What qualifies as “a FieldReport”?
What are the FieldReport contests?
How do I enter, and does it cost anything?
Do I have to write a review to get review credits?
How do you know that I actually read the FieldReport I just rated?
How do I get help if something goes wrong?
I forgot my password; how do I retrieve it?
Can a FieldReport compete in multiple categories?
Can I write more than one FieldReport?
Can I edit my FieldReport after I submit it?
Can I co-author a FieldReport?
Can I give feedback to the writer?
How do I see comments left on my FieldReport?
How will I know if I’ve won a prize?
What if no one reviews my FieldReport?
What happens to my FieldReport if it doesn’t win anything?
How do I remove my FieldReport if I decide I don’t want it on the site any more?
Tell the truth—FieldReport pays its contest winners in FieldReport bucks, not real money.
How does the FieldReport’s ranking system work?
How long does the ranking process take?
How do you prevent people from gaming the system?
What if someone figured out how to game the system?
How can I write the truth without embarrassing people?
Can a FieldReport compete in multiple categories?
Can I post other content on the site?
What happens to my fieldreports if I choose not to remain a member?
If I write a FieldReport, do I keep the copyright?
Do I have to reveal my true identity to win a prize?
What is not allowed on the site?
What are the numbers after my name?
Does FieldReport share its membership list?
FieldReport is a web site—a content ranking system and publishing model. The contest is based on personal true-life stories called fieldreports—reports from the field of your life. FieldReport’s contest motivates members to submit polished work and to spend time reviewing other work on the site, while a patent-pending blind review process pushes the best submissions quickly to the top, where they can win substantial cash prizes. FieldReport is reality entertainment and the start of a new marketplace for written content on the Web.
What qualifies as a FieldReport?
A FieldReport is the true story of something you did, saw, or lived through, from your own personal point of view. Some fieldreports describe incredible happenings, but most are just honest stories about moments that meant something in the writer’s life. A FieldReport is not a non-fiction document about something that interests you but neither can it be fictional. To qualify for entry in contests, a FieldReport may not exceed 2,000 words, and may not have been previously published except on a personal blog or in a print publication with circulation under 1,000. You must hold the copyright and be willing to grant a license to FieldReport, Inc.
Breaking News—Eyewitness to current events
36 Hours—Your life in the last day and a half
TeenReport—fieldreports by teens aged 13 to 17
Animal Beings—Other creatures, wild or tame
Brush with Fame—Close encounters with celebrity
Crisis Mode—Life trauma and its aftermath
Food + Drink—Living through your palate
Friends + Family—Parents, relations, and pals
Home + Garden + Auto—Stories from where you live
Life + Me—What it feels like to be you
Love + Hate—Romantic relationships, joyous to ugly
Music + Arts—Creation, appreciation, criticism
Oddball Events—Bizarre and one-off happenings
On the Job—What goes on in the workday
Parenting + Pregnancy—Children and childbirth
Spirituality + Religion—Forces greater than ourselves
Sport + Challenge—Stories of the physical self
Style + Beauty + Body—Appearances and reality
Travel + Nature—On the road or in the wild
Witness to History—Major events and you were there
Adult Experience—True life for consenting adults
Entrants can be of any nationality, as long as FieldReport is not prohibited by local law, but must be at least 18 years of age. You must be 13 to 17 to enter the TeenReport category. Employees and directors of FieldReport and their immediate families may write fieldreports on the site, but are not eligible to win prizes.
How do I enter, and does it cost anything?
FieldReport contests have no entry fee. All you have to do is Sign Up and earn five review credits by reading and rating five fieldreports. Then you can enter your own. Just hit the Write button and follow the directions on the page. If you have less than five review credits, you may need to save your FieldReport as a draft and do some reviews before you can enter. This requirement ensures that FieldReport always has enough reviewers to fairly rank the content on our site, and also makes sure our writers fully understand how their fieldreports will be judged.
Do I have to write a review to get review credits?
No. You just have to read a FieldReport and give it a score between zero and ten using our slider bar.
How do you know that I actually read the FieldReport I just rated?
If your reviews become sloppy, you may be put on notice that you will stop receiving review credits until your credibility goes up. Your credibility is a number that is known to the system, but you do not see it and FieldReport does not disclose how it is calculated. Keeping user credibility ratings private is one way in which FieldReport protects the fairness of the system and keeps it from being gamed.
How do I get help if something goes wrong?
At any time, feel free to write to info@fieldreport.com with questions or problems.
I forgot my password; how do I retrieve it?
If you have an issue using the Forgot Password link, please write to info@fieldreport.com for assistance.
Can a FieldReport compete in multiple categories?
No, and if a FieldReport is entered in an inappropriate category, it will likely be re-categorized during the community review process, according to a consensus of reviewers.
Can I write more than one FieldReport?
As long as you earn five review credits for each FieldReport you enter in our contests, you can enter as many fieldreports as you like.
Can I edit my FieldReport after I submit it?
Yes. Before your fieldreport has received enough reviews to be scored, you can still make changes. This process takes about two weeks. You may use feedback from early reviewers to help you decide which changes to make.
Can I co-author a FieldReport?
One writer per FieldReport, please.
What happens to my fieldreports if I choose not to remain a member?
Once a FieldReport is published on the site, it remains searchable on the site regardless of whether the writer is still a member.
If I write a FieldReport, do I keep the copyright?
Yes. By publishing a piece on FieldReport and entering its contests, you are granting FieldReport a limited license on the work.
Can I give feedback to the writer?
If you would like to tell a writer why you scored a FieldReport the way you did, type your feedback into the Comments section of the Review page. If you give Comments before a FieldReport has been scored, the writer will be able to incorporate your thoughts into the FieldReport.
How do I see comments left on my FieldReport?
Comments appear at the bottom of a FieldReport; to read them, log in to the site, visit your ME page and click on the title of your fieldreport. Any that have been commented on will have those comments displayed at the bottom of the FieldReport.
What if no one reviews my FieldReport?
That’s not possible. Once a FieldReport is submitted to the site, it is shown to a willing community member who will rank it. The system will continue to put the FieldReport into the queue until it has enough reviews to get a score.
How do I remove my FieldReport if I decide I don’t want it on the site any more?
Once a FieldReport is published on the site, it remains searchable, subject to the discretion of FieldReport.
As part of the submission process, authors agree to cooperate with FieldReport staff to verify the accuracy of their stories and profile information. FieldReport's policy is to verify every winner. Because of this policy, authors know that their fieldreports and profiles need to be true, or they will likely forfeit their chances to win. Obviously, this doesn't mean you need to prove every single fact in a story, but if you say you were in Italy during an important news event, your credit card statements or passport shouldn't say otherwise.
How long does the verification and payment process take?
Less than two weeks.
How does the FieldReport ranking system work?
Almost immediately after a FieldReport is submitted to the system, it is shown to a willing reviewer for its first review. The review process is blind in the sense that the reviewer does not get to choose which piece will be reviewed, and does not know the name of the author. Each time a review is completed, a new overall score is calculated and the FieldReport is scheduled for additional reviews to arrive at a final ranking. To give all entries a fair chance, each is guaranteed a minimum number of reviews no matter what its overall score in the first few reviews; but higher-ranking entries may go on to receive hundreds or thousands of reviews. In this way the system can give highly accurate rankings to the best pieces.
How long does the ranking process take?
The ranking process is scheduled by the FieldReport system to take two weeks, but may be longer or shorter, depending on the availability of reviewers. After this initial period, the FieldReport has earned a score and is eligible to win prizes based on this score. Reviews may continue after this point, and scores may continue to move up and down. The highest-ranked contenders in each prize category are the most likely to be continuously reviewed after they have achieved a score.
We have a known problem with the AVG Internet Security Suite version 8.0, in which our review slider either moves erratically or becomes "stuck" and won't move at all. We are working on a fix for this issue; the current workaround for this issue is to uninstall the AVG Internet Security Suite.
Note that this is unrelated to the popular AVG Free Anti-Virus client.
Absolute scores are not shown so that reviewers will not be influenced by the scores other pieces are getting on the site. Instead, fieldreports are ranked by their invisible scores and the top-rated pieces display the number of points they are behind the leader.
How do you prevent people from gaming the system?
We track reviewer credibility based on a reviewer’s actions on the site. This means that if you create an account and do a lot of sloppy reviews in the hopes that your friend’s FieldReport will turn up, then by the time it finally does your review will count for nothing. Our actual methods of adjusting reviewer credibility are a closely-guarded secret.
How can I write the truth without embarrassing people?
You can change names and places in your fieldreports to protect the privacy of those involved. Each FieldReport you write includes a Private Notes section visible only to you—and to friends if you specify. You can use this section to record true names, true places, and other non-public notes.
Personas function like writer’s pen names within our community; each member in FieldReport has up to three. Using personas, you can publish yourself anonymously on FieldReport and even win prizes without revealing your identity to the public. Personas are different aspects of your personality—Public, Private, and Peer—not false identities. You can toggle between them at will, and they function like three separate accounts to other members of FieldReport. To find out more about how to use Personas, see “FieldReport Personas for Beginners” in the QuickStart Guide.
Do I have to reveal my true identity to win a prize?
No. But you will have to work with FieldReport staff to verify your fieldreport and profile information and do paperwork required by the Submission Agreement. If you want to remain anonymous, our goal is to protect your privacy during this process in accordance with our Privacy Policy.
What is not allowed on the site?
You may not post content that glorifies or advocates hatred or violence towards the members of any religion, nationality, or other group affiliation; content that glorifies or advocates violent, sexual, or criminal acts against minors or non-consenting adults; content that violates the intellectual property rights of others, or content that is libelous or slanderous. For more information, see the FieldReport Community Rules.
What are the numbers after my name?
The two numbers after member names on FieldReport represent the total number of fieldreports that person has entered into the system under that persona name, followed by the total number of review credits earned. When these numbers are shown to others, the number of reviews is always slightly randomized, so that people cannot guess relationships between your persona names by comparing the number of reviews. If you have only one number after your name, this represents the total number of reviews, and means you have not yet submitted any fieldreports under that persona.
Does FieldReport share its membership list?
No.
