Cosmotourist

her said:

Hi Shreena,

I just wanted to draw your attention to the fact that tips that are shorter than 500 characters wont be paid. I think you may find you need to go and edit some of your work as a result.

Best Wishes,

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me said:

The contract says the tips need to be around 500 words, and my tips are around that length - just so I know, what is the absolute cut off point?

I am still unable to change any of my Australian posts, as they have been blocked. Could you try again to remove these at your end so I can edit them?

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her said:

Tips need to be a minimum of 500 characters- see Rufus T Firefly as an example.

What is the problem with your Australia tips- please clarify.

Best Wishes,

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me said:

As you will recall, you asked me to edit my Australian tips but I said I could not edit them as the website would not let me, and would you delete them so I could re-add them. You said I had to save the tips before you could delete them so they wouldn't be lost, which I did and emailed you to tell you. This was several weeks ago now.

Also, the contract clearly states:

Contributor agrees to produce written materials (travel tips) and if possible photographs for the webpage www.cosmotourist.com at the request of Cosmotourist for 1.50GBP per travel tip of approximately 500 characters in length

which does not state that the tips need to be a minumum of 500 characters. I will try to do this in future, but as the contract does not state a MINIMUM of 500 characters, I should not be penalised for writing APPROXIMATELY 500 characters, as this would breach the contract.

In future, please be more explicit about guidelines. I have had to re-edit my tips several times this month because specifications have been made in bits and pieces and vaguely. It will be more efficient for the both of us.

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her said:

As requested I have deleted the tips you now just need to repost them.

Re the 500 characters your tip on Rufus T Firefly's is only 427 letters in length- this is not approx 500 characters. Please make sure that tips are longer than this.

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me said:

My Rufus T Firefly's tip is 513 characters long

On a rainy evening last year, I travelled up a soggy hill to meet some friends in Rufus T Firefly's.

Despite its uninteresting exterior, this bar is warm and inviting - something special in a city that may seem intimidating to an outsider. The staff are request-friendly, both regarding the jukebox and their drinks menu, and the kitchen serves up some some fantastic comfort food. There's a friendly atmosphere, which provokes a lot of interesting conversation. Exactly what I needed on that cold and wet night.


I will get on with re-uploading those Australian tips!

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her said:

Hi Shreena,

That would be with spaces.

Thank you for editing your Australia tips.

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me said:

Those Australian tips are still up there, and I still can't edit or delete

http://www.cosmotourist.com/travel-blog/view/s/812/t/national-gallery-of-victoria-international/
http://www.cosmotourist.com/travel-blog/view/s/811/t/acca/


And of course spaces are counted in the character count - I have checked with Word, Open Office, and Cut and Paste Character count and they all do this. Is there a better program you can suggest, as the standard across the board seems to be to include spaces, which once again is something not specified in the contract or any documentation I have received.

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her said:

How strange- I will get back to you on those asap.

Re the character count I am more concerned about tips not containing valuable information rather than disputing about the length of tips.
The following tip simply doesnt contain much of interest:

On a rainy evening last year, I travelled up a soggy hill to meet some friends in Rufus T Firefly's.

Despite its uninteresting exterior, this bar is warm and inviting - something special in a city that may seem intimidating to an outsider. The staff are request-friendly, both regarding the jukebox and their drinks menu, and the kitchen serves up some some fantastic comfort food. There's a friendly atmosphere, which provokes a lot of interesting conversation. Exactly what I needed on that cold and wet night.


"There's a friendly atmosphere, which provokes a lot of interesting conversation." This needs to be explained rather than just a sweeping comment. How did the atmosphere provoke a lot of interesting information?
What about the prices in the restaurant? What kind of food was offered? Why was the interior uninteresting?

I will make sure I let you know as soon as I know more about the Australia issue.

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me said:

The interior wasn't uninteresting, I already said it provides comfort food, and I meant a friendly atmosphere makes people more inclined to relax and talk.

Looking at what most of the other people are posting on the site, what I have put doesn't seem unusual in the least. If what you are looking for is a critical review of these places, I am surprised you are promoting them in this format, and offering as little as £1.50 per review (for a bit of comparison, I have just been offered £50 per 500 word article to write a column for a Chelsea magazine - that works out at £8 for what was posted above alone). This is yet another thing that wasn't described in the contract or introduction. I have taken the existing reviews as an example and followed them.

I find these regular requests to revise and re-revise work very unprofessional, Penny. As I'm sure you will agree, it is a waste of both our time, and would be more efficient if all of this is explained efficiently from the outset. To be honest, if I had been aware of all of these extra "conditions" from the outset, I would not have taken up the job.

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