I can't believe what I have just seen, some guy has made a post in his blog; "100 reasons why DP sucks" and every single reason is wrong. He's blog can be found here: http://www.lightningshock.com/2007/12/20/100-reasons-digital-point-sucks/. Here are the arguments, followed by my own counter arguments: 1. It’s Spammer infested- Although there is an occasional spammer, it is nearly impossible to prevent spammers in any forum. We have mods who act appropriately and delete the threads in a matter of minutes. 2. They think Google’s Toolbar PageRank is important (which it’s not)- Yes it is. It is a representation of your importance in the google search engine and is used extensively when selling and buying links. 3. They think submitting to Web Directories is important- it is a highly effective way of increasing backlinks. 4. They think Reciprocal Link Building is important- If you want a site with traffic then this is 5. They think Article Submissions are important- he obviously does not know anything about SEO and criticizes all methods, lol 6. They think Press Releases are important- another good way to increase traffic 7. They think submitting via Social Bookmarks is important- a very good and important way to increase traffic 8. They actually applaud participation in Link Programs- yes, there are some very good link programs out there 9. No creative Forum Icons- it doesn't matter how the site looks, it is the community atmosphere that counts 10. They think “Google is Evil†to a certain extent, for example, penalizing directories- the amount they cost google is nothing and it has hurt many directory owners 11. They promote splogs- no, not splogs, blogs, and good quality ones too, unlike your own. 12. They promote Espionage- never heard of it 13. They promote Link Scheming- no 14. They promote Blackhat SEO techniques- well is you are so against normal SEO techniques such as link exchange and article and directory submission, the only way left for you to promote your blog is this method, oh, and by the way, we don't 15. They promote Stumble Exchanges- if some people want to do this they can, everyone has different promotion methods 16. They promote Digg Exchanges- same as above 17. They promote Clickbank Posts- never seen this 18. It sits on a sub-domain- yes it is 19. It’s too big- thats a good thing, your forum is too small 20. Members have tried to sell their accounts- and they have been banned 21. Trying to filter all the good posts from the bad posts is like finding a needle in a haystack- I disagree, there is lots of great info here 22. They actually have an “Interesting Junk†dropdown menu in their forum toolbar (Under “Fun Stuffâ€)- can;t see that anywhere 23. Reputation is disabled in the “Members Listâ€- you give reputation on a members quality post, not through the member list. You need to brush up on your vBulletin knowledge 24. For DP: Quantity > Quality- however, the quantity and quality are both far better than other forums 25. Their “Greenish†Color Scheme reminds me of Vomit- it reminds me of DP, this guys blog has a crap design. 26. Their Link Exchange / Sales Forums have over 460,000 posts- i wonder why it is so popular then? 27. They banned Alexander the Great- never seen this member, besides, people don;t get banned for no reason. 28. They have an entire forum devoted to Keyword Tracking and what is bad about this? 29. The Administrators don’t care about the quality of the forums- they are fully dedicated about making the best webmaster forum and they have done exactly that 30. The Moderators don’t care about the quality of the forums- you of combined the last two, therefore does not count 31. They hire paid forum posters- no we don;t, that would be pointless and a waste of money 32. Just look at some of Nintendo’s Pictures- yeah... 33. They ban members for silly reasons (like thread bumping)- no, you get an infraction, completely different thing 34. They got banned from Stumble Upon- and... 35. There’s aâ€Politics and Religion†sub-forum, it’s suppose to be a webmaster forum- it is in the general chat, a section that almost every forum on the net has 36. Everything is about links, links, and more links to them- yes, that is the way to increase traffic and search engine rankings 37. Insults seem to be tolerated (like here)- dont even understand this one 38. Just looking at the site hurts my eyes- maybe it is your crappy computer 39. Threads often go off-topic- not often, very rarely 40. Don’t Piss off Crazy_Rob, he’ll ban you- is this just because you got banned 41. They actually have a “Personal Attacks†Sticky, as if insults weren’t obviously bad.- this reason is a piece of crap 42. Copy and Pasted Articles flourish- if they are interesting 43. Too many self-promo threads- if it is spam, the users will be banned 44. Too many link-drop threads- same as previous reason 45. Some members are arrogant, and believe competing communities are jealous.- well they are 46. They condescend towards Doug Heil as if his IHY community is second-rate- never heard of this guy before 47. Lots of cell phone spam- sorry, but never seen this 48. They overvalue “Article Marketing†not overvalue but we think it is important to some extent 49. Many new webmasters get sucked into their logic- logic is logic and DP's logic is good logic 50. Profanity filter is turned off- don't know what this is 51. Their logo’s odd- and it is good, no reason to change 52. You can’t even make out what’s underneath their logo (it looks something like a barcode)- its time to buy a new monitor, your colors are wrong (looks like vomit), it hurts your eyes and you can even see the stuff on the screen 53. All their “Google†Stickies relate to PR- no 54. People who generally try to help others out go relatively unnoticed- then why do all the regular members have many reps 55. Their membergroups are insulting (Peon, Grunt, etc.)- this blog post is insulting 56. They have over 500 self-proclaimed “SEO Experts“- where, how, where is your proof 57. The forums look nothing like the main site- thats because the forums ARE nothing like the main site and the main site does not use VB 58. Their forum design is uninspiring- maybe your success is what is uninspiring you 59. They don’t care who they ban, even high-ranking contributing members- again I repeat, people do not get banned for no reason. 60. HTML isn’t a sub-forum of programming, like the rest of the web languages- it dosen;t matter where the forum is because it is the quality that matters. Every time I have posted a question I have got an answer within 20 minutes 61. There is no moderation accountability- don't understand 62. There is barely any reputation accountability- reputation, look at the regulars, they have heaps of it. 63. They actually have a marketplace for website traffic, as if having something to unique to offer your visitors isn’t enough- never been into this forum so I cant comment on this 64. Sorting through the filth gives me a headache- man up 65. Members get super freaked out when DP goes offline- which is practically never 66. The guy who wrote the Reputation FAQ is banned- one word: infractions, everyone gets them now and again 67. “Who’s Online†options are severely limited- good enough for me 68. The forum’s “Get-rich-quick†logic undermines the purpose of the web and internet- noobs quickly learn that this is not the case through the experience of other members. 69. Some actually try to sell blackhat methods to newbies- no, newbies sell it to newbies and this has nothing to do with me 70. It gives off a “Creepy, Slyish†vibe- don't understand 71. Definitely not enough moderation for a board their size- moderation is fine and spam gets deleted within minutes 72. They don’t welcome new members well (usually you get a welcome PM from an admin, but not from DP)- there is an introduction section where members can be introduced if they wish 73. They are arrogant enough to have their own “DPified†Google FAQ- you are arrogant enough to make this list 74. Allowing users to switch between vBulletin styles makes the site look unprofessional- no, professional. it gives users choice 75. Many threads aren’t even posted in the right forums- very rarely a post is posted in the wrong thread and they are almost all the time told. Give the newbies a chance to learn. 76. They have no Design & Development stickies. Wouldn’t some coding resources be useful for creating a “good†website?- thats not the purpose of the site 77. They have a “Legal Issues†forum, anyone else detect the oxymoron? no 78. The site’s owner (Shawn) isn’t even active much on the forum, (I doubt he even has that much influence anymore)- not much of an influence? he owns the forum, lol 79. Popular ≠Valuable- if it was not valuable, it would not be popular 80. Absolutely no forum for “Site News and Updates†can be found- what is there to update? it is perfect the way it is 81. There’s no specific DP copyright info for the forums (it should be at the bottom, near the vB copyright info)- and.... 82. It’s server is often slow- your internet connection must be slow 83. Limited selection of “Digital Point Solutions Toolsâ€- don't understand 84. “Forum Jumpâ€, for the most part, is *pointless*- how, proof? 85. Everything’s about money over there (with entire forums dedicated to affiliate programs and PPC advertising, not to mention the 2,000,000+ posts in the DP marketplace)- no, not everything 86. They have two seperate sub-forums for Google Adwords- no we dont 87. Whitehat SEO is virtually nonexistent- existent dont you mean 88. Web hosting is also virtually nonexistent- what does this mean? 89. Read this post- you read this post 90. Or read this post- you read this post 91. Many members’ signature links are filled with pointless links with anchor text such as “PR4 Link Exchange†or “Hot Thai Girlsâ€, etc.- no 92. Their Directory forum is underneath the “Search Engine†Category, do they even know what a Directory is?- what a stupid point 93. No web marketing advice for long term site stability- there is no such thing as long term stability, a site always needs constant updating 94. For allowing usernames like FuckingPirate and Shittywall to exist- we do not assign member names, plus one is already banned 95. They tend to be hypocritical (they don’t mind manipulating sites like Digg and Stumbleupon, but when it comes to Ethical Legal Issues, there’s nothing pertaining to internet marketing)- how? 96. Their spammy ideas and link schemes sometimes spill over into other forums- no 97. Difficult to understand the site name, and how it relates to the web- your site is called lightening shock, why arn't you writing about lightening rather than stupid posts such as this one 98. The community doesn’t collectively care about long-term website worthiness- not true 99. Did I mention it’s a spammer heaven yet?- yes you have, it was your first reason 100. A community containing that much filth isn’t worthy of all the backlinks gained from this blog post - your crappy blog would actually detract from the backlinks. Hope you liked it.
HI GameOver Nicely said If you have time, you should have one blog made with all those comments that you made And start to comment in his blog. Or maybe I will
Thanks for the replies. It took like half an hour to write however it was not a waste of time to defend DP. I left a comment on his blog with the link to this page.
Reps++ You spent your time to actually write counter arguments, I like that! I agree with you as well
Yeah.. its We already had a chat about it here. But you have done a very good job by writing those counter comments.
Let everyone make up his own mind. We don't need someone biased to tell us anything ......... P.S Someone go make a "1001 reasons why DP sucks" blogpost you'll get a lot of cheap traffic [this 101 guy got it too, probably]
well i agree with some things listed but i think that DP has more pros than cons,DP is a great community,i love this place,and its a big forum,thats why has spammers and scammers,a huge forum like DP always attract this kind of people..but nothing is perfect,but as i said before,to me DP has more pros than cons