Filipino Applicants In Ciao Banned??What Happen??

Philippines
June 8, 2009 12:45am CST
A friend of mine registered in Ciao today. She is a writer and want to share her talent. When she was about to register, an error message or a message prompt: "Due to the high level of abuse on the site including plagiarism, spamming of members, and revenge ratings, Ciao.com has decided to start restricting membership to certain countries. Because you are from one of the countries with restricted access, you will no longer be able to log in. If you would like to make a payment request of your last earnings, please contact us at info@ciao.com with the subject line 'Payment Request'." Does this mean that there are lots of spammer here in our country? Ciao is a great site. I am really sad that our country was banned or was blocked in joining the site due to spamming and plagarism. Hopefully Ciao will still give a chance for those serious writers, just like my friend.
4 people like this
15 responses
• Philippines
8 Jun 09
It has been three or four months since i knew this site banned Asian countries. I think you were so late to figure out that Philippines is one the countries that has been banned. I was never able to write anything on Ciao because when i joined last month of February, the country were i am from was already banned. Till i figured out from different social network forums that they have been talking about why they got banned, or they can't log into their account. Till the news came from Ciao itself that they have banned a lot of Asian countries due to cheating as they say. What isn't good was that Ciao just pulled the plug out from these members. They don't even send a warning, a notice on members about their plan of cutting their revenues from them. Anyway, it's their site, we can't do anything because we didn't pay them anything for joining the site.
1 person likes this
• Germany
8 Jun 09
I guess it is all about money: To pay out money the ciao people need to make money before. So they restrict themselves to the countries where their money comes from. I am watching with a lot of interest a new Asia/Philippines focused network and can give anybody an invitation who is adding me as a friend and sends me his email address. They grow rapidly as far as I can see it and the contents are really nice; they pay for any activity such as reading, writing, watching videos. Besides this "Asian" network I watch another "Worldwide Network", but that one still is in its launching phase and focused more on professional money makers who can invest a few € or $ besides simply being active.
• Philippines
8 Jun 09
I am a member of ciao last year and I have received my payment twice from them. I like it there also. Just lately, I think this was this year that they banned us, Filipinos because of spamming reports. I hope one day they will let us joined again.
1 person likes this
@jpso138 (7851)
• Philippines
8 Jun 09
It is sad to note that everyone was included on the ban. I know that there are those that are really doing it by the heart and there are those that are plainly violating the rules. But I guess it would be very long for ciao to check which is which. This is perhaps the reason why they banned everyone. I too hope that they will sort out those that are really doing it right and those who got the talent from those who are plainly spamming and making plagiarism.
@abhi_bangal (3686)
• India
8 Jun 09
I think, it's not only in Filipino but most of the Asian countries. And I suppose, India too is one of them. I too have been a member of Ciao. I had earned quite some money through it too, before it went off. They say it was something like a site abuse just to increase the earnings by the members. So, I think that might be a premium reason for it. Though all haven't done the same mistake or though all haven't ceated, all have got banned. But I think, they are paying whatever there is any remaining earnings in your account. So, I suggest you to ask for that payment. Well other than this, I can't help you in any way.
1 person likes this
@paoxav (1382)
• Philippines
8 Jun 09
We can't blame them coz most of the violators came from Asia. Not only from our country but also from several asian countries and CIAO cannot do anything but to ban those certain regions.. I still say good luck to them and hope that the other remaining countries there were doing well..
1 person likes this
@silverglint (2000)
• Philippines
8 Jun 09
I think a lot of asian countries has been banned from Ciao. Its such a pity since I wanted to try writing there too. Maybe there are a lot of spammers from asia but there are also a lot of good writers. They should have just developed a system to detect and banned the spammers not everyone. Hopefully, they are working on it and will eventually open for asians again.
@zed_k4 (17589)
• Singapore
8 Jun 09
I just check my membership and it's still intact. I've not been active for a long time already. I think idea just runs out for reviews up to a point. I agree that the site is wonderful and it's quite sad that the spammers have ruined others' chances of creating wonderful reviews; whom are from the countries being banned.
@salonga (27775)
• Philippines
9 Jun 09
Don't be sad! If Ciao opted to discriminate the Filipinos, then it is their loss and not ours. I don't think we should ever appeal to them to give us a chance. This Ciao is actually the cheaters and not us. Imagine I have an account with them and in fact and my reviews even qualified for the Premium Fund. This means even they themselves recognize my writings. Then they just banned the Filipinos and now we can no longer access our accounts. But they are still publishing my reviews and earning from it. If they banned the users, they should also delete all the reviews of that users. But my reviews are still there, being viewed and being rated. How come they still want to earn from writings if they think I am not worth to become member of their site. I have written to them many times to question this but they can't even reply. Maybe they themselves would not know how to defend themselves.
@emandi (102)
• Philippines
8 Jun 09
That isn't fair. There are spammers everywhere and it isn't right to just block countries off. They're ruled by their own prejudices, and whether or not their prejudice may be unjustified, it still isn't fair to put various kinds of people under umbrellas. That's unfair discrimination. There are other ways to regulate those things, like moderators, etc. Shame on Ciao.com!
@edelweiza (157)
• Philippines
8 Jun 09
that's so sad. why did Ciao generalize when it came to membership policies? i used to be a Ciao user but stopped because I run out of things to review. it just didn't work for me. for others that have passion for making reviews, this is indeed a great opprotunity to earn online. i hope Ciao changes its mind soon.that's so strict of them. i hope they reconsider their decison re: your friend's account.
• Philippines
8 Jun 09
Pretty sad news :( Hopefully they'll give us a chance again. It's not fair to ban everyone because of some idiots in the web.
• Philippines
8 Jun 09
There are spammers in every country and they believe it is mostly in Asia. Some trustful Filipino were just affected like me... I It is really a great loss since Ciao is really a paying site... And still hoping too that admin would still find way to identify who are these fools...
@flaredust (728)
• Indonesia
8 Jun 09
It is unfair decision they make. I also start a discussion very similar like yours here titled "My Country Has Been Banned". I'm Indonesian and my country also banned. I don't know is there any wise reason they do that. Is it because they can't handle spammer. Every country have their own spammer, sometimes one country spamming a lot and sometimes other country spamming more, it's just a seasoning spammer peak. May be because Ciao not as professional as yahoo, so they prefer easy solution, just ban them all. Stupid decision I think.
@jeiay41 (674)
• United States
13 Jun 09
That's not a stupid decision. They are legit site and want to be a competitive site. Because of your fellow member in your country doing illegal stuffs, one fail and every bodies fault. Sad to say, due to greediness of one person is a matter of time how the sites react to this situations. Just be honest to yourself, and dont do illegal stuffs.
1 person likes this
• Indonesia
15 Jun 09
My opinion that says stupid is based on my research on their traffic and user of ciao by alexa. There are 5 most contributor for their site. First is USA with 17% of total user, Then Germany also with 17%, Third is India with 8.7%, and Fourth is Indonesia with 8.6%, the 5th is Italy with only 5%. If ciao really a smart marketer they will think it deeply before ban a lot of Asian country, which mean could cut off their potential market of almost 10%. That's why I said stupid.
• Malaysia
8 Jun 09
I think ciao have banned all asia country.. Malaysia is banned too.. huhu, we need to find another source to make money