So, Microsoft is really mean and nasty?-- in Ciao case
By jfxrsch
@jfxrsch (1041)
China
December 16, 2008 4:08am CST
Since Microsoft bought Ciao, poor writer's earning has been cut twice from $1 to nearly zero. And now, members don't even receive their earning of Nov.
Members hold great expectation when the big Microsoft newly got its hands dirty in this shabby Ciao site. Now, the bubble is broken-- Bill is not really going to pay your bills.
Didn't you hear that Microsoft is mean and nasty?
5 responses
@rosdimy (3926)
• Malaysia
16 Dec 08
Maybe you now understand why many people hate Microsoft Corporation. From the beginning money was the motivation. If I am not mistaken the story went like this. When IBM wanted a DOS Bill said he had one, got the contract and asked for two weeks grace. He went to see a struggling software developer from another town, convinced the guy to relinquish all rights over his DOS for $50,000, modified it a little bit, and licensed it to IBM.
Even if you are using unlicensed MS-DOS but are earning lots of money using it, Microsoft will claim their right to sue you. Compare this with many other software makers who would not chase us if we use a previous version of their current software.
all the best,
rosdimy
rosdimy 1 person likes this
@jfxrsch (1041)
• China
16 Dec 08
Yes, they have been trying their best to squeeze money from majority of the world. They are protected by so called Copy Rights-- and I have many doubt on such a concept. Information and Technics should be free to everybody. If one wish to keep it private, just don't sell it. That simple and easy to protect his precious thing.
By the way, Microsoft is not that successful on its tech itself. Linux is way better than Windows. Microsoft is successful on marketing inside governments. You know, once you throw a slice of money in the governments, for sure you get your way to freedom.
@sirrob (4108)
• Philippines
16 Dec 08
Who said that we don't get our November earnings? I have received 2 payments from Ciao and it's s whooping and substantial amount I got from them. I think you better read around first before making a mean and nasty discussion. Don't make judgment if you don't know everything or know nothing. On the other hand make sure you know the reason/s why the earnings was slashed and eventually removed. Go to the site, check and read reviews and you'll get some reasons why. Are you going to give exceptional to a review when you read nothing but garbage and crap? Think about that if you are the admin of the site.
@jfxrsch (1041)
• China
17 Dec 08
This discussion started before Ciao sent payment of Nov.. Congrats, you've got paid!
I checked and read, my finding is- Ciao pays cents to jobless people for their typing job, type whatever garbage they can work out. And Ciao call them "Shopping Experts". Cioa has built a large number of member base this way. Ciao never work on quality control. In another words, quality control hasn't ever been Ciao's concern. They need a certain number of user base so that they can sell the site high.
Or, maybe we should say, Microsoft got cheated?
@sirrob (4108)
• Philippines
18 Dec 08
I believe not. You started this and I checked the time when it was posted and it is just hours after I got my payment from Ciao. That's why I have made such reactions because of that situation. You must have to remember the time difference and have put that in our mind that your time is different from Ciao time.
On the other hand, I have respected your opinion based on what you have seen. And you really think Microsoft would do that for business investment?
@echomonster (2226)
• Greenwood, Mississippi
17 Dec 08
Microsoft has always been in the business of making money. Still, I'm not sure we can blame the changes at Ciao totally on Microsoft's business practices. I think the $1 per review (which was always termed a PROMOTION) was there to help the site grow because a review site without reviews is useless. Even if Microsoft hadn't bought Ciao, I don't think the $1 per review could have stayed...no other review site has any offer even close to being as good (it's quite difficult to receive Review Stream's $2 per review so most accept its bulk pay rate). Shared Reviews couldn't even afford to pay revenue sharing for its reviews. I would've liked Ciao to keep the $1 bonus, but I don't think it could have done so and still remained a profitable site.
@jfxrsch (1041)
• China
17 Dec 08
$1 or $0.01 per review is not enough to judge the quality of article. Since you mentioned Review Stream and Shared Reviews, you know how the other sites control the quality. Good writers get their reward. Bad writers get cents. That's fair.
In Ciao case, quality hasn't ever been their concern. As you said, $1 was there to help the site grow-- at that moment they were working on selling site to Microsoft. They need number of "Shopping Experts", in most site selling cases, number of users is clearly priced in the site value.
Now, the site is successfully sold. $1 is removed. Does it mean quality control? Think twice.
@tulipstrader (1467)
• India
16 Dec 08
hey man, i just got paid about 40 minutes back. but going forward there is no hope of earning from ciao. the doors to earning from ciao may not be the same. the new premium fund is not a good concept. 5 guys get $20 and the rest 795 will get a measly $2.37 each.
@sirrob (4108)
• Philippines
16 Dec 08
If you are just making quality reviews then in the end you'll be rewarded. Take it into consideration my 4 reviews from November, I was able to get and received $2 with just those reviews alone. More to that is that, I am not a good writer at all but I know what I am doing.
@jfxrsch (1041)
• China
17 Dec 08
No, I publish my articles on Helium and Associate Content for $20 to $150 per article(there are higher price but this is the price range I received so far).
I only paste on Ciao those ones that failed to sell.- I don't even think Ciao pays 10% of what those one deserve.
