Monday, October 4, 2010 - 6:35 AM

Concerns About Other Writers Contributing To The Site

My technical partner and I have read through the comments from readers who expressed concern about our articles that were written by our other contributors instead of by me. First, we appreciate the honest and constructive feedback. We intend to spend more time to review what is posted to make sure there is no misleading or confusing information.

In this thread, I wanted to inform you why we publish these articles and what we plan to do to ensure the quality of the articles. Also, I wanted to let you know how you can help in this process.

1. The site does receive a fair number of (silent) visitors interested in some of the more basic content, so that's something we need to cover as well. We tend to cover this on the weekend when fewer deals are announced.

2. These articles can be rather time consuming for me to put together and having someone else cover this content frees up more of my time to deal with other items.

3. We looked at a lot of writers before going with Miranda. She does have extensive experience writing for finance sites.

4. We try to make sure everything is accurate but everyone makes mistakes. Please refrain from bashing and instead point out specific points that are inaccurate in as much detail as possible and we'll either correct them immediately or do a follow up post with more detailed information.

5. We'd love for members of the site to contribute occasional posts. One member sent in our first member submitted post last week on buying muni bonds on the secondary market. If any other regular members have some expertise on an area of banking they'd like to share, we're definitely open to the occasional member submitted post. One-time posts would be unpaid, but we could arrange payments for regular posters. We are not interested in guest posts from other sites at this time, just regular members of DepositAccounts.

KenBDG5,143 posts since
Nov 29, 2009
Rep Points: 116,995

1. Monday, October 4, 2010 - 8:57 AM

Thanks so much, Ken, for your thoughtful response and actions.

I personally have no problems with Miranda's articles. We are all at somewhere of a learning curve in finance. I would further suggest that Ken review the articles before publishing (if you have not already done so).

There are articles that are written by financial experts which contain a lot more horrible errors and misleading remarks; so, the common wisdom is: do not believe everything you read, do due diligence to check the accuracy/motive for any articles, and take everything as just input for your final financial decisions.

I doubt that there are many who are critical about Miranda's writings; just one or two, that seem to remain anonymous. Like Ken said, if you think that you can do a better job, by all means please show us in the open:-)

Congrats to Ken/Partner to manage a great site for friendly and rich finance exchanges!!

51hh1,033 posts since
Jan 16, 2010
Rep Points: 4,731

2. Wednesday, December 29, 2010 - 2:45 PM

I've no problems with other writers contributing to the DepositAccounts.com. AS I mentioned elsewhere, I simply wish that Personal Finance 101 articles, which are really not blog entries, but rather information about banking fundamentals, to have their own section on your site.

To that end, an advanced search function that would allow one to specify the scope of searches, such as the entire site, the blog section, the forum section, and (I hope) the new Personal Finance 101 section. Such advanced search functions are common on other Web sites.

Although the line isn't always clear between a blog entry and an article, with a Personal Finance 101 section (and/or perhaps an Articles section) and with pertinent links in blog entries, combined with a more powerful search function, I think DepositAccounts.com can improve even more.

I appreciate all your efforts Ken, and those of your colleagues. Although I consider FatWallet Finance (FWF) indispensable for discussion of personal finance topics, your site is the best resource for bank deals and information I've seen, and is often used as a springboard for discussions of those deals on FWF.

glxpass38 posts since
May 2, 2010
Rep Points: 238

3. Saturday, April 23, 2011 - 6:37 PM

"extensive experience writing for finance sites" clearly does not mean "extensive experience writing well", or she wouldn't be writing for a site like this. I have found Miranda's posts to be superficial if not flat-out wrong in many basic ways. I have just gotten done marking up her most recent post in red-pencil.

And as I wrote there, and I'll say again here: I suggest you stick to your core mission of tracking banking, which you do very well. Don't branch out into financial planning advice, because it only reflects badly on everything else.