The Entrecarder

I've watched with a bemused detachment as the myth that Spammers and Credit Farmers are destroying Entrecard crops up here and there in the community. There's no denying that it's irritating to arrive on an Entrecarder's site that is just one big ad or is clearly a "made ya look" site. What's boggles my mind is why some folks keep harping on Credit Farmers with such vigor, even after the Entrecard security system closed down the ability for bots to hunt and drop, and limitations were put into place that restricted the number of drops that were allowable per IP address. I've asked the question in the Forums and I'll ask it again here: Where's the proof that Credit Farmers are a threat to Entrecard?

I suppose that if the threat is a theoretical one, based on the idea that shrewd entrepreneurs are already lining up hundreds of willing 3rd world country sweatshop workers to drop on thousands of Entrecard accounts and generate millions of credits that will flood the market, effectively killing the EC currency...it still doesn't make sense! Holy smokes, Batman, someone is making $3 a day farming credits! Call Commissioner Gordon and let's round them up! Sheesh.

The real issue here isn't Spammers and Credit Farmers. No, the real issue is Blogger Elitism. You have to be blind not to recognize the subtle and not-so-subtle statements made by "legitimate" bloggers about those folks who are more inclined to marketing and making money via their blogs than they are in traditional blogging. People! Blogs are websites, blogs are billboards, blogs are tv ads, blogs are radio ads, blogs are direct mail pieces, blogs are vehicles for marketing...if one so chooses them to be. However, blogging purists turn their noses up at these bastardized applications of "web logs." Too many ads? Boo! Hiss! Using a free host? Tres gauche! Working within a system to maximize your marketing approach? Risk the scorn of the collective ignorami.

Ah, but it's so easy to cloud the issue by grouping allowable, yet unwanted behavior, in the same sentence with unacceptable and unwanted behavior. Spammer = Bad. Credit Farmer = One Approach to Entrecarding. Hmmph! Well, what sort of person drops cards every day in an attempt to further their own selfish goals? Uhhhh....duh.....how about looking in the mirror! OK, so you're not a Credit Farmer...you're just a Credit Gardener. Bully for you.

Many, many active Entrecarders do some Credit Farming every day and everyone's OK with it because.....because.....heck, I don't know. Why is it OK to drop like a madman on 2 accounts and not 3? Did I miss that passage of scripture? Entrecard allows multiple accounts and they seem to think it's OK, assuming that all the drops are made manually on a fully loaded page. Got 4 hours a day to burn dropping cards and want to "earn" 2000 ECs? Hold on...before we authorize that activity, let's consider the impact on the Entrecard economy. Hundreds of thousands of credits are generated each day and someone's worried that a single Credit Farmer might get 1% of them for their time and effort? Wow. Then the good part...now they can try and sell them on ebay for $4/1000. Nope, nope, we just can't let them walk away with $8. Think of the children!

Ridiculous. Absurd. Moronic.

Back to the real problem: Snoggers (snobbish bloggers). Entrecard needs to establish minimum community standards, like the ones they brag about in their video. Should I have been able to establish all of my new blogs as Entrecard accounts right away? Probably not...and I wouldn't have been bothered to wait a bit until they met the minimum standards. I had a distinct strategy in mind when I established each of my 20+ Entrecard accounts and a large component of my plan was to harvest ECs. In hindsight, it was an OK plan, but one that I voluntarily abandoned after getting bored out of my mind dropping cards on multiple accounts. Not only can't you get rich by harvesting credits, you can't even earn a decent hourly wage. The really sad part is that I made more money by my credit harvesting efforts than most bloggers do with their acceptable, legitimate blogs...er...hobbies.

Of course, my expectations for income are different perhaps than those of many folks who live in 3rd world countries, and earning $10-$20 a day without having to break a sweat might be a good option for them. They should be allowed to do that with Entrecard IF their blogs meet the minimum community standards, even if the purists have a conniption fit.

Credit Farmers destroying Entrecard = Myth. The real threat = Blogger Elitism.