About About.com really pisses me off

1. 67

   tamronposted 12 years ago

   They got great content I can't deny it!  But you have to follow 20 links to find whatever info. you are looking for which pisses me off.
     I bounce right off the site as soon as I realize where I am what about you?

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      Bard of Elyposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Yes, I have rarely stayed long on the site!

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      Attikosposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      About.com did a good job before they were bought by the New York Times. Now they operate like the Kremlin.

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         Uninvited Writerposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         No, before that they had these huge honking flashing banners that also chased me away from the site.

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2. 76

   Uninvited Writerposted 12 years ago

   I try to avoid About.com if I can.

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3. 74

   IzzyMposted 12 years ago

   Well, heck, I like About.com!
   
   Useless for research of course, I now know to stick to authority sites, but as a casual internet user, they could always answer any brief questions I had.

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      Gordon Hamiltonposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      To be honest, Izzy, I have also found their info useful in the past for a casual information request. In truth, I know as much about them as I do about advanced knitting (which is zero - I promise! ) but I certainly see their pages at the top of so many search results. Are they not just an offshoot of Wikipedia?

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4. 67

   relacheposted 12 years ago

   Good thing you didn't know About.com back when they fired all their original writers, seized all their content and then hired new people for a fraction of the old wages who then were told to hack up all the old content and turn it into what you see today.
   
   Then you'd really, really hate them.
   
   I knew several people who got royally screwed over in that site makeover.

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      Uninvited Writerposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      True, I do remember how they were a few years ago...

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      tamronposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I learned a long time ago to put your easiest work up first on a site thats new to you.  To be sure you can delete your articles after they are published.  It really sucks when you have done a lot of research only to find out you can't remove your articles.
      
      I wonder what the TOS said about ownership to the About.com if you wrote for them.  It seems that something could have been done like a lawsuit.  Thats a shamed people decieve people that way.
      
      I am surprised it didn't spread all over the Internet and writing Communities.

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         relacheposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         It did spread all over the Internet, although there weren't yet writing communities like there are today.  But this was quite a few years ago, back in the dawn of user-created content sites.

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            tamronposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            Thanks to you I will never write for them for sure now!

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5. 74

   IzzyMposted 12 years ago

   I know nothing about them. When I used to see About.com in search results, they answered a question I may have had. End of.
   
   But, if they have screwed their writers, that can only affect my opinion now, since I became a web content writer.
   
   I personally NOW don't  pay them much attention because my research has led me to high quality sites that don't get the same exposure.
   
   If the question is WHY they get this exposure, then the same question could be asked of Hubpages. or Ask.com or squidoo or ehow.com.

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