A MyLot Red Flag

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After commenting on a post about the endurance of MyLot it got me to thinking "what would be the first red flag that something is wrong with the site?" As many of you have probably been as well, I have been on many sites before this one that of course went totally kaput. There are certainly going to be signs that something is going wrong that we all may more readily recognize having experienced these things in the past with other sites. One HUGE red flag for me would be a raising of the minimum payout threshold. That's a biggie. On most of the sites I have participated in that was usually the first thing to perpetuate the end. A site would raise the minimum payout claiming that it would make it easier to administer payments and so on and so forth. But what it really meant is that the site did not really have the money to MAKE those payouts, and so if it could prolong the process, and keep people writing and interacting, in their minds the hope was that the situation of the lack of funds to make the payout might correct itself. It rarely does. What usually happened after raising the minimum payout threshold was that some people would get paid and others might have their payments missed with a 'promise' that they were working out some bugs and people would eventually get their money. What they were doing in that case was making sure to payout their more active members to keep them posting and commenting and bringing in the money. Of course this never worked and the sites went kaput, but not before people eventually lost their earnings ultimately. If the site ever raises its minimum payout threshold, this would be the first red flag for me that something is wrong with the money, and would call into question whether or not the site really has the ability to pay. I do not foresee this happening because I think the site has figured out a model that actually works so that everyone gets a little slice of the pie. But it is the one thing I am definitely aware of and would keep an eye on.