Tagging demos anonymously? Stop this now

Bettye Zoller · **Voice Talent** Joined: 03 Aug 2003 Posts: 163

I am opposed to this. Did you see the 123 email today? This is madness and totally unwarrented. Anonymous tagging of people's demos? Rating others? It's unprofessional and must stop. Join the protest.

Scott Pollak · Posted: Fri Jun 06, 2008, 18:06 (GMT) Post subject:

I never, ever, EVER get ANY of the v123 e-mails. I think I unchecked that option ages ago and apparently am better off because of it.

What on earth are you referring to, Bettye?

Greg Houser · **Voice Talent** Joined: 12 Mar 2008 Posts: 174

Scott, it sounds like one can now add meta-tags to other people's demo. This would potentially help people when it comes to search engine optimization (within V123's search).

This has both good and bad implications.

For V123 though, it's great as it allows people to add a ton more tags to be used by by V123 for greater exposure on the Web.

What they don't realize though is that if someone abuses the system (by denigrating another talent), then you're also going to use that meta that is also linked to V123.

Much like when one does a Google search for V123 and "cheap".

Brad Venable · Posted: Fri Jun 06, 2008, 19:57 (GMT) Post subject:

I can see the benefits here, but the slippery slope of a person going through tagging people negatively is more than enough reason not to do it. I'll give it time, but I can see the possibility of detriments outweighing the benefits.

Caryn Clark · **Voice Talent** Joined: 27 Mar 2005 Posts: 1000

I don't get it. Why would I want to tag my competition with nice things? And, I would never tag anyone with mean things, but I'm sure there are people who would.

I mean, I'm a nice girl, and I'm all about good karma and all, but let's face it, we're competing for work.

Brad Venable · Posted: Fri Jun 06, 2008, 20:01 (GMT) Post subject:

Exactly. :\

Diane Havens · **Voice Talent** Joined: 09 Jun 2006 Posts: 1281

Did anyone on the 123 staff ever take a course in PSYCHOLOGY? (And just GOING to a psychologist doesn't count.)

Todd Ethridge · **Voice Talent** Joined: 13 Feb 2006 Posts: 214

I am SO glad I'm not a paying member of 123.

Lee Gordon · **Voice Talent** Joined: 22 Oct 2004 Posts: 1549

Well, they did say that they intend to implement a feature that would allow us to remove tags that had been applied to our demos, but I wish they would spend a little more development time on things that would actually be of benefit to us rather than geeky doo-dads that only computer programmers could get jazzed about.

Lance Blair · Posted: Fri Jun 06, 2008, 22:11 (GMT) Post subject:

So all the gals are going to go around tagging the guys, and all the guys are going to go around tagging the girls, right? 'Cuz I'm sure as heck not going to go out of my way to spread the word about how awesome Lee Gordon, Greg Houser, Todd Ethridge, Brad Venable, and Scott Pollak actually are. Wink

Man, this is like giving out Valentines in Elementary School. Totally icky.

Lee Gordon · **Voice Talent** Joined: 22 Oct 2004 Posts: 1549

And I was going to tag you with something positive just because you have "Beat L.A." in your sig line. But forget about it! schlagen

<-- "Tagging"

Todd Ethridge · **Voice Talent** Joined: 13 Feb 2006 Posts: 214

Ah Lance, ya flatter me. Embarassed

And may I say, right back 'atcha my friend.

Lee Gordon · **Voice Talent** Joined: 22 Oct 2004 Posts: 1549

I had some concerns about tagging so I wrote to Customer Service and asked if the tags were going to be viewable by the public, if they would have any impact on SmartCast or otherwise influence the leads we receive, and if we would have the opportunity to review and delete them before they got posted. Here's part of the response I received:

The results will be viewable by the person being tagged when this stage is completed, and not available to the general public.

The results are for informational purposes only right now, and do not influence the way SmartCast assigns leads.

We are only in an experimental phase, so the current tagging that is happening has no effect on SmartCast or anything else.

So, for the moment, it would appear that concerns about tagging are much ado about nothing. If somebody tags one of our demos, we can fret over it, be flattered by it, ignore it, or do whatever we want about it, but it apparently has no actual impact on anything.

By the way, only premium members get to tag demos.

Diane Havens · **Voice Talent** Joined: 09 Jun 2006 Posts: 1281

Yeah, Lee, just like the ratings meant nothing.

Connie Terwilliger · **Voice Talent** Joined: 14 Jul 2003 Posts: 409

I think the point is that it is being done soley to see if it will drive eyeballs to Voice123.