Members being paid to post

What are your thoughts about communities where members are paid to post, where the admin will recruit someone and pay them per post/thread they make?

I personally would never do such a thing myself, it would be easy but these people arent truly interested in your forum, theyre mainly after the money. I also think the quality of postings would be of poor quality more than likely.

Would you ever do this yourself or have you? If you have was it beneficial or was it bad for your forums?

 

I think it is worth the investment to get your community off and running, but not after you have generated a user base.

 

I don't even think it's worth.

When a person signs up to your forums with the intention of just posting because they are paid...what will happen after the term has actually stopped? You have posts but no real users, just one that you paid.

I've always thought these kind of services are silly, not everyone is knowledgeable in a niche, let's say I hired a person to post in my anime forum, would they know about every anime? or would they just copy paste what says in Wikipedia? You wouldn't know many things about the anime until you actually watch it.

I prefer real members and me advertising and making those first posts myself, getting the board up myself rather than have people that might know nothing of the niche post things that might not even interest the users.

 

I think it's a bad idea no matter how you look at it.
I would rather buy a database or existing forum and merge it into mine or use that as a starting block, vs paying members to post or using paid per post programs.

 

I've never been too fond of this concept. Why? The content contributed will more than likely hold little to no value.

Doing so is a risk, even during the beginning stages of a community. You're hiring individuals that may or may not have knowledge of the subject matter at hand, and because of this, there is a chance that the material in which they choose to contribute will have no real "meat". It will cause your community to appear as considerably more active, but in reality, the content will be lacking information-wise. They're being compensated to post on a discussion forum, and they are generally not required to have an understanding of the subject being discussed. This can be a problem.

Quality over quantity, folks. To me, this is crucial.

 

I don't think it is an issue for a new forum. You need to have content to draw in and keep new members. I have heard other people talk about how they pretend to be four or five different people and write 100s of posts themselves. My time is more valuable than that. I'd rather pay somebody to post a few conversation starters and let the new members join in on the conversation. Slowly the paid posts go away and you are just left with the membership posting.

RR

 

It's bad. Why would you want to do that to your community? Seriously its awful, nearly as awful as the movie Titanic. Replace Celine Dione's song with Steve Ballmer's developers remix... would be fantastic and suits the theme of a ship sinking. However. Paying people to post on your forum to make it look active sucks. People doing this will be shot.

 

So if the individuals posting have an understanding of the topic and even personal experience would that negate your concern?

Other than that I haven't heard a good reason why this is so bad... that people should be shot over it...

 

It quite possibly could, yes. If I were the founder of a newly developed discussion community and was in need of acceptable activity, compensating individuals who have the appropriate knowledge and/or understanding of the subject matter at hand would indeed become a possibility.

If there were specialized "paid posting services", I think it could work nicely.

 

You only get 1 chance to make a first impression, Do you really want paid posters making that impression? Would it not be better to gather quality people up and make quality posts, then advertise the site? People drift by forums all the time and it takes something unique to grab them.



Or if it is just a general BS site then just copy/paste (with links to where the material came from) from other sites stuff you the owner find interesting then like minded people will gather soon enough.

"Motivational Posters", jokes, comics, anime (or whatever thats called LOL), whatever you find of interest.

People have keen senses and can detect less than sincere material.

 

I guess I don't jump to the conclusion that the posts that come from paid posting would be full of bad content. Actually just the opposite. Since I am paying for a service I would expect a certain level of professionalism and knowledge about the topic. From my stand point getting a bunch of friends or family members together and saying "let's do us some posting" isn't prompting authentic posts either. So why not take advantage of a professional company that is willing to put in the time (sometimes stretching over 2-6 weeks) in order to research the topic and create intriguing threads?

Also, when you pay for posting that is original content that is coming from the posters. They are not copying and pasting from other websites (and if they are then you aren't getting your money's worth and you are using a bad service). This way you have two things in your corner: 1. original content and 2. you know that content isn't copyrighted.

 

I don't either, actually, no one is, we're just thinking it's better to have actual content.

Not all forums need to convey professionalism, I will take for example the forum Bryce made for people with Asperger, I am sure he was thinking of getting paid posting, but his forum is about the every-day aspie who has fun etc, what would paid posting post in there? Medical issues aspies already know?

Take for example Setsou Design, I don't want complete professionalism on the forums, that's why the theme I made is fun, 'cause I like to have fun, so if I paid for a person to post on my forums, what would they post about? What is better GIMP or Photoshop and make an essay on why? tl;wr.

Family might be interested on your niche, compared to a person that might know nothing about it. 1) It's free and 2) It would be genuine. Your family member might stay, the paid poster leaves after the amount of time.

Again, let me go to the anime example, what is the paid poster going to do if they haven't watched the anime? Post from wikipedia, copy pasta!

Gamer forum, what is the paid poster going to input about if he hasn't played the game? Copy pasta!

Now, RR your forum is about women that are going through/showing signs of menopause, your forum is pretty much there to help, Would you rather have content there made by you which help the users you're targeting or would you pay for some one to generate content for you and then leave? What if you get a guy posting, would they know what is going through menopause? What if you get a young girl, would they know what it feels to go through menopause?...no?


Now, generating content yourself with YOUR knowledge, inviting family members who went through it that could give experiences and how to deal with that event in womanhood, now THAT is what I would like to see.

 

It seemed to me that everyone was jumping to the conclusion that these companies are not knowledgeable in the niche in which they are posting. While I think that there are some companies out there that would post without knowledge of the topic, I have seen others that either 1. take a week or two to get familiar with a topic that they don't know about or 2. assign the work to people that are familiar with the topic. For instance if I decided to pursue a pay-for-post company for my forum I would ask that they assign the work to women that have experienced menopause and have firsthand knowledge of the experience. As you point out, I am lucky and have a forum where many people have experienced this situation so I have a larger pool to draw from for experienced posters.

I guess I need to clarify what I mean by professionalism. To me this doesn't mean that you have paid advertising. It means that you have well thought out posts that lead to meaningful conversation that aren't full of slang, "Wh3r33 R U?", and one or two word replies. I also believe you can have fun and be professional at the same time. Look at AA - they have plenty of fun conversations but also have plenty of well thought out discussions and questions.

Sure... and that's just part of gathering members to your site. I completely agree that you need to tap into whatever connections you have to start the community and hope that those people stay on and become active users. That's the goal!

As I said before, firsthand experience is the best. We agree on that. All I am saying is many pay-for-post services can offer posters that have firsthand knowledge about the topic. I realize that the smaller your niche is the smaller your chance of finding posters with the experience you require. But if you can find people with experience then it may be worth looking into.

To use your example about my forum: If I engaged a pay-for-post service, and they tell me that they have assigned the service to all women that have experienced menopause then I would make sure to review the posts and ensure that the posts meet my expectations. If a post says "my wife.... I mean... uh.. I... I hated menopause" then I kind of get suspicious. If I read the post and it is a direct copy of Wikipedia then there is a problem. But if there are quality posts, then all I can assume is the company kept its word.

I have never engaged a pay-for-post service so I don't have any experience to cite here. Have you have had experience that makes you believe that these companies aren't able to generate meaningful content?

To be honest, I don't know if I would ever bring on a pay-for-post company because I would be more concerned about how my users would feel if they found out that somebody that they "bonded" with was really a paid poster. If that happened to me I would feel cheated and I wouldn't want my members to feel that way. But I didn't see anybody bring up that argument.

Thanks for the though provoking discussion!!!
RR

 

Some of us have had experiences with them so we post what we think and have seen. It's not easy to get members, genuine members, but using paid-posting as a easy way out, for some of us, is not an option.

My anime forum gets a lot of that, but it's genuine people that at least do know about my niche, actually, I was like that not long ago, I started typing what you call proper when I became an admin, a little bit after, so I'd say one year?

I agree with professionalism + Fun, which is what we want to achieve with Setsou, so I understand what you mean by that.

I am pretty sure it would be that way, but you chose your paid poster by one paragraph they make and show you[I think about your niche] and then they will do the rest if you like that paragraph., maybe you can ask to review all of the posts they will do in your niche, but I don't think that's how it goes.

A couple, actually, I didn't buy the services, I was a simple member. It was this anime forum that was starting up which I helped design, and the admin thought the easy way out would be paid-posting, so he bought a package of 1,000 posts and all of them were copy paste of wikipedia and bleachpedia, AnimeNetwork, FUNimation, nothing genuine, it was pretty much stuff already the anime world knew, so the few users that were brought started harrasing the paid-poster for copy pasting, since we would want to discuss an episode of an anime and not read the plot from Wikipedia.

Then there was this other anime site, which I designed their forums, which bought paid-posting and the paid poster posted "Who is better, Ichigo or Itsygo?" When they are the same people just that when they meet Nelliel Tu Oderschwank, Nel for short, she called him Itsygo 'cause she is a kid.

So it was pretty horrid.

One of the things that makes a user stay is the atmosphere, pretty much if they sense some kind of bond between the users, they will think it's a nice play and that they would like to join such atmosphere, at least in what I have noticed between Setsou, Pisoga and AA, an opinion anyways.

When you yourself generate the content it is a bond you are creating with your readers, from you to them.

 

Thanks for the examples FMB! Your post was really helpful! Very good points.

I think some people just have a fundamental aversion to a community that isn't organic. Always wondering about which posts are real and which ones are fake, so on and so forth. While I still think that pay-for-posting may be used appropriately, those instances are few and far between. I would venture to say that, for the most part, that people engage pay-for-posting services just to make their communities look bigger and more attractive. And, depending on who they get to do the posting, it may or may not work out for them.

As I'm tying this I am starting to think of an anology for pay-for-posting but I don't know if I should say it.... any guesses based on what I've said above?

 

If your time is honestly more valuable than that, hire a team (five to seven) with writing skills and knowledge in your desired area to write articles and respond to people's questions. Instruct them to communicate with each other on the forums.

In addition, hire a few promoters to handle SEO needs. Their work will not matter if you do not get traffic.

I would not use a forum posting service, I would actually seek out skilled, elegant writers directly. Fortunately, I have my own supply >_>

 

This sounds like what is popularly referred to as "post exchange." If that is what we're talking about here, I think I explained myself well enough in a post at another administrator resource forum:

"I have never used post exchanges, and I cannot bring myself to do it. Post quality has nothing to do with my stance; rather, it is the notion that it is not real. Sure, it may help with the real deal, but I do not like the idea of astroturfing (no matter how little) my community in order to get some real grassroots activity. Related to that, I want all my posting members to be there because they genuinely want to, not because they are obligated to."

Along these lines, by chance I came across a "service" that allows someone to purchase discussions and profiles from a company's website (I do not remember which one; maybe Yahoo?). This is sad. Yesterday, I already found what I suspect to be a forum using that service. It is a forum that has supposedly been around since 2008, and that relies on word of mouth. However, the administrator has so far garnered less than 30 posts, and he has only five forums (or sections), all of which have one or two topics, but thousands of posts, all of which are contributive. For example, in one forum, there is a several-hundred-pages-long discussion on opera music. That said, there was nobody online at the time I was there, and he was advertising at the support forum of the company that is freely hosting him.