Who would have thought a group for women on Squidoo would be controversial and provoke discussion and argument? That’s what has happened over the last couple of weeks.

Lens of the Day (LOTD) on Squidoo has recently been featuring Rocket Moms lenses for a fixed period (I think it was ten days). Of course, this means people who aren’t RM members stood no chance of making LOTD with any of their lenses.

In one way, I can see their point, particularly as this is the only group on the network that is officially recognised by management.  Maybe we could all say, “fair enough, maybe that isn’t right” but it seems that this was just the tip of an iceberg of resentment against RM. Women with no children argue they can’t join although they are assured they can.

Men obviously can’t join and many argue vociferously that RM provides a platform to present lenses and the RM community are so supportive that visits follow announcements in the forum of new lenses. They are also convinced that members give each other five stars, so helping to improve lens rank, regardless of quality.

All I can say about the last point is that I’ve never given a fellow Rocket Mom five stars if the lens didn’t deserve it. I’ve never given any lens an undeserved number of stars and I use the full range from one to five stars on lenses depending on their quality. I also don’t give any stars at all to some lenses including those made by RMs.

There are plenty of opportunities for Squids to join groups even if these aren’t officially recognised by Squidoo. Many of them are supportive, though, and provide a place to put links to new lenses. Many members of these groups also visit the lenses and give stars and leave comments, if they deserve them.

Megan Casey of Squidoo has announced that Rocket Moms was set up as an experiment and its great success means they intend to start more official groups. When that happens, we shall have to see if the people who shouted the loudest are prepared to join them and play active roles in the groups.

Art and Design Group

I run an Art and Design Group on Squidoo. I clearly set out the criteria for membership right at the top of the page. A lens must have relevant content and not be just copied from Wikipedia and it should be well illustrated.  It mustn’t be just a prolonged plug  for a Clickbank product.

This doesn’t seem difficult to understand but so many people either don’t understand or they don’t bother to read the criteria.

Over the last week I’ve looked at about a dozen lenses that have applied to join the group. Most of them had very little or nothing at all to do with art or design. The lensmasters  must have thought that, because they had some pictures on them, they automatically qualified. Others were just plugging their Zazzle stores where they were selling stuff with designs they had done themselves. In some cases, this would be fair enough. Unfortunately, the ones I’ve seen recently have all been very derivative. They have also done two or three designs, then shown what seems like an endless list of products, all using these same few designs on them.

Having said all that, there are some great lenses in the group. Take a look at this one, Cheryl Craig, Aboriginal Artist to see some great art  by an artist who is descended from the Wiradjuri people in Australia.

Now have a look at these brilliant chess sets, designed and sculpted by Frankie, the lensmaster who has written about them. Then there is The Louvre: Essential, Little Known Tourist Tips which was chosen as Lens of the Day last year. The lensmaster, Margo Arrowsmith, uses her personal experience to give prospective visitors to the Louvre tips for getting the most out of their visit.

There are also several tutorials on different techniques. You can go through step by step instructions on drawing birds complete with detailed feathers using coloured pencils or doing an airbrush drawing of a wolf.

These are just a few of the brilliant lenses in the Art and Design Group. It’s obvious that some people who apply to join, not only do not read the criteria for membership but don’t even bother to check out any of the lenses or they would see that their own were not acceptable.

I’ve spent over an hour today working through lenses that had been submitted for membership of the group. There were some fabulous ones with great information and beautifully illustrated. Many of them are really inspiring.

What is annoying is that people submit their lenses without reading the criteria for acceptance. I specifically say that lenses must have original written content. Even so, earlier in the week somebody submitted several that consisted just of RSS feeds search results and affiliate ads which I rejected. He or she just resubmitted them all with no changes. I wrote and said why I’ve rejected them again.

It’s such a waste of time. Why don’t people read the information? Grrrr.