33 responses so far ↓

• 1 Powerpets // Aug 7, 2008 at 12:29 am

  That’s a good start, though I’d like to point out a few things:

  1) *invalid characters* — Since you have a world wide audience, how can you have invalid characters? This is something you can either:
  a) block
  b) Not give points for if detected
  completely automatable on your end

  2) Repeated searches - I often have *repeated searches* to see if
  a) Our site went up on MSN, Google and Yahoo ranks
  b) New websites are up and coming in our category
  – Based on my experience on scour, no points are credited for repeated searches. Since I wasn’t getting points, I didn’t consider this an issue. Seems that point is already dealt with on your end (Though maybe instead of no repeat search in 1 day, you could extend it to not credit points for repeated searches in 30 days)

  * Spam searches: What does that mean?
  If by that you mean searching for Pet Game or Pet Site or Pet Game Site — if that is considered a spam search, perhaps you should program something in to only give point credits on certain keywords. The result for each of those searches is completely different. This means different sponsors show up too. That means you have new revenue — hence, is that still a spam search?

  - Non human search: Don’t understand this one. Do you have an example?
  Often when I search for programming related issues I just put in keywords which aren’t anywhere near English sentences. — I’m still old-school, using search engines based on keywords I think are important, not based on Google’s new *human interpretation search* methods.

  * Repeated comments - I may have written once or twice : Completely unlogical result for this search - or - This is just an advertisement site, no content — Perhaps your program could not give points if a comment is less than xx characters. (BTW: You give out too many points for comments - A lot of your problems may go away if you give 1 point per comment instead of 3)

  * Self Invited Accounts: You may want to give very specific details on this one. Myself and significant other use 1 account on scour. I had requested clarification but stuck to 1 account to avoid issues such as these. However, in the future, There’s no way to differentiate between family members/office workers/school buddies scouring from school’s computers.

  —-

  Overall, very happy with scour, but you may want to consider switching back to Aftervote’s sytem. If ads came up on searches, and they make you money, it earns the searcher money. Keep it simple.
  What you’re trying to do with all this human monitoring and rules that are very open to human interpretation and *guesswork* isn’t going to work (trust me, running a site with over a million players who have been trained to cheat on games through other websites teaches one a lot).
  You’re still in startup mode, not too late to change. But what you’re doing is either going to give you a lot of peeved people, or a big financial loss (either through payouts or through the humongous amounts of funds needed for human reviewers).

  Anyway, good luck! I’ve resent my cashout email as I hadn’t heard back in 5 days.

• 2 Powerpets // Aug 7, 2008 at 12:30 am

  Do we get points for constructive feedback?

• 3 Powerpets // Aug 7, 2008 at 12:40 am

  Just read the guidelines - will assume you still have to add all the points listed above.

  A few additions you may want to consider:
  ** Scour social searchers must be at least 13 years of age.

  You may or may not be aware, COPPA laws enforceable by the FCC state that sites which may attract minors (persons under 13 years of age) should determine a user’s age by requesting their birthday during signup.
  For this purpose, I suggest you request a birthday during signup and when a minor account is detected, the Points feature is disabled, along with any areas where they may be able to enter personally identifiable information or view others comments and/or explicit material.

  ———-

  Do not post incomprehensible words or things in the wrong language.

  – I don’t recall seeing a rule or statement anywhere in TOU stating that Scour is to be used in specific languages only. Hence, what language, other than Klingon, could be a wrong language?

  Not being annoying, just pointing out some things others may have issues with especially as your audience grows. It’s better to clear up stuff like that while you’re still in the kids shoes.

• 4 Mobile Answers // Aug 7, 2008 at 3:44 am

  I believe Powerpets has made a few good points, these are the two that concern me:

  -Repeated searches
  -Invalid words within comments

  I see no reason to void this, it makes no sense, you only get a maximum of 4 points for each unique search. A repeated search is an indication of a user not getting the appropriate results they want - that’s a flaw on your and the aggregated search engines side, not the users. If a user constantly is searching for a term and never gets anywhere - that’s an indication that the relevancy of results is not adequate or up to snuff. Also for those engaged in seo, it strikes me as odd that one wouldn’t be using scour to check their rank as powerpets as implied.

  For Invalid words within comments, could you be more specific. Right now as it stands, this seems more of a way to terminate certain accounts - unicode characters required by certain languages means that those users will not be able to add comments, obviously Scour was built with an English audience in mind, but this may be a concern in future. Also you don’t define what invalid words mean, which means that this could be used as an open clause to terminate accounts for any arbitrary reason - eg: you could define the word ‘and’ as being an invalid word. Obviously I’m not suggesting that you would do this, but recommending that you be more specific to avoid confusion and problems.

  Transparency should be your primary goal, and in defining what is and what is not allowed in a more detailed structure will make it easier for users to trust and use Scour, as well ensure that abusers know what is acceptable and unacceptable use.

• 5 Powerpets // Aug 7, 2008 at 4:48 am

  It’s a vicious circle. I fully understand the reasoning behind the rules, however creating a set of rules that leaves no loopholes for *cheaters* yet enough freedom for fair users to feel comfortable using the service is extremely difficult, if not impossible. We’ve been fine tuning our rules for the past six and a bit years and there still are hiccups.

  @Mobile - Transparency is impossible. If you set out specific rules of what is not accepted, in a clear and precise manner, you are creating a maze of backdoors and loopholes.
  Especially since here’s money involved, you’re going to attract people who try to *game* the service, leading either to more specific rules and more invalid bans or scaring away users.

  I don’t understand why the Aftervote system was changed. You searched, ads came up, you got paid for viewing the ads. If the same ads come up within x period of time, you don’t get paid or get paid less.
  Stick with that system. It works, it’s fairly flawless. Automated programs (scripts) can easily be picked up programatically.
  Add in the voting and commenting system without monetary rewards (but with a top searchers list in categories) and you’re off to the races.

• 6 achmadz // Aug 7, 2008 at 6:07 am

  I’m new at scour(one day member) and have done one of the abuse. I was doing self promotion on my comments.

  Poor me, I didn’t read this guide before..

• 7 nishitosh // Aug 7, 2008 at 7:17 am

  Its really nice to get this guideline primafacie…and hope this system helps welll

• 8 barrettuberalles // Aug 7, 2008 at 8:41 am

  Perhaps there should be a way of informing the user that they are performing a repeated search… there’s no way I can remember every possible search I’ve preformed on here, and it’s highly likely that there will be some repeats. This is not a malicious attempt to get points, simply a limitation of the human brain.

  Also I think there should be some way of indicating how may + and - a result has received. How can anyone be sure that this ranking system is being applied otherwise? In addition, the ratings previously given by that user should be displayed for results which come up in different searches, so the user knows which results they have rated.

  I should also point out to those who are making large volumes of ratings and comments that not all of your ratings and comments generate points. I have submitted a bug report through the feedback section. It may go unnoticed if you are performing loads of searches.

• 9 Mobile Answers // Aug 7, 2008 at 12:04 pm

  Powerpets, transparency doesn’t necessarily mean full disclosure - it merely means giving users enough information on how data is used (eg: search privacy), as well as being more vocal with users, communicating much more readily with them. Right now it’s rather difficult to get in contact with Scour, I don’t know if you’ve tried but a response usually takes at least 2 days. In order to stay competitive, Scour needs to improve tech support, and client relations, as in the future the level of customer support, especially in web platforms and startups, will be imperative if not the critical test of whether it stays afloat or not.

• 10 prasanna // Aug 8, 2008 at 6:14 am

  Repeated search is also my concern.When I search using a set of keyword and get results,I can only open one of the links in the result.If I want to go back the same result set I have to search again or hit back button.
  There are also instances as already mentioned above.
  So repeated search should be allowed.
  Can we give option to open the result link in new window by enabling shift + click?
  Its not working..the link is opened in the same window hence the result set is lost…

• 11 bbrian017 // Aug 8, 2008 at 2:17 pm

  You might want to check this post using Internet Explorer!

  Always check your blog article in all 3 major browsers!

  P.S. The site can’t handle apostrophes when comments it turns to a question mark!

• 12 Vishwajeet Singh // Aug 8, 2008 at 5:08 pm

  I had reported few spam comments but did not got any response as what action scour took against it.
  they still prevail; you can’t force user to follow your guidelines you will have to develop a robust system which can do it for you.
  If somebody spams a comment he will not get prize money but does it end there; you will need to take more proactive actions ; I had lots of expectations from this venture but now I am getting this feeling that it is going to fall prey to spammers and hackers and normal user will suffer for that.

• 13 Dgreat // Aug 8, 2008 at 7:58 pm

  We all must understand that scour is just in the beginning stage. Let’s all help.

  @scour please do not give valid point/s on the searches that are violating the rule. You must give a message box stating why it is not counted as valid. So that we won’t be expecting that the earned points at the upper right corner is true and all valid. And at the end, you will just cut and deduct most of it just for saying that we have violated rules. So, it is better that you must add points (visible at the top right of the page) ONLY to valid searches, votes or comments RIGHT AWAY. Do not put us disappointed when you deduct most of our points at the moment we expect we can have cash out.

• 14 Scour Team // Aug 8, 2008 at 9:11 pm

  @bbrian017: Thanks for pointing that out.

  This post has been cleaned up in IE (good ole copy from MS Word trick).

  Thanks again,
  Scour Team

• 15 কাপালিক // Aug 10, 2008 at 12:17 pm

  I have sent you mail for cashout few days now, but still got no reply! What’s the problem, can you please tell?

  Thnx!

• 16 adshastry // Aug 11, 2008 at 3:15 am

  Hello,
  I’m new at scour. And its good to read this helpful guidelines. I read Powerpets comments and I do agree with him.
  Thanks!

• 17 bbrian017 // Aug 11, 2008 at 3:04 pm

  No problem guys! I hate word press I can’t believe nothing comparable hasn’t come out.. I wonder why Microsoft hasn’t released a blogging platform yet…

• 18 brady2moss2endzone // Aug 11, 2008 at 4:40 pm

  This website rulez!

• 19 scouradmin // Aug 11, 2008 at 11:44 pm

  Dear Scour Community,

  Our apologies for being away for so long! To be frank, we have been a bit overwhelmed with the amount of e-mails we are receiving with invalid cash out requests.

  We realize that there are a lot of legitimate cash outs pending, however due to a surge of invalid cash out requests, we have had to further investigate all Scour accounts that which to cash out, this takes more time and unfortunately all of you who are truly playing by our rules must wait. We truly do apologize for the lag time, but please understand that it is not our intention to make you wait, we want to pay you and you will get your visa rewards card, as long as you followed our guidelines itemized in this blog post.

  We understand there was some confusion as to what were acceptable actions, however if you game the system you will not be paid and your points will be taken away. If you feel your account would more than likely fall under invalid acitvity, you are more than welcome to delete your account and start a new one. We want you to use Scour, just do so in a manner that both Scour and the users can benefit. Please remember that our intentions are to reward Scour users for using our search engine and we really do want to help you accumulate points, but it is not fair to everyone else if you try to cheat the system.

  Sincerely,
  The Scour Team

• 20 Abhinav Mishra // Aug 13, 2008 at 1:02 pm

  OK GUYS UPDATE HERE!!

  I just received my payment of 25 usd through paypal.
  what would be the best option now? get it onto a credit card or a bank account?

• 21 Brijesh Kumar Jain // Aug 13, 2008 at 3:19 pm

  Hi Team,

  Can you please reply to my emails i have sent. My user id is “bkdeep”, Waiting for your response.

  Regards
  Brijesh

• 22 D // Aug 13, 2008 at 9:00 pm

  What should we do if we accidentally review a site twice?

  Also, I am regularly doing research from home for work. Since I install the Scour toolbar, I simply use it instead of Google toolbar and rate the results. I write a review of sites if I feel compelled.

  However, this does lead to me making repeated searches for the same thing. I don’t know about you, but I don’t bookmark or tag every single site I ever search for. So, for example, if I want to look for recipes for dinner tonight I might type into scour “chicken recipes”. Then I try one and really enjoy it. Two weeks later I want to make it again so I go back to my Scour toolbar and type exactly what I did before, “chicken recipes,” knowing that the result will turn up.

  I think the repeated search thing is lame. Obviously if a person searches for X 200 times in an hour, then you have a problem, but all repeated searches will make it worthless for me to use Scour and I would uninstall it. I’d rather make $0 searching, then have to worry about breaking silly rules whenever I need to search.

• 23 scouradmin // Aug 14, 2008 at 5:46 pm

  Hey Everyone,
  Thank you for your continued patience, we re receiving quite a bit of cahs-out requests from users with invalid activity. Please be patient with any questions and requests, we will do our best to get back to you. We currently do not have the resources to provide an explanation of why precisely you were banned, so be sure to follow the rules and you’ll be fine.
  If you have earned your points through any means that violate our user guidelines your account will more than likely be banned.
  Feel free to open a new account if you would like to earn points legitimately.

  Thank you for your continued support!
  The Scour Team

• 24 Abhinav Mishra // Aug 15, 2008 at 11:22 am

  right alex :>

• 25 Zanil Hyder // Aug 15, 2008 at 8:54 pm

  its ok if you don’t give points for repeated searches,but we may have to do repeated searches only only within the 10 min but almost everyday on the samething.

  leave out the points but anything else in addition to that would be too punishing.

• 26 Zanil Hyder // Aug 15, 2008 at 9:08 pm

  can you be more elaborate on this…

  Promotional efforts instructing others on how to game the Scour rewards system (Youtube videos, blog posts etc..)

  is it only game the scour reward system or any promotional effort to popularise scour, or widen the friend network ?

  May i also ask how is it that scour is able to pay people for searches which other search engines are not doing …. or is it just a push marketing to attract people and then invalidate them later on.

  I suggest that it would be better to take away the points for votes and comments, as people may not be aware of your style of comments….

• 27 P Rama Kirshnan // Aug 16, 2008 at 2:15 am

  Hi,
  This is Rama Krishnan. i enjoy more facilities provide by scour. this comments section surly improve the quailty of the section.

• 28 Kinattinkara // Aug 18, 2008 at 7:27 am

  First of all many thanks to Scour team. I’m a new user of this site. I would like to say to you that the results i’m getting for my searches on this page are much better than the results on others. I have read your instructions and rules just now and would like to point out one issue. *The repeated search. I’m doing the search for the same purpose more than one time in a day. That is not to earn the points but because i have to do that. For this, it is not fair to punish me but programming your search engine to exclud such repeated search is the right way. I hope you will take my suggestion in a constructive way.

  I appreciate your efforts to moderate such a site and best wishes

• 29 AMIT KUMR NAIN // Aug 19, 2008 at 11:10 am

  Its good to see that you have clarified all does and don’ts, if nsombody makes mistakes ven after it is probably intentional.

• 30 scouradmin // Aug 20, 2008 at 8:09 pm

  Hey Everyone,
  To address some issues and concerns….we are not ignoring any of you, we are just overwhelmed with the continuous amount of invalid cash out requests ….we are currently reviewing everybody’s accounts…so just hang on in there.

• 31 Nazrul // Aug 21, 2008 at 10:09 am

  Hello,
  I’m new at scour. And its good to read this helpful guidelines. Alaso i think it is very good.
  Thanks!

• 32 Abhinav Mishra // Aug 21, 2008 at 7:21 pm

  lawl
  i knew invalid cashouts were the next big thing.
  and here they are.

• 33 uday desai // Aug 22, 2008 at 2:46 pm

  it seems very good that for searching we get money.