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9rules submissions: closed for the time being
Written by Tyme White on April 17, 2007
For the time being I closed submissions for new member sites. What Scrivs, Mike and I used to do was spend a very short period of time on a site, make a decision, move on to the next one. The truth was we couldn’t spend a lot of time on a site. Let’s do the math: if we spent 5 minutes on a site it would take 92 hours to go through 1100 submissions (what we had last round). We have more submissions than that this time. 
I wanted to do things different. Scrivs, Mike and I make the decision together but they are coding now. When they code, I go through sites, get a list together and I’m armed with information when we make decisions. Round 5 we accepted sites from members who participated in notes. We got to know them, we liked their style, they demonstrated they could interact socially without insulting people…things that wouldn’t normally show on a blog because their sites didn’t receive many comments and did not have a lot of traffic.
As much as we know people want to hear from us (ok, me) I will not rush this process because we don’t want to make mistakes. We don’t want to deny someone because we didn’t spend enough time or accept someone we shouldn’t have because we were focused on getting done. Believe me, sometimes it’s tempting to just spend 5 minutes because I’d get done quicker but I don’t think it’s the right thing to do anymore.
And with the sites I’ve gone through and I’m interacting with, Scrivs and Mike still have to give the okay. Most likely none will be added until the next feature/bug fix release (no ETA) because that would be chaos. As I said before adding a site to 9rules doesn’t stop with going through the sites. On average I spend approximately 30 minutes on each member getting them up and running. I’m not doing the math on that one lol.
I’ve closed submissions to stop the waiting times. We have a long list, no ETA on going through them all and I didn’t want to stress out anyone else or put additional pressure on myself, Scrivs and Mike. It was hard to do but in the end I think it’s best.
April 17th, 2007 at 11:46 am
I guess that’s one of the drawbacks of a super successful blogging community… everyone wants to get involved.
Good luck! I can’t imagine spending 1000+ hours reviewing sites. I have always been impressed by that.
April 17th, 2007 at 12:28 pm
Tyme and Crew:
I have been consistently impressed that despite the fact that 9rules is growing exponentially you still ensure that quality content makes it through. Hat tip to you guys!
April 17th, 2007 at 1:17 pm
I can just imagine how many submissions you guys must of been getting on a daily basis. Even I submitted a couple weeks back…
It must feel like those SPAM surges that happen from time to time…
Anyhow, I’m amazed by your dedication towards the submittees.
Don’t stress, we can all wait
April 17th, 2007 at 1:27 pm
Have you guys considered transferring some of the work out to your Community Leaders or prominent members? It could lighten your loads and probably get things done quicker.
April 17th, 2007 at 2:23 pm
Does this mean if we submitted already, our sites are going to be considered eventually? Or, do we wait for another “round” or round alternative?
PS, I (unfortunately) changed the address of my blog from the one I submitted.. there is a redirect page up at the old site! Would this count against me?
April 17th, 2007 at 2:44 pm
“Round 5 we accepted sites from members who participated in notes.”
*curses self for not participating in notes prior to the revamp*
April 17th, 2007 at 6:45 pm
Tyme,
Thank you for stepping up to the plate and doing the right thing - letting this drag out endlessly doesn’t generate the kind of enthusiasm you’re after and cutting-the-chord to speak gives everyone a clean break and a chance to ponder their future.
April 17th, 2007 at 6:45 pm
@ Andre: I don’t think that you should start participating in Notes jsut to get noticed and possibly accepted into 9rules. Particpation DOESN’T guarentee admission. Instead you should be participating because the content is good and the people are cool.
April 17th, 2007 at 7:06 pm
It certainly doesn’t guarantee admission. Nor should it.
It takes time and resources to chew through hundreds of applications to sort out what has potential and that which needs more time to mature.
Tyme has 100% done the right thing. The network is, what it is, because of the effort, time and quality of content, both from the 9rules crew and their members. I certainly do not envy the job at all - and it’s an absolute credit that 9rules won’t sacrifice quality in order to “hurry through” admissions (despite any undue pressure they may have felt)..
And to now know the score, really does help.. I’d rather know where I am at, than to be left hanging.. it takes away a frustration that is not at all constructive.
I look forward to seeing new voices added as and when the time is right..
April 18th, 2007 at 12:20 am
I hold communication to be a critical factor in just about everything. I thank you taking the time to make this announcement. The alternative would have put a damper on everyone involved. Thank you!
April 18th, 2007 at 3:30 am
I like the mystery that surrounds 9rules submissions and admissions. The time frame for reviewing the submissions is not really that important IMO; the only thing that’s important is that you guys take a good look and give a fair chance to each site.
April 18th, 2007 at 9:16 am
Wow, I completely missed any sign that a new round was open.
Tyme, if you’re accepting any more submissions or plan to open the floodgates again, please do let me know.
April 19th, 2007 at 12:57 pm
This is the smart thing to do. However might I suggest that you up the manpower in some regard to handle the process of going through sites.
One critical feature to be added is feedback to the person who submitted the site. I’ve sent 3 emails within the past 3-4 months and have *never* received a response. This is before and after a post here was addressing this issue specifically. Even if it’s a 1 sentence email; that’s fine. Let people know their site was actually looked at, and give them a reason why or why it wasn’t selected. Maybe make a quick 3 question template that you guys can apply to the emails, to make repeating the process somewhat easy.
Everyone here will say how great of a job you guys are doing, and I agree with that. However you should be held accountable for things you say you’re going to do, and in the most basic case - be able to return emails.
I don’t mean this to sound negative, but rather just point out an area where improvement can be made. I agree you guys have taken on a ton of work with the number of sites that have been submitted, but that’s part of the gig unfortunately. Perhaps it’s time to find a way to accomodate the huge growth you’ve experienced.
Cheers.
April 19th, 2007 at 1:51 pm
I’ve waited several months, waiting a bit longer is no big deal.
Though I do have a new theme now.
April 21st, 2007 at 11:38 am
Well, at least I got a couple notes in this time around. ^_^
April 23rd, 2007 at 5:53 pm
I agree with some comments about stretching out the workload. Perhaps you guys can give a lot of the submissions to other creditable 9Rules members or participants. They can filter out a few good runner-ups and then you guys filter out the finals.
I know it’s a bit difficult to whole-heartedly make that fair to the ones submitting since you said you that you were going to do it yourselves.
Or perhaps just open up a new forum where the purpose is to submit sites and get feedback (verbal or by voting) to filter out the sites by the community. Sure there might be some abuse here and there but if a site is good, it will be voiced and voted accordingly by the majority of people who genuinely like it.
Just a thought.
Maybe you can mish-mash this suggestion along with others and come up with something that works well for both you and the community.
April 23rd, 2007 at 8:48 pm
[...] 9rules - submissions closed out # [...]
April 24th, 2007 at 3:24 am
[...] 9rules Closing Down Submissions — For Now Interesting issue of scale here. Last submission round was about 1100 submissions, which required a huge number of man hours to sort through. How many will their next round accumulate? And is there a way to make sure they don’t miss any good blogs? (tags: scale networks blog 9rules) [...]
April 26th, 2007 at 1:36 am
Truth is, I have enough to do with my one site. Sitting up all night editing, writing, contemplating. Imagining have to plow through 1100 might kill me. I hope you are all young.
April 27th, 2007 at 7:23 pm
[...] That said… why the heck aren’t I accepted into 9 rules?! I was telling the truth about being happy about just blogging for me, it’s just that I have been asking some friends who have been accepted into 9 rules to critique my site, and to be brutally honest with me. All of them have said the same thing, something along the lines of, “You update your site regularly, you have good content, and it looks like you really care about what you write… keep up the good work”. If all of this is true, why haven’t I been accepted? I don’t care if I’m not, I just want to know WHY I’m not. I know Tyme has been very busy, and has cut off site submissions, mainly because of the shear quantity of the sites submitted. I know she has more important things to do than e-mail me the reason I wasn’t accepted, but it’s driving me nuts! I need to know for myself, so I can continue to learn and grow. Hearing from her would be the ultimate resource, after all 9 rules contains the best content on the web. If I could only know what I am doing wrong I would be that much closer to getting to my goal. [...]
April 30th, 2007 at 7:44 pm
I agree with Carmody. Why not let the community leaders help? Aside from trying to keep notes interesting and supporting our members, we don’t have much responsibility. Let us help grow the family!
May 1st, 2007 at 6:53 pm
Aww that sucks, I had been waiting until I got back from holiday to apply. But it appears I was too late yet again…. that’s three I have missed.
May 6th, 2007 at 4:19 pm
I was always too chicken to apply. Now it is safe to apply knowing that I’ll be turned down for an ego safe reason.
May 10th, 2007 at 7:35 am
I would like to echo Eddie’s comment regarding feedback. I am the type of person that doesn’t mind waiting for long periods of time but the lack of any sort of response or tracking system for submission review is quite frustrating.
Mainly because there is no way to see if your site is even in queue for review. Maybe Scrivs might setup a nice little database/web form that gives out a numeric ticket number for your submission. Add a “Now Serving:” display somewhere so we can know where you are at in your review and where we are at in line.
That being said, these are just growing pains. You all are doing a great job and have fantastic people, harness some technology and everyone will be a lot happier. Thanks for the consideration.
August 22nd, 2007 at 11:21 am
[...] Each blog that applies for membership is reviewed and evaluated over a period of time to assess its quality, value and contribution to the blogosphere. The last submission window took place last October and attracted 1,190 submissions in 24 hours. Only about 130 blogs were accepted from those 1,190 applicants. The owners have stated that this round garnered even more submissions. [...]