Out of curiosity, I looked up what other people said in the past about Postloop on the net, mostly from writers.
For the most part, they were happy to get paid for their posts. Some of the complaining was that it wasn't very much pay, but I think that's because they're looking at it as a job instead of helping to form and grow communities while getting some money in return.
Now as for their ratings, there were inconsistencies in how writers were rated. They felt that it was too strict, but as a forum Admin, I wouldn't want garbage on a forum, or even half garbage and know that people were getting paid for it. A big concern was a mid-range rating with a good comment, but no true explanation or example of what would have made it a higher rating.
Not having sites rate the posts was another thing that was brought up in my searches.
Quite a few people had gotten banned with no explanation as to why. My guess is they had more than one account...OR their IP they used was also one used by other writers and there was no way to verify that they were different people. A verification system using ID could be helpful, but people can also be deceptive with that system too.
Copied material was how some people got caught with their attempts to be a writer and were ultimately banned. I agree that copied material shouldn't be allowed and with more people using AI to write, this will be a huge frustration for forum owners/admins who want original/unique thoughts/ideas.
Back to writer ratings... the ability for one site's low rating to bring down a writer's good rating score was detrimental to the hard work the writer had put in. Something to consider.
Other writers complained about the tracking system and I think they would be happy with how more things could be automated today.
I saw on a review this and I'm wondering if it was a poor choice to have this incentive "forever" since once things trickled down from referrer to referrer, too much money can be lost. "W
hen you refer a friend to Postloop, you will receive a 20% bonus for all of the points that your referrals earn through posting or purchasing, forever!"
I'll end with this quote from the Xenforo forum:
The reason why is quite clear: the heart and soul of any forum is the content it contains, and more importantly, the personalities behind said content. With the exception of some solid writers (most of whom are long gone) PostLoop serves up the kind of people you don't want on a forum:
- [I]Writers with little or no knowledge of your forum subject matter, who often post stupid or obvious content. Most won't read any introductory material or the forum rules.[/I]
- [I]Young people with no life experience and limited education.[/I]
- [I]The unemployable, burn-outs, and washed up hacks that are trying to earn less than a dollar an hour on that site.[/I]
- [I]Individuals with very limited English ability. Some are also outright hostile to western nations and will voice that sentiment.[/I]
- [I]Conspiracy kooks, political cranks, and other mentally strange people. (One of the most active members there is a trailer-dwelling conspiracy theorist, for example.)[/I]
- [I]Outright toxic individuals who troll forums for fun and profit.[/I]
- [I]And the inevitable genius that publicly mentions they are posting for money.[/I]
[*][I]... and so much more.[/I]
Even the better posters rarely complete their profiles, will post in an unnatural fashion, and don't genuinely care about the community. In fairness, there is the occasional high quality writer, but they are few and are between, and they burn out fast. The simple economics is that someone willing to only earn 5-8¢ per post isn't going to write the finest material.
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