News for May 2016

The new minimum payout is now $5 so that you now have only to reach $5 by the last day of any month to qualify for automatic payout by the 15th of the following month!

Below is the daily activity graph for May 2016. It shows a very slight increase in the daily number of discussions, responses and comments, though this might be due to people being more active towards the end of the month in order to reach payout!

Mobile-Friendly Version of MyLot Announced

On 15 February 2016 myLot announced a new version of the site which is more mobile-friendly. It is currently in 'beta' mode while bugs are found and ironed out but many have already found that it is working well and it has been almost universally welcomed and judged to be much easier to use.

The announcement and invitation to test it out was made here:

Mobile-friendly myLot is here! Kind of.... Who wants to help?

• You should note that it may be necessary to log in again when you access the new site, even when using the link above. If 'Log In' is displayed to the right of the myLot logo, you will need to click on it and enter your username and password before you can do any more than just read the page!

First Impressions

The menu system has been redesigned and simplified. "Me" is replaced by your avatar and username, "People" is replaced by "Follows" and the choices which were previously made from menus on the left hand side of the page are now consolidated into drop-down choices from the menu bar. On the right hand side of the menu bar can be found "Search", "Discuss" and "$" (Earnings) which also have drop-down choices (except "Discuss" which just opens an edit pop-up for creating a discussion).

The main changes to the page layout are:

1. Tags are now displayed prominently in white on green above the title of a discussion. In the discussion listings ("Explore" pages), they are displayed in white on a grey background below the relevant discussion.
2. Images, where used to illustrate a discussion, now display to full page width below the title and above the text. They also appear as thumbnails alongside the listing in "Explore" pages.
3. Advertisements. There is now a block inserted after the title in discussions and after the first listing in the "Explore" listings. There are two advertisement blocks on the right hand side of the page (when viewed on a PC)
4. The format of the page now adjusts itself depending on the device used to view it. The whole of the menu bar should now always be visible and the margins should now adjust themselves to the width of the screen being used.

 Please do take the time to explore the new layout, especially if you are using a mobile device or tablet. Any bugs or difficulties you find should be reported to MyLotBugs, either in the discussion linked to above or by Private Message.

Yes, it's TRUE!!!

New Rule Announced Today!

MyLot is turning around after two years languishing in a Sargasso Sea of spammy posts. GoAskAlice, the intrepid moderator of the site posted this "Administrative Advisement" today:

"From this point on, we will no longer be allowing advertisements. While we will still be allowing "commercial" accounts, posts from said accounts must not be posting discussions that are overtly advertising. This example, directly from the site ownership, best illustrates where the line is drawn: "....if Burger King shows up and says, "What do you think of this new Quadruple Whopper we're introducing?", that would be OK. But not a post that says, here's what a Whopper is, and here's a link to our website where you can learn more about the Whopper." Community guide lines to be updated soon. Accounts that continue to violate this rule will be summarily and with out ceremony, be banned."

All Hands To the Sails, Me Hearties!

The new (and original) owners of MyLot are currently testing and tweaking the new (and better) earnings algorithm. To do this, they need good posts and comments - discussions such as we used to have.

Come on board NOW - Click here to join (it's absolutely free), if you aren't a member already - and let's give them some material to work with. The topics we post and respond to today will shape the way that MyLot will be able to share its revenue with us tomorrow (well, in a couple of months or so, when the site has its sails trimmed and is running before the wind).

**HOT NEWS!!!**

MyLot to become a Paying Site again!

 It has been informally announced today (17 July 2015) that the original owners of the site have returned and will shortly begin paying again. There will be a new, improved 'earnings algorithm' and they propose to keep the old minimum payment level of $10.

I anticipate that there will be some changes to the Terms and Guidelines and that the rates will only be round about what one can expect these days from any site which intends to survive, but, on the other hand, with a minimum payout of $10, it will take less time to see money in your pocket than some other sites I could mention.

If you are still a member of MyLot, expect to find an announcement in your messages or your email soon. If you aren't a member, it may well be worth your while joining now!

This is the NEW myLot!

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 blue green at the centre. (The images here are from before MyLot became a paying site again in July 2015).

You will probably recognise it as being remarkably similar to Twitter, though the rest of the site doesn't bear much resemblance ...  for a start, you are allowed to post far more than 140 characters!

On the left are three 'buttons': Me, People and Explore. These are the main ways of viewing everything on the site and are fairly self-explanatory.

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.

This section is probably the one which many will want to use first.

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.

On the right hand side of the central "MyLot" logo, there is a Search facility. This allows the user to search for any word or phrases used as tags and thus find topics of potential interest to which you might want to contribute. When using this facility, the left hand menu changes to allow the same search terms to apply only Posts, Responses and Comments, either as a 'tag' search or as a 'full text' search. One may also search for people by their username or part of it.

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"