May 23, 2016 at 9:32 am

@rapidblue You point out that the app rates both fairly good texts and really rotten ones the same. I mentioned that a really excellent text was dinged for so-called “over-used words” and none of these seemed to be egregious at all. What I am saying is that a computer app isn’t an English teacher or an editor (nor is the human moderator employed by some sites, by the way!)

As a native English speaker, I would recommend that non-English speakers place their primary emphasis on writing shorter, more straight forward sentences and on ensuring proper subject-verb agreement. The most common errors I see from my blogging friends (often even from native English speakers too) are difficult sentences that lead to incorrect punctuation, lack of agreement between the subject and verb, and a myriad of other errors in grammar and mechanics. Most of these issues are resolved with shorter sentences 🙂

If you like to have some sort of a check, I do suggest Hemingway because it’s visual and it allows you to correct and re-check the text. It doesn’t pick on diction so much, and wants you to make a text that people with a lower reading level will understand.

May 22, 2016 at 9:46 am

I also wanted to add that often the very complaints that one rater will have are the things another rater favours. For example, paperrater.com is downgrading ratings based on “over-used” phrases and giving better grades when the author chooses academic vocabulary instead. But the Hemingway app cited the same text for too many difficult sentences, and gave it a readability score of grade 12 – which is “OK” but not ideal.

Rating systems that use the Flesch-Kincaid levels would put a grade 12 score as “fairly difficult.” They recommend writing for an average of 13-15 year-old reading skill at most, or a person with no better than a grade 9 reading level. So a paper with a grade 12 level would fail on that account!

May 22, 2016 at 9:31 am

Something to keep in mind about ratings from computer software is that they are limited, just the same as translation software is. As an example, I submitted Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech to paperrater.com and he got dinged for not having enough transitional phrases, and for using “bad” phrases the software deemed to be “over-used or distasteful.” The words they cited were: “bad, make, am, happy, many, see, old, go, we, great, end, And so, some, you, like, take, well, New, so, is, are, But, was, give” – “sorted by most egregious first,” don’t you know!

An article from Forbes was given an A, despite having been cited for numerous spelling and grammar errors, lack of transitional phrases, and a lot of  “bad phrases.” Mind you, the web site explains that the rating isn’t a complete picture of your writing ability:

The grade above is NOT complete! We do not actually use a crystal ball to generate your grade. Instead, this grade takes into account spelling, grammar, word choice, style, vocabulary, and more; but it does NOT examine the meaning of your words, how your ideas are structured, or how well your arguments are supported. We should also mention that our automated grader doesn’t always get things right. So, please consider this grade to be one facet of your paper’s overall grade…

May 22, 2016 at 8:57 am

@kaka135 Thanks so much for clarifying that! I’d missed the earlier posts & hadn’t noticed the “UK” in your earlier comment.

May 22, 2016 at 2:37 am

@kaka135 No, they only accept writers located in the US.

May 21, 2016 at 1:47 am

@rapidblue I wasn’t aware any revenue sharing sites were still using that type of content moderation (I hesitate to call it editing because even on the sites that paid really well back in the day, the so-called editors were not trained and sometimes had less grasp of the English language than the writers whose content they were reviewing.)

I do think when it comes to improving grammar and mechanics for non-native writers, an editor/content moderator could be helpful. I am not sure it would be cost-effective, though. Many of the issues with content on sites like this are of a much more global nature, such that you’d really want a proper editor or maybe even an SEO specialist to look into it. I think if a site had a budget for just one staffer with such expertise, the mentoring would probably pay off.

May 21, 2016 at 1:38 am

@sunil I’d write for Textbroker too, but they only accept US writers 🙁

May 21, 2016 at 1:28 am

@peachpurple I think those rumours must be common in some parts of the world. I don’t think I’ve ever heard it here, but I’ve heard quite a number of folks from Asia say that cold drinks make the cramps worse.

@melissa1024 I used to use the heating pad, but I dislike having to be tied down to the electrical outlet. Also, I find the heat from an electric pad is not as natural, and it doesn’t soothe as well as a heated rice bag or a hot water bottle does.

May 21, 2016 at 1:25 am

@morgoodie I like that you embrace the possibility of something beyond what we already know. I tend to take the same spirit, but I apply it to the familiar things in life. There’s so much that we take for granted!

May 21, 2016 at 1:23 am

@kaka135 Where we live now, everybody speaks English and very few speak French or a third language. When we lived in Montreal, we needed French to get by. The children had difficulty to learn because of their disabilities. They were also very shy, so it was tough for them to make friends with the kids in the neighbourhood. Had they been more outgoing, I think it wouldn’t have mattered so much.

May 20, 2016 at 9:54 pm

I agree @rapidblue, the publication schedule here leaves something to be desired. As a writer, I find it long to wait a day for my posts to be published, and as a reader I dislike waiting through the dry spells for new content and then being inundated by a dozen new posts or more all at once. I’m sure that a more constant flow of new content would benefit the site, both from the point of view of human readers and search engines.

I really have no idea what the post approval process involves, and I wonder how much of it is (or could be) automated. I know that the post length is checked, and as I haven’t seen any spammy posts or overt plagiarism, I can surmise that posts are filtered for these.

But as I have seen posts with copyrighted images that bear a watermark, and at least one post that used a copyrighted image from a current news story, I must assume that the staff either aren’t checking for copyright violations in the images or do not have the expertise required to perform the task. In all cases, I’m sure the user meant well and simply didn’t know the image was not theirs to use. But it’s still copyright infringement.

On some sites the staff will set all posts for moderation initially, but then approve trusted authors to publish directly without going through the moderation queue. I would think this could be a good option for LiteracyBase, especially if the site intends to grow without the need to increase staffing significantly. Now is the time to decide on very clear editorial guidelines, and to set policy on which users should be moderated and under what circumstances. Checking each and every post manually will not be feasible as the site grows, and insisting on maintaining 100% moderation will likely prevent that growth from happening.

May 20, 2016 at 9:43 pm

@rapidblue I understand where you are coming from, but you do come on strong with your analyses my friend! Honestly, I appreciate that you are such a watchdog when it comes to new sites. It’s refreshing in contrast to all those who simply jump on any available bandwagon, or who join and lurk while they watch others take the risks until they feel the site has proven itself.

May 20, 2016 at 9:12 pm

@rapidblue It’s good to see your opinion of the site has improved! This is why I always try to withhold judgment in the beginning. Some things may make us uncomfortable – and certainly we all like to see more transparency about certain things like the identity of a site owner. But ultimately as long as the site is running smoothly and paying for user contributions, most of us will be happy with that.

We have a couple more weeks before we’ll see how many will cash out by month’s end, and how many will be paid. Let’s hope the numbers are good, on both counts!

May 20, 2016 at 9:06 pm

I can’t find any pattern to how many posts are published or how often, but I generally only submit one post every day or two. I’ve been trying to find time for more, so maybe I will see more of a pattern then.

It does seem as though a lot of new posts show up all at once, though, and then nothing for many hours or even upwards of a day. That suggests the staff are approving a lot of posts in a batch, and then focusing on other work before they return to approve the next batch.

May 20, 2016 at 9:03 pm

@sunil You do not earn a penny per visitor referral. Rather it’s a tenth of a penny, so that each ten visitors will earn you a cent.

The notification you should see in the history is: “Coins for referring a visitor.” It’s followed by a visitor number and an IP address. The amount credited each time is $0.0010 – one tenth of a cent.

@peachpurple Have your member referrals published any posts? One would think if they had, and if the posts earned at least a nickel, that you would receive half a penny commission or better for each one.

I know who some of my referrals are. One has so far not been active on the site, and has only added a few friends. I am guessing she’s busy elsewhere at the moment and hasn’t had time to get settled in yet. Another has no activity except for a few “hello” messages and one really brief comment in response to a forum post. There are two others, but one I cannot find on the site right now, and I can’t remember who the fourth was at the moment.

I know I did receive the referral bonus for two of the four new users, but I believe it is missing for the first two. I’m not sure if it’s because the staff added that bonus when they saw many of the referred users weren’t earning commissions. Perhaps they wanted to encourage us?

If we wanted to test the commissions, it would be good to ask the users who referred very active members. I signed up under @sandyks, for example. She should be receiving some decent commissions, if the 10% is being rewarded for forum participation and posts.