Platinum Lounge is Going Downhill!

I have gone back to myLot because I am very disappointed with Platinum Lounge.. I have been away

from myLot for a while because Platinum Lounge was paying better, but that was only in

pre-launch. Now they are seriously going downhill. Now I'm not all about the money, but I am on

limited income and thus have to arrange my time so that I can maximize the amount of spare cash I

bring in. That's why I stopped going on myLot, because at the time Platinum Lounge was paying

more.

Now I must rant because they have thoroughly pissed me off. The admin has got me fuming and I

have to let it out.

For one thing, I am visually impaired and when I first joined, their accessibility with regards

to posting discussions and responses was terrible. I could see it some with zoomtext but could

not use it at all with a screen reader, and my fiance as well as other blind friends joined and

found it inaccessible as well. I wrote to the admin and he assured me they would fix it, but it

took around a month to get done, and I had to ride him about it the entire time. He never

would've done it if I hadn't kept on him about it.

On top of all this, there were a multitude of picture based contests which my friends and I could

not participate in. He assured me that they would reduce the picture based ones, but keep them in

for those who like such things. I accepted this as I fully understand the need to appeal to a

variety of people. The problem is that the picture based contests did not decrease, but instead

increased, and there were very few text based contests, most of which involved pictures as well

and could not be completed with the text alone.

I also asked him to do something extremely simple. While I was there, they put in ranking icons

because they pay you in a tier based system, so the higher rank you are the more you get paid,

and the bottom two ranks don't get paid. I asked him to label the graphic on the icon so that my

screen reader would tell me my rank and he never did this. For someone who knows how to make a

website like he does, labelling a graphic is one of the simplest things you could do.

Not only that, but you have to get a debit card to be paid, one which they endorse and is

currently the only means of payment, and which now many users are complaining about having

problems with. They are about to use bank accounts but I don't think I'd want them to have that

info, and they still do not pay non-US citizens.

Also, they do not pay all their users, as I stated earlier. They pay in a tier based system that

is constantly getting worse. The exchange rate of the points is going down rapidly and I feel

that now myLot pays far better, when it used to be the other way around, and it is virtually

impossible now to get enough points to be paid without spending money. Still, I paid $35 at their

new gorilla store cuz they were giving 80k points per purchase and I bought three items, thinking

I would make up my $35 but I only got back $5. When I first joined during mid June, while it was

still in pre-launch, I made payout within two weeks and got my $5 for about 1800 points. Now, I

have over 141k points left and still cannot even get $5.

Well, saying I have those points isn't accurate anymore. Last night, after realizing that I was

not getting paid anymore, I decided to have a contest for someone to win all my points. This is

where he is stingy. I had the contest for newbies with under 50k points and said the first person

to guess the name of my mom's cat could have my points. I was leaving anyway so why let them go

to waste. I earned those points myself so it should be up to me what is done with them. Well I

logged in a few minutes ago to check the contest, but it said my account was not activated. He

banned me for offering to give my points to someone who needed them more than I! If that's not

stingy, I don't know what is! When I first joined, I could make about $5 per week with about 1-2

hours per day. Now, I couldn't make $5 per week, even if I spent 24 hours a day posting. And so,

I am back on myLot and don't plan to leave again, not for a while and not unless I can find

something that pays considerably more and is stable.

I realize Platinum Lounge was in pre-launch when I joined and I didn't expect the exchange rate

to stay so good, but the drop it has made is ridiculous, and the points are still being devalued

not only daily, but hourly.

As a whole, I think the site is going down the tubes and will not last half as long as myLot has

been around. The admin is stingy, unwilling to make the site screen reader friendly, doesn't pay

everyone, the exchange rate decreases hourly, their only source of payment has had many recent

complaints, they still don't pay non-Americans, and they don't have many features, and are very

slow to put new ones in.

I think the admin had a good idea, but he did not plan well and did not look at the big picture

and so is swamped with more than he can handle, which will ultimately be PL's undoing. Sure it

may last as a free forum, but not a paid one.