Hi I just had an idea. I'm just saying it out of the top of my mind. I've seen a lot of posts at the Content Creation forum where people claim to be top notch writers. Maybe they are, maybe they aren't. So why not make a list of people who have already proven their worth as quality content writers. Maybe a separate user group or something like that It would be nice to have a little discussion on this. Thank you. Regards, Storm-Crow
So what you are asking us to do more or less is have 300,000 or so users submit their work and we can grade them? We should do this for every section... test CSS skills, programming skills, SQL skills, etc... The end result of course would be a good idea, but how exactly do you plan on getting there? I know I don't personally have the time to objectively rate everyone for their skills.
lol Yeah... Rating everyone would be a pain in the arse But maybe you don't have to rate all of them! You might already know a few members who are certifiably good. Form some sort of a user group with them in it. They can take over from there and recruit more fine people. Maybe it's just a crazy idea with no practical way to put in to action.
Sorry, I don't know anyone (I never looked for anyone), but to be honest... even if I did, I don't like recommending people to anyone because then I'm the bad guy if they didn't like their work. lol
hmmm... Too many variables... I was thinking of something Warcraftish.... Where you can level up your skills
I'll expand on that: 1. We make classes - like article writers, CSS coders, designers etc. 2. Then we refine the iTrader concept a little bit so that people can receive points in their respective class. 3. We create different levels... Like 25 50 75 100 Article writer points...
Grading article writers itself will be a tough call not to mention the rest of the class. Also what is good to one may not be good to another.
True the plan looks good on paper but to be able to do it practically one needs some VB mod here. not sure if any such mod is available currently.
IMHO, how if the person who claimed to be elite writers suddenly become someone who can't deliver his or her jobs well.. sometimes people might take advantage and scam people around.. There are pros and cons doing this. moreover, we already have iTrader to prove someone's ability right? Sorry, a bit off topic here.. But I just want to know what are the stepping stones for a new writer to be successful in DP?
Actually, I was going to suggest that writers recommend other writers that they respect and have confidence in their ability to deliver quality content.
Its not necessory that if one member like one writer, another member like the same One can also check iTrader thingy to judge members quality of service. DON.
Most of the really good writers here don't waste their time in content creation anyway. But they do post in the copywriting forum. Spend some time there. If you're looking to hire, most of the top writing business here is done underground (no public advertising), and most of the writers will have a professional site in their sig for you to check out. If you're a writer yourself, search that section and you'll find some off-board networking opportunities with the folks there. Rebecca Garland (internetauthor) set up a writer's networking site last year that does what you're asking for. Unlike places like DP, they had to provide samples to get approved for promotion there. I can't remember the site, but if it's not in her sig you could always PM her and see if she's still running it. To the poster who asked how writers can get started on DP, again go to the copywriting forum. Read some of the threads and you'll quickly figure out who knows what they're talking about. There's a lot of advice from successful writers there if you just look. Pay particular attention to people like Chris Bibey (keywordsandcopy), Jason Martin (marketjunction), and Anne Wayman (webgal).
People need to do their own home work and determine whose work suits them the best. It is futile to spoon feed in such matters as such actions rather than getting appreciated... always results in brickbats being thrown! Regards, RightMan
Wouldn't say that -- a lot on Elance is complete garbage, and the rating system from clients has much the same problem as DP's (when the buyers pay $1 per 100 words and wouldn't know great writing if it bit them on the ass, a lot of undeserved positive feedback is left which can be misleading to other buyers). One of the best things someone can do when hiring a writer is to talk to their own colleagues or friends in their industry to see who they've used in the past. Then they'll know the writer is not only generally competent, but also familiar with their industry. On the "getting gigs" side, the best thing a writer can do is stay networked with other writers. Gigs are passed along constantly from writer to writer when schedules fill up or when we're approached about projects outside of our specialties. Writing isn't isolated here in this sense. The same could be said of designers, programmers, and pretty much any other type of service provider on DP. It's the nature of a free marketplace. Anyone can post, whether they can really do the job or not. It's up to buyers to evaluate their credentials and past work, and make calls on a combination of those things and their available budget. And it's up to the service providers to make that information easy for those buyers to find.
hmmm... Healthy discussion Some of us agree that it's a good idea but hard to implement. The question is is it worth implementing?
Hmmmm.. Sure you can! Goto Start - > Run -> Type " Elite List of Writers ( forums.digitalpoint.com , Asc) -> OK. You will get the List of writers sorted in Ascending order. For Descending order, you can use Dsc. Even if you take the pain to implement this, i don't think it would solve any purpose. You will end up only with a smaller subset of writers. Its not that hard to find a good writer.
It's far too subjective for DP to implement (not to mention time consuming). As someone who's run networking groups where people were screened first, I can tell you some of the problems are that: 1. People do send in fake or stolen samples when they know their own won't cut it. (It's not something DP mods / members / etc. have the time to sort out and deal with.) 2. The moment we try to decide who is "elite" and who isn't, we'll be hit with a backlash. If we recommend someone officially in that sense, and someone has a bad business experience and starts calling them a scammer, that's another headache that none of us needs. 3. It's incredibly subjective. Most people on DP, including the mods / admins, are not writers. Not everyone can tell the difference between acceptable writing, illegal rewrites that look acceptable on the surface (which covers much of the work here - unauthorized derivative works), and truly elite writing. Being heavily involved in that industry myself, I'd say less than 1% of writers on DP are "elite," although far more would consider themselves as such. And the writers who are in that elite group don't need special treatment from DP in order to get gigs. They know how to attract plenty of business on their own already, here and elsewhere. It's just not realistic.