One of the things I never enjoyed doing at CMF Ads was approving blogs.

It's fine when you approve great blogs and reject blogs that break some of the main rules, such as having popups or malware.

It's not so good when you have blogs that seem to meet the guidelines but the content isn't very good (or makes no sense). Or when the content is written purely to drive traffic via Adsense.

The issue being, approving a borderline blog may upset some existing members, while rejecting any blog can result in a hostile reaction from the owner of the blog.

So, I'm thinking it might be interesting to ask members to help with approvals. Basically, a few people can vote for whether a blog should be allowed in. You would be able to rate each new blog once only, with a positive or negative vote. In keeping with the "Floor15" theme, perhaps each blog would need to be voted by 15 different people before we decide if it's allowed in or not.

For the borderline blogs, you could talk about each one and decide if it should be allowed in.

As an incentive, you would be able to earn a small number of points for each blog you vote, providing it goes with the consensus. So if 10 people say yes and 5 say no, the 10 people would be rewarded with a few points each. (Probably 2 points for an approved blog, 1 for a rejected blog.)

You would not be able to rate your own blogs.

We would also limit this to certain members only, so a new member cannot sign up and vote to approve every blog just to win some points.

How does this sound? And would any of you be interested in helping? If we don't have at least 15 people (I know it's early days here) then perhaps we could start with having a minimum of 5 ratings before a blog is reviewed by me, and I will normally go with the consensus.

I'd be happy to help with or without points :-)

Thanks John - I've given you the necessary access, not that it does anything yet ;)

Anyone else?

I think this is a brilliant idea and always wanted you to set up something like this at CMF!  I'd definitely like to take part.  I think it would be nice to earn points from it, as that appeals to my competitive sense, but I wouldn't mind doing it for the fun of it.

Thanks Emm - I've updated your account too. :)

I did think about doing it at CMF Ads, but we got a lot more spam than perhaps a less money-oriented site would receive. I think it would have annoyed members fairly quickly had we asked for help with approving blogs there.

I'll explain how the approval process will work once I've built it - nothing there yet :)

I'll sign up to review blogs!! One of the reasons I bailed out of Entrecard was the ridiculous number of nonsensical blogs filled with so many ads you can't find the content!

Thanks, Swampy Acres Farm - I'll update your account shortly.

You've been updated too. Going to work on that screen shortly.

Right, it's all set up - if anyone else would like to help out, please reply and I'll let you in. Thanks!

There were enough borderline spam blogs in CMF Ads that you can be sure they would have voted up their even spammier blogs.  The idea of having members vote up or down a blog before it gets to the admin for final approval would work.  As an admin, you cringe when you see 20 new blogs, 10 submitted by the same person, and all but one using some free domain.  I'd always click on the unique domain name first and leave the others to rot a while before rejection. 

I think blogs either make the grade or they don't.  There is no need to mess people around by "leaving their blogs to rot" especially as many people that have blogs on free domains frequently update them with original and quality content.  Anyway, I get the idea that isn't what Floor 15 is about.

If anyone is thinking about signing up to help with this, please do so.  I have found it quite an eye opener in terms of my own blog content and am quite enjoying it.

Hi Turnip - the way I've set it up is that you have to ask to become a volunteer. So a new member with spammy blogs would not be able to influence the outcome.

As for free vs paid domains, there were plenty of borderline blogs with their own domains, along with some that were far from borderline - they were so bad, they were rejected on sight. There isn't really a hard and fast rule that helps to identify if a blog should be approved or not. This is why I think it's good to ask volunteers to help out. So far, it seems to be working well.

Even if running a blogging site is your full time job, time management is essential.  I'd rather spend my admin time paying people or approving real blogs.  Unfortunately, even the crappiest of blogs got an official reason for rejection.  This meant I had to take the time to visit their site.  If no popups or redirects making the job easy, I then had to check an article or two to see if they stole the content.  The only person being "messed around" are the admins who are dedicating their time for little or no money to deal with people who clearly did not read our rules or were intentionally violating them.  Sure, Ben could have coded a "limit of 1 blog submitted per account per week" limit, but they would have tried to createg multiple accounts.   1194 of 3131 blogs were rejected by CMF Ads, and our rules werent all that tough.

mm..  i dont know what is the good blogs or less good blogs are, ( i don't want to say bad blogs) but as long the blogs meet the floor15 guidelines i think it must be approved.. :D

Can I still join to be one of those who will vote for approval or disapproval of a submitted blog? I have the time to look at them and somewhat confident that I can objectively perform the responsibility. Thanks if I can be in but no regret if I don't qualify. Thank you.

Thanks, EdZee - I've given you access. There's a new forum that you should now be able to see on the forums homepage - go there for further instructions. ;)

Would any of our new members like to help with approvals, and gain access to our Volunteer forum?

I guessed I missed this thread.  Can I gain access too, Ben?

Thanks TechieGuy - you're in. :)

I am not too busy this year, unlike in the past year. Can I help, too? :)