Crowdsourcing retention: who's signing up?

they are not offering enough money for the time to do it properly ... I looked into it but no way..although I am open to other things its a great idea but should be a bit more realistic.
it should be at least something like this;
4 hours a week 4 reports min

But this is exactly what LiveWork does, like a lot of other websites that operate on this model. They pay you per task, and you're processed as an independent contractor, and you make way way way below U.S. minimum wage.

LiveWork also does call-center projects, which operate on a per-hour basis, so maybe SL will be following that model instead. But workers are still independent contractors.

This is a huge can of worms and I hesitate to even bring it up, but technically the US IRS is the organisation that makes the final determination regarding what is wage earned income (work) and what is independent contracting vs. employment.

The reason for this is that so many employers have tried to skip out on their tax and/or worker status duties, by declaring their workforce "independent contractors."

Here's how it works. If you hire someone, the first thing you have to do is put an I-9 form in front of them and ensure they are a US citizen, have a work visa and all that stuff. Second thing is you set up to pay their medicare, social security, SDI and all that other junk. It's a huge pain and fraught with liabilities.

On the other hand, with an independent contractor, all you do is pay them cash if you want. It's recorded as an expense, you 1099 them and the independent contractor is responsible for his own taxes, immigration status, all that nonsense. Also, working conditions are their problem, not yours. Hence the extreme scrutiny that the IRS uses when reviewing this kinda thing.

Anyway, all that said, there's nothing unlawful about subcontracting small tasks. If it became a main method of employment and you practically only worked for that specific contractor, following their direction (this is key) then you might be considered an employee at that point.

'Following direction' is huge ~ this is what keeps an SL clothing merchant independent by law, for example. If Linden Research told you what clothes to make and what prices, &c, at that point you might be seen as an employee by a particularly myopic IRS agent.

Nika, your posts are always very thoughtful and concsice I would have said, to make basically the same point, that if it can be fucked up, LL will fuck it up.

They should just fire most of thier staff get good ones in there... its really easy to do right now with alot of people laid off... but ofcourse they dont do the smark thing lol

LL is in failure mode.. maybe they are figgering it out?.. dont think it will matter.