Points for opinions awarded!

Points have been retroactively awarded for opinions of 80 words or more posted between July 8th and August 3rd.

See you on the site,
Avner & the Toluna Team

Announcing the Toluna Members' Facebook group and the Toluna Forum!

There have been many requests from our members to provide a venue where they could exchange information and messages without having to create an opinion topic. One of our members, zizi501216, has taken the initiative and has created a Facebook group for Toluna members; if you are a Facebook member, click here to view and join the group. Our thanks to zizi501216!

In addition, we are happy to announce that in response to your requests, we will soon be launching the Toluna Forum! The forum will be used primarily for support and for member to member communications; an announcement will be made once the forum goes live.

See you on the site,
Avner & the Toluna Team

More points for opinions awarded!

Points have been retroactively awarded for opinions of 80 words or more posted between June 30th and July 8th.

See you on the site,
Avner & the Toluna Team

Spring prize draw and June monthly prize draw winners announced

The winners of the 2008 Spring Prize Draw have been announced; click here to find out if you are one of the lucky winners!
The list of June's monthly prize draw winners can also be viewed on the Prize Draw Winners page; here is a list of the winners and the prizes they've won:


Congratulations to the lucky winners!

See you on the site,
Avner & the Toluna Team

eMega Store discount vouchers no longer available

The eShop Mega Store has unexpectedly closed for business; you can read their closing statement by clicking here.
We will of course refund the points members have converted for an eShop voucher; we apologize for the inconvenience this may have caused you.

See you on the site,
Avner & the Toluna Team

Points for May-June opinions awarded

Points have been retroactively awarded for opinions of 80 words or more posted between May 26th and June 29th.

See you on the site,
Avner & the Toluna Team

Leaving comments on the blog- reposted

The following post has already been published on our blog, but I thought in light of the many comments that have been left here recently that it would be a good idea to explain once again how commenting on the blog works:

There have been many comments left on the blog recently which are in fact support requests from our members. As much as we would love to respond to these comments and solve our member’s problems, there is little we can do when a comment is left anonymously.

If you are leaving a support request as a comment, please be sure to include your Toluna username, which will allow us to contact you directly- otherwise there is absolutely no way for us to determine the commentator's identity which means we are unable to provide a reply.

See you on the site,
Avner & the Toluna Team

Update on site problems

Over the past few weeks we have been dealing with several technical issues that have seriously affected site performance.

The biggest problem was caused by the appearance of duplicate sponsored polls; as a result they appear to our members as polls that have not yet been answered, but after voting on these polls members’ accounts were not credited with points. This issue has been fully resolved; we would like to thank you again for your patience, as we are well aware that this problem has caused our members a lot of grief.

If you still come across polls or opinion topics in French, you may need to reset your browser’s cookies.

IMPORTANT NOTE: after you reset your browser's cookies you will be required to enter your username and password next time you visit Toluna; the same will apply to any other website that requires that you login.

If you use Firefox, here is what you need to do:

1. From the “Tools” menu, select “Options”
2. Go to the “Privacy” tab
3. Click “Settings”, and make sure “Cookies” are selected in the “Clear private data menu”
4. Click “Clear now”

If you use Internet Explorer 7, here are the steps:

1. From the “Tools” menu, select “Internet Options”
2. Select the “General” tab
3. Click “Delete” in the “Browsing History” section
4. Click “Delete Cookies”

If you use an older version if IE, you can read an explanation on deleting cookies here; if you’d like to learn more about internet cookies, click here.

Another problem that has been taken care of pertains to access to members’ public profiles; some of the profiles were inaccessible, and this problem has been resolved as well.

We’ve created an opinion topic which we have exported to the blog, which you can use as an additional method of communication with Toluna; please let us know if you encounter any additional problems. You can also post your opinion on this topic by clicking here.

See you on the site,

Avner & the Toluna Team

Introducing the new and improved Monthly Prize Draw

We are happy to announce that the monthly prize draw has been upgraded- each month 20 lucky Toluna members will win prizes worth a total of £5,000!

Here is the list of the prizes that can be won each month:

• 1 grand prize of £2,000 in cash!
• 1 prize of £1,000 in cash
• 1 prize of £500 in cash
• 2 prizes of £150 in cash
• 3 prizes of £100 in gift vouchers
• 12 prizes of £75 gift in vouchers

You can convert 1,500 Toluna points for a prize draw ticket by clicking here; the rules of the prize draw are available here.

See you on the site,
Avner & the Toluna Team

New discount partners now online!

We are happy to announce the addition of 5 new discount partners to Toluna.com!

• Igloo Kids: Convert 7,000 Toluna points and save 10% off your first order of children's clothes, toys and shoes! To claim your discount simply visit www.iglookids.co.uk and choose your products- at checkout insert your code into the promotional code box.

• Spa Seekers: Convert 10,000 Toluna points and receive £10 OFF Nationwide Pamper Days! Spa Seekers offer the ideal pamper gift solution; a Spa Seekers pamper day can be left open dated, valid for 6 months and you can add your own personalised message.
  

• Everythingplay.com: Convert 5,000 Toluna points and receive a £5 discount voucher for any purchase over £50! Everythingplay.com offer a wide range of digital products, gadgets, gaming consoles, gifts and other unique products; there’s something for everyone’s playtime at everythingplay.com!

• My Digital Photo Frames: Convert 3,000 Toluna points and receive a £5 discount voucher for any purchase over £60! MyDigitalPhotoFrames.com is a specialist Digital Photo Frame website showcasing the latest technology in Digital Photo Frames and accessories.

• Eshop Mega Store: Convert 1,000 Toluna points and receive free worldwide shipping on all orders over £50! EshopMegaStore.com offers a wide range of products at unbelievable prices, including gadgets, gifts, memory and lots more.

To order any of these vouchers simply head to the Reward Partners Page; you can read more about these new partners by clicking the "Learn More" link next to each listing or by visiting their websites.
Enjoy!

See you on the site,
Avner & the Toluna Team

New tutorial now online!

The old Quick Tour has been replaced by a brand new comprehensive tutorial with video! The new tutorial is a must for new Toluna members but is highly recommended for experienced members as well. The new tutorial covers, amongst other things, the following topics:

• Choosing between a poll and an Opinion Topic
• General content creation tips
• Poll and Opinion Topic guidelines
• Opinion writing guidelines- how to get more usefulness votes
• Guide to personal options and settings

You can access the tutorial by clicking here, or simply click the link located at the footer of Toluna.com.

See you on the site,
Avner & the Toluna Team

Sponsored polls and other site problems

As many of you have noticed, we are still dealing with a few serious server and site related issues. As a result, many of you have encountered problems when attempting to log in to Toluna or when attempting to post an opinion.

In addition, some of the sponsored polls have been reset; as a result they appear to our members as polls that have not yet been answered, but after voting on these polls members’ accounts were not credited with points. This is a technical glitch and we are working to resolve it as quickly as possible; in the meantime we would like to assure you that these are not fake polls.

These issues should be resolved shortly; we apologize for these temporary problems and will do everything in our power to fix them as quickly as possible.

Once again, thanks for your patience and understanding.

See you on the site,
Avner & the Toluna Team

Toluna downtime and site problems

Due to extended maintenance and server upgrades, and due to the launch of the all new Toluna France today, May 29^th, there have been extended periods where the site was down since this morning; there have also been different problems on the site itself.

We apologize for the interruptions to service and would like to assure you that we are working around the clock to solve all of the problems as quickly and seamlessly as possible. However, it is possible that over the next 48 hours or so some of these problems may persist. We thank you for your patience and understanding.

See you on the site,
Avner & the Toluna Team

Toluna down time on May 28th

Toluna.com will be down for maintenance on Wednesday, May 28^th from approximately 20:20 GMT to 21:00 GMT. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

See you back on the site,
Avner & the Toluna Team

Points for April - May opinions awarded

Points have been retroactively awarded for opinions of 80 words or more posted between April 18^th and May 25^th.

See you on the site,
Avner & the Toluna Team

The new points system- debunking a few rumors

There has been a lot of speculation and there have been a lot of rumors floating around the blog and the site regarding the upcoming release of the new points system, so I thought I would provide a little information to help dispel some of these rumors.

There are two important clarifications I want to make regarding the new system. First of all, it is important to understand that the new system will replace the current system. This means that points will no longer be automatically awarded for opinions 80 words or longer.

The second issue I want to clarify is the use and weight of usefulness votes. There seems to be a misconception regarding negative usefulness votes; members seem to think that negative usefulness votes will negate the points awarded for opinions. As I have explained, the new system will be replacing the current one, so obviously this is not true. The new system will award members points for polls and opinion topics they create, based on their popularity, and for their opinions; usefulness votes will be one of the tools and metrics used to measure a member’s content, and will be factored in along with other parameters- in no way will they have the power to cancel an opinion.

As I mentioned previously on the blog, the new points system was created in order to address the many attempts to cheat by posting copied opinions or simply spamming the site. The idea was to create a new system which will award members more points for more actions, and also to give the Toluna Community the power to rate and measure the polls and opinions on the site- I can assure you that one (or more) “phantom usefulness voters” will have a negligible effect on the system and on points earned by other members.

I hope this clarifies things puts your concerns to rest.

See you on the site,
Avner & the Toluna Team

Usefulness votes explained

There has been a lot of discussion recently about the use of usefulness votes, especially negative usefulness votes; and since usefulness votes are going to be an important part of the new points system which will be launched soon, I thought it would be a good idea to elaborate a little and explain how and when usefulness votes should be used.

The idea is simple; usefulness votes are intended to be used as a tool which measures the quality of an opinion left on a topic; in no way are usefulness votes meant to be used as a way to express your agreement or disagreement with an opinion.

So if you come across a well written opinion, one which you feel advances the discussion and sheds new light on the opinion topic, you should give it a positive usefulness vote, even if you happen to disagree with it- to paraphrase Voltaire, I do not agree with what you have to say, but I'll give you a usefulness vote anyway…

Let’s look at an example of when a negative usefulness vote should be cast; opinions such as “I don’t know” or “I’m not familiar with the topic” do not provide any information and you should consider giving them negative votes. You should also adopt this as a rule when leaving your own opinion; if you have nothing to say, simply don’t…

See you on the site,

Avner & the Toluna Team

Amazon and Sainsbury’s changing value

As you may have seen the special low exchange value for Sainsbury’s, Amazon and ChateauOnline vouchers has now ended.

We were pleased to introduce these partners at a low exchange value in order to let you benefit quickly from our newest offers. These rewards partners have been proven by you to be incredibly popular – so the decision has been taken – we’ll keep them! They are now returned to the same exchange level (60,000 points) as all our other partners so that there are no unfair preferences amongst our selection of partners.

Watch this space for news of coming partners in the next months.

See you on the site!
The Toluna Team

Leaving comments on the blog

There have been many comments left on the blog recently which are in fact support requests from our members. As much as we would love to respond to these comments and solve our member’s problems, there is little we can do when a comment is left anonymously.

If you have a Blogger or Gmail account, we suggest you log in before posting your comment. Otherwise, if your comment is indeed a support request, we strongly recommend the use of our on-site contact form.

See you on the site,
Avner & the Toluna Team

March 18th – April 17th opinion points awarded

Points have been retroactively awarded for opinions of 80 words or more posted between Match 18^th and April 17^th. Click here to read my previous post regarding points and opinions, or click here to read about our upcoming new points system.

Avner & the Toluna Team