RantRave Revenue Share - Follow Your Own Site RulesAccording to the RantRave terms RR should have notified all members two weeks prior to revenue share changes. The only reason that I knew that RR changed the revenue share is because I looked up one of my articles for a reference and saw that my ad colors had changed. I quickly looked up the page source and found that RR had replaced my Adsense ads with their own. I stumbled on the change, but received no notification from RR, Alex Layton's post, or an email.
From RR terms (http://www.rantrave.com/terms.aspx)
It's possible that at some point, in RantRave's sole discretion, RantRave may elect not to maintain the structure described in this document. RantRave may, for example, have to change the percentages or details of the Impression sharing. If RantRave does need to change any significant terms, RantRave will notify You by email, if reasonably practicable, at least two weeks before any such change occurs. At that point, You will have the option of removing Your Rants and Raves from the Service if You choose to stop working with the Impression services under the new structure.
Why were users given no advance notice? I don't see how it was not "reasonably practical" not to notify us, giving users the opportunity to remove their content.
What non-Adsense members, and many Adsense publishers, don't understand is that for Google there is guilt by association. If Google is penalizing RR right now for spam, low quality, etc., and revoking their Google News license then that can potentially hurt the efforts of those who have writing and work on other sites that use Adsense.
RantRave - Please Clarify the Site's Policies and GoalsI don't understand what is going on with RantRave. Alex Layton is the #1 poster in the past seven days, but I don't see many of his posts. I think that members are probably missing critical information and that is hurting the overall site. With RR notifying people using email it is hard to follow.
No other publishing site offers you 100 percent of your page impressions, which translate into advertising dollars. In comparison, HubPages gives its users a 60 percent share, and Squidoo.com only offers a 50 percent share. RantRave relies on donations and search result advertisements for its revenue. When you post on our site, you will get every single page impression on your posts, guaranteed.
Please update the revenue share portion of the site. There actually is another site that offers 100 percent. RantRave also makes money when writers don't sign up for the Adsense program, so that was always a little bit misleading anyhow. Now, RR "only" offers 50% share, too. Members who think Adsense is the devil were only making RR more money by not signing up for it.
I think the post by Alex Layton was misleading to members and only feeds the thought by some that those out to "earn money" are the enemy of this site. I'm quite sure that my articles have brought positive attention and money to RantRave. It is RantRave that used yo-yo revenue share to bring people to the site. When it backfires Alex Layton uses the "get paid to post" as a source of blame, saying it gave the wrong impression and drew the wrong type of members. If this is the case, then was it only recently that RR had the wrong members?
Cutting the revenue share by 50% is drastic. I don't think it's fair to cut it in half when there are many other options, some that I proposed months ago. It is unfortunate that members now feel bad about admitting they used RR to make money. If you wrote original content that delivered quality information then hold your head up. We are not the ones who broke the system.
If this site is going to shift its focus to community then I hope it learns how to foster a positive community that can share opinions without personal attacks. I've been on forums, etc., before, but never encountered such criticism over everything. Members who get off on it are not doing a service to RR. The continual bashing of certain members and the free reign of others is another point of contention, something that must get fixed. In this case, silence is approval.
RR should immediately remove duplicate content because it lowers the site's quality. Members who plagiarize are supposed to get their accounts terminated, so follow through with that, but don't allow a public criticism and let members believe it is a show of accountability. Member criticism does not make anyone accountable for plagiarism. There are proper channels to report plagiarism.
It's ironic that unemployment brought some writers here, some good writers, others who abused the system, and then ultimately the RR site itself uses a form of "layoffs" by cutting the "wages" in half. Just like a corporation, too, as it shifts the blame and allows it to cultivate venom in the community.
The RR admin cannot blame the revenue share program for this mess. The foundation was already crumbling when the Super Bowl spammer hit. The "get paid to post" has been on this site for a long time, so a sudden blame on it does not make sense and it subtly faults members who do use Adsense, when some of those members are very good writers with excellent intentions.
RR is still actively misleading both members and readers by this post under Google News on the home page:
The Google News feed is currently offline. The service should be back up shortly. However, Rants and Raves are still being accepted by Google News.
How can Rants and Raves still get accepted by Google News when the site has been suspended from it?
When admin is absent during times of crisis, exactly what is happening to this site right now, then it reflects poorly on the site as a whole. I'll refrain from further posting until the site enacts some uniform response and course of action, but until then I am not going to contribute to something that I disagree with on a whole at the moment. The site hypocrisy is too much right now. I have already wasted too much time here posting replies that fall on deaf ears.
I liked writing for RR because I thought it was unique. It allowed me a forum to write in a different style. I felt it was quality because of the Google News status. I do write online to earn money, but don't believe I contributed to the low quality that hurt the site. I want to write for a site that has a clear goal in mind. A site that I can trust. Right now, RR is not that site. Some people will read their own interpretation and think it's about money. But, it's not. It's about consistency, forward thinking website "owners" who foster healthy communities and amazing places to write. I hope RR improves that site.