Okay so by now you’ve probably noticed the SocialVibe banner thingy on the right side of the page. I added this widget the other day, because I wanted to be a good person and help causes without actually having to empty my wallet. I know that sounds bad, but let’s face it – I’m just a lil’ poor girl.
Anyway, so when I initially added it, I asked Ten for her good-cause-expertise and she suggested I go with WWF because PETA was “too crazy sometimes” for her liking. So I went with WWF and by the end of the day, 12 polar bears were saved. Or so I thought…
Ten explained to me that the little ticker didn’t actually mean I just single-handedly saved the fate of 12 polar bears, rather, they’re symbolic “points,” if you will. Here’s the verbatim explanation she gave me of how the whole thing works
Basically long story short, those little games and activities and stuff benefit the sponsoring company by drawing attention to it and what not. Like for example right now on your blog the activities have to do with some new show on the CW channel network. In return, every time someone does their activity, they (the sponsors) give a “micro donation” to socialvibe :)
So it could be like just 1 cent or something, but over time it adds up, and then 4 times a year, Socialvibe takes all the money, and distributes it amongst the like 40-something charities that they support (in respect to how many points each charity has).
So like if you wanna use real numbers, in the last like a little bit over a year, socialvibe made $700,000 and there’s about 40 charities involved, so on average that’s like $18,000 per charity. Which is legit since all you have to do is play a game or answer the “question of the day”, which today was like, “What do you want to do before you die?”
Get it?
Got it. At least, until today. So I log in to WordPress, right? And I’m checking my Dashboard, making sure everything’s in order, following up on my subscriptions and such, when I remember the polar bear thing. So I look, and lo and behold, there are now 16 polar bear points! Yippee! Out of boredom pure love from my heart, I decided to click on the banner myself, to do some of the “activities” that Ten had mentioned.
Upon completing six activities, it led me to some bonus page, and this is where the confusion comes in: I’m now no longer saving polar bears, instead, I’m helping quaked Haitians. Not that that’s bad or anything, it’s just… odd. Because I never mentioned anything pertaining to Haiti or earthquakes to SocialVibe, and now all of a sudden they’re all like “From the Wonderful Brain of Ona supports Haiti earthquake victims!” Do I? Should I take a bow or something? Do I get an award?
The confusion continues by me magically having an account now. And a picture. And statuses. An an inbox of some sort. And all kinds of missions to earn me points. But I’m just a little overwhelmed. Because yesterday I was just a regular hater, and today I’m Miss Charitable. I’m just concerned about my own safety. I don’t want these people brainwashing me into committing genocide just to earn 500 dolphin points or some shit.
Try it out for yourselves though. Maybe you people are smarter than me and can figure out how it works and why I have an account and what the fuck I’m supposed to do next. All I’m saying is, don’t be puzzled if the banner changes causes on a regular basis. I have no control of that. I mean, I don’t think I do. But today I could be a seal-lover, and tomorrow I might be an advocate of breast cancer research.
That’s just how I roll.
From the wonderful brain of Ona 