Wikinut exploded on the publishing market, appearing to be the quality site we all wanted.
Writers were willing to 'build' the site, assuming that hits would increase as would revenue and that with hrd work the site could reach a wide audience. After a few years, all that work was for naught. Hits dropped by 50%. The writing became pedestrian, when it had been quite promising. The Site owner; 'Chief Nut' hasn't been seen for over a year, and the Mods are an uneven crew; two tend to boost each other's writing to 'Star Page', ensuring at least two pieces of garbge every day. The better writers are gone or make few contributions.
What Happened?
Unlike sites as Bukisa which change from reasonable to ridiculous, (currently the new page is so bad that members can't publish and newbies can't join) or which are proven to be rip offs, (such as Factoidz and his ugly child Knoji) Wikinut dug its own grave by paying so badly yet demanding such work that it became a waste of keystrokes.
To be published one needs over 500 words. To be ranked one needs to have lots of images, backlinks, and bolds. It may take you an hour to write an article and another hour to find the images, to do the back linking, and of course, what should be bold and what should not.
It would not be onerous if the site paid something like 1c for every 20 views, but it doesn't. It pays on some odd measure and every other month. Making $5.00 is quite a bit on the site as is getting 200 hits. For less that 60,000 visitors arrive in a month.
The site should be a leader; it is moderated, it is visually interesting, but the Absent owner and the back scratching of the mods insures that what is featured is often the very worst that Wikinut has to offer.
Although in cases as this it is virtually insured that by December it will be down, it could be saved.
This would happen if the Owner did something to promote the best work on the site, took some control of what is published, and paid writers a reasonable amount as well as being upfront about how revenue is calculated.
Alas, this won't happen.
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