Everything that starts with Q ...

I thought it would be quintessentially consumer-oriented of me to bring this to the attention of those hoping to turn a quick buck on Ciao with the April, and now May, bonuses, as well as giving me a quick 15p - read and examine the pictures attached to this before you reach for the off-topic rating:

Q: What Foolery doth April bring?

In a whiff, nay a puff, of fishy tomfoolery, April dawns. In a flash, Ciao announces a special payout, a premium: every review written in April on ciao.co.uk will earn a guaranteed, and sizeable, £0.20, honest Guv'nor! Gradually, the flood-gates open; the average time for a single item to transit all 7 pages of the "Latest reviews" list drops from a number of days to somewhere in the region of 24 hours.

Q: Come What May?

Come May (first photo attached), the premium drops to a smaller, but no less ample, £0.15 per review written, and remains open to any review in any category. Word gets out, brows are feverishly mopped, people mutter incursions at the the churn rate, a definite air of "never mind the quality, feel the width" is apparent. By 08-May, the "Latest reviews" transit time has dropped to 8 hours - not much time for a decent review to get a decent airing, never mind a decent chance of an honest, useful rating.

Q: Bones of Contention?

Brouhaha aside, I have noticed that my Ciao Account tab does not live up to the promised premium: For the three reviews I penned (or keyed?) in April (second photo attached), my April account (3rd photo attached) shows only "2" in the row entitled "Ciao April Bonus". I have yet to see what happens in May (4th photo attached) in the row entitled "Ciao May 2011 Bonus", as this will (atypically, as I tend to write less than a review a month normally!) be my 2nd review for the month in question.

Q: June O When It'll Stop?

Who knows - but I bring this to your attention just in case you were planning on a biggish payout for April and find you may be a tad short; ditto for May.

Answers may, or may not, be forthcoming, d'you know?

(c) 08-May 2011/pgn0 on ciao.co.uk