February 2005 Archives
Users visiting the Memolink-affiliated sites, PCHPoints, LuckyPoints, and SavingsRegisterRewards, found today that the Site of the Day has been dropped from 25 points to 10 points. Site visits were also dropped from 3 points to 2. This is offset somewhat by the fact that SRR has recently begun sending (a few) paid emails. So far there have been no changes to redemption costs -- hopefully this will remain the case, as upping the points to redeem not only devalues free points but also devalues shopping rebates as well.
Sploofus "permanently eliminated" all team play today, in a move designed to make the site a more positive playing environment. In addition, team play was incompatible with most versions of WebTV and AOL, and to keep it up and running smoothly for the "few" team players(there were a good many full teams, but some totally empty ones) apparently involved some management overhead.
My reaction: I didn't have any problems with any users until team play started...then there were rumors, accusations, and a lot of petty and childish behavior from some members of other teams. I enjoyed spending a little more online time with my own team members, but I'll enjoy competing with y'all one-on-one also. In a FRIENDLY way. ;) And anything that streamlines the site for the new owner, making it capable for them to keep the site up and running smoothly, is I think a good thing.
Long live Sploofus! See y'all on the monthly leaderboard! (If I can stop losing challenges, that is...hehe)
Justin sent me an email and posted a news item on the site saying that a tragedy had occurred in his family, and that all interuser communication on the site was being shut down temporarily.
My prayers go out to Justin as he works through this, and I urge you all to be patient in the interim. Remember that our Sploofus forum is available to all, at http://p078.ezboard.com/fcomparerewardsfrm33.
Found a cool new rebate site and wanted to review it here. Rebates are DOUBLED through December 2005 and they're pretty high to begin with. You can choose to donate a percentage (1-100%) of your rebate to a non-profit or you can keep it all for yourself! And if you're with a non-profit yourself, you can sign the organization up as an option for folks to donate to (every public K-12 school is already in their database). $10 minimum payout, paid quarterly. See the full review below!
I'd like to thank Justin Morton, the founder and president of Sploofus Trivia Systems, for his time and graciousness in speaking with us last night in chat! He answered a lot of questions about his program and gave us some great tips about things coming up in the future! If you weren't able to make it and would like the recap, read on!
Guys, I am thrilled to be able to tell you that Justin Mortin, founder and president of Sploofus Trivia Systems, will be in our chat room on Sunday, Feb. 13, at 6pm Central.
Please make plans to join us then!
Also a quick note that Sploofus is now rewarding the top 1000 WordRounds players each hour! Click the News section on the site for the breakdown of how much you'll earn! And you'll now earn 5,000 points for referring a new member (once the member reaches level 2)!
You know from my recent post here that this site is struggling. Please do what you can to help support what's become one of the most popular, most addictive, website rewards sites out there! Tell a friend, click on a banner ad or two there, and please come by and chat with us on Sunday! Just come here and click on Chat Room at the top. Enter a username (no password is required) and click Chat at the bottom. That's it! Hope y'all can make it!
If you haven't joined yet and wanna see what all the hub-bub is about in advance of the chat, please join here -- thanks!
I received an email today from Justin Morton, the founder and President of Sploofus Trivia Systems. In it, he stated that his site's exclusive sponsor (the Federal Employee Service center, at http://www.webfederalservice.com) had not paid Sploofus in 60 days and was not responding to his phone calls and emails. As such, he has removed their information from his website, concluding that they must "no longer wish to sponsor Sploofus...{and} they just decided not to tell me."
Justin stated that the program was incurring $1,000/mo in expenses just for the servers and that he was paying the vast majority of it out of his pocket, but he would be unable to continue much longer.
"Right now it is do or die time for Sploofus. I am losing sleep trying to conceive ways to keep things afloat," Justin said. "If I can get more people to join, and more GOLD memberships, things should level out. Until then, I am in a bad spot because I have no money to issue prizes."
The press release issued by Sploofus on November 18, 2004, stated, "When asked about the decision to become the exclusive sponsor for Sploofus.com, Kathy Galvan, co-founder of the Federal Employee Service Center, said 'We are very excited to sponsor a great website like Sploofus. We feel that everyone needs a break from the day to day grind, and Sploofus offers a wonderful diversion. We look forward to a long partnership with Sploofus.'”
That is, if by "long" you mean approximately 2 weeks, assuming Justin's statement that he had been unpaid by them for 60 days is true.
First off -- Shame on the Federal Employee Service Center. I sent them an email asking for their comment on this situation and will share it if they reply. But the fact is, they should have been more conscientious in their business dealings and at least given Justin notice that they were pulling out as sponsors. Not sending payment is reneging on a contract, and refusing to even discuss it with Justin is just poor business practice. Wish I could just NOT pay my Sears bill and then ignore them when they come calling and get off scot-free.
#2 -- The Sploofus business model may need a liiiiiiittle work. With all due respect to Mr. Morton, who is obviously a talented programmer with a great vision, perhaps the idea of having one sole sponsor is not such a good idea. I know, hindsight is 20/20, and had this company behaved ethically and at least given him some notice that they were ending their sponsorship, he might have been able to find an alternate sponsor. But how does that saying go, "Don't put all your eggs in one basket"? That way there'd be less sting if the (a) sponsor pulled out.
We have some wonderfully intelligent and inventive folks on this website. I'd like to ask everyone here to help brainstorm. What can be done to save this program?
Full review of this to come soon but here's what I can tell you so far.
OTX has been sending out surveys through various rewards programs like PCHPoints and Memolink. They've decided to develop their own pool of survey respondents by forming their own rewards program. Members of OTXsx will receive points for completing surveys that can then be cashed in for various prizes including Amazon GCs, Godiva GCs, L.L. Bean GCs, iTunes downloads, and charity donations.
Get 500 points for signing up. Several folks who signed up over the weekend have already received their first survey (for 3000 points). 4500 points will get you a $5 GC; 8000 is required for a $10 GC.
If you're interested in joining, please email for a referral; thanks!
