Comments on: The fear of user generated content

By: Science 2.0» Blog Archive » I and the world

Science 2.0» Blog Archive » I and the world — Sat, 02 May 2009 18:13:35 +0000

[...] it can be a way of putting your whole organization under pressure. I have previously written about the fear of user generated content, and I think that facing that fear and putting your organisation under the pressure of user [...]

By: Mads Gorm Larsen

Mads Gorm Larsen — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 19:14:56 +0000

I think Søren is absolutely right, when he says “Forget about damage control and bad reviews”. I don’t no if this come through it what I have written, but I in my opinion the fear of UGC is completely without cause, and what you can gain form UGC is of immense value. It continuous to amaze me how sound well educated people still insist on claiming that there is a limit to what UGC can be used for.

By: Mads Gorm Larsen

Mads Gorm Larsen — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 08:11:32 +0000

Well my point is this, why do you expect someone to write something harmful for children? Is it realistic that anyone will do so? I think that you will find that no one is writing anything that would be harmful for children. But if someone does, then do not overreact by building giant walled restricted areas. There is ways to let computers monitor the content of web pages, so that anything spam like will automatically be deleted (On this blog I use Akismet, that checks comments against the Akismet web service to see if they look like spam or not). It is like this, anybody can write everywhere, so why write something were you know that others will quickly report and delete it.

By: Jonas

Jonas — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 20:54:31 +0000

Just a small comment. I see a lot of correct things in the article, but what if your companies target group is children. Would you then not need to moderate UGC? Not because of comments about your company, but because of improper comments towards children.

By: Søren Storm Hansen

Søren Storm Hansen — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 00:02:14 +0000

Maybe we focus too much on the negative. Here is a good read (in Danish) on how things are changing these years. Forget about damage control and bad reviews. Involve people: Alverdens hjerner: Foren jer!.

By: Mads Gorm Larsen

Mads Gorm Larsen — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 15:44:52 +0000

I could not agree more,the problem is how to convince others of that they can’t be in complete control, but they can create a better way to be a part of the conversation. And I think a lot of webpages are now finally adding some user comments etc., but then it is of such a dummend down version that no one wants to take part. For the geeks, the “no follow” links on blogs is the same kind of problem.

By: Søren Storm Hansen

Søren Storm Hansen — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 13:08:17 +0000

Great post. Thanks.

One thing you should fear more than UGC is UGC all over the web. Keep your enemies close.

Most people prefer to complain directly to a company they dislike. If the company do not offer a place to do so, some will go elsewere.

The Danish site trustpilot.dk (no affiliation) is a collection of UGC reviews and evaluations of companies. If you install the TrustGuard for Firefox you see the evaluations in your Google results and when you visit the companys site. Ouch. You can’t even control the content of your own site.

But nobody uses Firefox, right.

I think this is only the beginning. With more options for addons to the browsers – both Google and Microsoft are on the way – we will see many services offering information about the sites you visit.

Wouldn’t it be better to have the bad reviews on your own site – where you can respond and do damage control?