MyLot

In 8 months, I earned under $4 - not very impressive, especially if you're British; and the minimum payout of $10 is by the exchange rate a measly fiver, which'll just about get me by train to the nearest town, or maybe buy two blocks of cheap cheese.

The earnings system is random; it seems that someone at the unseen face of MyLot chooses how much your discussion or response is worth and you do not know on what factors this has been decided.

To start with, MyLot sounded interesting. You choose icons to show your interests, but I didn't dream that selecting I ate bananas would mean I'd be sent discussions about them - how much can you say?! Yet many of the things I selected which I would like to talk about - favourite films, books, music - do not elicit topics.

The site is in English but many users cannot speak it. They are desperately trying to sound literate but this clunky formal textbook - and hopelessly inaccurate - prose drips out.

And often the discussions are on nothing worthwhile. 'What's your favourite pizza?' recurs weekly. Do you put water beside your bed? How old were you when you stopped believing in Father Christmas? Do you still read books?(!) (I often wonder if this is a site for the illiterate and ignorant.)

There are discussions on serious topics, supposedly, and Obama's name recurs more often than it must be spoken to him by his family. Then there's the angry at God gang - and the incendiary fundamentalists in the religious section.

With such frequent posts, many that you create may not be seen or responded to by many users. Users are bombarded with a daily list by email of the silliest new discussions in their chosen areas of interest. I increasingly found myself deleting this list, disheartened by how little I was earning and the paucity of discussions and responses.

You also can't even move one letter around when you're typing - this will result in the whole of your comment being erased. There is also ridiculousness around mate content. Mention of gay, abortion will flag up that you need to subscribe to having it or not be allowed to post. But MyLot does not explain what Mature Content is, and many of us wondered what filthy rubbish we might expose ourselves to buy changing that preference on our profile.

There's regular flash ups from virus giving and scammy looking sites, which give less credibility to MyLot.

I researched MyLot a little before trying it, and I recall one blogger saying how they claimed the copyright of her personal pictures, even after she'd resigned from the site.

It's proven difficult to escape from MyLot, who don't make 'Unsubscribe or leave' an easy tab to find on the site. In FAQs, they are referred to the intimidating terms and conditions.

It's felt like a time wasting exercise which proves that these internet forums are used often by the least intelligent and literary, and that and I've had my lot of MyLot.