Admit it !!! Bubblews stole almost all the hubbers :p

1. 39

   Rinnegan XVposted 9 years ago

   Bubblews was the most famous topic on hubpages a little time ago..... even i also got kidnapped by thier too good to be true payment policy !!. and now everyone is back on hubpages ..... the permanent place for hubbers .  i worked on bubblews for almost two weeks and made 26$ but right after that they reduced the payments scheme to likes and comments only... right after which i closed my uc browser tab and never get thier again   i just escaped in time :p

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2. 82

   peachpurpleposted 9 years ago

   You sureare lucky to have escaped, i was stucked with$300 since sept and no news, lots of hp writers rhere also gabe up

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      Rinnegan XVposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      300$ !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
      thats impressive

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3. 86

   WryLiltposted 9 years ago

   I go there when I'm bored. Nowadays I have more fun writing on my own websites though - at least I know who owns them

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4. 85

   FatFreddysCatposted 9 years ago

   I gave Bubblews a shot about a year ago, back when the pay-out threshold was still $25. It didnt' take me long to reach that amount, but then I had to jump thru so many damn hoops to get that $25 bucks that when they finally coughed it up, I said "to hell with this, see ya," deleted all my posts from the site, and I haven't been back since. 
   
   I guess you could say that I saw the iceberg coming early on, and it looks like I jumped ship in time to save myself a lot of aggravation.

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5. 80

   Marcy Goodfleischposted 9 years ago

   Sad to know so many Hubbers spent time there and did not get paid properly.

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6. 84

   sparksterposted 9 years ago

   They may have stolen the hubbers temporarily, but the site has become virtually useless in recent times and is not trustworthy due to such bad management (and that's an understatement!).

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7. 80

   colorfuloneposted 9 years ago

   I'm waiting for a payment that is over-due, plus one more. It takes a lot of time to earn $50 on Bubblews now.
   
   I am moving content ever so slowly, but I'll still do an occasional post like I normally do and follow up with replies to comments and return favor to good connections.
   
   Glad I got in on the site while it was HOT, and earned a couple thousand.
   
   I do have to disagree with the OP about not getting paid for views on Bubblews.
   BECAUSE! I just posted 3 days ago, and I watch my Bank closely when I do.
   I hit the social share buttons, and always Ping-O-Matic new posts.
   The amount the Bank goes up, is always greater than the Likes and Comments.
   AND, my Bank has been at a stand still for several hours, or maybe days. 
   
   One post I published 23 days ago is showing 80 on the G+ share button.
   I know that post rang-up the Bank nicely because of views, (also with likes and comments).
   But, who knows if I'll see the money? 
   
   But, Bubblews Does Not Pay For Views on older posts anymore. I'm not sure where the cut-off is now, but it was if a post was a month old + (views were not being counted for pennies).
   
   Too bad Bubblews couldn't keep on being a faithful cash cow. I liked that part.

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      relacheposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Such is the nature of pyramid schemes.

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         colorfuloneposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         Exactly!

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      Rinnegan XVposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      i guess u are the one of the category who got 20likes and 20 comments in 2minutes. U must be from english country

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8. 93

   Thelma Albertsposted 9 years ago

   Though I was writing there ocassionaly, I still come here at HP interacting with some of the hubbers.I hope though  that I will  still  be paid at B.

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9. 84

   sparksterposted 9 years ago

   Well, Bubblews have just pulled a crafty one and have stated that they are not paying out for any redemptions made before 11th November 2014 - that means I'm not going to get the payment I've been waiting for now for 70 days!

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      NateB11posted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Wow. I believe that means I have a few payments I won't be getting. Maybe I'll get the redemption I made last month. Not holding my breath.

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10. 85

    FatFreddysCatposted 9 years ago

    Damn.... not cool. It won't be long before Bubblews HQ comes under siege by hordes of angry Bubblers armed with pitchforks and torches...

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11. 74

    LeanManposted 9 years ago

    So back in Aug/Sept they started to fail to pay people when they were at their height in traffic - with over a million page views a day..
    
    They started to make excuses about spammers causing problems on the site and eventually issued a statement that because of having to check all the accounts that payments would be delayed...
    
    New payment schedule 30 days..
    
    Then 60 days...
    
    and then 90 days..
    
    All given with promises that redemptions would be honored and that it was safe to carry on bubbling and earning the site money.....
    
    The deadlines then passed.....
    
    Then they finally decided that they will not pay at all...
    
    So basically from before Aug 2014 - to mid Nov 2014 they are keeping the bulk of all of the advertising that they earned.. So that would include 3 months when they were at their height with a million views a day earning money from the advertisers..
    
    But during this time they are unable to tell the spammers that were breaking their rules from the honest "writers" so they will pay no one.... What a lucky excuse!!
    
    Meanwhile the spammers and fraudsters that B claim caused all their problems are also not paid but just like the honest ones they also earned advertising revenue for the site!
    
    
    But of course their problems have nothing to do with them paying out $10 per thousand views when they were earning maybe $3 or $4 if they were lucky. They obviously over the 2 years that they were operating never noticed the difference in income and payouts...... They never noticed that they had to stop paying multiple people to make payments to many others..
    
    But of course paying so well for those that they did pay did encourage the site to grow at a massive rate and allow them to rake in a fortune in advertising that they will never pass on to the writers on the site - especially as they failed to sell the site due to their highly flawed financial model of buying views.
    
    Meanwhile those that are getting payouts are finding that what they have earned is now being cut even further. They earned $50 at the reduced rates only to find that their redemptions are being cut even further with some being handed 60%, 50% or even only 10% of what they had redeemed.
    
    
    This is either the very worst scam or the management of Bubblews are the most inept and incompetent management team on the internet to not be able to see what is going on with their site!!
    
    Unless of course you have an alternative view of what they have done??

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    1. 84

       NateB11posted 9 years agoin reply to this

       Well-explained, sounds about right to me. But there was also the excuse from June and July that they "lost" redemptions because the server was down. That's how I lost one of my redemptions. The other one, not sure what happened to it. That's only two missed payments; well, one other one I never received because then they had the option of cashing out with a gift card and I chose the gift card; never got it; as soon as I started redeeming with paypal, I always got paid: until the June fiasco/debacle. I just cashed out last month, not sure yet if I'll receive that payment.
       
       I got paid a lot of money by them, I'll say, though. But I agree. A lot of excuses and not a lot of reliability. Bad business model too.

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       1. 67

          gitachudposted 9 years agoin reply to this

          Arvind has just posted this:
          
          "I just want everyone to know how frustrating a decision we had to make two days ago. We knew that we'd get beat up for it, and we did it anyways. That should tell you how important it was that we do what we did.
          
          I want to be 100% clear here: We're trying to build a community that will grow, and to do so in a way that both acknowledges user contributions and is profitable. We're on that path now, but we weren't before.
          
          I have already explained that the value in your bank was not tied to our advertising revenue. I'm not going to rehash that, or why it took so long for us to change it. You can go here to read about it: http://www.bubblews.com/news/9708943-learning-curve
          
          Our wording was a little obtuse here. The implications obviously weren't clear, so I'll restate this: We reported lots of money that we didn't have. The money that you "earned" never existed. We didn't "steal" it and go on vacations to Aruba or buy motorcycles. It just didn't exist.
          
          Part of this was poor management of our vast growth and part of this was that sometimes, we are a little afraid of you guys . We've been entrusted with this great community, and you guys aren't afraid to speak your minds.
          
          We had to decide how to fix this. There was a part we would never be able to pay. Our records were incomplete and there was a ridiculous amount of fraud. Even if you weren't manipulating the site, you were benefiting from those who did. We thought it was better to tell you than to string you along.
          
          The other part was from the time when we had started to adjust the rates, but they still didn't match advertising revenue. Since we can't pay out more than we bring in, those had to be adjusted. We thought you'd prefer to get something, rather than nothing.
          
          There is good news here. The situation is under control. Rates are tied to advertising revenue now. We're all excited going into 2015, because we know it's out of the way. We're making major upgrades to the site, and they're going to be a lot of fun.
          
          - &Arvind , CEO"

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             NateB11posted 9 years agoin reply to this

             Thanks, that clarifies it. I've been wondering what Arvind really had to say. Lots of speculation out here about the whole thing. But what he said there makes sense. They simply didn't and don't have the money. Advertisers don't pay what they were paying us, everyone knows that. Now they settled it at the affordable, practical rate. Better than nothing, about the same as every other site.

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                colorfuloneposted 9 years agoin reply to this

                I published a bubble last evening to see the results.
                It earned .12, which is a more reasonable rate then it was.
                Its better than any other site is paying for 400 characters.

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                1. 84

                   NateB11posted 9 years agoin reply to this

                   I agree. That amount of content at that rate is fair and reasonable; when compared to what sites generally pay and what is possible.
                   
                   I think the thing is Arvind isn't a businessman. He went to college to study biology, I think. When you put the pieces together, it makes sense. Learning curve is correct. I believe him.

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                      colorfuloneposted 9 years agoin reply to this

                      I guess they were naive, but are willing to persevere with a sullied reputation and starting again with hindsight being very valuable.

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                   2. 63

                      Lisa HWposted 9 years agoin reply to this

                      I wouldn't assume that just because he studied biology that means a) that he doesn't have business sense/skill, or b) that he doesn't know how to consult with someone who does.  I just have a feeling nobody could ever have imagined the zillions of different ways and degrees (direct and/or indirect) that people would have figured out how to scam, borderline-scam, and otherwise find ways to do havoc on even a payment system that may have factored in SOME of the types of fraud/borderline-fraud, unintended abuse and any of spin-off consequences that happened (not to mention "general Internet-cliimate changes that had nothing to do with that site, alone.
                      
                      They've only been in existence since 2012.  Who, among anyone who has paid attention to the writing site/social site thing could have predicted with certainty the k ind of stuff that would go on between "x time" and now?
                      
                      It's not like all the heavy-duty/business-minded-only people knew how to prevent their own income disasters before Panda hit; and it's not that it shoujld have a taken a whole lot of "soothsaying" for people to figure out that advertisers expect one or another thing at the end on the other side of their ads.
                      
                      It took Google (and their advertisers) to get a whole lot of people to smarten up on these "anybody-can-contribute" sites (which are, in the scheme of life,, the offline world, and history) still a relatively new thing).  I can't see just automatically assuming that any of "these" disasters are because whoever runs the site has some flaw or weakness and/or just "isn't as sharp" as would be ideal.  (Well, for that matter, people do that in offline and personal life when someone else runs into one or another kind of disaster - blaming the victim(s) (or if not "victims" then at least the people dealing with the consequences of things beyond their own control, no matter how skilled they are).
                      
                      I don't personally  know Arvind any more than I know the folks who run HP, but neither do a whole lot of other people.  It's just that making automatic presumptions and assessments about things like one's level of skill or integrity can snowball into a big, toxic, unfair, mess.  (Well, I think that happened on this site, and I'm not sure HP has completely gotten out of the woods from it eithr - at last not yet).
                      
                      This seeming lecture/rant (which wasn't/isn't intended to be either, really) isn't aimed at you, NateB.  It's just that I started to reply and kept going.       It's just that making guesses about somene's skills/ability, based on one thing they happened to focus on at one time in their life (and kind of automatically leaning toward suspecting they lack some other kind of skill because of it) is, I think, almost as toxic/dangerous and harmful to the person (and others) as accusing him of being a "scoundrel". (which I've seen others do somewhere in the mix of all this B's stuff - but, again, even with the whole Panda/HP thing too).
                      
                      I just think there can be a subtle (or not so subtle) difference between saying, "I wonder if he lacks business experience", or "maybe he doesn't have he business expertise"; and implying that since he studied biology there's a good chance he lacks other skills/know-how.  Again, all of my reply is mostly a mattr of automatic assumptions (being made in public in particular) being a button-pusher for me.  I'm mainly aiming all this at "whoever".  I just think when someone's business/professional reputation is at stake it's not all that great to give him the benefit of the doubt "because maybe he just doesn't lack enough of x skill".  Who says/thinks what on something like HP's forum may not seem to matter muck, but it automatic assumptions get passed around too many times by too many people it can become pretty destructive.

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                         NateB11posted 9 years agoin reply to this

                         I think I basically agree with you. I definitely was not slamming Arvind at all. I wouldn't know how to run a business, that's certain; I was a Poli Sci major, don't know how to manage money even slightly. I personally think he was idealistic and didn't know what  was in store when he started a site that was intended to be fair to contributors. This is not a world where it's possible to be fair; his project has proven that. It's true the scammers came out in droves just like cruel people have come out to belittle him after he admitted his mistake.
                         
                         When I say he studied biology, that's what I was getting it; I think he's a smart man that doesn't know business and didn't know how advertising and income works on the Internet. To me, that's a compliment. Knowing business obviously doesn't make someone a good human being, there are plenty of examples as to why that is not the case.
                         
                         Bashing Arvind for being naive is a good example of how people are predatory towards those who are innocent. My statement was not meant in that way. I meant that he actually believed that he could do the right thing but found out the economic structure of everywhere and particularly the Internet does not allow it.

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       Rinnegan XVposted 9 years agoin reply to this

       u really figured out much..... thats nice

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12. 69

    HappyTom LMposted 9 years ago

    I was on Bubblews for a long time. I knew it because I was on Squidoo and it was a big theme. So I went there and I stayed there. No Squidoo does not exist anymore and I will try with HubPages. I think it is great too. Let's see.

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       Rinnegan XVposted 9 years agoin reply to this

       hmm...... now the only one left is hubpages !!

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13. 85

    CassandraCaeposted 9 years ago

    I got all of my bubblews payments.  I am considering myself one of the lucky ones.

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       HappyTom LMposted 9 years agoin reply to this

       Then you are very very lucky:) Congrats on that.

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       FatFreddysCatposted 9 years agoin reply to this

       You are indeed! I hope you got out of Dodge while the gittin' was good!

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       colorfuloneposted 9 years agoin reply to this

       It is good to read that you got paid for all your redemptions.

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       Rinnegan XVposted 9 years agoin reply to this

       then u may possibly belong to their most profitable country

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14. 95

    Kierstin Gunsbergposted 9 years ago

    I never went over there. I checked it out and the writing was so poor, there was no way I would want my name associated with them. I'm glad I didn't get sucked in, it sounds like they're pretty uh, crafty...

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