Respond or not

You can comment or not, as it seems appropriate. It is worth noting, however, that MyLot pays us only for our participation, not for anyone else's, so if you start a discussion and don't make any comments on the responses, however many there are, you earn nothing more than the cent or so for starting the discussion. If you think about it, too, a discussion only becomes a discussion when the person who starts it has something more than "Thanks for your response" to say in return (that is why it says in the Guidelines that we should not merely thank people for responding). I don't always comment on all the responses I get to my (very infrequent) discussions. Sometimes they may say nothing of any substance, sometimes they simply say (in other words) more or less what someone else has said. I can usually judge whether it is a good discussion or not by how much I can find to say in comments to the responses.

At first it is really overwhelming but as you get more experience you will not find it so tiring. Expect to get not that much responses. Some members come for specific topics. There are also those members who do not respond to discussions already discussed. Good luck and welcome to MyLot.

Maybe this will give you some incentive...you're paid for what YOU say!!! That's why I usually only start ONE discussion at a time. That way I can concentrate on commenting to EVERY response!!! If it's a discussion that doesn't garner a lot of responses, you can post the next discussion much sooner. However, if it brings in a ton of responses, you have the opportunity to comment to them ALL before starting another discussion. A lot of newbies post a lot of discussions & then can't work then like they should. Not everybody agrees with me on this, but I feel it is IMPORTANT to comment to EVERY response. I think it encourages people to come back to your discussions!!!

I don't comment back to every response under my discussion. I only comment when I find I have something to say. I'm not willing to make one line comment like "Thank you for responding" or some others like that. I'm much a responder, and lack inspiration when commenting. But I know some myLotters can make excellent comment to every response. I saw a lotter's discussion, in which she said she would comment back on every response under her discussions.

I know what you mean. I do reply alot to discussions, but I need to think of more topics to start a discussion. Just think of the topics that your really are interested in, or any questions you always wondered if people felt the same way. Hope this helps and I'll watch for your posts.

You and me both! I gave the FAQ a good read before kicking off here, but expect to be learning the ropes for a good while. It would seem polite to respond to everyone, but I imagine that some opinions will preclude a response. A few that I have had give a sense of closure. I don't mean that negatively, but leave you with little to follow up on. I have given some thought as to how I approach the site. Presuming that everyone has their own way of working, I've decided to respond to as many discussions started by my friends as possible. So I am back tracking through them, in addition to having a look at newer ones too. I've also set the notify to 'on', so that I'll always be up to date with new discussions and responses. Good luck, and please feel free to share ideas (I need some too)!

hi aurorastorm well its not so hard if you comment back to the responses as they come in because usually they come in a few at a time, so just keep up that way and you will earn nicely for commenting on all the responses you get.that is the way I do to keep from being overwhelmed. You do not get paid by the way for our responses as some get the wrong idea, you only get paid for what you post so if you can comment on all of them it pays pretty well.

...Hey, When you get a lot af responses that is great. It means the people are interested in your subject. What I do when that happens is to do five to seven responses at a time, log out and do something else, because you tend to get repetitious if you do a whole lot at one time. Break it into segments. Remember to do at least four or five sentences in your responses. Two days is not too long to cover your responses back to people. I once received fifty-eight or so responses on a discussion, took me a while to complete as I like to answer everyone who replied. Don't do too many discussions at one time. That can turn into a juggernaut and could be overwhelming as you said. Take your time, write down your discussion subjects so you don't forget them, but don't put all of them out at one time. Take care, keep up the good work.

There are also times when I get a lot of responses but its not often. lol Anyway, I always try to respond to all of them when I get a lot of responses. I focus my time responding on the responses and I take other discussions as a second priority. I try to make sure I respond to all as long as I wont get lazy. I usually do that a day after I made the discussion.

As everyone has pointed out already, it really is upto you to comment back on the responses you get. I do try to comment back on all the responses I get, but sometimes it is impossible to comment back. Like when the response is a oneliner and clearly no room for more comment, etc. There are some discussions that I have responded which does not receive a comment from the discussion starter. I am not expecting all my responses to receive a comment, however, I felt a little hurt when most of the responses are commented back on except mine and a few others, especially when I have spent long time trying to think of a proper response. I sort of made a mental note not to respond to that member again (Though I never really looked at who start a discussion before responding). It is a good way to earn money especially if you further the topic with your comments. And also it inspired the responder to look out for your discussions in the future. Good Luck and Welcome to myLot. Have fun Lotting.

Yes the more friends you develop the more responses you get. It is overwhelming at times. What I do is I log on in the mornings to my email address and get myLot responses. I will definitely respond to all who responded to any of my discussion if it is a first response to my discussion. If it is a second reply by same person, I will only respond if it is called for. What I man basically if the response was open-ended and a reply relevant. Any new started discussions that has an alert in my email, well it depends on what the discussion is about. If I have nothing useful or valid to reply to or if I do not seem interested in the discussion than I do not respond. Once I go through all the alerted messages in email I go into myLot for a few minutes and check the top and hot discussions, if anything is interesting then I may respond, then I check the news to see if there is anything interesting I can respond to. Then I log off and go about other online ventures. I normally do not log back in until late in the evening and sometimes do not until the next morning. That's my routine and yes I have days I get a bit overwhelmed by all of it as I do other online activities that require my time as well. Sometimes you just have to take a day or two break to revive. Hope this helps. Oh and no need to reply. LOL...

Hi auroratrorm I try to respond to all who join in my discussions, but I find it difficult to reply to very short comments, since they really don't add much to the discussions. I try to find at least one comment I can make, but sometimes I just can't, then it will be just a short "thanks for...." I don't want to skip anyone's comment, because I don't want them to feel ignored, so I try to find something to say, even if I repeat myself, since many don't read the whole discussion anyway.

I try to respond to everyone but like you said, it's hard to respond to everyone as well as responding to other people's discussions . I guess that's why it feels like work here. If you comment on the discussions though it helps to keep your discussion on the top of the recent discussions as well as adds to your earning and earnings potential. Just have fun and don't stress