EzineArticles Needs A Smack About The Head

The thing that they've been doing to me that drives me absolutely up the wall is returning articles with a "General Error" and saying I should contact support to find out what's wrong.

How does this even make sense from a staff management perspective? A staff member already took the time to read it and make some sort of determination, which they don't share, so I have to write to customer service, and take ANOTHER staff member's time to read it and possibly come to the same determination, and then share with me what it is.

Or, in the alternative, what I actually do, which is also counter-productive from a staff management perspective - keep resubmitting the articles until they either go through or give me a specific error.

I mean, seriously, it seems like the most efficient use of staff time, and mine for that matter, is when the FIRST staffer reads it, either accept it or tell me EXACTLY what I need to do to fix it. How does "General Error" serve anyone?

Allen, if you try to create a pen name that already exists, you'll get a
message. I tried to create a pen name once that was taken so what I did
was just use the first initial of the first name and then the last name and I
was okay after that.

Hmmm ... but because someone mentions something negative (whines) about a company, it's ok for you to post that crap about a dominant company abusing their clients (the implication being that EZA is abusing their clients?)

Did you not see the after my posting? But with all the problems - erm... I mean Opportunities ..Google present to the online marketing community I do wonder upon what you base your very generous comment about them?

That doesn't sound good!

They do seem to be getting more picky!

Hope you get it sorted soon!

Agreed. However, in the future we can only hope Yahoo and MSN put up more of a challenge!

I had the same problem a couple of months ago. For the first time ever I used a pen name when submitting an article. I went to EA first and then a handful of directories that ranked high for the key phrase. The top directory for the key phrase doesn't allow pen names so I submitted it there under my real name and every where else under the pen name. It was accepted on the other directories first so when EA got round to it they found it on the directory that ranked best for the keyphrase under my proper name which is the same name as my account on EA. Same photograph and same author bio. My account was suspended so I put the article under my real name and was reinstated. I've decided not to use pen names again if it causes problems.

It can't be easy for EA if they get so many articles that they have to employ several people to check them. Even with guidelines new employees may err on the side of caution rather than do their job wrong.

As a directory owner I know that it isn't always easy to decide what articles to accept and viewing the articles can be very time consuming. That is mainly because there are a lot of article submitters who totally disregard and disrespect site guidelines. It's that age old thing of some spoiling it for the rest.

The worst example is that in recent months a company has been employing agents to submit plagiarised articles to many directories for them. Over the months the problem has grown to the point that it was costing me hours of wasted time every day. Because it was leaving me little time to work on building and promoting my business I removed the sign up form and asked for applications by email with their first article. A few weeks later I added the sign up form again for one day and I lost 3 hours deleting the new articles and accounts of these agents. Recently they found another of my directories so double the trouble. So far it's been impossible to block them but a friend is working on an add on script that may do the trick, until then my sign up forms stay down because I will not let people who are growing their business by cheating ruin mine by wasting time that can be put to better use.

If EA are having the same problems then it's hardly surprising that they are getting tougher.

Hi John,

Thanks for clarifying me on that. I guess I was misinformed. My point was that they don't ignore your articles, even if they're the same. And... like you pointed out, it depends on the search term.

Alan

Here is just a short list of famous authors, along with their dates, who
have written under pen names.

Pen Name Real Name Lived Acton Bell Anne Bronte 1820 - 1849 Currer Bell Charlotte Bronte 1816 - 1855 Ellis Bell Emily Bronte 1818 - 1848 Nicholas Blake Cecil Day Lewis 1904 - 1972 Boz Charles John Huffam Dickens 1812 - 1870 Lewis Carroll Charles Lutwidge Dodgson 1832 - 1898 Elia Charles Lamb 1775 - 1834 George Eliot Mary Ann Evans 1819 - 1880 Maxim Gorky Alexey Maximovich Peshkov 1868 - 1936 O. Henry William Sydney Porter 1862 - 1910 John le Carre David John Moore Cornwell 1931 - Date George Orwell Eric Arthur Blair 1903 - 1950 Ellery Queen Frederic Dannay (and co-author/cousin)
Manfred B. Lee 1905 - 1982
1905 - 1971 Saki Hector Hugh Munroe 1870 - 1916 George Sand Amandine Dupin 1804 - 1876 Stendhal Marie Henri Beyle 1783 - 1842 Mark Twain Samuel Langhorne Clemens 1835 - 1910 Voltaire François - Marie Arouet 1694 - 1778 Mary Westmacott Dame Agatha Clarissa Mary Christie 1890 - 1976

Not only is writing under a pan name perfectly acceptable but it can, in
many cases, make you even more famous.

Sorry, but I respectfully have to disagree with your claim about pen names
being second class.

Jenn, I've found that I can't tell that 1st class, professionally done ghost-written articles are written by ghosts. If the author's name is Joseph James and the article sounds like it written by Jose' Jiminez, it's second-class.

'Sawright? 'Sawright...