Hello! I started scheduling conversations in order to earn points that could then be used to pay for my premium membership. I have no other need for points. I have many contacts with whom I can speak for free, and they are more than willing to correct my Portuguese. How do I go about applying my points towards the cost of membership?
Thanks
You must earn 6,000 points within 3 months and then contact supportATlingqDOTcom to have them converted into a 6-month Basic membership.
@Sratica - You may still find use with points, as the new Exchange allows you to request pronunciation correction, translation, audio recording and more. If you would like to purchase a membership with Points then you will need to purchase either a 6 or 12-month Premium membership. Also note that any points earned through tutoring activities will be subject to a 25% commission when cashed out or exchanged for membership.
@mikebond - Please note that with the changes to how commission is taken, any points that are earned through tutoring activities are subject to a 25% commission when cashed out. This also applies to 6 and 12-month memberships purchased with points, so the cost in points will vary depending on how your points were earned.
Hello,
I thought that this would only apply for points earned with conversations and corrections, and not for points earned for sharing content!
Cheers,
Silvia
Interesting! This system seems to favour content owners in terms of membership fees.
I thought the idea was to encourage use of points within the system, and only tutoring points cashed out would be subject to 25% commission.
I assumed the idea was to bring in as much money as possible into LingQ and have as little going out as possible.
Are you saying that content providers who exchange points for membership can do so without incurring additional fees, whereas Sratica, who wishes to convert her tuition points into membership must pay an additional 25% commission to do so, despite keeping her points within LingQ?
She is not proposing to cash her points out, but rather keep them within LingQ. If you are trying to encourage tutors to use their points within the system rather than take them out and if there is no additional 25% commission for tutors when they sign up for conversations then why are you charging tutors, and tutors alone, an additional 25% commission for keeping points within the system and using them on membership?
What am I missing here?
@2Maria - Purchasing a membership with points is essentially the same as that user cashing out their points and then purchasing a membership with the money they receive. Both actions (cashing out and purchasing membership with points) reduce the number of points in the system. It doesn’t make sense to us to charge more to one party and less to another. As far as commission goes, nothing has changed since the June 3rd update.
I am not sure if I understand it correctly either. If I have 6,000 points that were NOT earned from tutoring, can I still buy a 6-month subscription for 6,000 points?
@mikebond - Yes, that’s correct. Eventually we may come up with a better way to handle this, but these requests are fairly infrequent so we will manually handle them for now.
@Alex:
“It doesn’t make sense to us to charge more to one party and less to another” …isn’t this exactly what you are doing, then?
@2Maria - To charge more to those who cash out points then purchase a membership than to those who purchase a membership directly with points is what does not make sense to us.
Users who receive points bonuses, whether through provider awards, referral bonuses, translation bonuses, etc., are treated the same as before (no commission). Tutors who earn points in order to cash them out are treated the same as before (25% commission). Tutors who earn points in order to use them with other tutors will now have more points to use. Tutors who earn points in order to cash them out should hopefully have more students signing up for their conversations due to an increased number of points in circulation.
I hope this helps explain things more clearly.
Alex: “@2Maria - To charge more to those who cash out points then purchase a membership than to those who purchase a membership directly with points is what does not make sense to us.”
Indeed, I guess that might be where the problem lies.
By having different terms and conditions depending upon how the points were earned, layers of unnecessary complication have been added making it difficult for users to understand and far more difficult and time-consuming for administrators to administrate. One option would be to simply view points being used within LingQ and remaining in LingQ being a gain to LingQ. If points were easily usable for membership, perhaps more people who convert their points to membership. Perhaps tutors who had never used the system for learning languages might be encouraged to try it out, were it easy.
The new LingQ exchange membership could have been a simple matter of cash coming into the system through membership fees and purchase of points. Points circulating within the system and remaining in the system being used at face value. Any points being cashed out being subjected to a 25% commission fee.
A simple model of cash coming into the system allowing LingQ to flourish and cash leaving the system for whatever reason, always being subjected to a 25% commission rate.
It could have been an easy model which anyone could understand and an easy model for LingQ to administrate.
Good luck with this new model!
I look forward to returning after the dust has settled to see the latest developments.
Super timing for me personally as I am taking the summer off.
Points earned from tutoring services will no longer be subject to a 25% commission, when those points are used for other tutoring services within the community. In this case LingQ no longer earns a commission, and members keep all the points earned. This is a win for those members who tutor and use the points in the system.
If the points are cashed out, however, LingQ still takes 25%, same as before. No difference for those members who tutor and cash out. In other words the effective rate for tutoring remains $15 per hour for those that cash out, the same as before.
Simple, and straight forward.
Not so simple as it could be by any means.
Let’s take points cashed out:
Points cashed out are subjected to 25% commission in some circumstances and not in other circumstances. Points cashed out and earned from content are cashed out without commission. Points earned from tutoring are subjected to 25% commission. Points earned from exchange requests, writing, translating etc presumably are seen as tutoring and are subjected to 25% commission.
Points gifted to another member and cashed out are subjected to 25% commission if those points were earned from tutoring and perhaps also subjected to 25% commission if those points were purchased at full price by a paying member. Or perhaps not, would this depend upon the intention of the gift? Whether the gift was for content? For additional time spent in a conversation? For additional time spent on a complex writing correction? Simply because the tutor’s contribution to LingQ was valued? Simply because a member who had paid in full for points felt like rewarding another learner for their efforts in learning a language? For a reason not mentioned here?
I see the problem with the gifts point too. How will you know if they come from tutor services or from bonusses or purchased? I would think to have two seperate counters for points are needed. One for tutoring points, one for other points.
Another szenario:
I get a bonus of 50,000 points.
2 weeks later I tutor and earn 5,000 points.
Then I submit writings for corrections which costs 4,000 points.
2 weeks later I ask for a cash out of 50,000 points. How much will I get?
I would think I’ve earned 50,000 points from bonusses and that will paid out.
A simple and straight forward model for anyone to easily grasp could be considered:
A simple model of cash in at face value price ----> circulation of points within the system —> any cash out always subjected to 25% commission fee.
Simple for users to understand and simple for administrators to administrate!
A simple model of cash coming into the system allowing LingQ to flourish and cash leaving the system for whatever reason always being subjected to a 25% commission rate.
@2Maria - Yes, that is the simplest model and is what we intended to do initially but then we have the issue of content creators being subject to a 25% tax which they never were before which made them unhappy. We do have to find a simple solution here. In the meantime, we will have a different rate for points earned from content.