Private Question Shutdown
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" what you just said is true if you did bring up a competitor's name"
Yes, exactly The big value in private is being able to ask questions with detailed competitive information. For example, asking a question about why our competitor ranks for a specific term, but we don't, even though we think we should.
i understand the scalability challenge with this (I have a payroll to make myself...), I'm just surprised that this wasn't anticipated as a potential issue when first offered. It wouldn't have been hard to calculate the cost/time of providing this service long term.
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I agree with what was stated above. I'm also saddened by this loss as I think it was one of the things that set SEOMoz apart; however, I also think that the public Q&A forum is very valuable and also makes SEOMoz a tremendous value.
My concerns are two-fold. One concern, which was stated earlier, is that sometimes you need to ask questions about clients with information that can't be shared publicly. The public Q&A won't help these types of questions.
My second concern is that I've asked a number of questions on the public Q&A and very rarely have had SEOmoz staff answer them. I'm wondering what SEOmoz's goal ratio for participating in the public Q&A will be? Will SEOMoz staff have a goal for participating X% of the questions?
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Ah I think I only asked maybe 3-4 questions since I first joined in Sep 2008... but I've often found answers via private channels far more detailed and faster and it's often from other SEOs who are also PRO members which shows the importance of networking and knowledge sharing...
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Well, it's certainly been an emotive subject for many!
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Seriously? Are you saying that unless you sign an NDA with every individual, you should be ready for surprises? All the people who answered my private questions seems to be very friendly people who wouldn't go around talking about my questions or sensitive information. You can'be comparing the little risk involved in what you are suggesting to making a post 100% public.
_ "public or private question meaning if the person answering your question thinks their answer is relevant to somebody else's problem they will most likely give them the answer that worked rather be private or public they want to do the right thing."_
Most likely? I doubt it. I haven't seen any staff sharing someone else's private stuff with me and I don't think that they do that at all. I am sure people like Dr. Pete and others who help with private questions are better than that.
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It's a decision that makes sense even if it looks like there are a few people that are not very happy with it.
THe Q and A community - the open one - not the pro Q and A - is very nice and open. A lot of good people around here with professional background that are getting involved in Q and A.
Hope the decision will be taked lightly and understood also by those who used to use it
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I've been a member for a year now and I have never used a private question. I much prefer the public questions since I can get a wide variety of ideas from others.
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Just throwing this out there, there is a new service that just launched here in LA that lets you pay to ask questions. It was free up until Jan. 31'st, not sure what the deal is now, but it's worth keeping an eye on if what they offer might work for some people. I'm not affiliated with them in any way.
Also, would a SWOT analysis for each page on my site, along with keyword and competitor research be counted as a 2-part question?
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Hi Keri,
One thing I do want to point out is SEOmoz has done a fantastic job of adding great new features. FollowerWonk It is something I use daily. And is extremely helpful and GetListed is something I just signed up with and has potential to be extremely helpful as well to many smaller businesses or any business really.
I believe people are having a tough time understanding that this is a business if it's not scalable then it will not work thus the answers will get worse and the product of private messages will suffer.
SEOmoz knows their own business much better than we do. I believe it is a very unfortunate to lose this great tool however to say that that is the one part or a deal breaker I agree with what Rand had said if nothing else is of value obviously you might be better off making a deal with a private consultant.
One thing that might help is if SEOmoz did a poll of current Associates and asking them what they would charge to answer questions in a similar manner? after that every individual could make a choice as to whether or not they wish to pay the third-party or maybe have it work through the system. Just an idea.
SEOmoz is a software as a service company and from a business perspective I definitely understand why they're doing this. If it's not scalable it's smart that they don't do it right now.
Respectfully and thank you to everyone at SEOmoz staff and members alike
Thomas Zickell
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gamer,
the reason I mentioned an NDA was to illustrate the point that if you and I had extremely similar questions I'm sure we would both get the same answer. I NO point stated anything about staff members morality and I think you are simply trying to get attention by implying I am questioning Dr. Pete's honor I have a great deal of respect for him and everyone at SEOmoz
"I haven't seen any staff sharing someone else's private stuff with me and I don't think that they do that at all. I am sure people like Dr. Pete and others who help with private questions are better than that."
when you enter into agreements with consultants most of the time you sign a nondisclosure agreement does that imply that that consultant will not share useful in permission they have learned from a job with me with another person that hires them? I Would hope they do and I know they do I and not implying that they use names or do anything to compromise your business.
I know there is a thing called private messages and they do work so you can put private information in their and send it to people I've done that in the past. I Don't understand why it would not work in the future I to would love to have private messages stay on as a service I am just being realistic. I don't believe SEOmoz came up with this choice lightly. I Hope you can understand that and maybe you should start asking in your next private question or publicly what the best solution is to get the service similar to what you've been getting. I know you can hire associates.
regards,
Thomas
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That type of question is beyond the scope of private Q&A. Private Q&A is more meant for a specific question that may take 15-30 minutes to answer, rather than a general site audit. It's there to help advise you, but not to do the work itself.
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Totally agree - sometimes you want a second opinion and don't want the client to know things.... I would be interested in a private service too.... Anyone know of any or what the plan is for one
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Yea, was totally kidding Keri. I should of added a <sarcasm>tag there, my bad. Cheers!</sarcasm>
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Hi Sean,
Thanks for your feedback and suggestion. We've found that people use private Q&A for asking questions they don't want public, but also when they want to make sure they get an answer (an answer is not guaranteed in public Q&A). We actually do see identical questions in public and private Q&A from the same person, as they seek an answer from an SEOmoz associate. When SEOmoz associates have more time to devote to public Q&A, they'll be able to answer more questions, and endorse and clarify existing answers.
We are looking at adjusting which questions are indexed in public Q&A, but it would be along the lines of only questions that are marked a "good answer" by the original poster or have an answer endorsed by staff would be in the index. This would help make sure that people coming in from a search engine would see just questions that have good answers. I will pass your suggestion along to the team to see if there's a way that could be TAGFEE for us.
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Hi Geoff,
So sorry about that! We've actually had requests almost that extensive in private Q&A.Without giving specific details, we've been asked for site audits, reviews of business plans, implementing features, and developing work plans for temporary help.
I'm only on the first cup of coffee for the day, and it's already been a long day, so I totally missed the implied sarcasm.
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" think you are simply trying to get attention by implying I am questioning Dr. Pete's honor I have a great deal of respect for him and everyone at SEOmoz "
I am not trying to get attention but it's clear to me that it's you who is trying to get attention by praising and defending SEOMOZ in every single post. So if it's ok with you, I would like to ask about a service that I have purchased. If it's not ok with you, then maybe we should be given the right to talk to SEOMOZ about this in private without you interfering.
What is it that you don't get here? I paid annually for a service that promised 1 private questions a month, which means I have already paid for 12. I don't think we live in a world that service providers can change the product description without offering a compensation.
This is getting ridiculous. You're talking like I am asking them to continue offering a free service or something. Meanwhile in your long post, you have the nerve to tell the community to stop complaining? Who gives you the right to tell a customer to stop complaining? You are not INVOLVED in this. You are a 3rd party and I don't know why I should stop complaining just because you say so.
How is this any different from another service provider suddenly changing the service? Let's say SEOMOZ's web hosting provider emailed them tomorrow morning and said "Sorry we can't scale this anymore, so we won't be offering postgresql anymore". That wouldn't make SEOMOZ happy, would it? Would it be ok if that hosting provider said "Only 4% of our users are using pgsql and others don't".
Why do I have to care about what 96% is doing and not doing. I purchased a product and paid annually. Is that so abnormal that I am expecting to get what I paid for?
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Kind of sad when the Real world knocks on the door and reminds us that success can bring the odd negative along with all the positives.
On the other hand, this is also a reminder that it's time to step up my game and be ready to bump into some of my favorite people in the world more often!
WooHoo!
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Hi! I think Keri did answer that in her original post by mentioning that it's simply not scalable for us anymore
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Hi Eric,
In regards to the questions being answered in public Q&A by staff, everyone who currently answers questions in Private Q&A, will now be spending their time in public instead. We're not discontinuing Private and then removing all of the staff, but simply moving their time over to public instead.
Thanks!
Jen
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Hey David! I see you've only asked one question in pubic Q&A though... you should give it a shot! I think you'll be surprised by the responses you get here as well.
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