Is [http://www.mahalo.com/google Google] a typical Mahalo page?
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M$8 Answers
1. Overexpansion of Mahalo Pages – too many pages, beyond Mahalo Management & page manager can handle, monitor.
2. Incentives for Mahalo management, page manager not to take down reduced quality pages
Some may think: if page has traffic, why takes it down ?
In actual fact, if public visits inferior Mahalo pages, they may never visit again.
3. No automation – alerts
Some remedies:
1. Requirement of update frequency should vary between different types of pages.
Some categories:
a. For history-related page, for example, important events in 1819, there should be only one-off update when new historical findings overturn old findings.
b. For how-to page, for example, how to make omelette, it also doesn’t need frequent updates unless a significant change in technology.
c. For company page, for example Google, it will need frequent updates.
The required update frequency should be spelt out before someone is allocated to do the page. The page manager should only do the page if he thinks he can handle that amount of update frequency.
2. Update alerts
If possible, Mahalo should have an update alert system.
Lettermelater may be useful:
http://www.lettermelater.com/
I just saw that they have this widget:
http://www.lettermelater.com/forum.php?id=24
Maybe when the page manager updates his page, he can click on the widget to have a email sent to himself few days before next update due. Automated sent will be even better.
Twitter has some apps which can alert on new developments based on keywords.
3. Better quality control
Once a page quality reduced, makes the page not visible by public, ask page manager to improve it.
It’s better that public doesn’t see inferior page or they will never visit Mahalo page again.
Maybe some rewards for whistle-blower.
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M$However a page on Google is almost a worst case scenario for page managers.
- The topic changes pretty fast, so it takes a lot of work to keep up to date.
- The topic is so well covered on the net that a Mahalo page will never rank well in search engines. That means it will never get much traffic or make much money. (It looks like the page manager made about M$9 over 7-8 months, which is probably rather good in the circumstances.)
Under those circumstances - lots of work for not much money - the only kind of person that is likely to maintain the page is someone who just really loves the topic, and loves sharing about it with the world.
However, if you were such a person, expressing your enthusiasm on Mahalo has some downsides. The page is never truly yours. You can't just express yourself as you would like, you have to listen to VMs and follow Mahalo guidelines, which are ever changing. You could even have your work taken from you. Plus for someone that is truly enthusiatic about the topic, they are restricted to making neutral comments on the topic. They can't give their own opinions or analysis, which most enthusiasts like to do.
The kind of person we imagine doing justice to a topic like that would probably enjoy writing a blog on Google a lot more, as well as participating in forums where they can discuss the topic. If they want to share factual knowledge they might as well do it by contributing to Wikipedia, because there's not really a lot of money to be made, and their work would be read by a whole lot more people on Wikipedia.
So.... now backtrack... and ask yourself how all of this logic plays out for Mahalo pages as a whole.
Well, some pages, niche pages especially, are reasonably profitable, and there is good reason to manage them and keep them up to date.
Some pages don't need a lot of work to keep up to date, and someone that enjoys that topic can manage the page purely for pleasure without feeling it is a burdensome chore.
Some pages are in between, but the mix of how much work they need versus how much pleasure and/or money they bring to the writer is still attractive.
However, many pages do not fall in those categories, and most likely never will.
Speaking from personal experience, I have abandoned a good many pages that I have previously managed because, esp with the new requirements for more content and more updates, they are not worth the effort. Examples of that include Andy Roddick and Microsoft Windows.
Taking account of all of the above arguments, it seems likely that Mahalo can thrive as a source of knowledge on various niches, but it is unlikely ever to be viable as a source of universal knowledge.
It's not a rival to Google or Wikipedia, but it can be a rival to the likes of eHow, Suite101, game walthrough sites and the like.
There may be ways to tweak the model so that it might be able to become a more universal knowledge base or search engine, but it can't really be that with the way that things currenly operate.
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M$
With this being said I do not believe Mahalo is a scam. I see that they pay out for hard work and truly care that the content is good and current. this is a page that slipped through without a VM to check on it. I even see where some people tried to help this manger out by adding some more current information.
I looked at the page and the history.
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M$
That user doesn't seem to have been very active in 2010, at least not in answers.
But that is relevant to the point the asker is making... pretty small number of users on Mahalo, even smaller numbers spending a lot of time here, a very small number of VMs, and a vast number of topic pages to cover.
However you slice that it equates to most pages not getting much attention.
I guess if there is such a thing as a typcial Mahalo page, the chances are it would be one of the automatically generated ones (made by the "user" searchclick) when people search for something that Mahalo doesn't have a page on. i.e. A stub page that has never had human attention, like these....
http://www.mahalo.com/sushi-rolls-with-crab
http://www.mahalo.com/crab-sushi
Those pages don't get too much traffic though, so maybe that is not as alarming as it seems at first sight.
Personel Opinion (Backed by other "oldtimer" Mahalo user opinion's)
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M$
I always thought this was an automated process based on monthly generated reports.
Obviously not :( but maybe it should be...then again, I have few pages, I have very few updates for most of them but I'm sure I should have done more...this question has made me feel guilty....
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M$
Dont feel guilty kty, just go and take a look at your pages and spruce them up a bit, there is always something of interest you can add and maybe a relevant video you could incorporate. If any of your pages fall within my verticals dont hesitate to contact me, I would be happy to help you.
Verts I look after: Pets, Humor, Beauty and Style
Oh, and no, the update checking is a manual task, we all need to look out for pages that need work. If you see any in the categories mentioned above feel free to let me know.
MACHINE ARE PRODUCED BY PERSONS NOT PERSONS ARE MADE BY MACHINES SO WE CAN UNDERSTAND MACHINES BUT MACHINES CANNT UNDERSTAND US AND WE NEED PERSONS AT THAT TIME
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M$
Google is not a page that I would be "typically" proud of.
While they're far from perfect, I like to use the following pages as examples of "works in progress". These pages represent a lot of time and effort curating:
http://www.mahalo.com/how-to-format-a-hard-drive
http://www.mahalo.com/how-to-seo-your-website
http://www.mahalo.com/how-to-consolidate-debt-with-bad-credit
http://www.mahalo.com/christmas-sweaters
Specifically for the Google page, even though I don't VM it, I've sent the user a note asking for a brief update. You're right - there should be some more current information on the page. However, when evaluated against the wide collection of Mahalo pages, even with information that isn't current, that page is still above par.
That's where you and I come in to Mahalo's formula. I'm both a Vertical Manager and a Page Manager. I've created hundreds of pages and I update a handful of them. Importantly, I do my best to ensure that my collection of Vertically Managed and new pages are shining examples of what Mahalo could and should be. That being said, I still have a lot of work to do :) For folks who are Page Managers, this is page is a great example of why forming a simple update schedule is important. Quite simply, I'd be willing to be that if the Page Manager of Google set up a simple reoccurring Google Calandar note that e-mailed him/her a note every 30 days saying "check for new Google news and update Mahalo page" that this page would be great.
Sadly, not a lot of people update their pages and as a result, Vertical Managers like me are charged with the task of asking for updates and then reassigning pages if important updates are not complete or the page isn't adequate.
This is what I've done. I've sent the page manager a private message and I hope that he/she responds with a quick and easy update to the page. Otherwise, I've set a Google Calendar reminder for myself to check and then reassign that page.
One way or another, she'll get cleaned up!
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M$
Why is it working? We (for the most part) are a cut above!
I just checked, and this one is still on Google's FP at #8. How to plan a toga party
Mahalo.com
How To
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M$
I even found a BLANK How To page earlier today!!