If you’ve got Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin or any other social media then triberr.com is (theoretically) an excellent platform to spread the word about your blog posts; ways to get people to come and read whatever it is you have to say. Even if it’s just your grocery list.
The premise is about being a tribe and sharing, sharing alike. Which is a wonderful premise. I’ve been doing triberr for a couple of months and it sort of worked. You join a tribe, which is like a club centered around a theme, and link the blog of your choice with it. When you make a post, notice of that post goes into a tribal stream, which alerts other tribe members. Then they have the option of sharing or not sharing your post on their twitter, facebook, et al.. In return when their blog post comes up, you do the same about them. Share and share alike.
Like I said it’s a wonderful premise. In a world less centered around teaching our kids not to share hairbrushes, car rides, the air we breathe it would work out great. Lately, however, not so much for me and triberr. I’ve noticed a marked lack of reciprocal sharing. I share others’ posts. They don’t share mine. Week after week, nothing changes. I share. They don’t. To be quite frank, I’ve been feeling a little used.
Others have also taken note, some of them being brave enough to complain in the tribe “campfire” area. Some say “well the post has to be something I like” or “I just didn’t want to have a post about erotica on my feed”. Which are reasons I can sort of see – but triberr also used to have this nifty function where you could see if they’d shared yours vs how many of theirs you had shared. After a couple of months where certain members post nothing but posts about their next book or reviews about lesbian erotica, you start to think it’s not about what you’ve posted at all and simply a case of someone not sharing. Period.
Then triberr did something everyone is raving about. They redid how the system works. Now I can see how many posts of mine they’ve shared – but not if I’ve shared any of theirs at all. They added a couple of other stats that really mean nothing to me and I could care less about: how many comments that post has, how many blog posts they’ve made in a month, and how many posts they’ve shared from their tribe overall… nothing to let me really know if sharing has been reciprocated. All I see is: they’re not sharing mine, but they’re sharing. And it rather bothers me. If they’re not sharing mine, is it because they’re not seeing mine, because they think I haven’t shared theirs, because things are no longer on such a personal level with the absence of my favorite setting? I think it’s the latter.
Edit: Furthermore, if this person isn’t sharing mine and I keep sharing theirs how long before I know to stop, that clogging up my twitter feed with their stuff isn’t fair to me and my twitter readers? At first I’d give the nonsharing people 7 shares before I stopped. (The stats only went back 7 days.) Then I started to give them 3. If I felt generous, I’d give them 10. Hey, after 10 shares you can be pretty sure this person is just using the system and thus you. But now, all I see is they’ve been sharing! Just not mine. I’m not sure what it means, but logically it suggest they’re not sharing mine because it’s… well… mine. And since sharing your own stuff counts and some of these people post several times a day, it might even be safe to guess they’re only sharing their own stuff.
Now I had gotten funny about triberr. I’d go in, I’d look at them vs me, and then I’d take a look at who I was looking at. There are three members who I have gotten to know by sight that never ever share anything of mine no matter how many of theirs I share. And there are the same number of triberr members that share my posts and I know sharing theirs will be fairly reciprocated. And then. There’s everybody else.
So I’m going to my stream, unable to see the important part about who I’m looking at: if they’re users or not. I’m sharing posts by people I recognize that have shared in the past. And everybody else I’m not sure what to do with and quite frankly am quite uncomfortable with not knowing. Which means I’m only sharing a little bit because I’m hating this guessing game and thinking about dropping triberr altogether.
Now, you could say I’m just a persnickety woman that’s getting old. You could say I hate change. Here’s the thing: ever since the new system has been up, only 1… count with me… 1 post of mine has been shared by one person who always shares. God bless him. One. No one else has shared any of my posts.
I’m gonna guess it’s because they’re having the same problem I am.
Annoyed? Oh hell fucking yes. I am. When a feedback thread was posted in one of the streams by the triberr people, I told them how unhappy I was and how my posts were not even getting shared at all anymore. And I got blown off.
And it’s like: okay, well. The premise is good. The problem here is that there are too many selfish people in the world, and their Mommas encouraged that selfishness. We condone that selfishness when we nod and mumble because someone didn’t want to help with the gas crises by “sharing their car” (of all things). Some of us even tell our kids not to share toys: there might be germs about and heavens forbid we also share a healthy immune system. And this may seem like a tiny little thing, but for me it means this tiny little thing has become an utter and complete waste of my time.
So my review of triberr’s new system: it sucks. It works for some – judging by the stats I see, that some is the group of people who were already well known and popular before things changed over. I at least am wasting my time. I’m not saying you shouldn’t give it a shot – I’m saying be aware of the situation. And I’m considering closing my account. I could be drawing comic pages and creating something for my fans instead.
Humph.
Hi Katrina,
I’d like to point out 2 things.
First, few months ago we introduced the “Follow a Tribe” function. If you follow a tribe, you get to see and share their stuff, but they dont see yours until you’re made a full fledged member.
So, make sure to check your membership status in each tribe. Either blogger or follower. You want to be the blogger one 🙂
Second, Triberr provides a platform for bloggers to build their own tribes. If you join someone else’s tribe, there is no telling what will happen.
So my recommendation is build your own tribe, set the rules you want, and choose your tribemates wisely.
Other than that, I promise we’ll do better. We’re just two dudes and a van, doing Triberr part-time. There’s a lot to be desired, but Rome wasnt built in a day. We’ll get there 🙂
Cheers,
Dino
Founder of Triberr
My my my, how touchy everyone is about this topic. I understand your response, but I’m sort of saddened by other tribe members’ reactions: you’d think they felt guilty of something. Maybe they’re not sharing. I mean, if they were they’d KNOW this post had nothing to do with them personally. I’m only talking about the selfish ones.
But on that note: yes I am a full blogging member of two tribes – or I was. (My honest nature may have got me kicked off the island.) I simply do not have the energy nor inclination to start my own tribe. To be blunt, I barely have time to direct my attention to triberr enough to share posts a bit each day much less maintain an entire group. So I’m content with letting other folks take the command chair.
I may have neglected to mention that I am aware how hard you guys are trying. You rework your system at least ever so many months – however, if input of my experience with triberr only merits being told to start my own group when I am outlining in detail why a problem is a problem…. then let me ask this: why on Earth are you reworking it then?
My sentiment was echoed by others long before I piped up. In fact, before I saw others complaining I thought my not getting shared was just a fluke. Or maybe my blogs just sucked that badly. Then I saw how others felt and I realized I wasn’t alone.
See, here’s the thing. I’m not one of those folks who cheer at every new thing and I certainly didn’t hold up a lit lighter to commemorate anybody’s passing. I’m not afraid. I care about efficiency and ease of use. I’m a real person with real feelings. If I am dissatisfied I’m going to have very real reasons why – and it’s going to take me about 3 days to put it into words which is what happened when comprising this post.
I told you guys how i felt. And later I ended up making a post about it in a blog I put reviews in.
And maybe my opinions don’t change the world, but I’m smart enough to at least get a little courtesy instead of being sat in a corner, patted on the head, and told “Good girl.” Not that I’m saying you’re doing that. Just rambling on.
But to close my ramblings: apparently one person who .. can’t say maturely … responded… (snarky “you’re welcomes” and accusations can hardly be considered mature…) has suggested I don’t share her stuff. The ironic part to this is I recognized her icon. She happened to be one of the few I mentioned that I recognized and usually shared.
And my tribal stream has been falling short since the entire enforced change.
And no matter who I share, my “you shared oh-so-many of their posts” stat remains at 0.
if that’s important at all.
I totally get what you’re saying. There are many members of the tribes I’m in who never share my posts, no matter what I write about. What I do is religiously share the posts of those who DO share mine, and then once in a while I’ll approve everyone’s posts to see if anyone will return the favor. If they do, I continue to share their posts; if they don’t, I ignore their posts until the next time I try my round of accepting everything.
I wouldn’t say that it’s all selfishness. A lot probably is, but I know for a fact that some of my friends signed up for Triberr and then just forgot about it. Yes, they should remove their feed if they’re not participating, but some probably don’t even know that their posts are being shared.
I get your frustration though. I really do. My only advice is to find a way that you’re happy with – you could try my method – or else create your own tribe with members that are actively sharing (I have such a tribe, though not all are active).
Dino, if you’re still reading this. I love Triberr and think you’ve done a great job. However, I’d LOVE it even more if all my members’ posts would show up in the filtered feed of my group. I have to search all the groups I’m in to find everyone’s posts. Yeah, I know, I should leave the groups where I’m not getting shared, but some are run by friends and publishers who are the only ones sharing and I don’t want to put any questions on those friendship.
Katrina, your posts are in my scheduled feed now.
I think Erica’s got the right method. Share those that share in return. I’m usually nice in this area. If someone shares me on average once a week, I’ll share their stuff two or three times before I stop, but the principle is the same.
The only step I would suggest adding is the mute feature. If someone never shares your posts (after repeatedly sharing theirs), mute them so that you don’t see their posts. I’ve done this for several and my feed is easier to get through now as most at least share every once in a while.
There’s a few that I haven’t muted because I like their blog, but there’s enough interesting content from ones who do share that I haven’t done this but once or twice.
I do agree that they need to put back the stat of how many times you’ve shared them. However, if the current stat ever ticks away from ZERO, you will at least know if they are sharing yours.
I would have a 7 to 10 share limit for the nonsharing folks. I mean, after that many posts, if they haven’t shared …
As for waiting for my post to go up from 0, that’s another point of my post. It’s not. Just plain not. Now, Erika has told me she’s posting mine. Snarky person on triberr said she’s sharing mine and suggested I’m not sharing hers. I know I’m sharing theirs. So maybe there’s an error in the system somewhere.
But in the meantime I just went in and shared my entire feed. Of that feed I saw one of the people who never ever shares my posts. I looked at their stats and saw they’re sharing a lot of OTHER people’s posts. Because they never share my posts, however, I think it’s a very safe bet to say those other posts were not mine. I shared their post anyway. And wondered at everyone ELSE on my stream i shared because I didn’t know them, wasn’t sure, and they also all showed a fat 0 in the sharing in regards to me.
Erica, thank you so much for reading the post and taking the time to comment. When I posted this, I was simply putting up my biased review. I’m not used to having feedback here at all. LOL. So – hey – I can say this: Triberr works if you’re being controversial. 😉
I’d also religiously share. Back when I could see the stats I talked about, I would also share posts from the folks who never shared for anybody at least once a week to see if they’d share back. They never did, and that’s how I figured out who shared and who didn’t. I watched everybody’s stats – it was kind of fun for me; a little distraction for a few minutes in the middle of the work grind.
It did occur to me that the non sharing people had forgotten the place – but one face I remember responded to someone else’s complaint about the situation in a tribe feed, saying she was careful about what she posted and didn’t want certain things on her stream. This same person promotes erotica 99% of the time. Can’t say that person forgot. =^-^=
As for your suggestions: I *was* happy with the method that got taken away. It worked perfectly. The point of my post is that with the new layout there isn’t a method anymore, not one that helps me to make it fair. I’ve went through the new system, and I just can’t figure how to do anything like I was. Or to be able to do anything that compares. So I”m not sure why I’d even bother to start my own tribe. The problem sits with some of the people, but not all, and my inability to weed through them.
Well you’re welcome! I sometimes see topics while I’m approving posts and just have to click to read them 😛 It’s all about interesting titles. I can’t tell you how many clicks I got on my “Tomato Tossing?” post 😛
Yes, stats would make everything so much easier. The “like” option can go, as it’s not really very useful, but to see how many posts people have posted of yours and you of theirs is important! *Pokes Dino*.
I’ve added your post to the queue of posts I’ve approved. It probably hasn’t gone through yet as I set my posts with 60 minutes apart. It’s my way of looking less spammy on Twitter.
I created a thread in Bonfires for suggestions as to what info should be displayed in the author box. http://triberr.com/pages/bonfires.php?cat=22&thread=49757
You guys tell us what you want 🙂
This is wonderful! Thanks.
You might be interested in knowing that I just shared via triberr but it doesn’t show in my approved posts…and I tried 3 times to leave a comment.
Yeah I’m sharing other people’s comments and it’s not showing up for me either. Other people are saying the same thing. I hope this is fixed soon. In the meantime I’ve went back to the old triberr so I can carry on like I was. 🙂