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Frequently asked Questions

FAQ about Posting a Question on Starmind

FAQ about Solving a Question on Starmind

FAQ on the Starmind concept

1. How does it really work posting a question on Starmind?

Posting a question on Starmind is simple. There is a posting (1), rating (2) and closing process (3).

  1. Question posting process:  
    • Sign up on Starmind
    • Fill in your user profile so that question solvers understand your background and your profile,
    • Formulate your full question, assign a reward to it (or use one of your free pioneer questions you can post without reward) and assign tags to the question so that question solvers around the globe are alerted depending on your tagging of your challenge.
  2. Solution rating process:
    • You are informed on incoming solutions to your question. However, you cannot see the full solution at the first glance as you are requested to do a
    • first triage – either reject the solution abstract by looking a the abstract and the user profile or accept to view the full solution.
    • If you order to see the full solution, the maximal reward you would need to pay together with a potential express fee is blocked from your account. In case you have not uploaded any money to your account, you are now requested to do so. Hence, you only need to block (not pay) money when you think it is worth having a look at a good solution.
    • Upon the money is blocked as a security deposit, you can view the full solution and either rate the solution, or send it back to the question solver for a further revision by adding your comments to the solution.
    • Before you can access any other income solution, you need to rate the solution according to its benefit to you as either “useless” (0%, all blcoked money is paid back), “satisfying” (25% of reward), “good” (50% of reward) or “excellent” (100% of the current reward is paid). Depending on the maturity of the question, an express fee is charged while total cost for a solution is always lower or equal to the maximal reward you have set initially. Read more about Starmind's express fee here
    • If you like, you can also rate the question solver and recommend it to other users.
  3. Question closing process:
    • Decide how many solutions you like to look at and rate. Once your question is solved or in case you do not like to receive more solutions, hide and archive your question. You can choose between public archiving, so that you question remains visible, and hidden archiving, so that noone sees what question you have posted.

2. What types of questions are posted on Starmind? Am I allowed to post my rather trivial question?

Starmind focuses on scientific and business relevant questions. In a nutshell – as soon as you are willing to pay money for a solution to a question of yours, that question is associated with either your research, your business or just another interesting situation. In any case, make sure that you do not violation our terms of use or any other legal restriction.
If your question is too trivial, it may not pay off assigning a reward to it and then Starmind is the wrong portal. There are many forums on large webportals where trivia questions are discussed. Still, there may be questions you are willing to assign an attractive reward to and with which you like to face a global community with – by assigning a sufficiently attractive reward you have good chances to obtain replies to your question.

3. Who is allowed to sign up on Starmind as a question poser?

All politically mature persons having an interesting question whose solution is worth money to him/her is allowed to post questions on Starmind as far as our terms of use regarding violation of rules, custom and rights are complied with.

4. Why should I pose a question on Starmind?

Because Starmind selects automatically for successful Question Solvers depending on a dedicated rating and know-how localizer system. Your question is tackled by a distinguished pool of motivated and talented individuals ("Starminds") providing you with useful and creative solutions you may not have come up with, saving you time and money. Also, the risk for both question solvers and question posers is minimal since publicly accessible Starmind user profiles allow the assessment of risk and quality of users beforehand.

5. When and where does money come into play? For what do I need to pay money for?

Using Starmind is free of charge. Period.

You have got 3 free pioneer questions, after using them, you need to assign rewards to your question. As a new and verified user you are granted 3 so called “pioneer questions” in order to familiarize yourself with Starmind. You do not need to associate a reward to your questions as question solvers are motivated to tackle interesting question to boost their internal ratings. There are the following occasions where money comes into play:

  1. Assigning rewards at your discretion
    Upon having asked pioneer questions, questions can only be posted featuring a reward of EUR 3.- at minimum. After having posted a question you obtain solutions for which you can decide how much money you like to transfer depending on the ratings you gave.
  2. Express fee for solutions received at lower than maximal rewards posted
    Depending on the time until solutions are received, an express fee is charged while total cost for a solution is always lower or equal to the maximal reward you have set initially. The question is published and the reward is then increased automatically over time from 30% to 100% (max reward) so that a question is not solved at the maximal price the question poser is willing to pay but at a price a question solver is willing to accept for handing in a solution. Based on the rising rewards mechanism, each question is optimally priced either below or above the maximal reward, while too low rewards result in no solutions received. Read more about Starmind's express fee.
  3. Withdrawing money
    For withdrawing money below EUR 100.- a transaction fee is charged. We suggest not to withdraw money below EUR 100.-.
    Other than that, no charges are raised.

6. Who decides whether a solution is good or not?

Only question posers decide whether a solution received is useful to them or not. If deemed useless, question posers do not have to pay anything, yet need to provide a reason, which is accessible to both the question solver and the Starmind quality control team. If rated as "useful", 25% or "good" 50% of the reward is transferred, if rated "excellent", the full reward is paid out to from your Starmind account to the question solver.

7. Can't I just view solutions and not pay for them? Can't I just trick Starmind?

The payout behavior of question posers is automatically monitored and tracked and the question poser’s ranking published. If solutions are viewed without paying for them or if solutions are recurrently rated as “useless” although they are not, the respective question poser acts against legal terms and will hence be blocked from further benefitting from Starmind.
Considering the pros and cons of being banned from Starmind, there is little reason for a question poser not to pay posted rewards the poser has set on his own. On Starmind questions are posted that are of high interest, high relevance or potential high economic value to the question poser. Question solvers are strongly requested to check the question poser’s payout and rating behavior prior to submitting a solution. Also, trusted users are preferred over non-verified users, so that new-joiners have a hard time tricking Starmind and being able to further use Starmind’s unique service.

8. What information about me as question poser is publicly accessible?

Besides your user profile, the following parameters are monitored and displayed to users:

  1. Swiftness (low – high): How long do question solvers on average need to wait until you rate the solution.
  2. Payouts (low- high): How much money (absolute) have you spent to question solvers up to now?
  3. Activity: How active are you, when was your last login onto Starmind?
  4. Question poser popularity: How popular are your questions, how many users have clicked your questions to far?
  5. Starmind ranking: What is your internal fellowship ranking in terms of titulation? (normal user up to "Starmind master")

The better your question poser rankings are compared with your peers, the more interesting solutions will you receive.

9. How can I increase my chances for receiving great solutions?

Experience states, that the better you define your question, the more details you include, and the more precisely your guidelines are that you give to the question solvers, the more useful will the solutions be.
You can also check the number of views your question has received over time. If you have many views but no solution, then maybe you may try to reformulate your question. If you have a rather low number of views of your question, you may think of tagging it better, amending the title and to increase the reward. The higher the visibility and attractiveness of your questions, the higher are chances, that good question solvers get pointed towards your question.

10. Why do I have 3 pioneer questions for free and why should I use them?

Question posers can try out Starmind without negatively affecting their user profile rating. It is also a good way to familiarize yourself with Starmind. Please keep in mind, that only verified users can post pioneer questions. Please verify yourself by our dedicated mobile verification system.

11. How does the question solving process look like?

Solving a question on Starmind is simple, provided you know the solution to the question. There is a submitting (1) and rating (2) process.

  1. Solution submission process: 
    • Sign up on Starmind
    • Fill in your user profile so that question posers understand your background and your profile and can hence derive the quality of your solution.
    • Browse and look for interesting questions referring to tags, reward, number of views or pending solutions and referring to the profile of the question poser.
    • Formulate both your full solution and a solution abstract. Keep in mind, that the solution abstract should be a convincing rationale on why the question poser should upload money to have a look at your full solution. The 2-step process guarantees that the question poser is indeed ready to pay money for your solution. The full solution can only be accessed after the question poser has uploaded at least the amount of the reward posted.
  2. Solution rating process:
    • You are informed on the status of your solution in real time. You will be informed whether your solution abstract was rejected or accepted. Then again you are informed when the solution is rated. Keep in mind, that rejected abstract do NOT affect your rating.
    • You get informed on whether the question poser understands your solution or likes to have a revised solution. In case the question poser is clear with the solution, you immediately are informed about the rating attributed to your solution.
    • Depending on the rating, you either get the full or a fraction of the posted reward. In special cases, the question poser also adds a specific rating recommending you to other question posers.
    • Closing: Depending on the achieved rating, the money is transferred instantly to you. Check then your money tab.
      You can then either withdraw (payout) the reward to an account of yours (please mind that only withdrawals over EUR 100.- are free of charge) or use the reward to post further questions yourself.

12. Who is allowed to sign up on Starmind as a question solver?

Starmind actively locates outstanding researchers, students and individuals based on their scientific achievements. Users are also contacted depending on their specific backgrounds and know-how provided that a certain question on Starmind is published. Most users on Starmind belong to one of the top100 universities and research institutions world-wide. However, if you have not an academic background and if you are politically mature, you are still invited to sign on as creative ideas and outstanding solutions do not only depend on your academic degree nor on your origin or age. Starmind does not actively promote its service towards non-academic institutions.

13. Why should I share my know-how on Starmind?

Because know-how that you do not share is of no value, neither to you nor to anybody else. On Starmind you get paid for your expertise. Only solve challenges where you are really good at so that it will not take up too much of your precious time. Also, Starmind's ranking and championship system is attractive and can be used to enrich your personal CV.

14. Who decides whether a solution is good or not?

Only question posers decide whether a solution received is useful to them or not. If deemed useless, question posers do not have to pay anything, yet need to provide a reason, which is accessible to both the question solver and the Starmind quality control team. If rated as "useful", 25% or "good" 50% of the reward is transferred, if rated "excellent", the full reward is paid out to to your Starmind account from the question poser.

15. Are there costs for using Starmind?

Using Starmind is free of charge. Period.
As a question solver you can turn your brainpower into cash and either withdraw the rewards earned or use them for posting questions. Please keep in mind, that for withdrawing amounts below EUR 100.- a transaction fee of up to EUR 20.- is charged. We suggest not to withdraw money below EUR 100.- as no fees are charged for transactions above EUR 100.- Not accounted are costs that your respective account host (bank, online service) is charging for receiving money.

16. How much money will I earn as a Question Solver? How can I increase my success rate?

Select any question you like and solve as many as you want at a reward you find attractive. Please note, that rewards increase over time and with them the competitive pressure. If your solution is rated ‘excellent’ you receive 100% of the reward posted, otherwise fractions are paid out or your solution is rejected. Any rejection of a once accepted solution abstract is substantiated by the question poser. The more solutions you successfully submit, the higher are chances to submit again and again solutions that are accepted as question posers prefer high ranking Starmind question solvers over others. Please keep in mind, that withdrawing money below EUR 100.- results in a transaction fee while withdrawing amount exceeding EUR 100.- are free of charge for you (not accounted are costs that your respective account host (bank, online service) is charging for receiving money).

As a hint, focus on questions in your field of expertise or on questions you may have a high chance to have your submitted solution accepted. The lower the reward is associated to a question, the lower is the competitive pressure. Also, check on how many solutions are already pending in the stack of the question poser. It is a best practice to tackle only questions which have not more than 2-3 pending solutions. If a question poser rates a solution as very successful, often the user then rejects all pending subsequent solutions as they are not needed anymore. Also make sure, that you first check the question poser’s user profile. In particular, the amount of paid out cash, the time until you get a response by the question poser and whether or not the question poser has a track record are important factors to consider before submitting solutions.

17. How is Starmind Brainpower calculated? What are Starmind Brainpower Networks?

"Starmind Brainpower" is an important factor which quantifies the success of a Starmind question solver. Starmind’s Brainpower of a user is equal to the number of successfully handed in solutions, while an excellent (=100%) rating adds 1.0, a rating of "good" (=50%) 0.5 and an achieved rating of "useful" (=25%) an additional 0.25 points to your Starmind Brainpower. Your Starmind brainpower is accessible on your profile.

The Starmind Brainpower 1st degree defines the added Brainpower of all your connected Starmind friends. Their friends' Brainpower added together again defines the Starmind Brainpower 2nd degree. All Starmind friends of yours taken together define your "Starmind Brainpower network".

18. How does Starmind assure the quality of solutions?

First, due to the high competition among Starmind question solvers and publicly accessible question solver ratings, question solvers tend to submit solutions on questions they have a high probability for success.

Secondly, Starmind’s rising reward mechanism ® singles out users requiring a minimal effort to hand in solutions, hence filtering out truly innovative and outstanding approaches. Since a question seems difficult only to someone who does not know the solution, the same question may seem easy for someone already having solved the same question several times or having a specific set of expertise. Sooner handed in solutions at lower rewards are favored by question posers.

Thirdly, Starmind focuses on top ranking universities and research institutions world-wide to recruit talented question solvers. A dedicated fellowship system further motivates outstanding users to route open questions to potential question solvers.

Fourthly, a dedicated Starmind talent localizer screens research publication databases and other media for outstanding question solver around the globe.

19. What are "non-verfied" and what are "trusted" users?

Starmind differentiates between non-verified users, whose identity is bound to a confirmed email address only, and “trusted” users, whose identity is verified by means of a mobile phone contract or by means of physical identification via passport. Also, Starmind has access to Alumni databases in order to identify its users. Verified users are marked with a green lock.

20. How does Starmind earn money and why do rewards rise over time?

Starminds puts in effort to provide solutions as fast as possible. The rewards rise over time so as to reach their maximal rewards after a certain time period. The longer a question is online, the more challenging is the solution and hence the higher rise the rewards. If questions are solved before the maximal reward is achieved, parts of the reward will be reimbursed to the question poser and an express fee goes to Starmind. If a question has reached its maximal reward, no fees are deduced.

The question is published and the reward is then increased automatically over time from 30% to 100% (max reward) so that a question is not solved at the maximal price the question poser is willing to pay but at a price a question solver is willing to accept for handing in a solution.
Based on the rising rewards mechanism, each question is optimally priced either below or above the maximal reward, while too low rewards result in no solutions received.

21. What is Starmind's express fee and when is it due?

Starmind’s express fee is a means to assure quality of solutions and a means to compensate Starmind for maintaining a global network of question solvers. The express fee system was developed together with leading Starmind users:

The express fee is charged when the question poser does not need to pay to the question solver the full amount of the maximal reward posted as the reward is still at a fraction of its maximal amount. Starmind question posers set a maximal reward for posted questions at their own discretion. Solvers are informed about new challenges posted online based on a dedicated routing system. Rewards are offered at 30% of the maximum reward the question poser chose. The question is published and the reward is then increased automatically over time from 30% to 100% (max reward) so that a question is not solved at the maximal price the question poser is willing to pay but at a price a question solver is willing to accept for handing in a solution. Each question is then optimally priced either below or above the maximal reward, while too low rewards result in no solutions received. Also, early handed in solutions at hence lower rewards, have an advantage of being accepted as competitive pressure as well as cost for question posers are increasing over time.

Upon transferring then the effective reward to the successful question solver, 50% of the difference between the maximal offered reward by the question poser and the reward finally transferred to the question solver are charged as express fee by Starmind in order to compensate Starmind for maintaining and actively expanding Starmind global network of question solvers. If a rating was eg 25%, only 25% of the standard express fee is charged.

The dedicated mechanism singles out users requiring a minimal effort to hand in solutions, hence filtering out truly innovative and outstanding approaches. Since a question seems difficult only to someone who does not know the solution, the same question may seem easy for someone already having solved the same question several times or having a specific set of expertise.

22. What is special about Starmind? Aren't there more sites like Starmind?

Starmind has several key differentiating factors. The most important are

  1. Starmind’s unique focus on talents and brilliant minds around the globe based on a unique talent localizer engine (patent pending)
  2. Starmind’s unique know-how trading system (patent assessment)
  3. Starmind’s existing affiliations and cooperations with various leading universities
  4. Starmind’s unique reward-transfer system which is kept extremely simple
  5. Starmind’s unique mechanism on allowing users to submit solutions according to their individual risk appetite
  6. Starmind’s unique positioning: Starmind is neither an open innovation site since solutions belong to the question poser, nor is it a crowdsourcing site, as Starmind focuses on the high-potential and talent segment
  7. Starmind’s unique quality focus by peer ranking systems
  8. Starmind’s high addiction potential based on fellowship models and Starmind championships

And finally, a unique team which makes all that happen. Many parts of the current Starmind version have been developed by the help of dedicated Starmind question solvers around the globe.

23. What are the roots of Starmind?

Starmind has its roots at the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at University of Zurich, Switzerland. Grounded on experiencesacquired with SiROP (SiROP was founded based on an article published in ETH Life) the Starmind association was initiated by a team of dedicated researchers at ETH, University of Zurich and HSG. In 2008, Pascal Kaufmann founded Starmind Innovation LLC in Meilen, Switzerland together with Matthias Vogel, managing partner of Starmind. Starmind is independent and self-financed by its team members and numerous Starmind supporters.

24. What is the Vision and Mission of the Starmind?

Starmind Vision

Starmind accelerates research and innovation by motivating brilliant minds and talents around the globe to solve challenges the science community and professional businesses are faced with.

Starmind Mission

Starmind aims to create a new market by tapping the most precious resource there is: Human brainpower and ingenuity. By the end of 2010, Starmind shall be the gold standard in terms of know-how supply and trading. Charting the worldwide community and screening for talents and brilliant minds the Starmind portals shall become an important tool not only for the science community but for any professional business where (open) innovation, know-how and efficient knowledge management are key success factors.

Starmind’s social responsibility

Starmind actively supports Aiducation International, an association focusing on empowering and encouraging talented and motivated students in Africa to pursue a university degree. Starmind encourages young, talented students around the globe to apply their brainpower in order to have impact and actively shape our society.

25. How can I become an active Starmind supporter?

There are various ways to contribute to Starmind:

Spread the word

Excite your relatives, friends, workmates, hairdresser and your dentist about Starmind! Everybody has got interesting questions or knows great question solvers!

Talk to your boss

Talk to your boss about Starmind: There are many opportunities for innovative companies to use Starmind to save time. And Money!

Write an Article

Do you run a website or a blog? Why not writing and article about Starmind on your Blog/Website and explain the Starmind system and philosophy to your readers?. Make sure to let us know about your article or get in touch with us if you need additional information or other material about Starmind.

Invite your Facebook friends

Soon there will be a dedicated Starmind Facebook Application. But why not already pointing your friends to the Starmind Facebook page? You can earn up to EUR 10.- for each question solver you invite to Starmind.

26. Why should I invite friends to Starmind? What is in for me?

Starmind rewards you with up to EUR 10.- for each new user who signs up and successfully solves a question. Also, newly invited users are automatically added to your Starmind brainpower network which again boosts you on the Starmind user ranking.

Inviting people to Starmind is an important mechanism for Starmind as brilliant people tend to invite other brilliant people. The higher your Starmind ranking is, the more important it becomes that you actively spread the word on Starmind. If you are truly convinced of Starmind and like to support it further, you can send an email to staff@starmind.com in order to apply for a STAFF (Starmind AFFiliates) account. This account is equipped with even more tools and functions to localize brilliant people over the globe. In addition, you can easily keep track on who signed up and what the state is in their solution submission process.

27. What are the Starmind Championships? What is the inner circle competition?

The Starmind championship actively monitor activity pattern of Starmind users. Certain behaviors and activities are strongly encouraged and rewarded with so called “fellowship points”. The following rules apply:

  1. Get 2 points for each of your solutions which recieved a positive rating.
  2. Get 3 points for each user that you invite to Starmind.
  3. Get 5 points for each question you pose on Starmind.
  4. Get 7 points for each question which has been posed by a Starmind-member who was invited by you.
  5. Get 10 points for each suggestion improving Starmind you hand in via e-mail to suggestions@starmind.com

Depending on how many points you have achieved, the following titles are rewarded, which are also posted to you user profile:

  1. Become a Starmind fellow for 10 - 29 Points
  2. Become a Starmind Silver Fellow for 30 - 99 Points
    Starmind Silver Fellows are awarded an EUR 10.- Starmind voucher for posting free questions
  3. Become a Starmind Gold Fellow for 100 - 199 Points
    Starmind Gold Fellows are awarded an EUR 20.- Starmind voucher for posting free questions
  4. Become a Starmind Platinum Fellow for 200 - 299 Points
    Starmind Platinum Fellows are awarded an official Starmind certificate with recommendation (suited for CV and other applications)
  5. Become a Starmind Master for more than 300 Points
    Starmind Masters participate in the international Starmind awards 2009 
You can always apply to become an inner-Circle-Member who actively contributes to Starmind. There again, dedicated rewards and attractive compensation schemes await you. Please let us know: staff@starmind.com
 
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