May 2004 Archives
The SixQuestions reward program now has a games section. Their first game is Solitaire.
You're asked to pick a wager, and you're told in advance how much you're paid per card (that's per card starting with Aces and going up) and how much you'll earn if you clear the board. Unlike any other version of Solitaire I've ever played, when you draw from the deck, you only draw one card at a time. Also, you're only allowed to cycle through the deck once. If you're stuck and can't complete the game, you choose "Give Up" and you get credit for all your Ace-and-up cards...which helps to offset your ante. Keep in mind that if you play a card on the Ace-and-up stack, and need to move it back to the board, you lose points.
I played Solitaire a good bit yesterday and found that, while fun, it is an easy way to lose points fast. The site isn't set up to show you more of your game history than just 10 transactions (bets and wins) -- there's no "More" button to show you back any further than that so I can't give you exact numbers. I would say that I played at least 20 games, and I only cleared the board once. I won back my wager or a little bit more probably half the time...and won back part of my wager (but not all of it) the rest of the time. I was always able to play at least one ace down.
I tried several different wager levels. Seems like I had slightly better luck with lower wagers, but not having the data in front of me, I can't say that for sure.
My conclusion: very fun and very addictive, but not very lucrative! If you want to play it just for fun, go with the lower wagers...and just like in a casino, have an idea in your head before you start of how much you can afford to lose (or how much you'd be happy to leave winning), then STOP.
SixQuestions has also recently added a new game, Deuces Wild Video Poker.
Not a member of SixQuestions? Read my review here, or go ahead and join here!
A user on a deal forum posted a reply sent to her by Memolink in response to a Planet Feedback complaint. It is more unbelievable crap:
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I have received your complaint to Planet Feedback and I would like to explain our situation further so that there is no misunderstanding our previous email - the Memolink Prize Update, that you received. Please understand that we HAVE to try a new approach to shipping prizes. It's either that, or close up shop and send no prizes. Obviously, we want to stay and become a healthy, growing company. To do that, we have to work down the prize orders. We are delivering prizes first to people that earn us money so that they'll continue to do so, and as this happens, we'll be able to pay off ALL late prizes. But this is only temporary. I should also say that you don't have to SPEND MONEY to generate revenue. Any offer you complete that gives you more than 100 points, probably generates revenue. It's just the Site of the Day, and Visit Websites and Trivia points that we offer for free that hurt us now and then. Those offers are to get people to come to the site once a day in hopes that they'll do something along with those offers, that will make us a little money. Does that make sense? And again...this is certainly NOT how we want to keep things, it's just temporary until we can get more money coming in so we can pay off the old prizes.
If you want to know the exact formula we’re using for the current shipment – we are sending prizes to members who have completed three or more 300 point transactions. It’s possible that we’ll change the criteria when we have most of those people taken care of, but that is the criteria we’re using while we are trying to catch up.
Over the past few months, we have made a major dent in filling old prizes. Going forward, we expect to catch up even more. In fact, over the next 6 weeks, we expect to send out nearly 5,000 prizes, some of which date back quite some time.
Thank you again for your patience and our team has no doubt that ALL members will be receiving their prizes in the near future.
Sincerely,
Casey Golubieski
Vice President
Member Support
Memolink, Inc.
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"...we have to work down the prize orders. We are delivering prizes first to people that earn us money so that they'll continue to do so, and as this happens, we'll be able to pay off ALL late prizes. "
(sigh) Once again, I am just aghast at the complete lack of sense (business or common) in this ridiculous scheme to delay in the inevitable. If the people earn you money, and you pay them their redemptions, where is the EXTRA money going to come from to work down the prize backlog? Hello???
"It's just the Site of the Day, and Visit Websites and Trivia points that we offer for free that hurt us now and then. Those offers are to get people to come to the site once a day in hopes that they'll do something along with those offers, that will make us a little money. Does that make sense?"
No, Casey, it doesn't. You are giving people points for free which they are eventually going to redeem...and they create a debt for your company while not earning you anything. Now other sites that do this can afford to do so because they have a high volume of purchases and a fairly uncompetitive rebate %...OR because advertisers pay to have users visit their website. You can't afford to keep giving free points out but you continue to do so. Does this make sense? NO.
"the exact formula we’re using for the current shipment – we are sending prizes to members who have completed three or more 300 point transactions."
Ahhh... THAT's how you can afford to give away free points! You simply don't send prizes out to the people who redeem them! Okay, I know the word "scam" is bandied about far too carelessly sometimes, but when you are giving out points and you have no intention of letting people cash them in... what would YOU call it? If you're only paying people who complete 3 or more 300 point offers...why are you giving out free daily points?? Just as a lure -- "to get people to come to the site once a day in hopes that they'll...make us a little money." You people ought to be ashamed of yourselves.
...due to hosting problems. Will be back up as soon as possible. They're moving to a dedicated server in June which hopefully will fix these occasional glitches.
Don't worry about your earnings! They aren't going anywhere. (I'm not worried, and I have over ten bucks in my account there.)
A perfect example of why MyCoupons' forum rules SUCK:
http://boards.mycoupons.com/showthread.php?s=91c82ed973c254fbaec271dc7bbfa0ee&threadid=496614
Give me a freakin' break. You can't even ask who rewards for a particular merchant??
Here's the question I have: Why do they have a rewards program forum at all? So we can share trivia answers? Because if you can't talk about shopping through a rewards program at all...that's about all that's left for us to talk about.
Ever see the movie The Jerk? (GREAT flick!) There's a scene in there where Steve Martin's character who is too dumb to be dishonest is describing what a winner in his carnival game could ACTUALLY win, out of the huge display of cool looking prizes behind him. "Anything back here! Well...anything on this shelf...well...anything between the bicentennial glass and the Chiclets...well..." Then he admits the only thing a winner could really win is crap. "Take a chance and win some crap!"
It's getting that way over at MyCoupons. Great forum! Talk about anything! Well...talk about anything except other forums!...well...talk about anything except other forums or any other website with commercial content!...well...talk about anything except other forums, other websites with commercial content, or rewards programs that pay you for shopping!...well....
What's left that users CAN talk about now? "What great weather we're having!", trivia answers... and deals for merchants that you can only shop through MC's links for?
This is the thing. I know other forums have rules about not posting about "competitor" forums. That bothers me, being a proponent of the free market and free information and letting people choose. But that seems to be kinda a standard rule for forums. Now MC (formerly the hallmark message forum for deal-hunters) is making their rules even MORE strict and they seem intent on enforcing them. You can post rewards program trivia answers, but not discuss shopping through them?
I see MC getting to a point where their forum's only purpose is to whore out their members...to send them out to the 'net to find deals for MC's affiliate merchants and come back and post about them...filling MC's pocketbook while giving the members fewer and fewer privileges on the site. AND, I might add, NOT giving anything back to the membership.
Do you want an example of a deal forum that really cares about its membership? Why don't you check out http://www.FatWallet.com - they don't push you to use their links, but when you do, they give you cash back. They're a reward program and a deal forum combined. Read this from their FAQs:
"Why is FatWallet paying Cash Back?
Sharing is good, right? We are sharing a portion of what we earn, so you are happy here and come back again! When you first go to FatWallet’s Cash Back Mall, then go shopping, merchants pay us a commission for helping them sell stuff. It’s a win-win-win situation. They sell more, we keep the site going, and you get cash back!"
THIS is an ideal situation. And right now, FatWallet's forums are completely kicking the butt of every other forum I've seen. They've even coined a term, the "FatWallet Effect," to describe how hard sites get hit once they've been posted about on FW. For the last two years, FW has paid for lawyers to fight the retail stores' legal posturing about not letting people post advance notice of Black Friday sales. FatWallet cares about its members AND rewards them for it.
MyCoupons wants you to do all the work for THEIR own financial benefit.
Now before you come back and say, "Wah, this is just sour grapes on your end because you just got banned from MyCoupons," go back and read this post -- I've been posting about MC's tightening rules since January.
Do what you want...my point is you need INFORMATION to make a rational decision. You need to know there are alternatives to MyCoupons that don't just let you post about what's between the bicentennial glass and the Chiclets.
Your comments are welcomed.
I cashed out in April at three rewards programs and wanted to say how happy I was with how quickly all three sent my gift certificates!
MyPoints -- requested a $25 Barnes and Noble GC and got it within about 3 weeks.
PointPool -- requested a $25 Target GC and got it within about 2 weeks.
CreationsRewards -- requested $5 PayPal and got it within ONE week.
Memolink, take note: this is the way you're SUPPOSED to treat your members!
Earn an easy 20,000 points at SixQuestions.com by registering for Ubid.com! No credit card is required, either!
Log in to SixQuestions.com and click on the big red box that says 40,000 Points Free and Simple. They're also offering 20,000 points for creating an Ebay account and placing a bid, but I figure most of us have one of those already...
Haven't joined SixQuestions yet? Please use my link -- thanks!
