Auto-Reward GPs vs The Conscience

Authors place their work on the auto-reward list for two main reasons: To get it read and to have it critiqued. Some want both, while others are more interested in the first and don’t care about the second. They are willing to pay readers to read and some pay quite well. We can find some fine, finished work there and if we feel like reading for pleasure, that’s the place to go. A pretty good indication of which is which is the amount of time it’s been posted, and the number of reviews it has accumulated.

Those that are willing to pay for critiques may feel that is the best way to assure good feedback. These are mostly newer members who haven’t felt taken by readers with no conscience - yet. As long as they’re receiving those high rates and wonderful comments, they’ll believe them. After all, they’re on a writing site where writers help each other, right? If they needed to change something, they wouldn’t be told their work was perfect, would they?

I’ve been watching the public reviews given for auto-rewarded items for the last week and I don’t like what I’ve seen. The trend shows a definite lean toward dishonesty. I chose a few high paying items recently posted and searched for reviews given to them. What I found were short with no substance. No errors were found, and their opinions said that the work was perfectly written. Great, except the comments tended to stay generic with little reference to the actual content.

The reviews were barely over 250 characters and if the WritingML templates had been deducted, a few would have been at about 5 words. These reviews that are worth no more than 25 gps, are receiving over 3000. There was nothing said to cause other readers to want to read the item, which is tantamount to being paid to read. Tell the world how good it is, and why. Your single 'Good job' comment is not worth 3,000 gps, but telling others why you think it’s a perfect read, is. Do your job as spokesperson if you’re going to take the pay.

The temptation is strong and stealing can be addicting, especially when the taking is so easy. Watching a gp total go up and up is mesmerizing and difficult to say no to. It’s like real life. But dishonesty is wrong. To lie, cheat and steal is wrong. To not earn your pay is the same as stealing.

This goes on all the time, especially with reviewers who manage to ‘review’ many long pieces every day. They are collecting from the articles, from the daily review count, and again from people who reward them from the public page. I know from experience how long it takes to read and write reviews for a 30 to 90 kb story, and how exhausting it can be. More than one of these a day is very close to physically impossible. If the reader is busy reading a long item, how is it possible for him to also read and review all those poems listed in his public review list during the same time?

The gps offered are paid for by the writer. They are not free to him and if he is willing to pay for either a thorough read or a thorough critique, or both, he deserves respect and an honest return for his dollar. Reading the first, middle and last lines is not reading the work. Pointing out a misplaced comma is not a review. Commenting on a name of a character does not prove you read it. Be honest if you’re going to choose from this list. Don’t shame yourself by cheating for gps.