Associated Content Announces Winners of 2nd Annual People’s Media Awards

Associated Content announced the winners of its 2nd annual, $10,000 awards today. Most of the awards are based on the amount of traffic generated for the site, but hidden within this years winners were a few gems of outstandingly well-written web content. The winners were:

Content Producer of the Year
Pam Gaulin writes on a variety of topics, has a tremendous following of readers, and promotes the general welfare of her fellow writers with site like AC Writers at Ning. On a personal note, Pam had my vote from the start for top honors.
Pam Gaulin’s CP page
Prize: $2,000

Best of AC Text
Michelle Devon. Don’t stop with just “Michy’s” winning article. She has a couple of hundred and everyone is worth the read. Beyond her fantastic writing abilities, she goes out of her way to mentor new writers and spread the wealth of writing opportunities with her own site, Accentuate.
Confessions of a Writer: The Ugly Truth About Being a Writer
Prize: $1000

Rosa Hayes wrote this astounding, personal piece about the loss of her son. Her other articles cover a spectrum of topics and always have great information.
Oklahoma City Mother Recounts the Death of Her Son
Prize: $1000

Jean Riva. I found Jean through another site before I found her writings. Her articles are full of the love and frustrations of life. When she is not caring for her husband, she spends her time writing insightful, humorous articles and spreading awareness of language aphasia.
How My Husband’s Stroke Changed My Life
Prize: $1000

Best of AC Video
Aaron Jaffe
Diamonds Are Not a Girl’s Best Friend
Prize: $1000

Best of AC Audio
Ken McCoy
Ken McCoy Entertainment Report
Prize: $1000

Best of AC Slideshow
Aly Adair
Aly’s Aesthetic Glory
Prize: $1000

Top Performing* Text
Neph
Webkinz World Secret Cheat Codes
Prize: $1000

Top Performing* Richmedia
Kelly Fleming
Craiglist: There is Something for Everyone
Prize: $1000

1,000 other members of the Associated Content community also were given recognition (i.e. no money) based on the number of hits generated for the site. Congratulations to all of this years winners.

*based on hits.

Pissing and Moaning About Phamacists, Again

One of my first articles submitted to Associated Content was a rant about the treatment my wife and I receive at pharmacies (Pharmacist’s Opinions Now Out Weigh Doctor’s Orders, July 2006). As far as the writing goes, I could have done a better job getting my point across. As far as the topic goes, it persist to this day and is getting worse.

My wife called our local Walgreens three days ago to get a refill of her Xanax prescription. She was told that it wouldn’t be refillable until Saturday, 1/26. That was cool. No problem. It’s always good to call ahead and have things waiting.

She called Saturday morning to make sure it was ready. The pharmacist on duty told her it couldn’t be refilled until Sunday, 1/27. Grrrrr! Who died and made you God, Ms. Pharmacist? Why would your people tell us the 26th when you are going to make a personal decision to not fill it until the 27th?

That is my main complaint with the chain pharmacies…no consistent policies. Everything is left up to the whim of the pharmacist on duty. Getting a refill is like playing Russian Roulette. I’ve even had one pharmacist refuse to fill a written prescription at 7AM because he knew he was going off duty at 8AM. The shift change made all the difference and the 8 o’clock guy had no problem counting out the pills.

Knowing the system means you can game the system, though. My wife simply made a phone call to the next Walgreens down the road and they had no problem filling the script on Saturday.

I’m not bashing Walgreens as a whole. Just the inconsistent policies. I regularly go to a particular Walgreens every month for a reoccurring prescription and John, the PharmD, is the nicest guy in the world. The people at the Walgreens where I picked up the Xanax today were very polite, friendly, and quick. But the Walgreens at 7813 Highway 72 W Madison, AL apparently only hires cold, hard bitches who have their own policies about what scripts are valid and when they will fill them.

This isn’t the first time we’ve been treated with complete and utter disdain by the staff at that particular store. So don’t give me any bullshit about “pharmacist are professionals who are trained to look out for your well-being.” This crew at this particular Walgreens is just a customer dis-service nightmare. I vow before the internet gods, I will not set foot in that store again. I’ll drive the extra 6 miles or go across the street to Publix.

Personally, my view on drugs is very Libertarian. Make it all legal and available over the counter. Let Darwin deal with the rest. If you’re so ill informed and stupid to take a fist full of sleeping aids and wake up dead, then the world is free of 23 chromosomes that won’t dumb down the herd. Sure it would put the pharmacist out of a job, but they’re always hiring check-out clerks at Walmart.

Amish OnLine Launches

AmishOnLine.ning.com

I’ve been itching to start a place where comedy lives. A place where writers and comedians can share their experiences with the art and science of humor. I took the big plunge and started a social-disease-networking site at Ning, ironically named AmishOnLine.

If you’re an established or budding humorist, satirist, comedian, cartoonist, or just slightly off-kilter, I encourage you to join. We’ll laugh, maybe at you or just near you, I don’t know which.  It’s hard to tell who is pointing and giggling online.

Just follow the link and tell us a little about yourself. It’s brand-freaking new, so there’s not much there, but the upside is, as an inaugural member, you can help shape the site.  Brothers and Sisters, I urge you to join the modern movement that is AmishOnLine.

Annoying Expression #34

As a addendum to my 33 Annoying Expressions that Killed Our Conversation, allow me to add #34.

Over the end-of-year holidays, I took some time off from work…all kinds of work…including shaving. By the time 2008 rolled in, I had to make a decision. I had to either shave or put a crowbar in my wallet and free $20 for a decent beard trimmer. As cheap as I am, I chose to keep my beard and opted for the trimmers. Now I am assaulted frequently with annoying expression number 34: “Hey, you’re trying to grow a beard.”

Some of my snappy comebacks are “No. It’s grown,” and “Trying? No. I’m doing a damn fine job of it” and “I have to do something with all this testosterone since your wife cut me off.” Grabbing my face like Macaulay Culkin in Home Alone and screaming, “Where the hell did this come from?” hasn’t offered the impact I’d hoped.

The reason “Hey, you’re trying to grow a beard” grinds my gears is men are always growing beards. That’s the whole point of shaving every day. By shaving, we men are constantly trying not to grow beards.

Which makes me think of a new witty comeback for the next clean-shaved dunderhead who accosts me with this annoying expression. “I see you’re trying not to, putz.” I should just start walking up to people and saying that without provocation. Lord knows I can be annoying, too. My skills may go soft if I don’t practice more.

Associated Content Steps Up Plagiarism Checks

Associated Content allows contributors to submit articles for both review and immediate publication. With either submission type, more so with the un-reviewed, plagiarism is always a problem. This is true of any site. If VentureBeat is on target, Associated Content has just raised the stakes for those unscrupulous people who would rip-off a legitimate author’s work.

VentureBeat reports that AC has added Attributor software to their process to scan the web for plagiarized articles. Unfortunately, many contributors use articles that they have previously put on the web as re-publish fodder for AC. This becomes a sticky situation for software that only matches chucks of text.

In the past, some AC contributors have been on the receiving end of nasty-grams from AC when their old articles were detected by their current plagiarism-detection software. When the bylines didn’t match, it became a non-starter for the publication of the material at AC. There have also been cases where the bylines matched perfectly, but AC’s over-protective software still flagged the article and the author still got the hassle-gram.

An article submitted to AC for payment consideration will obviously be subject to plagiarism scanning, but it is unclear if/how AC intends to implement this for other articles. Most of the articles that have created the accusations of plagiarism in the past were submitted under AC’s non-reviewed, bonus-only payment program. One wonders if AC will police its contributions on a regular basis regardless of review. Maybe a periodic scan of all recently published articles in the works. This writer welcomes such a policy. It only takes a few unethical people to make an entire community look like crooks.

On a related note, AC recently published new photo-use guidelines.  There has been no end to confusion of correct use of photos to compliment an article.  Many people just pull photos from anywhere on the web without regard to copyright.  AC took recent steps to limit and/or strip suspect and improperly cited photos from their site.  The new guidelines don’t address every source of free photos, but make it clear that just finding a picture on the web isn’t a valid reason for using it.

The Associated Content Two-Step

…or why this post had a question mark in the title.

Associated Content did a little back peddle today. The same “VP of Community Development” who posted the policy change about non-exclusive content no longer receiving up-front payment consideration, posted and update today which included “We will continue to evaluate content submissions for upfront payments on both an exclusive and non-exclusive basis.”

Current crisis avoided. However, hints were left in the explanation that a change is still waiting in the wings. The rush to change was blamed on ” …a serious legal issue.” I don’t have any facts or background on what this issue was, but I’m guessing it was probably complaints from other sites such as Mashable.com that triggered this.

Accusations of copyright infringement were made by some contributors to Mashable. AC founder Luke Betty responded, but the whining continued by the Mashable community ad nauseum despite AC’s assurance that better checks would be put into their system.

The real question is what changes does Associated Content have planned and how long will it take to implement them? The AC staff certainly got an eye full of forum posts on the subject. Many AC contributors had excellent alternatives to the heavy-hand “no soup for you” ruling that AC first announced. Time and tide…and stay tuned for more.

Associated Content Changing Submission Policy?

What’s Changing at Associated Content
It appears as though AC has changed its submission policy. Their new “VP for Community Development” dropped this forum bomb today around 3:45 MT. “…content submitted on a non-exclusive basis will not be considered for upfront payment.”

This is a major change in payment policy for AC. They have operated for three years by giving up-front payment consideration for both exclusive and non-exclusive work. With one forum post, this seems to be a thing of the past. If you expect anything more than the performace incentive, you’ll have to choose the exclusive option when submitting your article.

Why it’s Changing
Simply, this was just a matter of time. AC loses hits when the same articles start showing up on other sites. I’ve had it in the back of my mind for a year now that AC would do something to encourage more exclusive submissions. The pay differential between the two choices was barely noticeable. Instead of considering the carrot approach of increasing payments for exclusive articles, AC swung the other way and chose the stick approach of cutting off payments for non-exclusives.

How it Happened
In a word, poorly. A brief forum post with little explanation has left the community reeling. No other official communication was sent. This leaves the majority of the AC writers, those who never visit the forum section, totally in the dark.

Apparently, AC management failed to notify the site programmers of this unilateral decision, too. Nothing on the site has changed. The submission guideline language and FAQ remain unchanged. The submission template section where the writer selects the various payment consideration options and exclusivity of the piece still allow for any and all combinations.

AC really could have planned this better. The fallout potential is huge as unwitting writers continue to submit articles like they have for 3 years, only to have them rejected because of the allowable selections they made when submitting.

The ironic thing is, a site which solicits writers has a vested interest in keeping those writers informed of change. Pissed of writers with keyboards and blogs can do great damage to a site.

Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that. Watching AC scramble to catch up and/or back peddle should be entertaining for the next few days.

Getting handier by the minute

I’ve never been too handy with those little home repairs. My kitchen sink has been leaking for almost a year now. For two months, the sprayer has been laying in the sink to keep the water from running over the hose and into the cabinet below. That’s my solution. I’ll do anything to avoid tackling the problem. But the tide may be turning.

We’ve never had a key to the back door. It had a deadbolt that required a key from both sides and the previous owner failed to pass that along at signing. If it wasn’t closed just right, a good wind would blow it open. I figured, how hard can replacing a lock be? It’s just a couple of screws. So I picked up a new deadbolt, one with a turn-latch on the inside and key on the outside, and replaced the back door lock in just a few minutes. That got my confidence up and I decided to tackle the next job.

We have a picket fence around the backyard. It’s cute, but less than functional, if the main function is to keep the vicious hounds enclosed. My five-pound miniature Chihuahuas can step right through the pickets. They think the coolest trick in the world is to slide through the fence and make a break for the front yard, the neighbor’s yard, the street, or anyone walking down the sidewalk.

An idea to remedy this situation came to me in a flash of brilliance…lattice. I bought some two-foot-wide lattice and nailed it to the inside of the pickets along the sixteen feet of fence and gate that leads to the front. It worked perfectly and only took 30 minutes, including hand-cutting the lattice to fit each of the three sections. I thought it was an ingenious solution.

It appears I’m turning into quite the handy man. My confidence is high and next month, I plan to take on that kitchen faucet. I may even buy some decent tools.

I give the dogs a week before they figure out there is still 100 feet of unprotected picket fence still vulnerable to their evil games.

33 Annoying Expressions that Killed Our Conversation

Do the expressions we use really make sense? Some expressions, when taken to their logical conclusion, don’t mean what we intend. Some are just flat-out wrong and people continue to use them…wrongly. Other expressions are simply annoying. Maybe I’m over thinking some of these, but hearing these clichés is like having a cheese grater scraped over my ears. We all have peeves and these are some of mine.

Here are a couple of excerpts. If you like these, you’ll love the rest:

Better late than never.
That really depends on what it is. I doubt you would say this to the paramedics if they showed up 4 hours after you called 911. I bet your boss never says this either. Bosses tend to want things now or a least on time.

Don’t judge a book by its cover.
If we didn’t, life would be much more complicated than it is. We make snap judgments and quick decision based on the superficial everyday. If we didn’t have our prejudices, simple things like ordering dinner in a restaurant would take hours while we weighed every entrée’s attributes and compared the balance of herbs in each dish. Looking at the dessert menu would drive us insane. You know you love chocolate, so you can quickly order the double-fudge brownie á la mode and not worry about the other desserts or your cholesterol, apparently.

Self Help Book.
Unless you wrote the book, it’s just regular help. If you are not the author, you are getting help from someone else; therefore you are not helping yourself. I really hate this section of the bookstore, too. Every new-age whack job with a theory about an Oedipus complex or eating disorders has a 150-page tree killer about how crystals can make your poop smell like roses while good writers starve.

Read 30 more annoying expressions. Come be incensed, indignant and annoyed with everyone else. Let me know what your pet peeve phrase is. >>

Conflicted Over This One

I’m not usually an obituary collector, but this deserves special attention. I’m conflicted. On the one hand, I mourn the loss of an innocent, infant life. On the other hand, I can only think that rabid football and NASCAR fans should not procreate at all.

First, you must understand that Choctaw County, Alabama isn’t known as the center of the intellectual universe. Second, college football is the only reason some people carry on from day to day. This is true in many place, not at all limited to Southern States. If you are, are becoming, or know anyone who would do this to their poor child, seek rehab or plan an intervention immediately.

This is the obituary from AL.COM, the Mobile addition. (Note: that is the city of Mobile, pronounced “Mo-bee-l”. Not to be confused with a mobile, pronounce “Mo-bile”, version of the internet on your sorry-ass iPhone.) . It reads as follows:

CHOCTAW COUNTY

Conagher Crimson Tideus Maximus Sellers, a native and resident of Gilbertown, died Sunday at a family home. He was an infant.

This is the point where a true Southerner would add the phrase, “Bless his heart.” This poor departed soul’s parents are such entrenched U. of AL fans, they named their child after the Crimson Tide, nickname for the school’s football team. As if Conagher wasn’t bad enough, they tacked on “Crimson Tideus Maximus.” It sounds vaguely august, in a redneck sort of way, too.

I don’t know these folks, but something tells me the kid had a the number 3 shaved into his head in memory of Dale Earnhardt Jr. Dad either has a matching tattoo or a #3 shaved into his back hair.

Rest in peace Conagher. You are safer in the bosom of the Lord than you would have been getting your ass repeatedly kicked from age 6 to 17.