How to Take A Shit
So we now have confirmation of a CE quota system spotted by DSS reader John…
That’s really interesting. I’ve been doing what John does and stay the hell away from the forums, so I can’t really delve into the drama.
I have been noticing that the queues have been REALLY picking up in speed lately. I’ve expect articles to sit around for a few days. I’ve gotten used to it since starting 2 years ago. But, just in the past couple of weeks, articles have really been – to coin a phrase – going through like shit through a goose.
I wonder if they’re cracking up the content-o-meter in light of what might be happening in the fall?
That just makes me wonder if they really thought all of this out, too. ”Let’s see, we’ll assemble a bunch of writers together, pay them shit, make tons of money off their writing without giving anything back, and then hope nobody says anything”.
WE’RE WRITERS!!!
Now, I know there’s been some discussion about what exactly constitutes writing in the comments there, but I think that if you’ve been paid for doing something, you can call yourself that. I had friends that made $10 doing comedy for one night. They got paid for it. They’re a comedian. They might be shitty comedians, but comedians none the less.
I’m just amazed that I was the first person to come up with a site for non Demand Forums Zombified comments. Grrrr….curse those Hub guys for starting their sites before me. I want us to be number one! We are on Yahoo! Whoo-hooo!
On that subject, Bing sucks a**.
@Page1News
“Then you’re doing it wrong. You get the pay you deserve.”
I should just rewrite everyone as you say you do. OK, if that’s what you think editing is. Dude.
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@KT You’re awfully late to the party, dude. Get it in gear, and get with the program. Try reading the forums before making stupid comments on blog posts from the summer of 2010.
“When it takes a half-hour just to figure out what the hell these hacks are trying to say, well, you do the math.”
Then you’re doing it wrong. You get the pay you deserve.
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Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
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If you can’t make 50 cents an hour, then quit and spare us your expertise. A DMS CE calling anyone a hack is like Mr. Christmas Poo calling someone a turd. Pot. Kettle. Black.
If you don’t want it to be that way, why don’t you reject the articles from those who can’t write to save their lives? We all know who they are. Instead of doing that, CEs do random gatekeeping and drive everyone crazy. Reject the hacks and let those who can write, write.
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Flora: From my experience and other CEs I know, the 75/week is not strictly enforced. I wouldn’t sweat it. DS has way too many problems to deal with, and I doubt anyone has time to pay attention to each CE’s tally. Do the best you can; that’s all that you can do. And don’t forget to look at getting a plan B.
Kathy
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Hi all. Flora is not my real name, although it *is* one of my fave names. I’m using it b/c I’m a Demand Studios copy editor, and I’m afraid if DS sees this comment under my real name, they’ll give me the boot. I wouldn’t have feared that before, but now that I’ve read all the horrible things about DS on this website, I’m more wary.
Anyway, can any current or former CEs tell me just how strict DS is about us meeting our 75 article per week quota? I’m a part-time caregiver for a chronically ill family member, and every day is different, so I never know how much time I’ll have for editing and how much time I’ll have to devote to family issues.
Also, I have ADHD and just got a new medication to take for it that I have high hopes will help me, but these things take time, and I must admit my ADHD is another thing that sometimes stands in the way of me being as productive as I could be. So, basically my worry is that if I go for too many weeks without hitting the 75 article mark, that I’ll be put on probation, or even worse will be “let go”.
The truth is, I cannot afford to lose this job, because it’s all I have. Due to the aforementioned part-time caregiving duties, and also the ADHD issues (which I won’t bore y’all with), I really could not accept a full-time on-site job anywhere.
That’s why I’m so grateful I can work from home, on my own terms, whether it’s at noon or at midnight! I’m very experienced & very passionate about copy editing, and when I got my first (and so far only) review from DS, they had lots of specific compliments about my work, which made me very happy. :”> However, I’m still also very worried, because it’s just SO HARD to meet the 75-article quota! I know things will get better for me now that I’m seeing a counselor & getting on a med (no harm in thinking positive, right?) but in the meantime I’m really hoping that I wont’ get automatically fired if I don’t edit at least 75 articles per week.
Thanks for reading this, and hopefully for your replies. :”> Sorry I’m a bit rambling tonight; I’m overtired after hanging out with friends.
“Flora”
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Can you publish those secret guidelines on the site? That would be cool.
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I agree there are issues with DS, but I also know no one forces me to write for the company. The one thing I don’t understand is the crack about Mr. Lally. I’ve dealt with him about a dozen times over the past two months. He took his time to deconstruct my work, so he not only showed me how to earn approval for those articles, but how to avoid queries over those same issues in the future. He also reversed three rejections. Recently, I complained about a copy editor’s belligerent note, and Lally reviewed the comments and suspended the CE for two weeks. I did invite him into the forum on two occasions to help settle two disputes, and he gladly came in and resolved the issues. Afterward, I asked him to visit the threads more often, but the fact is he has multiple duties and is swamped with worked. He receives over 200 emails a day. I’ve received replies from him at 7 am EDT and 11 pm EDT. He apparently is famous for putting in long hours, most of them on behalf of writers. As far as being a joke, the man has written 19 books–according to his bio, and a Google search confirms that–all with major publishers, and a few best-sellers, so he’s clearly anything but a joke. I mean can you match your resume with his. A lot is wrong with Demand, but he’s one of the good guys.
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Good to see you here!
DS forbids writers to know about quidelines? Yes, indeed, DS does suck.
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Hi all! I’m the infamous author of “My Experience Thus far as a CE.” I received a lifetime ban on the forums, all writer and CE groups and the PM messaging system. I sent a request to Eve to delete my CE account, but they refuse to. What part of “You’re fired!” do they not understand? Continuing to show up at the office after being let go … who does that? Anyway, since they won’t delete my account, I’ve been editing on my own terms. I edit the proper way in which I’ve been professional trained, and I send NO rewrites unless I have a MAJOR question. And since my ranting post, I refuse to reject articles unless it’s so bad that I can’t salvage it. I’ve only rejected one, based on not even coming close to what the title was asking for.
In my correspondence with Eve, I approached the topic of cyberbullying in the forums. I was personally attacked by RMattison, Editrix and two community moderators. So I stood up for myself … only to be banned, while the bullies continue their behavior. EVERYONE knows who they are, but Demand Studios loves these contributors, so I doubt the attacks will cease anytime soon. I find it utterly appalling that Demand Media condones and encourages behavior like that.
Since I made that long CE rant post, I just decided to do things my way. If an article needs to be rewritten, rearranged or whatever, I do it myself so that everyone gets paid in a timely manner, even if I have to do some research to get it publishable. That’s just the way I roll. I’ve NEVER had a reporter, writer, columnist or stringer ever complain about my editing.
I continue to write for DS as well. Yes, I make triple what I make as a CE. Because I am privy to all the CE guidelines, including the ones DS forbids writers to know about, I can get my articles approved within minutes of submission.
On another note: I did submit Federal form S-88, which requests that the IRS determine whether a working relationship is “employee-employer” or a 1099 contractor. The CEs have many, many restrictions, reviews and audits. The reason I wanted out of the CE gig was because I no longer felt self-employed. I was more stressed as a DS CE than when I edited on deadline for a major metro daily newspaper. That’s just not right.
Sorry this is so long, but I’ve been dying to find a place where I can share this information without fear.
I’m glad I’m not the only one who sees DS for what it is.
Sincerely,
Page1News
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KW, I think I was one of those arguing FOR proper grammar and spelling in the forums. If it wasn’t on that thread, it was on one much like it.
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Adam, the only obstacle I see to roasting anyone in the DS forums is that Mommy would yank it down so fast, nobody would see it, and you’d get turned over to “Remi” to face those untold horrors.
Ever notice how Mommy constantly invokes “Remi” like a parent, as in, “You just wait ’til Remi gets home!”
I once got embroiled in a heated thread over there about the mechanical errors in forum posts. Another seasoned writer and I contended that, because we consider ourselves writers all the time and we never know who’s going to see something we’ve written because it hangs out there forever on the Web, we try to write correctly in the forum.
Boy, did everybody jump in our shit! They said they didn’t have TIME to write correctly in forums. Sheesh! It’s just a forum, not REAL writing. Why waste all their good grammer and spelling THERE? Haven’t you heard? There’s a RECESSION! The price of commas has gone through the roof, so you can’t just throw them around making things clearer EVERYWHERE!
I asked, “But what if your post is so badly written, nobody understands what you’re trying to say?”
Well, things just deteriorated into such incoherence from that point, the other guy and I quietly tip-toed away.
Some of them think they can actually turn their “Sunday-best” writing on and off like a spigot.
And my guess is that those morons are the same people the CEs hate. And I KNOW that some of those morons are the ones who complain about getting so many rewrites.
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The spelling and grammatical errors in the forum posts by CE’s and/or “top writers” really irrtiates me, too. Not to mention the “My Name is Earl” cast member rejects posting their hearts out. I just read the new comments on this post and cannot believe the $20 pricing for USA Today. You deserve better. And how horrible, again, to reward ‘top writers’ with a fraction of profit because you know some will do it for ‘exposure’. Truly, I hope Goldman Sachs reads this thread regarding the IPO for Demand Studios and realizes what a failure it will be for Goldman Sachs and anyone who buys the IPO for Demand Studios.
I saw some interesting threads regarding Demand Studios having “quotas” and the characterization of an “independent contractor” vs “employee” relationship. There were some extremely valid points. Reading some of the items, I find it more and more likely that DS higher ups have not properly thought out the business plan.
Not to play devil’s advocate, but has anyone considered some sort of, uhm, “group effort” in the DS forums? Nothing overt, of course, but just for some light amusement. Say an RMattison/Mommie roast?
I sound like I’ve been writing for Lifetime. No wait, that pays better.
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i smell, what DS expects of CEs in the time allotted so they can make a decent hourly rate is downright criminal. The only way it works is if they receive clean copy with good, clear references. And we all know that ain’t what they’re getting from most of those yo-yos who claim they’re putting out 1,600-2,000 words an hour.
So I have sympathy for the CEs on that.
But when I submit grammatically correct. typo-free copy with decent references (and tell them exactly WHERE to find what they need) and I go into Track Changes and see that the CE has taken the time to do a TOTAL REWRITE, inserting typos and misspellings, screwing up the commas, and adding factual errors, I go ballistic.
So if DS could ever be trusted to do the right thing, which it can’t, I’d say pay the CEs based on merit. Slash the pay of the fucking idiots who think editing = writing to 50 cents an article. Drive them out that way if you don’t have the balls to fire them for total incompetence.
Then, when the dust settles and we see what the remaining CEs are doing, if it’s reasonable and they’re helping to weed out the deadbeat writers by rejecting all their bona fide shit, give ALL the survivors a raise.
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