New Freelance Editing Feature for CloudCrowd

CloudCrowd listened to the feedback regarding work rejected for minor issues like a space missing after a comma or a small typo, and we are releasing a new version of the review process called "Review and Fix." Rather than simply rejecting work with minor flaws, reviewing editors will have an option to make minor corrections and receive a fix-it-fee for doing so. The Review and Fix will be released very soon so please be patient with us as we move to make what CloudCrowd sees as a major process improvement for our editors.

Why do we call it a Fix-it-Fee? [and not a bonus?]

We're going to call the increased pay an added fee because the fee will be taken from the original editor. The original editor will essentially receive a small penalty for missing or making the mistake. The upside is that more work will be accepted, thereby increasing the overall earnings for our editors. The fix-it-fee is equal to $0.25.

What are the implications?

The review workers will have to be even more diligent not to make changes for stylistic reasons because workers will still have the option to make appeals. Moreover, CloudCrowd conducts routine audits of our workers and if we see that a worker is submitting a very high volume of review work as fixed, we will find people who are abusing the system. With that as the premise, there will be disagreements between editors on comma usage rules or quotation. CloudCrowd is developing a styleguide to address this issue.

What are the conditions for making a fix?

Among the first questions a reviewer is going to ask when opening a document is whether it needs fixes or not. To help, CloudCrowd is providing a few suggested guidelines.

Missing space between words;
Minor typo such as reversed letters;
Slightly flawed word choice which may include incorrect preposition use, lack of the 'ly' on adverbs, inconsistent capitalization or missing a "the" are all great examples of minor fixes that take nearly zero time to do yet have a major impact on document quality;
Punctuation errors such as incorrect semi-colon usage, quote placement or comma over-use are all easy to fix once spotted.

This is not meant by any means to be a restrictive list; it's merely a guide for the type of errors our reviewers should be fixing. Just as before, if a document is poorly edited, or not edited at all, then it should be rejected. There's no reason to accept bad work from someone else just for an extra quarter.

Want to learn more?

Read the Review and Fix instructions.

Think this process could be even better? Have a suggestion for minor fixes not listed here?

Make a comment on the official discussion thread for Review and Fix.