Madeline F.

AllExperts is now closed down, with no back-up of all the knowledge and questions answered by so many experts. Well, that is part and parcel of why they weren't successful and had problems with the site, this lac of attention to detail.
I was one of the top experts on Allexperts for over 10 years in the areas of Dog Training and Dog Behavior. I also did not get the notice that the site was shutting down. I finally tried to load the site as I hadn't gotten a question in quite a long time, months at least, perhaps a year.
All the criticisms posted that I have read by other AllExperts are fair, and I agree. One of the further issues I had with the structure of the site was that we were all 'out there' as experts and not anonymous, and the questioners got to be anonymous. My field being a predominantly female-attracting one, and rather competitive, snarky and backbiting, I was sure that some of my competition were asking me silly questions, which I often politely and professionally answered, only to give me poor ratings, usually on 'politeness' or some other aspect which made no sense. I would write to Allexperts, and, for the most part, they were very good at removing ratings which were unfair to me. In a couple of instances I asked them to check the IP addresses of some of the lousy ratings I received, and it turned out that a few of them were matches; that is, that the same persons were repeatedly e-mailing me questions which sounded legitimate just so they could bring down my ratings after I responded. As posted by many other Experts, these ratings were our only "earnings." It was distressing. About a year ago, I changed to a format where I charged for responses, and at about that time, I got a few questions I rejected because the questioners hadn't paid the $25 fee I requested, which I explained was going to animal charities, not into my pocket. Getting a fair rating became so difficult within the last several years that I told questioners in my bio that if they rated me fairly and promptly, that I would randomly make anywhere from a $10 - $25 donation to an animal-related charity or shelter for their fair and prompt rating; and, I DID, many times. Even with this carrot, I still got people who rated me unfairly, and I wrote to them and told them that they had just cost some shelter a $25 donation. Then, I'd ask AllExperts to remove the rating, and if they agreed it was unfair (which in almost all cases they did), the unfair rating was removed. I suggested many times that they unmask questioners so that my competition couldn't get away with this any longer. Obviously, they never implemented my request. I wish I knew they were shutting down, because I would have liked to turn many of my responses (probably about 500) into a book about dog training and behavior. I guess I waited a bit too long. In any case, I have to admit I'm a bit relieved that I won't need to be fielding fake questions any longer. I actually was becoming really quite good at sorting out the fakers from the real questioners. That aspect helped me greatly in my selection skills of actual customers during phone intakes. I became quite adept at sorting out the people with whom I wouldn't enjoy working from those who would appreciate what I have to offer.