What to do with dangerous DS titles?

[stldenise]

So what do you do with a dangerous DS title? Report it, or write the correct way to do it? The topic in mind is a title about a "wood burning tent stove." Now, unless this is a stove shaped like a tent, you aren't supposed to light a fire in your tent! Heck, BSA doesn't even like the idea of battery powered tent heaters...

I thought about picking up the title to explain the dangers of fires in tents, but I'm afraid a stubborn CE will bounce it for not writing about the topic.

Additional: there's two of these titles! The other is "how to use a wood burning stove in your tent"! Oh geez, there's some idiots out there.

[SouthernFriedJulie]

Claim, report, then release. Pretty sure that's how it works. See if you can get the title's ID # when you claim.

[plaidearthworm]

If it's too dangerous to write, you can even report it without claiming it. They'll delete it as soon as they know. I've done this with a couple of titles I've seen, including one on how to mix ammonia and bleach (!). Go to the Title Clarification forum, they work pretty fast through reported titles and changes.

[Words Are My Life]

Can you also report titles that are wrong??

I saw a title "Restaurants in Noonachie New Jersey" and I know for a fact that Noonachie is not a real town...they meant to say Moonachie.

[plaidearthworm]

For a title that has a typo like that, you would need to claim it first; I've had several titles about Epsom salt that listed Epson salt instead. I just posted the title in the TC thread, had it changed and went on to write the piece. If you don't claim it, someone else could nab it while you're waiting to have it changed. I saw an article on 'Branson, Missouri casinos' and I know for a fact there's no casinos within several hours of town. I started to post for a correction but didn't claim it first. It was gone by the time I finished the post. Oh well. :)

[Still Seaking]

What about titles that are impossible to write? I’ve been writing for DS for a while and all of a sudden I’m having a huge problem where I claim a title, start doing the research and find it simply cannot be done. For instance how to remove a drip pan that cannot be removed. I claimed the title because it sounded easy, I had removed the one on my fridge many times before but when I researched this particular brand, I found it can’t be removed at all. So I removed the title. What would be the correct way to approach this in the future?

It would be nice in these instances if we were to receive some sort of compensation for our time. When I research, I research and when I say it can’t be done, I can’t find anywhere that says there is any possible way so I’ve wasted my time on research for an article that I will never be able to write, thus never be compensated for.

SS

[jeffo]

My suggestion is that you figure out if you can do the article before you claim. Yes, I know, not always that easy. But in the example you just listed, Still Seaking, there's not much you can do. You think you can do it, claim it first, otherwise you might lose it. There's no penalty for releasing an article (as long as you don't release more than you write).

For the most part, I don't even claim an article on DS if it actually requires any real research. If I can't answer the question without looking up anything, the money just isn't worth my time. Heck, ever since they started forcing me to come up with web sites to "support" my writing, I'm not sure its near as worth my time any more. And with the random rejects for weird reasons, it really ends up taking too long. If it takes me more than an hour to write four $15 articles, especially including research and rewrites, its just not worth it to me any more.

[Angie]

What about titles that are impossible to write? I’ve been writing for DS for a while and all of a sudden I’m having a huge problem where I claim a title, start doing the research and find it simply cannot be done.

Here's what I do when I'm looking for titles: I have one tab open on the Find Assignments page and another open to Google. If I find a title I like, I claim it, then hop straight over to do a quick Google search. If there are no good references within five minutes of looking, I un-claim the title and move on.

[Words Are My Life]

Here's what I do when I'm looking for titles: I have one tab open on the Find Assignments page and another open to Google. If I find a title I like, I claim it, then hop straight over to do a quick Google search. If there are no good references within five minutes of looking, I un-claim the title and move on.

Yes, I do the same thing!!

First, I use keywords that I think will pull up topics I have knowledge in--restaurants in my area, medical conditions I have or have a family member that has, a hobby I do etc.

But even with that, since we do need some references, I always do a quick Google and make sure there is something worth being a resource.

[Still Seaking]

Thanks all. I have been planning to give each article a 5-minute time cap, that also provides me with websites for resources but I have a bad habit of trying to max my quota and keep it full then write the articles. Especially when good ones become thin pickings. I agree, more than an hour total time is too much, most take about 30 – 45 minutes for claim, research, write, and submit. The only rewrites I do are very simple, like the link didn’t go through for one of the resources or very simple stuff. Some of the editors are more like iditors. One actually asked me if I meant to turn off the power to the appliance or to the entire house. I’m sorry, if that’s a question you’re asking you shouldn’t be left unsupervised anywhere ever and certainly shouldn’t be attempting to do anything.

I received an invite to be a title proffer, no word yet but it’s still listed as being reviewed so I haven’t been rejected. Maybe if we can get some people proofing titles with just a smidge of common since and something resembling a brain, things will get better.

I found another website I think I might consider writing for, however I hadn’t gotten any sleep (not that I’ve had much more now) but when I tried to search for it here I didn’t find anything at all. Have any of you ever heard of, worked for or know anyone who knows anything about https://writers.life123.com/index.jhtml?utm_source=Life123&utm_medium=Link&utm_campaign=HeaderCommunity?

Thanks again all, I think I’m going to try that sleeping thing again.

SS

[stldenise]

Haha! I've been granted flagging status! DS sent me an email saying they're rolling out a new feature that will let some writers flag bad titles. These will be pulled from the list and sent to an editor to look over. We can flag things that are dangerous, criminal, and just plain wrong. Stuff in the wrong category or misspelled still stay and need to be reported the old way if they bug you.

The email said that I was selected because of my quantity and quality, and if that's it, I'm going to guess most of us here (except newbies) will get the feature too.

They can take the feature away from any writer who abuses it. I'm glad they're doing something about this. I think I've only been moved to report a very few titles because it was out of my way. But if we can just click them away, we can clean up the lists a lot quicker.

[princessvessna]

I'm a flagger too! :D
It will be nice when they get around to fixing the categories too :P

[Angie]

I got the email to be a flagger today too. I wish they could add an option to it to move the titles to the correct categories -- though that would be an all day job by itself the way they're messed up now, so never mind.

[Blarg]

If it takes me more than an hour to write four $15 articles, especially including research and rewrites, its just not worth it to me any more.

Maybe I'm missing something here, but are you saying that $60/hour isn't a high enough wage for you? Or is just barely enough or something like that?

Because lawyers who charge $200 an hour are often effectively paid far less than that since billable hours versus real hours are almost totally unrelated for most of them. If you could guarantee them $60 an hour or close, a lot of law schools would empty and a lot of lawyers would quit to work for DS.

[jeffo]

I'm saying that $60 an hour IS a high enough wage for me. Less than that, related to DS, is not. Similar to lawyers, that doesn't mean I get to work for 40 hours a week at $60 an hour. Sadly, with the messed up categories these days there, it usually takes me around an hour just to find four $15 articles (which lowers the overall hourly rate). Then I have to account for more time with the inevitable requests for rewrites, which lowers it even more. I have been writing for DS for over a year now, and most of the changes they have implemented in the past 6 months have just made it more and more difficult to work with them, so there's also the frustration factor dealing with them now, too.