A short time ago I read aarph001's article, Will PAA Kill FoK. Sadly, I do think PAA could potentially slay FoK or at the very least inflict serious damage to it, bloodying it beyond recognition. Of course this is not a happy thought for those that worked to build FoK and for those that benefit from using the FoK platform.
The Admin designed PAA as an easier alternative to FoK so more people could write and earn money online. It is a site where people can publish at will with no editorial oversight. Its purpose is to draw users to post articles that are short (100-300 words), articles that are written with less focus on quality and for articles that are already published on more than one other site.
So far writers have delivered those sorts of articles in
abundance to PAA. However, it has done such a good job at this that the
scammers, spammers and plagiarizers are showing up and diluting the
earnings of legitimate writers there.
Where PAA hits FoK in the solar plexus is when good writers choose to shelter well written material on PAA. Now this does not happen often, but when it does it hurts. For example, Patty Therre is a tremendous new writer, and a wonderful asset to FoK, EP and PAA writing platforms and communities. Yesterday, she penned one of the most inspirational posts that I have read in a long time. She wrote, “Writing for pennies is a great hobby that could lead to lucrative writing opportunities” that showed how her penny ante writing adventure landed her a writing job of a lifetime. This is something that probably tugs at many of our hearts. Now let me be clear, she did nothing wrong by posting this piece on PAA and I harbor no anger about it. I actually stickied it so as many people on PAA could see it. I believe those that did were also moved by it. I did leave my honest assessment of the situation in the comments where I wrote:
"@Patty Therre, without a shadow of a doubt, this is the best article I have read today. It sounds like you played your cards right and ended up a big winner. Who knows, perhaps we have another Super Star among us just waiting to be discovered. I hate to belabor the point, but as we try and make PAA distinct from FoK and EP, it pains me to nearly the point of tears that terrific pieces like this are not on FoK. I almost missed it, but I am sure glad I read it. You are a wonderful addition to the team of writers that use the “Trinity of Sites”. Keep up the outstanding work!"
Why
was it painful? It hurt, because we have taken great efforts to make FoK
be the preferred home for high quality pieces and for people who were
actively trying to improve their writing skills. Therefore, to lose it to
PAA was like a pile driver move that brought our collective backs to
the mat. If more people see this and follow this example FoK will be
pinned and killed. Now I harbor no ill will to Patty Therre. She is a
wonderful person and a talented writer, but if more people of her
stature throw their work in PAA we could have a serious problem.
Image Attribution: Wikimedia Commons, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported
Copyrighted and originally published on FullofKnowledge on October 23, 2013
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