Sunday, January 27, 2008
Jericho: Hey Nielsen
I had high hopes for Hey Nielsen when it first arrived on the scene. It was fun and I thought it could only help Jericho. Unfortunately, my opinion has changed.
In September Rich at Copywrite Ink posted,"How can you accurately gauge fan buzz on the Internet if you are dangling “fame” in front of the people scoring the system? It adds the same kind of superficial buzz measures that are overshadowing Web metrics."
"I've been meaning to follow up with the progress being made by Hey!Nielsen since I first wrote about them in Sept.," says Rich. "And I keep putting it off because something tells me that there isn't any."
I would ask how you can accurately gauge anything when you have people abusing the system? How does Hey Nielsen rate anything accurately when some users create multiple identities and converge on one topic with the express purpose of voting down someone or some show they don't like?
There will always be people who abuse any system and it seems to be no different at Hey Nielsen. What are they doing about it and how do they adjust rankings to reflect the fact that some opinions are made by the obviously mentally challenged among us?
At this point in time I no longer use Hey Nielsen as the rankings show me nothing. It is being used by some to gain revenge or to discredit a person or show. I cannot see that it will have any usefulness to Jericho fans. I hope changes are made so abusive users can be removed quickly before their rantings are allowed to influence others and spread dissension further.
In the meantime I no longer consider this vehicle as any promotional tool I want to use. I'd rather promote where there's actually a chance of success.
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13 comments:
I have never joined Hey Nielsen. I feel I spend too much time on Jericho and this is a very time consuming site from what I have read. People reported it loads slow and takes forever to make opinions. People who didn't like Jericho can destroy the rating of Jericho for no reason. Now I see that people are spreading that kind of attitude towards others who are promoting Jericho. Any time a fan's promotion efforts are degraded by another fan it hurts Jericho. I will consider joining Hey Nielsen when they make it so each person can have one identity until then it is really just senseless buzz.
Thanks for commenting. You're right. People who don't like Jericho or some Jericho fan can totally skew the rankings. There should only be one identity allowed. I had hoped this was a site that CBS would take into consideration but they won't. Why would they when the rankings are meaningless?
I like going to HN to see other people's opinions on TV shows, movies, whatever. But I view it just like any other social networking site. You basically say "I like these things, I don't like these things." Then you add your friends and try to convince other people of your opinions.
In that you can use your comment to impart useful information about the item on which you are commenting - I think it is another nice promotion tool to get information out there. With regards to ACTUALLY judging how popular something is - no, not until abuse of the system ends and users are limited to only one ID.
And the system whereby you can report personal attacks - which should be happening in the first place, let alone by fans of the same fandom - needs to be repaired on HN. Several attempts to report posts returned server errors. Maybe they are still working the kinks out.
I do like seeing what everyone else has said about something I've seen or am planning on seeing and then choosing whether I agree with the comments made. But I don't put any stock in the RANKINGS because of the way the system can be skewed.
It's my opinion that Hey Nielsen was never meant to have any effect at all from it's introduction. I believe that this service was introduced by Nielsen Media Research as a stop-gap measure to simply provide the appearance to the public and/or media outlets that Nielsen was actually working towards integrating new forms of viewing and response. In other words, this is simply Nielsen covering it's own ass in light of all the negative publicity the past couple of years as to the accuracy and validity of their methods of determining and reporting the viewing habits of the American public.
We have wasted far too much time and effort on this feeble attempt of the Nielsen Corp. to retain their status as the top, if not sole,source of determining what television programs live or die.
Nice try Neilsen, but the jig is up.
I've wondered how accurate the Hey Nielsen tally was. It is a shame that there is abuse of the system, the websites, voting sites, etc. We must applaud and support the efforts of those promoting Jericho. Personal attacks serve no good purpose. Posters must learn to agree to disagree - live and let live. When individual fame becomes the ultimate goal of any poster, that poster has lost site of the common effort of promoting a show. Great article.
I was over on HN trying to give the Journeyman fans some love, and they were overtaken by another shows group of fans, trying to beat down the positive comments. It was ugly and stupid, and killed a lot of joy the Journeyman fans were having trying to save their show.
The place is a free-for-all, and of no use towards any real gauge of viewership.
Than you all for commenting.
Schumi,I'm getting the same error. One more thing that needs attention.
Mark, I agree. No more wasted time and effort for me with this flawed system.
Alpha and Erika, excellent points from both of you. Free-for-all is a good description.
Thanks Jane.
I really wish I could have provided more insight, but without the ability to see any movement, there was not much to base any questions on. As long as the site seems stuck in a permanent beta, the answers would all be the same.
The concept could have worked, but while the general programing logic is to rate "raters" remains, then the site will remained flawed in that it automatically asks people to consider how they might gain popularity (vote with your group) rather than leave an honest opinion.
It's shame, and not much of a surprise that the networks didn't back the concept of buzz measurement, especially when coercion and anonymity rule.
All my best,
Rich
To be honest I had begun to see Digg and Hey Nielsen as less of a way to secure season three and more of a way to support one another. There are so many in the Jericho fandom who want to believe that these sites are a gateway to good things for the show. I salute their optimism even as my own belief in these sites begins to erode. Thanks to everyone who has put their good energy into new media. We will not always hit home runs with it but a simple single serves to keep the game alive.
Thanks for your insight Rich. "coercion and anonymity rule." I believe that statement sums it up.
"I salute their optimism even as my own belief in these sites begins to erode."
I agree Tero. Thank you.
We're definitely putting efforts into reducing the efforts of spammers and those who attempt to game the system.
In the last month, many members have been warned about their activity and a select few have been banned outright based on their activity. With the recent installation of our Member Levels, we are more able to track habits and assign value to user activity.
Thanks,
Steve / Hey! Nielsen
We used to get immediate responses to emails but we now get no response. Personal attacks are not being removed and the report button has been broken for quite some time.
What a disappointment in what appeared to be a valuable website at one time.
Bugs with the report post tool have been worked out. Now that we are nearing 50K members it becomes difficult, if not impossible, to reply to each request personally, but we do read the feedback and attempt to address any problems users are having with the site. Now that some other issues have been resolved on the site, we're stepping up our feedback response time in Feb.
Thanks
Steve / Hey! Nielsen
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