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Make suggestions, report errors > Teachers with ZERO points and ZERO activity
Teachers with ZERO points and ZERO activity
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Dayana
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Hi I feel disappointed too because it is the same in my country. What is the point of being a member without having points? I think that at least you should start to create some worksheets and little by little get them.
One of my colleagues who has been a member less time than me motivates himself saying that he will beat me in points....and who knows? That can happen. I guess that this site is fantastic!!!! And we should take advantage of it by working hard while making our worksheets so that we can have the opportunity to share them. I`d like to thank everyone for being so caring. Thanks to Katiana, FrenchFrog, Alenka and you ALL for your wonderful materials !!!!!!!! Thanks Victor for this amazing site!!!!!!!!!
Diana
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15 Aug 2009
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melahel7
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Here it is folks, the entire statistics for North America !
Canada : 10 160 members total, 945 members (8.1 %) with at least one point wich leaves 91.9 % with NO POINTS !! There are 183 premium members representing a shameful 1.8 % !! This means that 8.2 people out of 10 cannot download the daily contributions. The member with the most points has an impressive 14 969 and to crack the top 10 you need 1003 points. I �m 12th !!! I wish I could have done the statistics for my native Qu�bec, but unfortunately it would have been a time-consuming task.
Mexico: 11 430 members total, 1125 members (9.8 %) with at least one point which leaves 90.2 % with NO POINTS !! There are 296 premium members representing a laughable 2.5 % !! This means that 7.5 people out of 10 cannot download the daily contributions. The member with the most points has an absolute loco 44 685 !!! and to crack the top 10 you need 1710 points.
U.S : a mind-blowing 53 850 members total, 2634 members (4.8 %) with at least one point which leaves 95.2 % with NO POINTS !! There are 303 premium members representing a ridiculous 0.5 % !! This means that 9.9 people out of 10 cannot download the daily contributions. The member with the most points has a solid 12 937 and to crack the top 10 you need 936 points.
Comparisons-- Canadians are in the middle doing better then the State-Unians but a little worse that the Mexicans with whom they share similar statistics. Mexicans get first place overall with the number of active members according to the total, toughest top ten to crack and the mind-blowing 44 685 downloads !! State-Unians are dead last in all aspects !
Now folks, these revealing numbers should make you pound on the following question: Why is it so ??? I believe there are two main reasons:
1. It seems a lot of teachers either don �t know how to create worksheets using softwares or lack time to learn to do so. I would tend to say that laziness could also play a little part here. I sincerely think 30 points is a ridiculous amount to reach !
2. (The one that seems to strike me the most) Some teachers got fed up with the fact that everybody always seem to download the same type of material from the same top 10 contributors (Come on guys, you know who they are!!) The following is crucial in order to fully graps the extent of the issue. It is very frustrating when people spend mornings, afternoons or even an entire day on creating a worksheet to collect a ridiculous 10 points. Folks, it �s not about the points !!! However, since they are the tangible evidence of appreciation, they do play large role in whether an individual will choose to contribute or not. So if you always download the same type of worksheets from the same people, you discard other people �s work. Thus, reinforcing the non-contributing behaviour. Here �s an example: three weeks ago I created a mini-task worksheet which gave me a minor 32 points. When I got back from vacations, I was stunned to see that a top dog plagiarized almost 50 % of my work !! She used the same type of exercises (at least half) and the same picture. Hell, she didn �t even change the white circles I used to identify the parts. And she got a whopping 182 points !! See where I �m getting at ? I see a lot of things going on in this community and I sometimes feel that some issues should be dealt with in a more expeditive manner. I did voice my opinion already regarding pictures and copyright ! If people would be entirely respectful of copyrights there wouldn �t much going on here. I recently saw a girl on a rip off spree and average 200 points per worksheet for stealing loads of pictures from a pictionary. Well, I guess things don �t change just like everything else. Damn, that was an exhaustive post but I think it � worth it.
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15 Aug 2009
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anitarobi
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With all due respect to everyone, I am not for freebies - I have learned in life that people never respect other people �s work till they have put some sweat into some work themselves. I am all for helping new members learn how to create great wss themselves (I �ve had help from you when I started and appreciate every second of my learning process). The most interesting fact is the process of learning - that �s how you learn how to appreciate other people �s work. And frankly, it isn �t difficult to earn those first 30 points, and then you get 30 new freebies daily for life.
Anita |
15 Aug 2009
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elderberrywine
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wow, you DID go into statistics!! Very impressive.
Very depressing results, too.
I think we can �t change people �s tastes or downloading habits. Very colourful worksheets with lots of pictures will always get top downloads, whereas something like my ws on "interior monologue" which I spent a couple of hours on only got depressing one or two because it looks sober and drab and because ws for very advanced classes always get few downloads.
There are several things in this thread we might remember and put into practice. Maybe there will be more ideas before this thread disappears.
1. write a letter or an e-mail to new members telling them pretty much what ranclaude said so beautifully in this thread and showing them where to get the tutorials.
2. encouraging new members by downloading their ws with our free daily 30 contributions , no matter whether we need them or not, just to encourage them - and maybe give them hints on how to make them more "professional".
3. stressing the fact that this is a give-and-take site which involves more effort than the usual take-away-and-never-even-say-thank-you sites but that it �s really worth the extra effort because the site has wonderful advantages they can use immediately, even without points.
Any more ideas? How can I find out new members here? People who joined recently? If some native speaker of English could put all this into a nice letter (ranclaude maybe?) I �d be prepared to send it to new members as a private message on a regular basis - if you all agree! That won �t do anybody any harm, I think.
As I said before in another thread: we �ve got a lot to give, we can be generous and give people an extra chance!
Dorothea
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15 Aug 2009
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elderberrywine
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anitarobi, this thread isn �t about freebies (except maybe tutorials). We �ve been through with that idea and somebody even threatened to resign from ESL printables if newcomers were given 5 free points or so.
It �s about ENCOURAGEMENT.
It´s also about ACQUIRING NEW POTENTIAL because if we could help some people to make it through to the point where they become premium members they might start contributing wonderful stuff.
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15 Aug 2009
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**********
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Edlerverein, I �ve just entered this thread. Since you are the member who started the thread , could you send me a pm stating if you need more data? Or do you have enough?
I agree with encouragement.
Would it be possible to have a forum just for the newcomers? The equipment needs some improvement. Are there volunteers with the specific mission of welcoming the new members? I�m going try read the thread and check if you have suggested ways of helping. Coming back soon.
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15 Aug 2009
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zambia09
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I must agree with anitarobi. I �ve been member since January and it really isn �t too difficult to earn 30 points become a premium member. Every good teacher �s got some materials and worksheets to share. My first ws was just a test I �d created for my students. It wasn �t very attractive but I got my first points. Now I �ve got about 500 points and I wouldn �t have to contribute any more. But I got hooked up. My last worksheets look much more attractive than the fist ones and I �m happy.
So I think it often is about laziness (sorry, I couldn �t find better expression) or not wanting to make some effort.
But that �s my opinion someone else can see it differently.
Hugs, Michaela
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15 Aug 2009
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MarionG
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Maybe I am harsh or too simplistic...In my opinion what happens is this; people stumble upon this site while looking for material on the net It happened to me. They get exited but find out they cannot access it. This repeats every so many days This happened to me too. After a few times they think to themselves, why not register? (same happened to me). so they register without really reading what it entails (who has time, you just want that material) and then you find out you still cannot download. Bummer! This happened to me as well. Most people just are annoyed, move on and forget about it. They do not even make the effort to upload work to try and get points. I don �t think that all those 0 point people are not active members because it is too hard for them to make a sheet! They just thought it too much trouble, not worth it, and moved on. I know some of my collegues thought about it in this way.
Only a small percentage actually makes the effort to upload a sheet and try to get points. Of that small percentage, some upload nonsense (the imfamous xxysahjcdfjghk- files) just to access the site and others do upload a serious attempt but when it doesn �t get them the points they need they loose interest and leave the site. I really believe that most of the 0 or 1 point people are not active on the site because they simply moved on. they didn �t consider it worth the effort! Not because they are still stuggling to get a sheet together!Only those who persist get onto the site. those who feel it is important enough to keep on trying! Unless you are an amazing graphics artist, your first sheet will get less then 10 points Mine got 1 or 2..So it will take some time, some persistence to get really into the site. But if you keep on trying you will get there, the wonderful 30 points barrier. It took a while but I got there too.
I think it is good to have a bit of a threshhold. We have over 400 new contributions a day so obviously people do enter the site. It sifts out all those who do not have the endurance an / or will to really invest of themselves. I think it might be good to on the one hand emphasize the �first contribute your own work rule" so less people just register without knowing what they are signing up for. This still happens way to often. It should pop up in big flashing letters when someone hits the �register me �button. One the other hand I think the system should automatically remove all those who have no or only one point after a certain period of time. If you want to be really nice a warning of the impending removal could be send by private mail a few days before so people can pre-emt removal if they like, simply by indicating they want to stay on. I think you will be suprised by how little people care about being removed from a site they are not using anyway, I really believe 99% of these people have moved on and have pretty much forgotten they even registered! If all those �not really �members were to be removed, the site would free up an enormous amount of space and run faster and have less server problems as a bonus.
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15 Aug 2009
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**********
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Can we focus on Dorothea�s suggestions now?
1. write a letter or an e-mail. Yes. Welcoming message. Private
2. encouraging�uploading. Yes, I�m into it. Have already done.
3. stressing� definitely. In the welcoming message.
My suggestion:
4. A thread just to welcome new members, help them out with setting off. A mentor. (needs at least two volunteers a day, assigned by Victor or whoever he wants to delegate).
I�m reading Marion�s post now. Appeared when I was posting. |
15 Aug 2009
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elderberrywine
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This must be the consequences of the Darwin bicentennial. Only the tough ones survive.
Yes, we DO get hundreds of uploads every day, marion_g
BUT: we get a lot of crap
we get a shocking amount of stolen and plagiated material
we get a lot of redundant and repetitive stuff (prepositions and parts of the body over
and over again in hundreds of versions...)
we get a lot of stuff that resembles other stuff
Maybe some more active new members could bring in new aspects and styles and more originality. I haven �t been a member for very long, but I �m already looking out for more original material, off the mainstream that everybody falls for and that gets 180 points within a couple of hours.
Dorothea
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15 Aug 2009
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