How Gatorpeeps can get it’s bite back
We wrote about Gatorpeeps quite a while back and were very excited about what it could become. Over a year down the line we look at how it has grown and how it has fallen to be nothing more than an endless stream of SPAM. Back when we were Tx Daily we were very excited about the product Afrigator launched and even went as far as making the Peep This plugin for the system.
We participated and quite enjoyed the conversation that was happening between bloggers from all over the African continent. It was educational and enjoyable with the whole experience revolving around the hugely popular Twitter experience but with a few differences; now those few differences might be its downfall. We have come up with a list of things that might get people back onto Gatorpeeps and conversing once again.
1. Put back the character limit
In the beginning, Gatorpeeps had a character limit much like Twitter does now. Somewhere along the line, we not sure where, Afrigator removed this limit allowing a seemingly unlimited amount of characters to be posted.
Now I think that’s their first mistake. Yes I know that they have a few reasons but there is nothing more irritating than a huge amount of text and also the point it to converse and not to have a whole blog post on Gatorpeeps.
I would suggest that a limit is put back into place.
2. Remove API for automatic peeping
It’s great having the ability to have bloggers posting their latest articles on Gatorpeeps but that is all it has become. If you look at the Gatorpeeps stream, all you see is automated posts with users just trying to SPAM the “potential” audience.
If Gatorpeeps removes this functionality, it might result in a few losses but at least it will keep the guys on who will actually use it for what it is meant for. Secondly we will be able to see the stream with conversation and not lose “real” peeps amongst the information overload.
3. Make the Afrigator experience a synergy
Afrigator is extending their services from aggregation to ad serving. Yet you have no ability to access everything from 1 central point. Imagine creating an account on Afrigator and having a Adgator and Gatorpeeps account ready for you to use. On top of that it would be ultimately good for Afrigator if you could access everything from one place with a news feed of anything and everything to do with your blogs.
We could probably go way further into how Afrigator could create a much easier system to promote all their products and give users access but that is way beyond the scope of this post.
4. Include a live Gatorpeeps stream
When last did you go to the Afrigator homepage? Well it does not includes Gatorpeeps (remember what we were talking about in the last point?). Imagine the interest if people saw that there was a conversation going on? On the flip side why not add the Afrigator homepage tabs into Gatorpeeps as well because it would then be the best page to have open in your browser for African news and conversation.
Now we might be sounding a bit harsh but a lot can be done to improve this product and we would definitely like to see it do better. Do you think we have left anything out or do you think we are being a little bit to harsh on them?
This was posted by Seagyn Davis who has posted 212 items.
→ The 3 South African Blog Aggregators – Techdaily said on: September 7, 2010 at 5:29 pm
[...] Afrigator came as a breathe of fresh air a few years ago. It was dubbed the aggregator of Africa and grew very nicely. It too suffers from the occasional speed issue but it does have quite a few blogs from all over Africa running on it. Out of all the aggregators in this list Afrigator probably does the best job of creating an environment where you would want to go to everyday. Having said that they are missing out by letting those features slip away; have a look at our article about Gatorpeeps. [...]
→ OneStonedCrow said on: September 7, 2010 at 5:55 pm
No, you’re not being to harsh and yes, Gatorpeeps has become a place for spammers to hook readers without really contributing anything …
When I first started using Afrigator there was a great little community of “chatters” on Afrigator but they’ve all left because anything they ‘peep’ is drowned out by spam … the Afrigator crew has been very silent too … I hope they fix it soon.