The Entrecarder

I've been busy with other endeavors and haven't even thought about Entrecard in almost a month. I had a spare moment this morning and went to Entrecard and noticed that the new forum seemed deserted. On a whim I went to Turnip's blog for some insights and learned that he had been banned from Entrecard. Sheesh. Reading further into his posts I found out that Ben Barden walked away from Entrecard in disgust. Bad deal. So I don't figure there is any reason for me to make the attempt to rejoin the Entrecard commmunity, branding notwithstanding.

This category is new to me, not having existed a year ago when I was an active Entrecarder. Today's listing shows 99 blogs in the category, although there are only 35 that show up via the browse function, and only about half of those seem to be active Entrecarder, based on their numbers.

Stud Kickass:Web Comic sits atop the heap, and I clicked through about 10 blogs in this category before my interest waned. I admit I'm not a comic person and it takes quite a bit to get me to smile, much less laugh out loud. Of course, only a small percentage of the blogs in this category are attempting to be humorous comics, and there is no denying the authors have more artistic talent than I do.

I'll probably give some of these blogs a try when I'm back to dropping cards and see if any of them strike my fancy enough for me to become a regular visitor.

It looks like the same place, only I don't recognize many of the faces in the Entrecard community. I signed up with Entrecard in December 07 and felt like I was a latecomer joining a group of pioneers. New features were rolling out on a regular basis, as were new categories of blogs. Making Money Online was one of the most active categories, as were Computers and Internet and Internet Marketing. A quick browse through today's Most Popular shows a predominance of Entrecards with the word "Mom" in them or pictures of animals.

What happened to the Making Money Onliners? Where'd they go? Are they making money elsewhere or did they go get a day job, like I did? It was just over a year ago that 1000 Entrecard Credits sold on ebay for $20. Now, there aren't any results for an ebay search for "Entrecard", so I'm guessing that it's against the rules to sell ECs.

So where does one start with so many blogs to choose from? And what do I want this blog to accomplish? There was a brief moment when The Entrecarder served as part of the town's welcome wagon, being as there were only a few hundred active Entrecarders and only a couple of us that were regularly writing about Entrecard developments. Entrecard is now a bustling city where one is no longer expected or able to know all of its citizens. The neighborhoods (categories) have grown into towns in their own right and some have more citizens than Entrecard did when I first arrived.

The upside is that with the larger population it is easier to target a specific audience and if so motivated focus all of one's daily drops on them. I'll wander around a bit and see where I'm most comfortable and likely chronicle my travels here in this blog.

It's been a long time, been a long time...

As of the moment I'm not a current Entrecard member and until I've banged out 5 quality articles I won't be considered by the new manual review system. I enjoyed my time as an Entrecarder and while gathering info for my taxes I noted that I earned about $1000 from selling Entrecard Credits in the first half of 2008. The rules changed and I found myself engaged in other income activities that caused my Entrecard activity to drop and my interest to wan. So I wasn't too broken up when my 20 or so accounts got booted from the service a few months ago.

I faced a decision about Entrecard recently when Godaddy sent me a renewal notification for my Entrecarder.com domain. True, I wasn't using it actively, but I had put lots of effort into branding that term as mine. I opted to renew it for another 12 months and see if I couldn't have some fun with Entrecard again, assuming they would have me back.

So, as I logged in to start writing this post I noticed a comment from a disgruntled visitor asking me to take down my Entrecard widget so as not to waste his time whilst performing his dropping ritual. I'm not quite sure how he found my site, but am guessing it is on a big list someplace as there was a time when I was amongst the highest ranked Entrecard sites.

Hence the idea of echos. Just how long would my brief stint as he Entrecarder have a presence in our cyberworld? 5 years? 25 years? Could it be that 50 years from now some odd search combination would yield a reference to me, THE Entrecarder?

Odd. I chose to write about a virtual community, never intending to have an impact beyond the moment and yet the echos continue to bounce around month and month, year after year. But unlike the degradation of sound in real world echos, my words might appear as if I had just written them, ignoring the changes in life that accompany the passage of time. Some might find that type of immortality to be pleasing, an achievement only dreamed of by writers at any other era of man's existence. However, that thrill should be tempered by the realization that there might come a time when our own words condemn us, and try as we might, it's not within our power to call them all back.

So, it makes sense to me to keep on writing, in the hopes that I either create an improved record or render an evaluation of my words meaningless due to the sheer volume of the entries.

Hi, I'm Kent Vorkink, The Entrecarder.

Not too surprisingly, this blog was unceremoniously deleted from Entrecard recently. I'm assuming that it was due to lack of activity and I understand the action taken and see it as an improvement to the community.

When I first started this and my other Entrecard blogs I had plenty of time on my hands and enjoyed the experience of interacting with other Entrecarders and figuring out ways to try and beat the system. I managed to earn some pretty good money farming ECs and while it was hardly a decent return for the time I expended, it was a nice bonus.

Bottom line is that I'm not a committed blogger and over the past 6 months haven't felt much of an itch at all to jump back into the Entrecard community. It was fun when it was just getting started and I still hope Graham makes a bundle on his investment. Now that I've stepped away and am back in the real work world, Entrecard has returned to its proper perspective in my eyes and serves a good purpose for many, many people. Can I live without Entrecard? I'm doing just fine, thank you very much.

So why this entry? Oh, probably as a thank you to the few folks that have read some of my past entries and occasionally find their way here. I appreciated the support and hope in some way I was able to enlighten or entertain. Good luck and good blogging to you all!

-Kent

If you build it...

I get visitors to this blog every day, although I suspect that most are just dropping and running. I haven't been active in the Entrecard community over the past few months and I don't see that changing any time soon. I still think Entrecard is great and I'm still a big fan of its founder. And while I'm willing to let my other 19 blogs go by the wayside, I want to keep this one a part of the Entrecard community. So, every once in a while I'll update this blog and blather on about something.

Oh, and I'm still waiting for the credit exchange.

As I recall, I was checking out various widgets on blogs, and trying to figure out which ones I wanted to add to my blog, when I first encountered an Entrecard widget. Sadly, I don't recall whose blog it was on, but it did lead me to my most active social networking experience to date. While I'm not blogging very often nowadays, I still consider myself a member of the Entrecard community and experience.

Recently I saw a graph that Graham posted related to Entrecard's growth and how it is similar to that of Pay-Per-Post. I got to thinking about the fact that there are millions of bloggers out there and only a small percentage that have joined Entrecard or even heard of it. For example, I have a friend from Dublin, Ireland whose blogs I have been following for the past couple of years, through several name and platform changes. While she used to have dozens of readers, there are only a couple of us now who comment regularly on her current blog. She and I are also friends on Facebook, which is a much more robust method of connecting than just via a blog. However, understanding the value of having at least a couple of regular readers of one's blog, I stay on top of her now-somewhat-infrequent posts. I suspect there is a boost that comes from knowing that someone will read what one has written, which is where Entrecard comes in.

Forum squabbles, feature flops, and other negatives aside, Entrecard does a great job of getting exposure for one's blog. No, Entrecard probably won't make you an A-lister or drive tons of unique visitors to your site. But with just a little effort, Entrecard will put eyes on your blog that wouldn't have seen it otherwise.

So why aren't there more Entrecarders? I've got to think that the vast majority of bloggers don't create a new post every day or are in it to make money. I wonder what percentage of bloggers actually want to have others--strangers--read their blogs? Does Entrecard really want casual bloggers in their community? I hope so. The spammers and gamers can go away, but there should be a place for the occasional blogger to participate and be a part of Entrecard.

OK...so do we just wait until bloggers find Entrecard on their own? Should there be an incentive for recruiting new Entrecarders? Should Entrecard take out ads on Facebook, Myspace, or other social networking sites? I can't say that I would spend much time myself searching out new Entrecarders, but I might try a bit harder if I were rewarded for my efforts. Shades of a complicated Affiliate Program! I don't know how best to structure a referral program, but I'd be OK with it if Entrecard decided to go that direction.

While it might not help everyone, Entrecard is designed to be an easy, free method for promoting one's blog. There is room for another 100,000 Entrecarders or more, if only they have the chance to try out the service. To do that they first have to find it!

No, this isn't a post about an Entrecard dating service. The recent Firestorm nonsense has driven home how differently I am wired than the raucous crowd that has moved its clubhouse temporarily to the batcave. Amidst tears, depression, wringing of hands, and I-just-can't-let-this-go outbursts, the big kitty in the Firestorm sandbox was silenced and then promptly chose to go spray his essence somewhere else. This of course outraged at least a couple of dozen of his closest Entrecard buddies, some of whom swore off participating again in the forums, but decided to still keep their accounts active. What a sign of support! Help me Rhonda. Naturally, they who were the bullies are playing the victim and the fist shaking goes on and on.

Ho hum. Entrecard isn't going to die because of this, or the last pricing system change, or any of the other reasons folks have pointed at as their excuse for leaving Entrecard over the past 8 months. There will always be flamboyant departures and predictions of Entrecard's impending doom, and just as in true in real life, others will step up and fill the void. Adios and good luck to you, and thanks for any drops you made on my blogs.

What I realized is that I really don't like these people, the drama kings and queens, the bullies, the Firestormers, the whole group of self-proclaimed Entrecard A-listers. I don't like the way they process information, the way they handle their emotions, their crude language and classless humor, etc., etc. Which raises the question of "Where are the people I would like better in the Entrecard Community?"

My days of dropping 300, 600, 900 cards or more are done. I don't believe that Graham will be able to maintain the $9.50/1000 Exchange rate for ECs and a fully functioning, non-manipulated Exchange will have a credit vendor getting around $3/1000. That's not enough to justify any time specifically for earning credits. Accumulate 20000 ECs over a couple of months and sell them should you choose for $60 and that will help pay your hosting fees, etc. Also, the next big change in the Entrecard community is going to further encourage meaningful interaction over pure card dropping. Like it or not, Graham is dedicated to making us better Entrecard Community members.

OK, sure, why not? I've given up on the idea of being an Internet Marketer and I'm no longer farming credits, so I'm left with the idea of being a blogger...who really needs to find some mates (as in buddies) whose personality and style "match" my own. I'm not even going to limit my scope by blog topic, world region, gender, marital status, or educational background. Nope, I'm just on a quest to find a few people like me in the Entrecard community...if any others even exist, strange bird that I am.

As far as the forums go, I'll still throw in my 4 ECs worth now and then, primarily to do my part to help Graham as best I can. I guess one benefit of the Firestorm fiasco was it shook the fence and caused me (and perhaps some others) to decide whether to support Graham or take potshots at him. I choose the former.

There's been a firestorm in the Entrecard Forums and here's some of my comments that were recently posted there:

"The thread everyone seems to be focused on was not the first time that certain folks had crossed the line of civility in these forums, whether it be in the name of humor & wit, free speech, or lively debate. (Guilty as charged.) I agree with Woobie's statement and further feel that over time the "witty" comments that were bouncing around here with regularity had become an unacceptable norm, no matter how entertaining to some people. It doesn't really matter how things came to a head, the point is that Entercard stepped in and correctly a situation that had gotten out of hand."

and

"I don't agree that the "little guy" is hurt by the changes that have been made to Entrecard since January, mainly because the little guy still has the ability to promote their blog via card dropping, advertise on other Entrecarders' blogs with credits instead of cash, and comment in the forums and on others' blogs. Entrecard is easier to use now than it was in January, there are 5x the blogs in the community, and there are better features for accomplishing the primary goal of most Entrecarders, that of promoting their blogs.

As far as censorship goes, even those in the world who enjoy free speech accept that there are limits to that free speech. I don't believe that these forums were designed to provide a venue for free speech, which can more effectively be accomplished via our own blogs anyway. It's great to get a healthy conversation going where the different sides of an issue (eg-powerdropping versus chain-dropping) can be presented in a civil manner, if that debate benefits the Entrecard community, to which end Entrecard has engaged Moderators to watch over the forums.

I haven't liked all the changes that have been made to Entrecard since January, but I do like the fact that Graham and Phirate are making changes and continuing to try and improve this service. This Firestorm brouhaha will have barely died down before the next one starts up, which I predict will be in about 5 or 6 days."

and

"Hold an event at a public park and there is an expectation of free speech with limited moderation. Hold that same event at someone's home or place of business and free speech is limited by the ground rules set by the property or business owner. I never perceived that these forums were "free for alls." There is a specific purpose for each Entrecard forum and they are moderated to make sure that Entrecard's desires for the forums are not subjugated to those of individual Entrecarders.

These forums--by design--are different in their appearance and function than most forums many Entrecarders will have encountered in the past. (Perhaps Phirate could link to the site that explains the reasoning behind this type of forum design.) And it's not like it's easy to figure out the ground rules here, as with other aspects of the Entrecard experience it seems like self-discovery is part of the agenda, Entrecard E-book notwithstanding.

In my opinion, the strength of the Entrecard community is not determined by what Marcus, or Deimos, or Sam, or any individual Entrecarder adds to the forums or the overall community. The strength of Entrecard is that there is a steady stream of bloggers who are eager to publicize their blogs and increase their readership via a free service that has greater utility and quicker payback than most communities or services that they have encountered anywhere else. I miss some of the Entrecarders who were active in January and February and no longer participate, just as some of those who were Firestormers will be missed should they choose to opt out of Entrecard as a result of the hubbub over the past couple of days. But Entrecard is bigger than any of us and will continue to roll on, bumpy ride and all...or at least I hope it does."

I've been impressed many times in my nearly 6 months as an Entrecarder, but I can't recall a time when an intervention was made by the EntrePowers that had me tipping my hat to Phirate more than the creation of the new Firestorm forum. I'll admit to occasionally losing my cool in the forums and posting something I probably shouldn't have and usually regret soon thereafter. I'll further admit that I just don't understand how people can be so routinely rude to others and the best explanation I can come up with is that they are bullies or impotent human beings seeking to feel better about their miserable lives by dumping on other people. I have a clear picture of the first time I bumped up against what I would call a bitter, negative soul and I was shocked by the experience. I suppose I should have felt sorry for them, but honestly, I just couldn't believe that a person could take such obvious pleasure in randomly blasting anyone who crossed their path.

I've been equally puzzled by the group of 10-20 Entrecarders who have recently taken over the Entrecard forums and seem to have succeeded in lowering the standard level of civility to match their modus operandi and descend like a pack of wolves on anyone who might innocently misspeak or ask a question that a 5th grader could have answered. Yes, that is the norm for many forums out there and yet it hasn't been the norm in the Entrecard forums. True, Sam was controversial and Turnip seems to enjoy slapping folks on the side of the head on a regular basis, but those were rare exceptions to a generally cordial forum.

I've run into similar situations in the real world where a small group of people change the rules of behavior on a team or in an office to a more coarse, ruder, or less civilized level because the "gang" is all accepting of said degradation. What I found most interesting about the recent Entrecard forum activity is that the gang members were vocal in their support of each other's behavior as normal and acceptable and that Entrecard or the occasional random victim must be the abnormal ones. Maybe it's akin to people who are losing their hearing being unable to fully comprehend that they are now normally speaking louder than the average person. The gang thinks they are in the right and are battling Entrecard with the idea that their little group is reflective of the community at large and Entrecard got it wrong.

Sheesh. I've encountered this mindset before. 80% (or more) of college professors rate themselves as better than average and I'll bet the percentages are about the same for how we view ourselves as drivers, husbands, etc. It's why I refer to myself now as an average driver and am trying to make it up to being an average husband. I'll admit that I am likely more confrontational than the average Entrecarder and accept that I have to try harder in the forums to be more civil. It's a hard thing to admit...but I'll man up and do a better job.

What? I'm not being entirely civil here on my own blog? No, I didn't say I was committing to be perfect, just to try harder when I post in the Entrecard forums. I'll have to decide whether or not I will venture into the Firestorm forum. I'm not fooled by the gang's arguments of free speech or the need for intelligent debate. Those are weak attempts to justify their bullying and rude behavior. I learned earlier this year (when I had one of my blogs make the front page of Digg) that dark humor succeeds as it appeals to the baser instincts of many people. The Firestorm forum will likely end up as the most popular Entrecard forum for similar reasons, which is the reason that I won't be visiting there very often, if at all.

So it's two thumbs up to Phirate for insisting the majority of the Entrecard forums take the higher road and remain a place where folks can learn from each other and ask dumb questions on occasion without running the risk of being gang-tackled.