away from the forums after witnessing several discussions handled in a less-than-optimal way.
Greg, you’re a thinker and a do-er. Don’t limit yourself by what is that ain’t quite working.
Theresa
I am thinking about getting to work on something in the new year but I have a few area’s that I need to get straight in my head, ie EC charges a ‘tax’ on transactions, something like 75% of the EC’s paid to advertise on your blog via the widget goes to EC, 12.5% of EC’s paid to advertise on a blog via OIO goes to EC, I need to figure out how these figures are calculated. Also how do you value a ‘Credit’? EC sells 1000 credits for $6, was that a figure just plucked from nowhere or how was it calculated. Does anyone buy credits?
I understand that you need to claw credits back as you don’t want to flood the system with credits but just not sure how you calculate how many credits is a substainable amount for the system. I am not an accountant lol.
I simply can’t stand the sites that blare music or some TV clip when you’ve got 30+ tabs open trying to make the drops. It’s more than annoying, and I’ve reported these blogs since early this month. I’ve also reported those without widgets, those that come up as “no such user” and dead sites to no avail. They’ll pop back up via the entrecard tool bar come the next day.
The annoying thing is, there could be so many checks that are done automatically, ie if the widget is loaded by a ‘deleted’ blog then something different could be displayed instead of the ‘drop’ message. Checking for popups and automatically playing music wouldn’t be so easy I must admit.
I finally gave up on EC. I loved meeting new readers, etc. but I just became lazy about dropping because so many of the sites were so slow at loading.
I have a new MAC now and I don’t plan on getting viruses on this one.
First time over…enjoyed the blog.
i’m another entrecard newbie. i love the concept. i think it’s a great idea. that’s why it is such a pity that it has so many problems and issues. i wish Graham could fix this.
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