What is Digg?15 Comments
- namaste88, on 08/05/2008, -0/+6This article is a decent representation of what has happened with ChaCha, unfortunately. There is tremendous outrage on the private company forums and if words can be believed, many are departing. Many (most?) of us are very serious about the quality of answer we give. There are many well educated, well intentioned people working as guides who enjoy this stimulating, part time gig. Personally, I worked hard to find accurate, authoritative answers for ChaCha info seekers and found this to be so disappointing. I hope they rethink this.
- DiggHipster, on 08/05/2008, -0/+6First, they promised us 20 cents per search, only to find out it was really 15 cents. Now it's 10 cents per search. Oh, and the best part is that Esther Friend, the VP for Guides (or is it The Ministry of Plenty/ Ministry of Truth) claims that it's in our best interest.
- crazyitalian88, on 08/05/2008, -0/+6I agree 100%. I am a casual guide who has made top guide frequently. Unfortunately, I can't do 300 questions every week. If I'm going to be punished for that, I don't want to be a part of this corporate suicide.
- AzRocks91, on 08/05/2008, -0/+4This is happening, clearly because they are running out of money. Which is sad because its a really great service...
- jacksontwins, on 08/05/2008, -0/+4I agree. This is a load of bull. As usual everyone gets punished for a few bad guides. ChaCha is going down for this one I am afraid. Shame on you ChaCha.
- mccarty23, on 08/05/2008, -0/+4If they're out of money fine... tell us that. Say hey guys this isn't quite as profitable as we though, we're going to have to make some cuts and when we become more profitable we'll bring the pay scale back up.
Don't cut my pay in half and then act like I should be throwing a party about it. It's not a reward to work extra hard for what you were already promised morons. - Netik09, on 08/05/2008, -0/+4I'm quitting!!!!!!
- rayefrenzy, on 08/05/2008, -0/+1Another disgruntled ChaCha guide here.
I have no problem with (finally) implementing some quality control. Any time I've personally used ChaCha's services, i got guides that were incompetent at best. However, I'm one of many casual guides. I don't want to sit at my computer for 5 hours trying to meet the 300 query quota. Especially when the servers we work on are incredibly unreliable. They (The Moderators) keep emphasizing on the improvement quality, but all I'm seeing, and what is getting quickly ignored, is a demand for quantity.
The whole thing was brought about poorly. However, I still need the money. I may just keep doing this asinine ***** for $0.10 - Stout, on 08/05/2008, -0/+1It was impossible to make minimum wage before at 20 cents a message and you think I'm going to do it for half of the pitiful wage we were all already getting? No thanks, I think I'll go flip burgers.
- blaileigh, on 08/05/2008, -0/+1I don't look for CHA CHA to be around much longer. So sad....
- mjpbaywolf, on 08/07/2008, -0/+0http://www.petitiononline.com/chacha/petition.html
- mjpbaywolf, on 08/05/2008, -0/+0The following is from a member of the ChaCha forum and I take no credit for this but I thought it was a very informative read.
Originally Posted by Jeremyo2675 -
Just got off the phone with a business lawyer, no they did NOT cover there backside on this. Sent him a PDF of the agreement. There are SEVERAL places they are at the employee/contractor line. This particular one is where they try to define us as contractors "(c) you control the time, the date, the order, sequence, details, manner and means of performing all Services, subject to any and all applicable ChaCha policies, procedures and guidelines;" ChaCha's "guidelines" however CANNOT take control over time, date, order, sequence, details, manner and/or means or performing services, the moment they do we cease to be contractor's and become employees. It doesn't matter what the contract states on this issue, any portion of said contract that tries to state otherwise is legally invalid. The legal grounds for claiming workers are contractors rather than employees REQUIRES this freedom. By tying our PAY on FUTURE jobs rather than simply the availability of future jobs to the speed at which we perform CURRENT jobs, they effectively remove this freedom and violate the contract, at which point we become employees in the eyes of the law. That is the advice my business attorney gave me (I own a business, so I simply asked the Attorney who deals with my business matters about this). IT DOES NOT MATTER that the contract states "subject to any and all applicable ChaCha policies, procedures and guidelines" because we are dealing with the legal classification of a worker, which is governed by laws regardless of what contract an Individual signed. Laws created to prevent companies from doing exactly what ChaCha is attempting, claiming workers as subcontractors to the IRS and then controlling the work in a manner not in keeping with that status. You can find the IRS guidelines on subcontractor vs Employee on there website, It is educational to say the least. If your attorney stated otherwise he may need to re-read the contract. Mine already offered to take the case if this goes live should I wish to pursue it. I would simply walk away of course as I have no real desire to see ChaCha go under, which would happen should any class action be successful. In short ChaCha is violating guides status as Independent Contractors by attempting to link past job performance to future job pay. Each question is a separate singular job, and performance can legally, as a contractor, only affect pay on THAT JOB, except that ChaCha CAN terminate the contract for poor performance. They CANNOT base pay on Job #3 on performance on Job #1 because each one is separate from the other. It would be like you stating you were only going to pay 1/2 the contract price for a garage painting because the contractor didn't meet speed requirement X when he painted your house. If ChaCha wants to change entirely how much they pay per query across the board, thats one thing. Performance based pay is not valid for subcontracting when it involves penalties that take away the freedoms required to be legally classified as a contractor in the first place regardless of who signed what or what is claimed in the "contract". Period. - supertucker, on 08/05/2008, -0/+0yep they're ***** :P
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