"Oh yes, my opinion on this field report thing is that its totally open to abuse.
Don't believe me? Well all we have to do is write a few stories and then when we come across each others work we all give each other a high score and everyone else a low score. Its not difficult to work out. I'll get some friends involved and we'll make some money."
Our Objective Community Ranking Engine includes anti-fraud code written by serious folks who have done similar work for American Express, Citibank and the US government. In addition to an extremely sophisticated system for tracking reviewer credibility (the more credibility you have, the more your rating counts, and vice versa) we have "police workers" that run in the background, constantly looking for suspicious patterns of activity.
Ever go on vacation and get a call from your credit card company because their anti-fraud systems identified activity outside of what it considered to be normal? Same sort of deal. It's even easier to spot when groups of people do it, FYI
Why do we want true stories? Well. It's not that we're obsessed with truth. What we love are the stories people tell each other.
Stories we tell around the dinner table. ZOMG YOU HAVE TO HEAR THIS stories. Stories we overhear in restaurants. But it isn't just an aesthetic. To quote our CEO, FieldReport wants to be:
"An encyclopedia of human experience, where the experiences of others can help us come to grips with our own lives."
"A safe place where we can anonymously share some of the more confusing aspects of our lives, and find support from others in the same boat."
"An ultimate archive of our members' journeys on this earth, the place where they keep the stories of their lives for posterity."
Why so much money? For promotional reasons. You're talking about us, aren't you?
We haven't decided anything at this time, but in the future you can probably expect smaller grand prizes that come with smaller amounts of cash along with a book deal from a major publisher, representation by an agent from a major agency, or similar.
The folks behind FieldReport are writers. We're in this for the love of writing and storytelling and wanting to share and commune with our fellow beings. We want to help our fellow writers succeed, as well as build a vehicle for our own success as writers.
I am willing to believe you were abducted by aliens. I'd love to hear about your experiences. I've met aliens myself but they weren't interested in kidnapping me; they just wanted to hang out (and chitchat excessively).
:Fuzz
