Simily Review (Updated February 18, 2022)
A New Month With Simily’s Problems
Pending bugs and suggestions
So, I completed my first month on Simily and have written several reviews already. Some of you might be wondering why I post stories on Simily and engage in its forum groups when I’m so pessimistic about the site.
I do that to find out how the platform functions so that I can give you an honest and accurate report.
Many other articles give a lot of incorrect and misleading information about Simily. For example, they never checked the WHOIS database to see how the founders hid their identity. I have yet to see anyone else mention that in their reviews.
What about all the stories telling you to put all your effort into it. Have you checked those authors’ profiles on Simily to see if they published any articles or completed their profile yet? Many of them never interact in the forum groups.
And what about their research and analysis of the platform. How many even know it’s based on the open-source code provided by WordPress. Personally, I would not feel comfortable putting my credit card information on an open-source platform to buy an unlimited subscription.
UPDATE Feb 18, 2022: During my Zoom meeting with Simily founders, I learned that they use Stripe to collect credit card information for subscriptions, which is a secure payment processor.
A major flaw in many other reviews is the mention of Simily paying you for all views, including external views. T̶h̶e̶y̶ ̶d̶o̶n̶’̶t̶,̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶y̶ ̶n̶e̶v̶e̶r̶ ̶s̶a̶i̶d̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶y̶ ̶d̶o̶.̶
CORRECTION Feb 18, 2022: I asked about this during our Zoom meeting and they agreed they need to change the wording under “How it Works” because that was misleading. The fact is that they do include external views for payments at this time. But that will change later.
Finally, I saw this article by Warren Patterson where he gave his readers the correct information. Simily says they pay for views from both paying and unpaid subscribers. But that clearly excludes non-subscribers? T̶h̶e̶ ̶f̶a̶c̶t̶ ̶i̶s̶ ̶y̶o̶u̶ ̶o̶n̶l̶y̶ ̶g̶e̶t̶ ̶p̶a̶i̶d̶ ̶w̶h̶e̶n̶ ̶a̶ ̶s̶u̶b̶s̶c̶r̶i̶b̶e̶r̶ ̶r̶e̶a̶d̶s̶ ̶y̶o̶u̶r̶ ̶a̶r̶t̶i̶c̶l̶e̶s̶.̶ ̶A̶n̶d̶ ̶W̶a̶r̶r̶e̶n̶ ̶c̶o̶r̶r̶e̶c̶t̶l̶y̶ ̶b̶r̶o̶u̶g̶h̶t̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶h̶i̶s̶ ̶r̶e̶a̶d̶e̶r̶s̶’̶ ̶a̶t̶t̶e̶n̶t̶i̶o̶n̶.̶ ̶G̶r̶e̶a̶t̶ ̶w̶o̶r̶k̶,̶ ̶W̶a̶r̶r̶e̶n̶!̶
CORRECTION Feb 18, 2022: Oops, as it turns out, Warren was wrong too.
What Has Been Fixed (or Not)
Now that a new month has begun, I noticed I had five free reads again since I only have the free limited subscription. Unfortunately, I already used them up by writing another story and proofreading it a few times. Simily still didn’t fix that bug that I reported a month ago. So even the people with free accounts cannot read five stories from other writers.
I noticed they added a quick link to “My Groups” and “My Earnings” under the pull-down menu, as I suggested last month. I informed them how it took several clicks to get to those places. So now it takes just one click.
At least that means they have a programmer on board who can make changes to the platform. But that’s the only thing I saw that was changed. They didn’t fix any of the bugs that are annoying everyone.
Pending Bugs (Not a Complete List)
- We still can’t see who is following us. It erroneously shows all members.
- We still can’t read five articles with the free subscription since they get used up by writing stories.
- When viewing threads in forum groups, the latest posts don’t appear. But if you click “View previous comments” then the last ones show up. That’s backwards!
- When posting a link to another Simily story, the system displays “403 -Forbidden” error banner. The user can remove that banner by clicking “Remove Preview,” but many users don’t notice that.
Pending Suggestions
- Add support of canonical links.
- Send a notification email when someone follows a user.
- Indicate who is a paid subscriber (as Medium does).
