Comments on: Link Bait At BlogCatalog

By: Jan Weingarten

Jan Weingarten — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 06:38:29 +0000

I just got declined by Blogcatalog and found my way to this thread by googling “declined by blogcatalog,” and found some pretty interesting stuff. True, I just started my blog about a week ago, so maybe they don’t like new blogs. But if so, they don’t say that anywhere that I can see.

Here’s why I was declined:

“The URL you submitted is not a blog, is solely for commercial purposes, or is suspected to be spam”

Right. Well, it is definitely a blog, and it is NOT spam. It DOES contain Adsense, but so do Blogcatalog and many of the sites contained on it. If they choose not to accept any sites with commercicial content (which is their right), it would be really nice for them to let people know upfront.

Like a good little soldier, I created my profile and put their widget on my blog, which, being fairly new to the process took me a bit of maneuvering with sidebars and things.

What I found when I searched was a bunch of people who have been declined without any explanation other than “the URL you submitted is not a blog, is solely for commercial purposes, or is suspected to be spam” without any idea why they’ve been rejected, and only the ambiguous, “if you believe this to be a mistake” … you can change anything “which MAY have caused it to get declined.”

SHEESH! If you don’t know what caused it to get declined, how are you supposed to fix what MAY have caused it to get declined???

I had heard good things about Blogcatalog and the community, spent some time perusing the discussions, and found some I’d like to take part in, but of course can’t because I’m not worthy.

Whatever.

Daniel, I do understand concerns about spam. And I’ve participated on many forums and newsgroups, long before the web existed. There are many ways to deal with spam, including moderation, other than rejecting blogs out of hand without any explanation. I understand you are short-handed. I worked as a tech writer for a start-up, and I can relate to the pressures, but alienating potential customers isn’t great customer service imo. We’re not ALL spammers.

I am posting this here because I can’t post on Blogcatalog because I’m persona non grata. I hope you will see it, Daniel.

Jan

p.s. I agree with you about gift cards, Derek. Except Starbucks. I can always use more lattes. Gimme those free lattes!

By: derek

derek — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 23:45:30 +0000

Daniel, thanks for stopping by to share this piece of news!

By: Daniel

Daniel — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 18:40:34 +0000

Hey Derek, Just digging up this old blog post to let everyone know that we now have a meta tag verification method for anyone who doesn’t want to sacrifice their blog’s real estate to a linkback or widget. Thanks!

By: Rose

Rose — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 06:08:53 +0000

“As Damien Riley commented on my other post, BlogCatalog hasn’t really done anything to differentiate themselves from MyBlogLog - at least not in a positive manner.”

Monkey see- monkey do?

By: derek

derek — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 03:53:56 +0000

@Damien :: Thanks for sharing your thoughts. It will be a tough road for BC to compete, particularly when you consider the size of their team as Daniel mentioned earlier.

@Dave :: That is exactly what I was thinking as a good alternative, as it is unobtrusive and easy enough to implement.

By: derek

derek — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 03:52:01 +0000

Daniel, being a programmer myself I knew where you were coming from as it is natural to have a good deal of pride in your work and it sucks when it feels like someone is attacking that work.

We’ll be looking forward to how BC continues to move forward and hopefully provides a few alternative means of verifying blog ownership, as it seems many users would appreciate that.

By: Dave

Dave — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 02:19:15 +0000

I’m in agreeance with the method for blog verification not being the best. I for one would not put a link or “ad” on my site just for verification purposes to get into a directory. Google Webmaster Tools allows you to upload a file to your site, if they can hit it, your blog is verified. How about something like that?

I’m surprised you haven’t heard more complaints like Derek’s.

By: Daniel

Daniel — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 22:55:05 +0000

We made a decision early on not to allow hyperlinks in the shoutbox, primarily as a deterrent to any user who only wants to use the system to spam or acquire link backs.

By: Daniel

Daniel — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 22:50:17 +0000

Sorry if i came off the wrong way earlier. It just seemed like the blog post unfairly glazed over the reasons that we would require a link back and didn’t offer much as to what the alternative solutions were that you had in mind . After reading the post after a long day, i did feel the need to defend our network. I guess it’s a pride thing.

Talking with you and everyone else about the verification process has been a wonderful experience. It really solidified our ideas of how to make it an easy and painless experience for everyone, and hopefully it’s something we can tackle in the upcoming months. The BlogCatalog team is made up of only 4 people, and I am the sole programmer, so we have really had to streamline our priorities so that we can release the most beneficial updates that we can.

Again, Thanks for the feedback and engaging in a discussion with me, It’s really what we thrive on.

By: Damien Riley

Damien Riley — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 04:21:38 +0000

When you are talking about ideals it makes a mathematic discussion. But when you get into someone’s bread and water, then they tend to snap.

I hold nothing against Daniel or others who defend BC. It’s not inherently a bad service. They just need a lot more innovation to compete in a “fad” that is constantly changing. With similar services out there innovating far beyond the archaic “you must link us” requirements, they have a tough road ahoe to make it into 2008 and beyond.

Best of luck to BC. We are all watching. I must say that Daniel’s sarcastic response on here is enough to make me steer clear of the company.

I guess time will tell what happens to BC.