This Is My Last Thread, Possibly Final Post. The last straw was the removal of edit function.

[Watermonkey 0]

So there has been other things bothering you?

Well now that you mention, there are lots of things bothering me but I'll hold off mentioning the really nasty ones for now. Let's just say I'm glad I'm not posting for Mycents. Too mysterious and secretive. There are no clear parameters explaining exaclty how many words or characters earn a dollar. WTF? Members keep asking for clarity and this is the latest response I saw on the Mycent thread:

 

There is no set amount. The number of myCENTs you will get per post and topic depend on the length and quality of what you have written. A longer post that is written clearly and uses the right BBCodes will earn more than a one-line post with no punctuation or anything. I think the maximum you can earn for any one post is 100 myCENTs ($1) but I am not totally sure on that.

Even the mods don't know for sure. If it?s a question of spammer paranoia then don?t punish long-term members by leaving them in the dark on something so vital to maintaining their accounts. Saying that posts that are ?long and quality? earn more money doesn?t tell me anything. It just leaves the door wide open to speculation and potential abuse of authority. In other words, members are confused and powerless while the Mycents system remains some shadowy overlord you better not piss off if you want to keep your hosting account active. Actual people are sitting on their fat butts somewhere going through each and every post and assigning mycents based on their subjective interpretation of your posts. Can you believe that? That's just stunning to me to find that out.

[anwiii 17]

so that's a reason to leave? GO AWAY! you are concerned about mycent and how we are paid out? Xisto has always been fair whether we know it or not. i have over $250 in credits right now and i am not even concerned with how much i make because i know i will always make more than what i need. you may be a valuable poster, but you lack other things. yea, i would wish there was some pinned topic explaining how much we can actually earn, but there isn't. BOO HOO! trap never scammed anyone and i STILL want to know how you feel cheated where you are gonna post publicly that you are going to leave. my advice to you is to grab your purse. there is nothing personal about how Xisto operates and if you have a problem....just leave.....or post specifically about your personal problems which involves trap's business practices so we can address them.

 

 

Well now that you mention, there are lots of things bothering me but I'll hold off mentioning the really nasty ones for now. Let's just say I'm glad I'm not posting for Mycents. Too mysterious and secretive. There are no clear parameters explaining exaclty how many words or characters earn a dollar. WTF? Members keep asking for clarity and this is the latest response I saw on the Mycent thread:

 

 

Even the mods don't know for sure. If it’s a question of spammer paranoia then don’t punish long-term members by leaving them in the dark on something so vital to maintaining their accounts. Saying that posts that are “long and quality” earn more money doesn’t tell me anything. It just leaves the door wide open to speculation and potential abuse of authority. In other words, members are confused and powerless while the Mycents system remains some shadowy overlord you better not piss off if you want to keep your hosting account active. Actual people are sitting on their fat butts somewhere going through each and every post and assigning mycents based on their subjective interpretation of your posts. Can you believe that? That's just stunning to me to find that out.

[Nameless_ 1]

Well, I suppose you can just assume that Xisto pays out with punctuation, length of posts, and BBcoding. That is what I assume. But really, many paid to post sites don't tell you as well. That is their secret. That is why some people earn more and some people less without even knowing it. I mean, if most Paid to Post sites don't tell you, then does that mean you are going to quit? I think not. To me, I don't think it matters whether Xisto tell you how much you earn anyway. So far, it's taking $10 of me a year for domain purposes, but like anwii, I have nearly $250, and it is more than what I need. Xisto has become more like a place to learn, and a place to get suggestions instead of a place to earn myCENTS. I agree that Xisto may sometimes seem mysterious, but if it works, then it's fine for me. It's no scam. You and I both know that, so I guess we can put our trust in Xisto.Either way... I will try to convince you to stay, but really, they are just words on a screen. It is up to you. But let me tell you this: I will still be sad to see you go.

[mahesh2k 0]

Actual people are sitting on their fat butts somewhere going through each and every post and assigning mycents based on their subjective interpretation of your posts. Can you believe that? That's just stunning to me to find that out.

I doubt this is the case here. MyBB/Vb/SMF have points system MOD based on the number of characters. So with each reply they allocate some points to member replies or threads. This mod is tweaked in IPB(or maybe earlier credits mod) and used to give mycents to members.

I doubt that there are forums that manually allocate points this way for hosting. Not even Xisto can do that. Mycents here update in 10-20 minute time. There are some traffic activity on Xisto and even that period mycents take same 10-20 minute update time. This is because mycent server/script is in sync with xistosupprt billing area.

So in this case your assumption of manual mycent allocation is just another possibility and there is no proof unless admins back on it. I don't want people to get upset with mycents as they are working fine for lot of people and we have secured our hosting plans that way. I wonder if any other hosting service offers such professional support and quality in exchange for paid to post option. Let's not ruin this service with some one-sided assumption.

One point where most of people agree with (and even i'm) is about post editing. I want that option available as well. I often make typos and unless someone quotes me i can't figure out where i was wrong and right in sentences. I'm no editing my posts anyway but still that option is handy when we seriously make some opinion and want to edit our post in future so that some old thread bumpers don't quote on that posts. So i guess we do need "Edit" button back. I don't know how it was damaging mycents or Xisto.

[Nameless_ 1]

I agree with you there mahesh2k. It just got me wondering. Did Opaque did that just because I made the Creative Commons thread and wanted to take down three posts of mine from Xisto? I'm terribly sorry to everyone if it was me that make Opaque did that, but I seriously think that Opaque should really give us the right to delete our own content. Seriously, if Opaque really did that just because of that thread. Then I am really really angry. (angry smiley here. I don't know how to put that in).Grr. I mean. Seriously. I understand if Opaque doesn't want us to edit our posts because of the myCENTS problem. But can't we delete our content? I mean, we'll just get negative mycents and stuff!!! So? It's not like we are getting extra myCENTS from deleting our content!!!GRR.

[Soviet Rathe 1]

I think we should all just chill. The edit feature isn't a big deal to me. but you know Opaque. he's a little slow He is very busy and as you know, he is the ONLY one who edits the forum, so putting that limit on the edit feature was a fast way of fixing the problem until he had a bit more time to deal with it in detail. remember what you're getting from these forums. and remember that you're getting it FREE. so stop %$ and be happy.

 

really... I highly doubt your myCENTs are being manually credited to you. if it was, how would people abuse the system? and that's why the edit feature has been taken away.

I think the reason they can't tell us the exact way myCENTs are credited is because it's able to detect a good quality post on many factors, so there isn't a certain amount it gives.

 

so CHILL, this post goes out to everyone not just WaterMonkey

Edited January 15, 2010 by Soviet Rathe (see edit history)

[truefusion 3]

Well now that you mention, there are lots of things bothering me but I'll hold off mentioning the really nasty ones for now. Let's just say I'm glad I'm not posting for Mycents. Too mysterious and secretive. There are no clear parameters explaining exaclty how many words or characters earn a dollar. WTF? Members keep asking for clarity and this is the latest response I saw on the Mycent thread:

There is really no reason to specify any exact amount. If you want to figure out how much a certain post earned you, you can do the math: keep track of your earning before your post, and subtract it from your new balance after your post when the system passed by your account and made the adjustment. If you do not take the time to do the math, then it can be argued that you really weren't that much interested as anything you have said implies. But you should also note that you will notice a decrease in myCENTs earning the higher your post count gets, therefore making disclosure of any exact amounts unnecessary even more, and therefore requiring more from you. However, obviously there is a limit to how much is reduced, for you can't be earning nothing for posting here. Given that i have over 2000 posts, it should interest me more than anyone below my post count as to when the reducing stops. However, there has been no reason for me to be interested in it, as i am managing quite well with all that is in place.

 

Even the mods don't know for sure. If it’s a question of spammer paranoia then don’t punish long-term members by leaving them in the dark on something so vital to maintaining their accounts. Saying that posts that are “long and quality” earn more money doesn’t tell me anything. It just leaves the door wide open to speculation and potential abuse of authority. In other words, members are confused and powerless while the Mycents system remains some shadowy overlord you better not piss off if you want to keep your hosting account active. Actual people are sitting on their fat butts somewhere going through each and every post and assigning mycents based on their subjective interpretation of your posts. Can you believe that? That's just stunning to me to find that out.

To clarify, and unless i'm mistaken, the maximum earning for any post is $10. Again, disclosure is unnecessary when the users themselves can figure certain things out through observation. Yeah, the amount given is subject to OpaQue's interpretation of what will not only keep members posting, but also not drain Xisto or Xisto out of business. Ever since the system allowed users to "purchase" domain names, a lot of people mostly sign up just for that, but domain names don't pay themselves.

 

Grr. I mean. Seriously. I understand if Opaque doesn't want us to edit our posts because of the myCENTS problem. But can't we delete our content? I mean, we'll just get negative mycents and stuff!!! So? It's not like we are getting extra myCENTS from deleting our content!!!

Assume you started a topic which got over 10 replies from others (which shouldn't be hard, as you have plenty of those already), and those replies contained useful information and were good quality posts. Assume you had the power to delete that topic and therefore did delete it. What happens, therefore? You lose the myCENTs you earned for that topic. But that isn't the problem, for the responses to the topic also get deleted, and now we have members losing income for no valid reason. Likewise, if someone responding to a post of yours in some random topic, and you deleted your post (where your post is not the topic's first post), the person would in turn appear to be talking to you but in a way that appears that they've either posted in the wrong topic or are talking to themselves. That would be awkward.

[Watermonkey 0]

To clarify, and unless i'm mistaken, the maximum earning for any post is $10. Again, disclosure is unnecessary when the users themselves can figure certain things out through observation. Yeah, the amount given is subject to OpaQue's interpretation of what will not only keep members posting, but also not drain Xisto or Xisto out of business. Ever since the system allowed users to "purchase" domain names, a lot of people mostly sign up just for that, but domain names don't pay themselves.

(My point is confirmed: Even the Mods (at least this Mod) don't know the mycents system.)

I'm just going to respond to this because I don't want to get so far out of focus as to be scattered and nonsensical.

Yes. You ARE mistaken, and contradicting yourself all in one paragraph. The max award per post is $1 or 100 "mycents". Figuring things out through observation is what has led the conversation to this point. I know, first hand, that a simple thread starter containing an initial post of fewer than 250 characters, nothing out of the ordinary or earth-shattering, has generated a reward of 100 mycents. I know, from first hand observation, that a single post, such as this one, that is much longer and contains some four or five syllable words generates far less than that. You say the amount given is subject to OpaQue's interpretation... thus completely and totally agreeing with and confirming what I said previously. But to add to what you said, any member whose name appears in RED has this ability. You would be mistaken to put all that awesome power in the hands of one person.

 

There is really no reason to specify any exact amount.

What kind of barter system is this? Time is a commodity. And if I'm trading time for money I need to know what to charge per hour. Is this is official policy or your personal opinion? If the former, then why doesn’t admin just say so in the Mycent thread (or here) instead of letting members knock their heads up against a brick wall? I’ve learned more about Mycents right here in my final thread than the hundred some posts in the Mycents thread. But - if this is just your personal opinion I’ll write it off like I write off everything motivated by blind, unquestioning subservience to imposed hierarchy.

 

If you do not take the time to do the math, then it can be argued that you really weren't that much interested as anything you have said implies.

Any idea who would make that argument? Not any one I respect, I assure you. Since I don’t have a hosted account, I can’t very well do the “math” now can I. You are missing the whole point. I’m not the only one pissed off by this cryptic accounting system and it's only one of many issues leading to my decision to vacate this place.

[truefusion 3]

(My point is confirmed: Even the Mods (at least this Mod) don't know the mycents system.)

(We did, after all, not code the thing.)

 

Yes. You ARE mistaken, and contradicting yourself all in one paragraph. The max award per post is $1 or 100 "mycents".

If that were true, then you'd have to explain how the myCENT counter can enter a "ready" state, which exceeds 100 myCENTs.

 

Figuring things out through observation is what has led the conversation to this point. I know, first hand, that a simple thread starter containing an initial post of fewer than 250 characters, nothing out of the ordinary or earth-shattering, has generated a reward of 100 mycents. I know, from first hand observation, that a single post, such as this one, that is much longer and contains some four or five syllable words generates far less than that.

I did mention that the higher your post count is, the less you earn. But even i with over 2000 posts can earn over 50 myCENTs for big posts. There are some members here who have earned more while having less than 1000 posts than i have with 2000 posts.

 

You say the amount given is subject to OpaQue's interpretation... thus completely and totally agreeing with and confirming what I said previously.

I did say, "yeah." But you have yet to show that the current decision is a bad thing. If you believe it is badly implemented, then how would you implement it? When someone speaks against something, that implies that they feel it can be better, usually following with a suggestion, as wrong implies that there is an opposite good.

 

But to add to what you said, any member whose name appears in RED has this ability.

What ability? Seriously, i couldn't figure out any ability from what you have said.

 

What kind of barter system is this? Time is a commodity. And if I'm trading time for money I need to know what to charge per hour. Is this is official policy or your personal opinion? If the former, then why doesn’t admin just say so in the Mycent thread (or here) instead of letting members knock their heads up against a brick wall? I’ve learned more about Mycents right here in my final thread than the hundred some posts in the Mycents thread. But - if this is just your personal opinion I’ll write it off like I write off everything motivated by blind, unquestioning subservience to imposed hierarchy.

I am not sure what you mean by "what to charge per hour," as you don't charge the system for anything. But if we are going to talk about policy, where is it written that those who sign up to the system are to know the exact amount earned for their posts? Nevertheless, as mentioned, a little basic math is all that is required—hence why you wouldn't expect people to complain about being left in the dark concerning how many myCENTs they earn per post. But it seems odd to only mention how much one earns for a post. Rather, if anyone is going to mention such a thing, it would be more practical to talk about whether or not you feel that how much you did earn was fair for what you posted.

 

You've talked about potential abuse of authority, but the keyword is "potential." Xisto has more to lose than you have with your time. Indeed, you may leave whenever you want and for whatever reason—you haven't signed any contract pinning you down. The system will work the way it was designed to work. People sign up to a service because they want to make use of that service. If they didn't think that the service was good, they will most likely not sign up for the service. But obviously these forums are more than just for obtaining web hosting. If one was not using the service before deciding to leave, then mentioning the service as one of the reasons for leaving seems irrelevant.

 

Any idea who would make that argument? Not any one I respect, I assure you. Since I don’t have a hosted account, I can’t very well do the “math” now can I. You are missing the whole point. I’m not the only one pissed off by this cryptic accounting system and it's only one of many issues leading to my decision to vacate this place.

You are capable of doing the math. You wouldn't be able to do the math if you weren't capable of receiving myCENTs (or if you didn't now how to count); but you're still signed up to the system and therefore still earning myCENTs for posting here—you don't have to first be hosted to earn. Also, i haven't seen anyone else but you complain about not knowing the exact amount earned per post. If there are more like you say there are, then they have been hiding in the shadows. What i have seen, however, are things like, "Why aren't my myCENTs showing up?" "Why are myCENTs still in the 'ready' state?" et cetera, which have been responded to and aren't necessarily complaints.

[Watermonkey 0]

You never answered my question, "TrueFusion". Do the personal opinions you?ve spouted off here represent OFFICIAL xisto policy? If they do, then add this to my growing list of reasons for leaving. If they don?t, then stop wasting my time.

[anwiii 17]

you know, i have had a problem with truefusion for a long time. this is not one of them. he is trying to explain to the best of his knowledge without being subject to the official policy. he is being patient and trying to explain HIS views even if they can be discredited(unlike some of his other posts). i 100% respect truefusions patience right now where i would just hit the delete key on your account.

you say you are going to leave, but you don't. who's the hypocrite? you have a problem? state the specifics so we can address them individually. maybe opaque will give a damn and listen to you if you do

if you can't do that, shut up and leave beccause you voice will be wasted breath while beating around the bush and talking in circles

we may not like eachother personally, but i always loved your posts and i respect what you have to say. even now when i disagree with your choices. you bring a lot to this forum and have a lot to offer it. at the same time, we as well have a lot to offer you and you disrespect. sooo....

what are your personal problems so we can address them. i am sure it's not a 2 year old issue only.....

You never answered my question, "TrueFusion". Do the personal opinions you’ve spouted off here represent OFFICIAL xisto policy? If they do, then add this to my growing list of reasons for leaving. If they don’t, then stop wasting my time.

[Tramposch 1]

tsk. lets not argueGood bye WaterMonkey, its been nice knowing you. Best of luck.

[truefusion 3]

You never answered my question, "TrueFusion". Do the personal opinions you’ve spouted off here represent OFFICIAL xisto policy? If they do, then add this to my growing list of reasons for leaving. If they don’t, then stop wasting my time.

Though i am a moderator, i do not represent Xisto in any way, nor do i work for them. Thankfully, though, i cannot waste your time, as i do not guide your paths.
So you are leaving due to current policy (though i am uncertain of which policy exactly is in question). Could you anyway, therefore, provide some constructive criticism as, say, a parting gift? It is one thing to say, "I am leaving due to how things work around here," and it is another to add, "However, here are some suggestions on how to improve the current system." We already know you want the edit feature back (many people do), so that doesn't need mentioning. However, merely enabling the system doesn't do away with the reason why there is now a 10-minute time limit on editing posts: that it is an attempt to prevent people (spammers) from taking advantage of the system. Charity shouldn't be a waste of anyone's time.

[BuffaloHelp 24]

I too don't understand the ability that I possess. Watermonkey, do you have a problem with me that I have too much power on my hands?The question of exactly how much myCENT is being calculated is up to OpaQue because he wrote it. I don't have the ability to see the code because it's at the backend of the database. I only manage the forum not the root directory. OpaQue would not like to discuss for his personal reason, one of which when I asked he replied that he is selling similar coding to other forums with payment. Therefore he rather not tell me how it is calculated.Is finding out how myCENT is calculated that important? You can ask OpaQue, you know that. :)Since when admins are so hated that members are leaving because of us? That's too bad. I really thought we all were getting along but instead, I find out it was only pretending. I've done my best to support even the closest one to you and this is the thanks I get. I just don't know what to do more. Damned if I do, damned if I don't. It's too bad I don't have the luxury of dishing out like someone. It's hurtful, man. That's just wrong.I don't know why edits are being limited. But some people obviously abused it. OpaQue decided to make it a limited feature. And you're leaving because of this and among other things. You said your peace. I guess that is that.

[rob86 2]

I don't know what the big deal is. As a member here, I've earned $125, which I used to register a domain, and had fun building a real webpage (not some geocities thing) on that domain that didn't cost me anything. I received help from generous members and mods who take the time to reply to my posts about many different things. I talked to a bunch of people about a variety of subjects, learned quite a few interesting things. Who knows, maybe I paid for my domain with my questions alone -- questions that I would have posted on another forum anyway if Trap didn't exit.There are things I wish were different too, I miss the edit button as well, and the theme isn't my favourite, but to be so upset over such minor issues is being overly dramatic. You go to almost any forum on the web and there are always active members and mods, most who post without asking for a cent. We're getting paid for it. How many forums reward you so generously for simply posting? I can't think of a single one out of the dozens I've been on. Seems kind of ridiculous to complain about things like the mystery of mycents.