What is MyLot ?
Their front page describes the site as:
"An enormous discussion board, blogging community, questions and answers hub, social network and online hangout all wrapped up into one neat little package we call myLot. Follow and join the conversations that interest you the most in the world's #1 community for dialog and sharing.
Born in 2006 and re-imagined in 2013."
How you respond to the above may depend on whether you knew MyLot before and whether you habitually take all marketing 'hype' with a grain (or more) of salt!
'Enormous' it certainly is. There are well over 2 million topics posted but many of them are trivial, some are discussions about old news but many make very good reading. I am not sure that 'blogging community' is really an accurate description. Certainly, some of the topics posted are really no more than 'articles' and merit very little discussion or comment at all.
A Quick Tour of the MyLot Menu:
Once you have joined and logged in, you will see a very simple, rather clinical, layout. At the moment there is no way (à la Facebook/Twitter) of changing the background and theme to suit your individual tastes. The Profile Page, which you see when you click on any username, is pretty basic and certainly allows for no individuality except for the inclusion of a website and a very short "Bio" line.
Several members have requested much more customization and it is hoped that this will be implemented eventually.
At the top is the black navigation bar with the logo "MyLot" in
This is the place where you will find things to do with your own account and activity.When you click on it, you will see a series of boxes on the left.
The topmost one shows your username and avatar and contains links to "Settings", "Help" and "Sign out". (I will deal with "Settings" in another article).
The next box contains: "Notifications", "Messages" and "Suggestions"
Notifications (which is the default view when you click on "Me") shows who has responded to, commented on, 'mentioned' you in and 'liked' any of your posts.
Messages contains a list of all the Private Messages which you have sent and received listed in date order (most recent first) of receipt and headed according to the person the conversation was with.
Suggestions will contain a list of "when other myLot users have suggested posts for you to read and participate in."
The next boxes (which may appear under a block of ads) contain the following options:
Posts shows the number of discussions you have started. Clicking on it will list them, showing the most recent first.
Responses shows the number of responses to discussions you have made. A 'response' is when you post directly to a discussion topic.
Comments shows the number of comments you have made. A 'comment' is when you post under someone else's (or your own) response in a discussion.
All shows all of your posts - posts, responses and comments in order of when they were posted (most recent first).
Mentions lists the occasions where someone has mentioned you by including "@[your username]" in a post.
Likes lists the posts to which you have both given and received 'likes'.
Followers The number of people who are 'following' you (have asked to be notified when you post something) and a list of their activity.
Following The number of people whom you are following (any posts by these people will appear in your notifications).
Tags is a long list of all the tags you have ever added to discussions, responses and comments. Clicking on one of these tags can be helpful in finding any post which you were involved in and tagged.
This shows the 'activities' of the people you are following.The default screen is "All" but you can select "Posts", "Responses", "Comments", "Likes", "Follows" and "Mentions" to select lists of these particular activities.
It shows all discussions posted grouped by: "Interesting", "Top Rated", "Most Recent", "Hot", "New User" and "No Responses".
"Interesting" is "populated with posts based upon the tags you've used on myLot" (thanks to a Private Message from "myLot_ContactUs" for that!). If you are a new user or have not tagged your posts, the results are likely to be unpredictable. If you do not use tags in a sensible and responsible manner, then you are probably not getting the best out of MyLot.
"Hot" is similarly difficult to define. The official description (slightly modified so that non-programmers can understand it) is that it is ordered by the number of responses a post has had (most at the top), then by the date it was created on - (with the most recent first). It probably only includes posts from the last 24 hours as well.
"Top Rated" lists those topics which have received the most "Likes" overall;
"Most Recent" lists the topics which have been posted most recently;
"New User" lists topics posted by those who have joined most recently and
"No Responses" lists topics which have not yet been responded to.
When searching for topics, it is best to try several words or phrases relating to what you are looking for. If you were familiar with the old system and used to use the way that MyLot sorted discussions under "Interests", then typing in the name of an 'Interest' should give you much the same results.
(Create New Post)
Clicking on this brings up a pop-over window prompting you to "Post something new".
1) Choose a Title for your post.
2) "Describe what's on your mind" (it's a good idea to be as descriptive as possible - MyLot users are remarkable in many ways but they are NOT mind-readers!)
3) Enter up to 5 tags separated by commas.These should be significant words or phrases which you would expect people (or yourself) to use to find the particular topic you are posting. It has been suggested that, in future, tagging should bring up a suggested 'Category' list as well as 'free entry' tags, so that all topics in certain categories can be tagged consistently. If you feel you want to enter more tags to describe your topic, you will be able to add more relevant tags to any responses or comments it receives, once it is posted.
4) Click "Post"
Been with them since the beginning and leaving as soon as I am paid it is no longer fun or interesting and hard to navigate I don't use the stupid phones and don't plan to, use desktop don't need the internet with me 24/7 like a lot of people think they do. What a crazy world. I needed the income not point posting to a place that the adminstrators killed. Finding other places that are more lucrative. Doubt this site will last or stay active much longer. Hate twitter is is a stupid site too. Talk about boring.
ReplyDeleteI can understand how you feel, Celanith.
DeleteI agree that a site like MyLot was (and is still) not really suited to posting from a phone - much more efficient and useful with a proper keyboard and screen.
I am also using other sites now, particularly:
http://www.bubblews.com/?referral=51836fa61bd488.55109518
MyLot may still have its uses, though, and I'm currently exploring those, which was the main reason for posting this article.
I think it's rather pitiful that a tutorial like this is needed to navigate what was once a pretty neat site. I remember going to myLot for the first time and it was no time until I could find exactly what I wanted to. It's not worth my time and trouble to figure it out this time. There are a lot of other forum/blog types of sites that are easier to navigate and look better if I just want to spend time.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I find the new layout a lot more logical. It took me little more than 10 minutes to find out everything I have written about here ... and then an hour or three to write it up, take screen shots and double check!
ReplyDeleteThere were many things about the old MyLot that were far from logical but I have to say I do miss the landscape layout and the white pages.
I find the explanation very well and helpful in order to understand how the reimagined MyLot works. Thanks.
ReplyDeletecreate new post is an invitation to spam, I think . what do you say, Owlwings?
ReplyDeletefannekhan
@fannekhan Any site where you can create a post is an invitation to spam ... TO SPAMMERS. MyLot is well moderated, however, and spammers will only be a temporary nuisance, very quickly removed.
ReplyDeletePerhaps I should have made it clearer that I have NOTHING to do with MyLot, except as a member. As soon as they changed the site, I could see that many were confused by it and that an explanation of the menu system was desirable.
ReplyDeleteThose people who think that it is a 'clone' of Twitter are simply looking at the design of the first page they see. They have NOT taken the trouble to see the very clear differences. In fact, inspiredbusnesswoman, you clearly don't have a Twitter account and have even less idea how to use it. You may call yourself a 'inspired businesswoman' but your comments indicate that neither of the first two epithets are justified.
Hey man :-D This blog is #1 on Google (for 'how to use mylot' :-P)!
ReplyDeleteExcellent resource! Something like this should be included in the site rules of all sites but, sadly, too many sites leave newbies floundering around for a while until it all finally clicks into place.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the basic information. great job :)
ReplyDeleteI am a new user and find your post very useful. How is the payment calculated? It is not clearly explained anywhere. Any tips on how to get more people to read your posts?
ReplyDeleteI could ot understand about enter up to 5 tags
ReplyDeleteTags are useful for helping other people find your discussion if they are interested in the particular topic you are discussing. They also control the "Most Interesting" selection, so that the tags that you use will be the ones used to show you discussions which are similar.
ReplyDelete