June 26, 2016 at 1:11 pm

Every medication has different side effects. These should be disclosed by the doctor when a drug is prescribed – and again by the pharmacist when it’s dispensed. Both doctor and pharmacist should be on the lookout for contraindications (reasons a person should not take the drug) and for possible interactions with any other medicines the person is taking.

That being said, every patient reacts differently to medicines. Sometimes the only way to know if a medicine will work safely is to try it. This is why often the doctor will only give a small dose at first and then build the dose up gradually. I have had my doctor build the dose for some medicines over the course of 6 months. It’s the safest way to find the right dose.

As patients, it’s also our job to know what our health conditions are and to educate ourselves about the treatments the doctor proposes. The doctor’s role should be more that of the consultant than the boss. It’s up to us to decide if we would like to follow a recommended course of treatment, or if we want to explore other options. We should have very frank communication with the doctor, and be clear that we are the ones to decide. Too many people just do as they are told without ever asking any questions, and often this is when a mistake can slip past them and make them very sick.

June 26, 2016 at 1:01 pm

@peachpurple I use ginger for nausea and stomach upsets. I ate tons of candied ginger when I was pregnant and had morning sickness! Ginger can help with heartburn too.

Eaten in small quantities it’s very safe, but if taken medicinally it can pose a health risk to some people. If you are pregnant, take blood thinners, or have a blood clotting disorder, it’s best to consult a professional before using ginger as a medicine.

June 26, 2016 at 12:34 pm

I also have a pending friend request for support. I think it might be helpful if those requests were accepted, so we can see notifications when there are comments or posts from the staff.

June 26, 2016 at 12:31 pm

I think sometimes it’s just a slip of the finger. It’s especially easy to flag a post or comment when trying to vote up – especially if one is using a mobile device! Glad support took care of it right away, @swalia.

June 26, 2016 at 12:28 pm

I have just under $11 right now. After all the delays, I really haven’t been working too hard to post or interact. There is still a backlog that will create more delays, so I’m taking my time. I have a post almost ready to go. I’ll finish that tomorrow, perhaps. I have a few finishing touches to put on one final post on composing titles, so I may submit that one too.

It’s my birthday, so I’m taking it a bit easy. I will only write when I feel like it. Now it’s time to rest and to watch some OITNB….

June 26, 2016 at 10:15 am

@bestwriter I think it would be best to set up a site status indicator of some kind – which is something I recommended to Bubblews for a long time before they finally did it. The idea is to have somewhere on the site – whether in a sidebar or on a dedicated page – that members can check to see if an issue has already been reported before sending off a support ticket.

This prevents a lot of the wasted resources associated with multiple reports of the same issue. It also allows for a single status update instead of requiring staff to respond to a dozen reports and forum threads separately: “We’re looking for the problem” – “We’ve located the issue and are working on a solution” – “We have a solution and will implement it over the next 3 days” -whatever….

I see a lot of similarities between LB and Bubblews or BlogJob – both of which seemed to have failed because of 1) poor planning; 2) lack of transparency; 3) operating too much out of the fear of the worst-case scenario, and therefore resorting to cutting off user options. This almost always results in the worst case becoming manifest.

Food for thought….

June 25, 2016 at 11:55 pm

I have had mostly positive experiences on LB until recently, but I have to say that the increasing issues have left me doubting the ability of the staff to manage a business of this size. That does not bode well as we get bigger.

Improvements that are needed include increased transparency and quicker, more definitive responses when users report an issue. This is non-negotiable! It is not OK to leave users hanging for days at a time, only to respond, “We’ll look into it.”

The ability to edit/remove posts is important enough that it should be a priority too. I can understand the concern over abuse; but if LB wants us to trust them enough to give them our content to use, they need to trust us not to abuse those features.

June 25, 2016 at 11:38 pm

I think the idea of 24 “working hours” is too ambiguous to have any meaning. There are no business hours posted for the site, so there is no way to know whether there are staffers overseeing the approval of posts 8 hours a day or 24 – or whether they just peek in on the site for a few hours here and there, whenever their other commitments afford them the time.

At this point, I have reason to doubt that posts are being properly monitored before publication. There are too many posts on the site that show evidence of copyright infringement (photos) or improper image credits (crediting a site, rather than the artist who created the image.) There are also posts that are duplicates of content published on other sites, which is apparently still an issue with Google and can result in both sites being penalized. If human monitoring of our posts enters into the approval process, it’s probably pretty hurried.

June 25, 2016 at 11:22 pm

I think it would be great if the admin here would let us know:

1. What the status levels are and what criteria we need to fulfil in order to move from one rank to another;
2. What specific privileges or “options” go with the higher ranks

In my opinion, this site will not see an improvement in the quality of content or the consistency with which good quality posts are produced until users feel as if they can make measurable progress in the short-term. It’s taking too long for posts to publish and too many people are discouraged with their earnings lately. There is also the element of site glitches, and of the admin remaining silent when users are looking for answers.

As an experienced writer, I’m frustrated at the fact that I can’t access many of the important editing/formatting tools WP includes as part of their basic service. I’m frustrated that I can’t go into HTML mode, that I can’t use heading tags in my posts without all the formatting going wonky. I’m even more frustrated at not being able to edit or delete my own posts without asking for staff permission.

Experience with other startup writing sites has taught me to be cautious. And my experiences here tell me there’s good reason to be careful. I’m very careful about the topics I choose to write about here because I haven’t been given any reason to believe my content is safe. If I decide to no longer write on LB, I have no reason to believe removing my copyrighted content will be easy – or that I’ll be able to do it at all.

A site like this has to give users a reason to trust. And right now, there just isn’t enough. If LB wants me to entrust my best writing to them, there needs to be more transparency and more evidence that my content is safe here.

June 24, 2016 at 4:16 pm

@lovern I have the same problem as Grace: each time I clear them, more pop up!

@bestwriter I guess it must be that the popular ones are plagued with even more of these things 😛

June 24, 2016 at 11:57 am

I have very limited knowledge of programming, but from what I could tell it just looked like a glitch in the notification system.

An array is nothing mysterious. It’s an arrangement of data in columns and rows – like a table. In programming, an array is a special variable that can hold more than one piece of data at a time. So nothing to worry about.

I’m sure the tech support people will eventually get these faulty notifications dealt with. In the meantime, I hope they don’t multiply anymore! I now have four of them and they’re starting to interfere with my ability to read the information at the right of the page 🙁

June 23, 2016 at 4:17 pm

@grecy095 I’m very concerned for you, sis! Please believe that you can follow through with the surgery. This is what your body needs, and God will send you the money you need to pay for it.

I will keep you in my thoughts and prayers.

June 23, 2016 at 2:14 pm

@peachpurple Were your payments lower than expected? I had a parenting post at 390 words that paid 15 cents, as expected. My food post was 604 words and earned the expected 22 cents. Both had just a public domain photo for the featured image and no additional graphics.

I’m not sure what your experience is, but between the rates I was paid and what I have seen of the images that should not have published for reasons of quality or legal infractions, I would say nobody at LB is checking on images at all and they are not counted when setting the rate of pay for a post.

June 23, 2016 at 12:56 pm

@bestwriter There is no arguing that images add value to blogs. But seeing as the staff here on LB continue to publish posts that contain both poor-quality (e.g. blurry) images and images that clearly infringe on copyrights (watermarked Shutterstock images, images credited to copyrighted WP blogs, etc.) my guess is the algorithm here doesn’t pay much attention to images.

If we are to go out of our way to add more or better images, it must be in an effort to appeal to human readers and to help boost the SEO of our posts or the site as a whole. The effort won’t see an immediate reward from the site, however.

June 23, 2016 at 12:51 pm

@swalia Try visiting other blogs on similar topics and commenting on them. When you leave a comment you can also leave a link to your blog or to a specific post you’d like to promote. The blog owner will often visit your blog and reciprocate with a comment of her own. You may also get visits from other readers if your comments are thoughtful and stand out from the rest.