In the latest controversial move from Jason Calacanis, he has decided not to pay his writers the cash they agreed to work for.
For the past year, we have experimented with a writer-compensation method that shared revenue from our pages. While the revenue sharing system seemed entrepreneurial and fair in theory, after careful examination including getting your feedback, we’ve concluded that it failed in practice.
This is leaving a lot of writers in the position of having spent a lot of time researching topics to write about, to quite rightfully take advantage of the revenue sharing system that was in place. Now all these writers have been screwed out of this by Jason Calacanis.
The following quote by Mahalo writer “Informaticus” sums it up perfectly:
I do enjoy writing, but I don’t have the luxury of writing just for the sake of writing. I have to use it for income to support myself, and when the site is making money off my writing, I want to be paid as well. The decision to write an article is based on the upfront payment as well as the anticipated rev-share. $M 7 for an article that takes just 1.5 hours (a low estimate for me) to research, write, come up with links, videos, inlinks, etc, etc breaks down to just $3.5/hour (USD).
I simply couldn’t justify writing for that level of compensation; the only way I could justify the work I did was with the anticipation of recurring rev-share income. That was part of my agreement when I wrote, and I assume that was the case for a lot of writers. Now, you say you won’t offer rev-share, even on pages already written. How is that fair? That’s like agreeing to pay a writer $10, having them write the article, use it and then tell them you’ve changed your mind and will only be paying them $4, even though they have lived up to all expectations. There is nothing fair about that.
Its hard to argue with anything Informaticus has to say. Its an absolutely shocking way to treat the people who have effectively built the site. Anyone who treats their staff like that should be embarrassed. If I had to guess, he won’t be though. Since underhand tactics and lies are what he’s used to. Even although he’s consistently being caught, it appears to continue with Google unwilling or unable to do anything about it.
To make matters worse, Mahalo are changing the payments system. Currently writers are paid in “Mahalo dollars”. Now there is a deadline to cash these out, with a minimum cash out of $150. Don’t have $150? Too bad, but thanks for the free content though!
Lets go back to Informaticus again:
2. Cash-out. For those of us that don’t meet the minimum (I’ll be at $M120 after this latest task), you’re further telling us you won’t pay them at all, except for some special considerations or for products and services that allow Mahalo to re-absorb some of that money. For example, a $25 gift card that costs the purchaser $33 or Q&A that keeps the money strictly in the Mahalo world. I need money to pay bills, not buy gift cards or offer away my hard earned money. Again, there is nothing fair about this.
So that shows you what Jason thinks of the Mahalo staff, then he’s willing to stiff them all out of hard earned money.
But hey, not like all this stolen money didn’t go to good use. Here’s Jason blowing $130k of your hard earned Mahalo dollars, in good old fashioned “real” currency on the Poker tables.
{ 1 trackback }
{ 43 comments… read them below or add one }
Did the writers not have any sort of written contract?
I’ve no idea, maybe a Mahalo writer can enlighten us. I don’t have written contracts with any of my own writers. I just assumed it would be a given that everyone would pay their workers what they had agreed to pay them, rather than use a “perhaps legal, but completely immoral” way out.
Yeah see, that’s the exact reason for a contract. You typically don’t need one until someone decides to screw you. [sigh]
Which is why you always need one for any work you might do.
This is false.
We own the content we buy from our writers–but we release it under Creative Commons Attribution. This is, ironically given the name of this blog, for SEO and promotional reasons.
Anyone can take our content and evolve it provided we get a nice juicy, followed link back.
How can you say you bought the content, when you agreed one price for it, then refused to pay it?
@Jason, are you denying the claims made by the writer? Did you or did you not promise the writers revenue sharing and then revoke it after the fact?
Just realised you posted this on Twitter Jason:
@lelandf and think about it for second.. it’s a loser SEO making the claims vs. someone who has 1,000+ writers who have worked for him
Since I don’t use Twitter, I’ll respond here.
The number of writers you have is totally irrelevant to the point I am making. Sure, I have < 10 writers but I’ve never screwed any of them. Every single one of them has been paid every cent they’ve been promised, can you say the same?
We did not screw our writers. We changed our business model from revenue sharing to paying writers a flat rate.
We did this because 19/20 writers voted in favor of getting paid a flat rate over revenue sharing. I wanted revenue sharing to work, and we tried for a year, but the fact was only a small number of users (that you could count on one hand) ever did well in revenue sharing. Mahalo will be spending more money than ever, just average out across a larger number of users.
Yes, everyone will be paid what they earned in revenue sharing up until the end of this month. We would never screw our writers… however, we do reserve the right to change how we pay folks.
No one was screwed and the facts in this article are completely false.
“Yes, everyone will be paid what they earned in revenue sharing up until the end of this month. ”
“No one was screwed and the facts in this article are completely false.”
You can’t have both of these. Which is true?
The writer I quoted in the original post has specifically taken on writing jobs on the expectation to get paid an ongoing revenue share. Paying him/her till the end of the month only doesn’t cut it. You’ve stolen any money from July onwards from them.
@Jason, despite your claims that people are spreading lies, you have only provided more support to the allegations.
You had an agreement to pay writers recurring income based on revenue share. Once they created enough content for your site, you decided to arbitrarily end revenue sharing for that work.
I’m sorry, but that’s exactly what the allegations against you and Mahalo are claiming and you seem to be admitting that is what you did!
Maybe you’re having trouble relating. Let me help.
You recently complained about TechCrunch kicking you to the curb so that Arrington didn’t have to pay you a percentage of the sale. Well imagine if you were still owed that percentage, but Arrington told you to go pound sand?
Get the picture?
You lured writers in with the promise of recurring income, and you’re now renegotiating the agreement without allowing them to reject the new terms and take their content elsewhere.
I’m not sure what the legal ramifications of that would be, but you’re most definitely screwing the writers and as far as I’m concerned you’re a thief.
It doesn’t matter if 99/100 of the writers wanted this change, that 1/100 should have the option to either continue on the revenue sharing path, accept a one time payout, or take their content elsewhere.
His only real argument is “its lies”. Even when all the proof is laid out in front of him.
“@Skitzzo those claims are not true and are by one person who is upset we changed models.”
This is bullshit, as he well knows. Then in that link he posts as “the truth”, there is an admission that Mahalo are in fact stealing the revenue share part of the payment.
I think at this point, Jason genuinely believes his own nonsense. He’s delusional.
We were very clear from the start that revenue sharing was an experiment–as were Mahalo Dollars–and that we could at any time change the way we paid people.
In the Arrington/TechCrunch50 case we agreed to part under the terms of our partnership. I would have rather kept going, but I realized that it wasn’t just my choice–both parties have to agree. So, I might not be happy about it but that doesn’t mean it’s not Mike’s choice to move on to what’s better for TechCrunch.
The same thing is true with Mahalo and a small number of writers who would rather we keep doing revenue sharing. They might want us to keep going, but we don’t want to. They are free to move on to other sites and we are free to move on to other writers.
You are not free to lie about the situation and say we are stealing from anyone… that’s called slander.
Anyone notice the scumbag statistical technique Jason is using?
Sure 19 out of 20 people are under-performers…that is how anything is online where it is free and easy to join. I would imagine that 17 or 18 out of those 20 also wrote 5 articles or less each.
Notice how Jason says you can evolve his content as long as he can get a nice juice text link back?
Well notice that…
1.) Jason slaps nofollow on the link when he uses attribution when he borrows / steals your content
2.) Jason didn’t provide these writers followed links for their efforts. And the people who complained about his shady business practices not only got 0 links, but numerous of them saw their complaints AND THEIR ACCOUNTS deleted.
Jason. Lets talk facts. You whined publicly that Mike from TechCrunch wasn’t loyal, but how many times now have you fired off your editorial staff?
You are a true shitbag.
And I am just glad the world is waking up to it.
Question: Mahalo had a particular business model setup, it didn’t work out, the company went with a new one, one that levels the playing field between all writers, and somehow, you guys suggest that Mahalo should have contacted all the writers before hand to get consent to do so?
There was no contract, so either we educate these freelance writers who partake in what I can only dub spec work (or as close to) or ban imbeciles that run around with pitch forks the second a company providing THEM with a source of income, changes it’s game a little and makes a few adjustment, that essentially, work for the benefit of the majority.
Had it been stated, that the TOS or general business model, or whatever you want to call it could not be changed prior to all the writers agreeing on it, then I’d say everyone has something to rant and rave about, that’s not the case though, or am I missing something?
Okay.. So Jason.. why not continue to pay profit sharing that you agreed to for those individuals that currently have been working that way. And from this point forward change it to flat rate for all future articles? That would be a changing your business model AND making right on what you said you would do. Also if one is chaning a business plan to eliminate $M then shouldn’t you cash out their accounts regardless of the balance?
Maybe you should do whats right morally and spend a few more bucks vs telling everyone to go pound sand. I think your ego has clouded your judgment of what’s right and wrong.
PS.. I love how you went all out on pocket kings.. next time give your employees a bonus instead of getting owned at the tables.
@Jason Actually, it’s not slander by definition, and, last I checked it is a constitutional right to express one’s views and beliefs, even representing them as fact. Rather than argue about semantics, which you clearly know nothing of (much like calculating pot odds) – why not propose a solution(s) that might mitigate your risk (legal, PR, and otherwise). It would appear that you are more interested in proving that you are not wrong vs handling the situation and responding in a manne that encourage others to have faith in your character. Justifying your actions simply exacerbates your predicament.
Quick question Jason: what about the writers that didn’t meet your initial and then changed (higher) payout minimum? Will all writers be paid in real cash the full balance that is owed to them? Not mahalo money, real dollars. Say someone wrote enough content for you to earn $100, since your minimum is now at $150…and they no longer have the ability to earn more (since you pulled the rev share and only a select few will now be able to earn real dollars writing pages for you)…how will they ever reach your minimum payout (I believe I read it was initially $40 but was pushed up to $150).
Are you saying you will pay each and every member the full balance owed to them, even if it’s say $50 and even if they haven’t reached your new higher minimum payout? Unless chosen for one of the few paid guide slots, the majority of members will have no earning opportunities to meet your high minimum. How will these majority of members ever get their money that they earned writing for you?
“You are not free to lie about the situation and say we are stealing from anyone… that’s called slander.”
It is written down, that is called defamation. I think I can see why you were having a few problems with your business models.
It’s only slander if it is spoken and untrue. When it’s written and untrue, it’s called libel. The words written on this site are neither slander nor libel, and subsequent legal threats better damn well be followed up with a letter from a lawyer, or you are just trying to be the big scary internet meanie.
If you didn’t specify and end date or terms for which the revenue share could be terminated in advance of the licensing of the content (if you are paying revenue share, it really is a license on the content, identical to the royalties and residuals paid to actors, actresses, and musicians when their content is played), then the term for which the content was licensed is either “as long as the content is available on Mahalo, it’s subsidiaries, or it’s owners” or “as long as the author of the content accepts payments for it to be included on Maholo, it’s subsidiaries, or it’s owners”. Why? It’s called a contract, and more specifically, a content license contract.
The existence of a) recurring revenue share payments, aka royalties, 2) your historic payment of them, and c) your statement that you would continue to pay them (if only for a short term), means that you and your writers have entered into a contract. Further, because neither you nor your writers were performing illegal acts in the execution of the contracts, makes the contracts enforceable by a court if you are found to be in breach of contract.
If you have a copy of the agreement that was agreed to by the writers, you may be able to clear your name. However, claiming that people are telling lies and making claims of “slander [sic]” will never do so, and isn’t helping your company image.
@Jason: You are, as you are already aware, scum.
@Everyone else: Why are you all trying to convince him he’s shafting these people? He knows damned well already, he just doesn’t care. There’s money to be made, and smarm goes a long way in protecting yourself from negative PR.
I have to defend Jason here. He actually does good work for entrepreneurs like Open Angel Forum and I don’t think it’s cool to call someone names. I do agree that this change does sounds questionable.
So, Jason, what about all the pages you stole from people before you changed your business model? You let your VMs steal pages from people without even following your own page revocation process that was outlined in your TOS.
Also, Jason, what did the phrase, “You own your content” mean in the TOS? You keep saying that everyone is lying and that you did not steal the content. But then why was this phrase in the original TOS, and if it doesn’t mean what it says, then why did you have it to read, “All content . . . becomes the intellectual property of Mahalo”?
And why do you ban the accounts of people who speak out against the hypocrisy and mistreatment? You banned my account when I publicly complained about my page being revoked, and also denied paying me for work already done. You then stole all of my pages and redistributed them to other people. Am I lying?
The reason that people are so upset about all of this is because we loved Mahalo. I spent an enormous amount of time on Mahalo and enjoyed every moment of it, up until pages started getting revoked. None of us want Mahalo or you to fail, and that is why this is so hard on us all. We don’t want to hate you/Mahalo, but how can we feel any differently?
http://mahaloreview.blogspot.com/
Oops, meant to say “change it to read” not “have it to read” in 2nd paragraph of my last post.
Krystyne,
The way the old system worked is that VMs (vertical managers) managed the pages by PM (page managers). You didn’t like that, we heard you pitch as to why and we decided to go with our model anyway.
The revenue sharing model had its virtues, but appealing to a large number of people and fairly distributing revenue based on effort were not among them. It was my idea to do revenue sharing, so it was very hard for me to give up on it–in fact it took months for the community and my team to convince me. I would have loved to keep trying or another year, but that fact was page creation leveled off because we couldn’t get new folks to buy into the system.
The reality is, as much as we would like to appeal to everyone, we can’t do that. 95%+ of freelancers want a flat rate and to get paid every two weeks. We looked at that, and the success and happiness of About.com’s Guide program, and concluded we were fighting a losing battle trying to convert those folks to Mahalo Page Managers.
There are two types of data on Mahalo and you’re reading the TOS wrong. Let me explain:
1. Mahalo Answers/Community content: This content is like content on Yahoo Answers or this blog. You own that content, but you grant a licenses for all-time to the service to present it. All service have to have language like this to protect themselves from someone who starts a discussion and then says “i don’t want my content on there.” This is fairly obvious I think.
2. Content we pay for–like a how to article. This content we like to own because we are paying for it up front in Mahalo Tasks. However, we take that content and we put it out under Creative Commons licenses. So, we own and then we give it away with certain restrictions.
We generally revoke someone’s account in the case of them harassing other individuals, cheating or for creating a massive disturbance (i.e. posting the same duplicate thread over and over again, cutting an pasting a complaint to 100 unrelated threads, etc). I’m not sure about your specific case, but if you want to review it with the team we an do that.
At the end of the day, we now have five people fighting it out for each of the 60 first Guide Spots. We were begging 20 folks to take one slot perviously… so that market has spoken.
Nothing stops you, or the author of this blog, from creating their own competitor to Mahalo with your vision of how things should work. If our model is terrible we will fail, and if your model is better you will crush us.
I suggest the handful of folks who disagree with our vision step up and show us how it’s done! It really is wasted energy to tell us every little thing you perceive we are doing wrong. Why not get in the game and build something better?
It will take less energy than this never ending criticism of a team that is very successful at what they are doing.
See you in the top 100 sites and when we break 100 guides in the next year!
all the best, Jason
The Terms of Service were changed sometime later than ten days before the new announcement, creating material changes such as changes to the ownership of the work people were doing,
Previous T.O.S:
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:Mv3_G7kUng4J:www.mahalo.com/terms-of-service+“mahalo+terms+of+service”&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=au
Changed T.O.S:
http://www.mahalo.com/terms-of-service
When a company says that it may change its terms at any time, having said that they can and may in their previous TOS, that may be unpopular but it was something that writers knew could happen.
What I do hope is that all writers who did work prior to the change in Terms of Service, and the change in the whole system, will be paid the money that they have accrued up until the change, for the work that they did under the old Terms of Service.
In the webinar Jason presented to writers, it was said that many writers would not be paid in cash for their work if they were not currently at the $150 payout threshold. They could instead buy something from the Mahalo store (or not, if they do not reside in the United states); or donate their money earned to charity.
WHOOPEE.
I have not heard yet whether there is going to be a change of mind on this.
Refusing to pay for work completed, as per the terms that the work was completed under, is known as scamming.
For Mahalo Terms of Service change, some peoples have taken some screenshots.
(Click on the image to make it full sized)
Mahalo New Terms of Service after the Change:
http://accentuateservices.com/images/Terms%20of%20Service_1277520655092new
Mahalo Old Terms of Services before the Change:
http://accentuateservices.com/images/Terms%20of%20Service_1277520688035cache
Before and after
http://accentuatewriters.com/files.php?pid=148953&aid=3119
Skitzzo’s blog has some interesting screenshots too:
http://skitzzo.com/archives/mahalo-stealing-content.php
Then prove to us Jason that 19/20 writers wanted a new system.
Oh, interesting. The link to the cache now contains the new TOS rather than the old one.
Hoping someone has a screenshot of the old one on some blog space… will post when I find.
Jason, I think that you might be missing the point. The reason people are upset is because of the words “You own your content”. We didn’t imagine those words in the TOS, and it’s pretty hard to misinterpret what those four words mean. Maybe those words should have never been there, and it was overlooked by you or your staff, but how are we supposed to know that? We saw those four words and assumed the material we were writing was ours.
I understand that you can change your business platform any time you want. It’s your site. I get that. It’s just that those four words in the TOS is what is causing all the controversy. It’s what made me so angry about having my pages revoked and not getting my final payout. Had you at least paid me what I had earned, then I wouldn’t have gotten as upset as I did, and probably would never have started my blog in the first place. But when I feel wronged, I’m not the type of person to just bend over and take it.
I actually commend you for wanting to even out the playing board at Mahalo so that everyone is paid equally. It’s a great plan. And like I said in my previous post, I hope that it is successful for you. But most of us are still hung up on those four words in your TOS. It’s hard to see those words, and then be told that actually it’s not your content and you will no longer be making any money off of them. It’s hard to see your written content be taken away from you and given to someone else, like in my case.
So that is all I am saying, and what I have been saying over the past 3 or 4 months. That the TOS said “you own your content”, so why was my content taken from me? That was my complaint from the get go, and the reason for my subsequent banishment.
all the best, Krystyne
As I’ve said over and over again, if someone is close to the payout amount just email Mike at mahalo and we’ll try and work something out if the person is a “good actor.”
We have the right to change the rules of working with Mahalo and our virtual currency whenever we want, but we are reasonable people and will discuss things off line with folks who have special requests.
Krystyne20: you can’t read four words of a terms of service and not the rest, can you? you agree to the entire terms of service when you join. I’m not sure why your account was closed… but again, if you are good actor in the system and not out there trashing us we are always reasonable. if someone is out there trashing us, cheating in the system, etc. we stop working with them. period.
I’ve got a lot of work to get done right now, so if anyone wants to have a reasonable discussion about anything you know where to find me: jason at mahalo.com.
best j
“Nothing stops you, or the author of this blog, from creating their own competitor to Mahalo with your vision of how things should work. If our model is terrible we will fail, and if your model is better you will crush us. ”
Not true. It would be extremely hard for me to compete with you in that market, as you are willing to lie, steal and cheat to achieve your goals, and I’m not. That puts you at a massive competitive advantage.
“As I’ve said over and over again, if someone is close to the payout amount just email Mike at mahalo and we’ll try and work something out if the person is a “good actor.”
How about you post some figures of how much $ is being “written off” (or stolen) from writers who will never be able to cash out?
Why do you think its okay to “maybe” pay out if people are close to $150, but if they have say $50, you’re just going to keep it?
$50 or even $10 or $20 earned can constitute a lot of work completed by a Mahalo member.
The amount is also quite beside the point.
Does Mahalo EVER scam people, having them produce work and not paying them for it?
Or not?
Jason, of course I read the whole TOS, I was obviously just pointing out a very important part of the TOS. Sheesh.
Anyway, I never cheated the system. I made a public complaint on Mahalo Answers about page revocation and less than an hour later I was banned. So if complaining about being wronged by Mahalo is “trashing” you, then I guess I was trashing you. You have also been banning many other people recently for “trashing” you on Mahalo Answers. So you may want to consider adding that to your TOS – “don’t say anything negative about us or we’ll ban you.”
Also, who the heck are these 19 people that you keep referring too anyway?
@A MahaloWriter
I have included some screenshots there. See post above.
@Charles Sipe
If you are an entrepreneur under someone, you may need to check the TOS or agreement thoroughly, especially the intellectual property part. Don’t rely just on the website softcopy. Get a hardcopy and keep it in safe places and look out for changes that you may have not noticed.
Just to play safe.
@all
Quite some peoples who couldn’t make it to M$150, are willing to virtually “donate” the M$ to help fellow Mahaloians to achieve M$150. They just put a large-tipped question and awarded the M$ to the best answerers. It’s heart warming to see many noble “little peoples” still helping out each other even though money is important in this troubled time. This stands in big contrast against some US evil, greedy company who cheats on “little peoples” money. They may not have won some entrepreneur awards, may not be multi-millionaires, billionaires, at least they are great, honest peoples that can stand tall in front of their children.
mahalo.com/answers/for-those-who-need-the-extra-m-to-cash-out-before-the-deadline-i-am-here-to-help-please-tell-me-why-you-deserve-need-m-50
mahalo.com/answers/giving-all-of-my-mahalo-dollars-to-the-person-who-has-the-best-travel-experience-story-happy-funny-sad-odd
mahalo.com/answers/who-wants-my-mahalo-dollars-i-will-give-them-all-to-the-best-one-line-joke
Of course, there are also many others whose accounts are banned due to speaking out against the changes. Unlucky for them, their M$ are confiscated, together with all their contents.
quote -
Jason June 28, 2010 at 11:22 pm
This is false.
We own the content we buy from our writers–but we release it under Creative Commons Attribution. This is, ironically given the name of this blog, for SEO and promotional reasons.
Anyone can take our content and evolve it provided we get a nice juicy, followed link back.
- endquote
What is legally in question is whether Mahalo’s claim to ownership of content is valid. Most of the material currently on Mahalo was submitted under the Terms of Service in force prior to June 25th. According to those TOS, all writers/contributors owned their content (screen shots provided on request) and either party could remove the material at will. Mahalo changed the TOS immediately after revenue sharing was revoked and made a de facto claim of ownership over all submitted materials without first allowing writers/contributors to opt in/out and without allowing them to decide what would become of their submitted materials. In fact, no notification of the change in TOS was made by Mahalo, at all. It was only diligent and observant writers/contributors who brought the change in TOS to the attention of others.
I contend that Mahalo knowingly and with premeditation is attempting to steal material which Mahalo, itself, acknowledged belonged to the writers / contributors in a move which is possibly the biggest bluff in internet history. I contend that Mahalo, Jason Calacanis, and all stake holders are “all in” on this bet… and I would love nothing more that to see an internet law version of Doyle Brunson come along with a Royal Flush Straight legal hand. The cards have been dealt, after all, and Mahalo is holding squat but bluffing like the devil.
I have been very busy on Mahalo this week making sure I had screen captures to back up everything I’m going to say on my blog when I finally finish writing my expose.
What I will say right now is that I know for a fact and have proof that Jason lied multiple times. Part of me doesn’t want to tip my hand on what I do know, but for now, this is what I will say:
1. He claimed that only a handful of writers ever cashed out over 150 per month and that only those you could ‘count on one hand’ cashed out over 500. I have screen captures that prove that several were making well over $2500 per month, at least two handfuls were making over $1000 per month and literally dozens were making over $500 – AND ALL OF THAT REVENUE WOULD HAVE BEEN INCREASING EACH MONTH THEREAFTER, as new pages were added and revenue continued to build upon itself.
I have screen captured the payment requests/payments made (which is open on each individual profile for anyone who chooses to see)…. of over 80 people, and have figured the totals paid to them. I still have a few folks searching profiles to find additional payments made. So his numbers are wrong — it’s not what can be counted on one hand.
2. He lied when he said that he will be paying out MORE with the new guide system. We figured it based on the original 60 he said he was going to ‘hire’, but he actually only announced 27 guides and 12 senior guides. When that’s figured, it comes to $42,600 bucks paid every month until new guides are picked – assuming they are. Last month, JUST on the 80 people we found so far (we’re still looking for more) we see he paid out just to those who cashed out (not what was accrued, but just what was cashed out) a total of $77,603. And that’s not counting smaller amounts that didn’t cash out or ones we haven’t found yet. That’s an immediate savings for Jason to keep of $35,000 just for the month of July. The revenue for the writers would have continued growing, but now it won’t – they get flat rate, so while the site grows and earns more money, Jason both saves and earns more money at the same time, while the writers who make that happen for him get paid less than the federal minimum wage for their work and those who got the site to this point are totally hung out to dry.
THat’s JUST June’s numbers- We went back three months on our numbers. When we compare June to May and May to April, we see how much it’s increased – I think he stopped doing it, because revenue share was increasing too quickly. He wanted a larger piece of that pie – but if revenues we shared were increasing, then income for the site as a whole should have been increasing too – but I’ll explain how he ’spread it around’ to avoid payout and how I have a witness willing to tell me that some of the VMs he used were made up people who didn’t exist, just so they could shave some of the revenue from the page manager’s revenue share. I have screen capture of some VMs who were below the required belt level, brand new to the site, with no history whatsoever managing pages as VMs in direct violation of Mahalo’s own policy that seems to support this ‘witness’s’ statement that VMs were faked. There were just enough of the real VMs to make it seem legit.
3. Jason has claimed that literally hundreds of people have applied for the 60 positions. We were told the 60 guides and sr. guides would be announced, but fewer than that were announced. If it’s so that hundreds applied to work for slave wages and piece work (which is illegal in the US, so if they finish 99 pages in a month, short of the 100 and Jason doesn’t pay them, I hope they sue his ass because that’s against the law)…. anyway, if it’s so that literally hundreds signed up right away for the guide positions, so, why were only 27 people picked? I’m tempted to believe he lied about how many applied too. Not only that, but some of the people chosen have very little experience and weren’t even on any of the how-to teams or QC teams prior to being chosen, so the criteria for being chosen is suspect too – who you know? who knows you? whether or not you’re welling to be a henchman? I can’t prove anything on this one, but my gut just tells me something ain’t right here.
One of the people who works on the site–I won’t say a name, but this person’s pretty easy to figure out–used to work for Mahalo, got terminated, was given a bunch of pages in severance to manage and as of last month, shows on the profile to have cashed out over 8000 bucks that month. Do you mean to tell me, in all honesty, that someone who is used to making 8000 (almost 9000) bucks in a month is going to now be happy doing more work for only 1300 as a sr. guide?
I think side deals are being made and they aren’t being displayed publicly. That guide is not the only one that is taking a huge pay cut if there aren’t side deals. Something about this and the fact those people who are losing literally thousands of dollars per month aren’t saying a word about the new system — I’m telling you, something is fishy with that. Would you stay at a company when your income is cut from 9k to 1k in less than a month’s time and not say a word about it? I wouldn’t.
There is just something very, very fishy about this whole thing, and I hope it turns up to the surface and Jason and Mahalo are exposed for the criminals I am beginning to believe they are. However, it should be noted that I don’t think there is criminal intent here. I just honestly don’t think he’s that bright and that he just doesn’t know any better.
I do hope someone teaches him a lesson soon. This is no way to do business and it’s no way to treat people.
Well, there’s definitely been a gag order. Plus, anyone who’s been with Mahalo a little while knows that you just can’t say what you think too much, or your account will be banned and whatever they owe you won’t be paid to you.
I can’t quite figure out which exact brand of narcissistic personality disorder Jason has exactly, but I wish he would.
Great analysis, Michelle … glad to see someone got stats on overall earnings before the dollar amounts were removed from the site.
RE: you cost analysis of how much Jason will have to pay the new Guides … could be quite a bit less. In the thread where the new team was announced, some who were selected mentioned that they are only part time Guides.
My own work was referenced at mahalo I’m told. I was of course pleased at first, but now I know it’s been done for free on the back of my writing…
http://scurvytoon.blogspot.com/2010/07/what-os-does-it-use-windows-vista-were.html
The article in question .
Time there was a way to unsure mor of us writers were paid ofr our work. As long as people think they can get anything at all for free cos it’s on the net, we will be abused in this fashion.
The old TOS totally stated that all of our content was ours. We owned it. I even remember Jason stating via Mahalo Answers, in response to what we can do with our articles, and he excitedly proclaimed how we owned our content and can take it anywhere. No questions asked.
Amazingly enough, all of a sudden our content is licensed under Creative Common Attribution HOWEVER, according to what I read, if all of our work is under said license, ALL CURRENT LICENSES REQUIRE ATTRIBUTION TO THE ORIGINAL AUTHOR. This includes CITING THE AUTHOR’S NAME, SCREEN NAME OR USER ID PROFILE. IF THE WORK IS BEING PUBLISHED ON THE INTERNET.
I WROTE MY ARTICLES. NOT MAHALO. NOT JASON.
So, if anyone is going to rework, republish, etc. MY ARTICLE and include a “big, fat juicy link” back to Mahalo, my name better be on that article. Thank you.
I do not see my name or user ID on ANY of the articles I’ve written.
For anyone who doesn’t know, Michelle is a highly respectable writer on Associated Content and other venues. When I see her perk up and chime in then I know something is up. Shame on you, Jason for doing what you have done to your writers. Those people are what made your site grow to what it is today.
Just for your information people, I think what he did with your articles is illegal. Articles that were created under the old TOS should be sort of grandfathered. You made the agreement to produce content under THOSE terms. They were created then and not under the new TOS. I would consult with an attorney. That doesn’t give him a a creative commons license to do what he pleases with your content and it appears to be theft. He can change the TOS anytime that he feels like it; however, any new terms would affect content that was added after the change unless you sign an agreement or check mark a box agreeing that your old articles should fall under the new TOS. Maybe you should file a DMCA letter and then send it to Google. It might be worth a shot to have the page deindexed that you produced. You can also report him to the Better Business Bureau and FTC. Thank goodness that I wasn’t part of this. If you feel that you were truly wronged then do something about it.