Just Learned Something New About Bubblews
@bagarad (14283)
Paso Robles, California
August 12, 2015 5:20pm CST
One of the things many of us were upset about after the infamous July, 2014, update was the way it truncated our posts without warning and gutted all extra photos and text that weren't in the first section. We were able to get in for a couple of days to edit and repair, but before we could finish the job they cut off our ability to edit after the first 24 hours, so there was no way to update obsolete posts or explain missing photos and put back missing text.
When policies changed again this June, the edit function came back, so I thought all those things were fixable again. Unfortunately, not really. At some point between the horrible update and the newest update, Bubblews tried to repair all those all posts automatically by putting text back in -- even on those few posts we had fixed before the edit function shut down.
I tried to edit one of those posts today, and wound up having to delete it because Bubblews had added back the old content after I had already done it, making a large portion of the post duplicate material. When I tried to delete the duplication, it did not show in the edit screen, but when I reposted it, the duplication showed up again. So even though we are allowed to edit again, that only works on posts we hadn't repaired ourselves before Bubblews tried to "help" us. Automation is not always a blessing.
I think what I most did not like about Bubblews is that we were treated like children rather than writers. It was assumed we would all cheat because some cheated, so we were all treated like cheaters. That's why they didn't let us edit in the first place after the update. Then they messed things up more when they tried to fix what they had done. The people most hurt were the ones who had worked hardest on their posts to make beautiful photo essays.
Trust works two ways. Bubblews staff didn't trust its writers and then made it hard for us to trust them when they did not keep payment promises and shut down communication with staff.
If you are or were on Bubblews, which was bigger for you -- the payment issue or the trust issue?
22 people like this
18 responses
@owlwings (43910)
• Cambridge, England
13 Aug 15
I knew almost as soon as I joined in May 2013 that their rates were unsustainable. What surprised me was that, apparently, they sailed on oblivious of the fact that they were promising (and paying out) far more than they could have been getting in revenue. I found it difficult to believe that Arvind did not know this all along but, apparently, he is just not a business man and it was clearly either a case of "lets not talk about hard facts" or that they didn't (incredible as it may seem) have a proper accountant!
Anyway, they nearly went bankrupt (and, as far as the members were concerned, that's exactly what they did - declared themselves bankrupt by resetting the accounts to zero. Of course, the reasons they gave were false (mostly). They tried to lay the blame at the door of the plagiarists and cheaters, which was only partly true - they had paid out to a large number of cheaters but that wasn't the reason the company was in dire straits! What that message implied, of course, was that, if you hadn't been paid, it was because you had been suspected of cheating. Coupled with the fact that the new, 'more accessible' support system steadfastly ignored all (or most) queries about outstanding payments, they simply compounded the impression that they were a bunch of smart talking, sneaky people who were incapable of running a business.
Actually, I have quite a bit of respect (and sympathy) for Tyler (and Kevin), who rewrote the whole program from the ground up (although it did, in the process, mess up the old posts and, as you say, made editing them impossible) but Tyler seems to be the one open guy in a bunch of mum-mouthed bunglers.
I can't say which issue is more important for me but the money issue I can understand (though it was handled so incredibly badly that it's hard to believe that the company is still functioning). I think that the rather unhelpful limitations and restrictions on posting and editing and the way they seem to tar all users with the same brush is my biggest dislike.
11 people like this
@bagarad (14283)
• Paso Robles, California
13 Aug 15
@OwlwingsI really thought there was hope when Kevin and Tyler came on the scene, but even from them I got non-answer answers to email questions. I could have lived with lower payments, but just telling people they would not get what they had already earned just wasn't right. One never knows when it will happen again, so it's hard to stay motivated if you need to earn.
1 person likes this
@yukimori (10148)
• United States
13 Aug 15
It was like watching a train wreck in slow motion, really. You know what's coming, but there's no way to prevent it.
What really turned me off of Bubblews (and kept me from joining) was the way the staff interacted with users. There were so many unprofessional comments from the so-called support accounts... and like you said, they just plowed ahead like they were clinging to the hope that it would all work out in the end.
I don't know if the site will ever be able to recover from the effects of bad management.
7 people like this
@Rollo1 (16679)
• Boston, Massachusetts
13 Aug 15
For me, the payment issue and the trust issue are intertwined. But I have stuck with it, even after the New Year's Eve debacle and I have written and encouraged others to write, giving the staff the benefit of the doubt and credit for trying to change and be more open. But the lines of communication are down again and that is the worst part of it. I had hoped that they had learned from the past.
7 people like this
@bagarad (14283)
• Paso Robles, California
13 Aug 15
It seems like they don't know how to learn from the past. I've been too busy to read anything over there for several days, so I don't know what's going on. I haven't tried to communicate with them, but considered it when the editing situation happened. I figured it would be easier to just delete it.
@cynthiann (18602)
• Jamaica
13 Aug 15
It was a mixture of both but definitely the money issue. I just felt exploited and cheated to be honest. I am grateful for what I earned but the whole site just went pear-shaped and I had had enough. So I left.
4 people like this
@allknowing (137589)
• India
13 Aug 15
We were paid much more than what any site would pay for those 400 characters.In the time I was there - February 2014 to August 2014 I earned a pretty good amount almost 50 dollars a week. I still have 34 dollars waiting to be claimed which I know I cannot.
Having said that had they handled this blunder in a professional way none of what we see now would have happened and that included their attitude not to pay attention when complaints were sent about spam, scam or whatever.
I can only say they are immature and they found it too much to handle what came upon them. They were not prepared.
I worry no more - not even wanting to know if one could trust them any more.
3 people like this
@bagarad (14283)
• Paso Robles, California
13 Aug 15
I was one of the first on board, but I found what happened at the end of the year just too difficult to deal with. I spoke my mind, said my piece, responded to Arvind, and I'm still amazed those posts weren't deleted by now. I fully expected to close my account, but delayed so that my friends would understand why I was leaving. Then I kept seeing links to bubbles of friends and I stayed to help them out by reading and commenting on their work. I only started posting a bit again in June as a trial. It has proved useless.
@kevin1877uk (36988)
•
12 Aug 15
So many things happen on Bubblews and they lost the trust of it's members
5 people like this
@sofssu (23662)
•
13 Aug 15
Guilty before even being charged. Trust has never been there right from the start. I had written a post about this in mid 2013. I left because they would randomly delete any post questioning their actions... there never was freedom of expression then.. a whole horde of us left not because we were affected, but on principle. I hoped they had learned from their mistakes.. but it seems they never learn. Its sad; I love that site.
6 people like this
@bagarad (14283)
• Paso Robles, California
13 Aug 15
At first I believed the bit about people not being paid because they had broken the rules. I could see that people were breaking rules. But then some of my friends I knew didn't cheat got hit. Finally I got hit with a missing payment myself. I stayed because even with that missing payment I was making more than on any other site, and the missing payment came at a time when they were working on the site. Now I know that it was really an integrity issue all along.
1 person likes this
@Shellyann36 (11384)
• United States
15 Aug 15
There is a whole list of things that have driven people away from that site. The trust is certainly gone and I doubt that it will ever be back. The pay thing is what gets me the most. Of course I have tried to pull up my old posts and they won't even come up
1 person likes this
@bagarad (14283)
• Paso Robles, California
15 Aug 15
I always wrote my posts in a word processor to paste into the edit box. After the post was published I did two things. First I pasted the link at the bottom of my copy of the post. Then I entered the link into my Bitlinks so that it would easy to search for it and easy to shorten for Twitter. I've removed about a hundred posts since they started letting us do it without payment penalties.
@TexanTornado (5573)
• United States
13 Aug 15
I only joined there May 20th, so I don't know the old ways, and how it was before. I read a lot from the writers, about how good the money was and the cheaters. Just a couple days ago, I was reading how people been waiting 3 months for their payments. I am no where near there and probably never will be, but I have a hard time wanting to work toward it, if they don't keep their word. So yes, it would be trust for me. I try to take people at their word, but seems they aren't keeping theirs.
1 person likes this
@TexanTornado (5573)
• United States
14 Aug 15
@bagarad For me personally, I think if the payout was lower, then it wouldn't be as bad. However as it stands now,do I really want to write non stop to try and reach $50.00 then find out I won't get paid. It was a month in when I realized I wouldn't make money there, so gave up the idea and was enjoying the interaction with a few people there. Now it seems they are leaving. So I been sitting on the fence the last couple of days. Ever since reading the moderators post.
1 person likes this
@bagarad (14283)
• Paso Robles, California
14 Aug 15
@TexanTornado I missed that moderators post. I wonder how I will find it. I think the payout threshold is deliberately high enough so that most people will never reach it before quitting the site.
1 person likes this
@bagarad (14283)
• Paso Robles, California
14 Aug 15
Don't wait too long. It could just disappear without notice someday, like some other sites. Squidoo gave notice. So did Zujava, but it closed earlier than it said it would. HubPages gave notice that we needed to download any of our videos they were hosting if we did not have backups and that we would need to convert video hubs to regular hubs before Oct. 1. I hope they don't move that date closer. I have my videos, but haven't converted yet. Some sites just closed with no warning to writers. I always write offline now and paste into online sites so that I will always have a backup.
@fufurinha (11930)
• Portugal
13 Aug 15
They still owe me more than 200 dollars for last summer. It was awful because I worked there for 2 years and it costed me a lot to see that happening.
1 person likes this
@bagarad (14283)
• Paso Robles, California
13 Aug 15
I really feel for those, who like you, lost so much so unfairly.
@bagarad (14283)
• Paso Robles, California
14 Aug 15
@fufurinha Hurts, doesn't it?
1 person likes this
@fufurinha (11930)
• Portugal
14 Aug 15
@bagarad i try to forget about that money. but sometimes i remember how much they owe me
1 person likes this
@DanieGirl80587 (2713)
• United States
13 Aug 15
Trust issues most definitely. They never responded to any of my questions and my account got suddenly deleted without warning so I never got paid. People tell me they got paid there all the time. Good for them, but I got cheated. Oh well. ;/
1 person likes this
@bagarad (14283)
• Paso Robles, California
13 Aug 15
I was fortunate. I only lost one $25 payment in 2013. I never did find out why or get any response to questions.
@Rosekitty (19368)
• San Marcos, Texas
13 Aug 15
I never made that train ride over there and glad i didn't reading from the posts..
@FourWalls (68902)
• United States
13 Aug 15
I think they're so closely releated that you can't mention one without the other. You can't trust someone who promises to pay you then just wipes your payments off the map as if they never happened. How long would anyone stay at a job where that happened? If I had to pick on over the other, I would say the trust factor is the bigger issue, simply because of HOW they did the nonpayment thing: no prior announcement or warning, then abruptly, on New Year's Eve (when most of the world was either in bed after New Year's Eve or, in the case of the U.S., just getting ready to go out and celebrate and consequentially not the least bit interested in what was happening in the bubble-world), announcing it. Worse, when people protested to the BBB, their accounts were mysteriously deleted for "terms of service violations." I'm just hoping I can get to that $50 redemption level before the place goes under.
1 person likes this
@bagarad (14283)
• Paso Robles, California
13 Aug 15
I've given up with reaching it. I got a penny for three posts in a week and I've a bit over $30 to go to get paid. There's a good chance my Swan Song and my response to Arvind at the beginning of the year, both critical and telling people where I was going, will keep my from getting paid anyway.
Goo luck with cashing out.
@realityspeaks (164)
• India
13 Aug 15
I guess when members on Bubblews stopped receiving their payments, that aspect did breach trust. Every writer or blogger needs a clear perspective on how things will unfold after changes are made on a site. Members did not receive answers to questions they put forth. When that happens, it raises doubts, and members move to greener pastures.
1 person likes this
@bagarad (14283)
• Paso Robles, California
13 Aug 15
People like to know what they can expect before investing their time. People use Facebook knowing they won't be paid and not expecting anything except the fun of interacting and sharing there. When people joined Bubblews they were told they would get paid for writing their worlds. It seemed like a wonderful idea.
They began by raising expectations with higher than sustainable pay. Many of us knew that and wanted to get what we could while it lasted. We knew it couldn't last. What we didn't know was that instead of just announcing they couldn't afford to pay those rates, they would just skip making payments to certain people and blaming it on breaking rules without being specific about which rules were being broken. I guess they couldn't save enough money that way and so all the worse things started to happen. By then trust was gone and now we know there is no assurance writers there will ever get what they have earned.
1 person likes this
@kaazoom (10)
•
13 Aug 15
I used to spend a lot of time on Bubblews but they made so many changes it became impossible to make any money on the site. The communication was really bad too. I'm still a member there but I rarely post anything on there these days. I came across MyLot today while looking on Bubblews, someone had mentioned it. I'll be interested in seeing how this site works and if it's any batter than Bubblews. At least the payment threshold is lower.
1 person likes this
@bagarad (14283)
• Paso Robles, California
13 Aug 15
I've been here for years, except for that two year interval when they weren't paying. I've always been paid what I was owed, and administration is good about communication and responding when mentioned in posts. I don't think you have to worry if you follow the rules. If you make innocent mistakes, they may delete a post or comment, and you will lose earnings from what was deleted. To my knowledge, they've never denied anyone all they earned from the posts that had nothing wrong with them because of a mistake on a single post. If they peg you as a scheming rule breaker trying to manipulate the system or a plagiarizer then they will just delete your account.
