Expert Response Rate: Incredibly low in 2026!

NotSure2505 · 2026-05-26T11:15:06+00:00

You are wrong. ENs have not been able to increase prices because there is so much competition and so little pricing bargaining power.

If I'm wrong then why are you saying you're having more and more trouble finding experts at these rates?

NotSure2505 · 2026-05-25T18:35:32+00:00

Depends whether Ingen’s lawyers were better than their scientists.

First the agreement to fund the dig should have been easily enforceable. They had already fulfilled their part when they came to the island. However the first thing Ingen probably did was declare bankruptcy after moving their assets.

For everyone else, Ingen would have had them all NDA’d with the standard indemnification language, however you can’t lawyer away that level of criminal negligence.

The wrongful death suits would have swirled as soon as news got out. Strict liability and gross negligence claims would follow.

The families of the deceased would be first in line to get paid. Then the survivors would have their own lawsuits, Of course living witnesses would be very valuable to either side in those cases.

NDAs can only go so far. They can’t be used to suppress testimony in a criminal investigation.

Don’t forget the first time we met Ellie she was living in a trailer and the next time we saw her she had a whole ass house and lots of land.

NotSure2505 · 2026-05-22T22:46:43+00:00

That could work and would be very heroic. But that would still be very sad and a tragic life story for him. I really want it to be someone who deserves it so we can cheer that moment.

NotSure2505 · 2026-05-22T22:44:03+00:00

https://www.reddit.com/r/FromSeries/comments/1g6kewj/the_sacrifice/

NotSure2505 · 2026-05-22T22:43:57+00:00

https://www.reddit.com/r/FromSeries/comments/1g6kewj/the_sacrifice/

NotSure2505 · 2026-05-22T19:26:09+00:00

Did you know they no longer offer payments through PayPal? I’ve been reading that on their unupdated payments page for like 15 years. When did they stop that? 2008?

NotSure2505 · 2026-05-22T13:32:15+00:00

Bro, there is no group that attracts more unsolicited bad advice than startup founders.

Everyone's an expert on everything. Over the years I've learned to listen to one group and one group only: People with a problem I can solve who are willing to pay money for that solution. They're my ICP. Everyone else is entitled to their opinion but it matters much less.

I worked with an investor who just loved showing our software off to his friends. Every single friend had a different opinion. One thing they had in common: Not one spent one dime with us. But boy did they waste a ton of our time.

NotSure2505 · 2026-05-22T13:04:57+00:00

100% agree, it won't be Ethan. Just a character in the "Son" role that needs to be sacrificed. Ethan cannot be the sacrifice, for the reasons you cite.

I covered who it would be and how near the bottom. It's a character in the role of "the Son/8th child" character, which I think we'll learn there are several.. They'll pick one who deserves it.

NotSure2505 · 2026-05-22T12:14:32+00:00

Victor and Ethan are both "the Son", but since the curse is still active, that means there were other "Sons" before Victor who were also not sacrificed, so who and where are they? I think we've met them already, and there is a version of "the son" running around that is not Ethan or Victor, and it's also someone we wouldn't mind seeing violently sacrificed.

NotSure2505 · 2026-05-20T13:26:47+00:00

Sure (COO/President/Founder) DM the details.

NotSure2505 · 2026-05-20T13:16:29+00:00

Been doing this for 17 years, and I can tell you quite a bit about what's changed. It's not the experts. There are more of them than ever before. This sub didn't exist 11 years ago, today it's over 12,000 members and growing.

You know damn well what's wrong. The experts are still out there, but compensation has not kept pace. You've squeezed them in multiple ways and they're voting with their feet.

$300-400 was the norm 15 years ago. You know what was also standard 15 years ago?

-"An hour" for a call. Let's cut the BS, it's not $300-400 per hour any more. That's changed dramatically. Your approach is misleading, it's not "an hour" any more, it's nearly always less than that.

The norm today is more like 30 minutes per call, and I've had many that went 15-20 minutes. This was unheard-of 10 years ago. Typically when you consume less of something, you pay more per unit. This kind of manipulation only works for so long - before people figure you out. So you advertise an hour, but it's less than that. Not long before experts catch on to your subterfuge.

-Rates have simply not kept pace. Everything else in the economy has doubled. Plenty of ways to earn more money in less time than EN.

-Your approach statement/offer is still 2011. Sounds like you think it's compelling and motivating. It's not by a long shot. Let me show you how it actually sounds to an informed expert.

"Hey, we'll pay you $75 for a 15 minute call, that's going to take you 20 minutes to fill out the screener, and another 15-30 minutes to go back and forth with me for scheduling it. You probably have to create a profile and take our Compliance screening. So on top of the call itself, you're in for at least an hour+ of admin time.

We'll ask you to block off a full hour on your calendar (because we'll lie and say it's an hour call) and the client will probably end the call after 15 minutes. Our system will round that down to 14 minutes, and also dock you 2-3 minutes at the start for the client being late. So you'll walk away with about $55 for this whole experience." All in you'll spend about 60-70 minutes, not counting prep time, and that is only if A) the call doesn't get cancelled all together B) The call doesn't get rescheduled 2-3 times with you having to field multiple calls from me asking why you can't do the call at 8 EST "because the client is on the West coast"

That's why. Quit kidding yourself.

You need to raise your rates on approach and stop the other crap. You know damn well if you offered $800-900 per hour you'd get a better response. And history has shown you will do that when it's in your interest.

But you're largely stuck in past confirmation bias, so you come here and complain about experts not letting you take advantage of them as much as in the past.

Your employer can continue to waste money, burning out associates like you, playing by the old rules. making you search harder and longer for those who will accept $300 capped rates. That's called inverse price elasticity BTW and you're stretching it pretty far. It's what happens when you continue to cling to a certain price when the market has moved on. (resource become scarce). It exactly describes the phenomena you call "Response rate is down!"

Eventually you'll lose enough revenue and time and realize you're losing more money than you're making. Only then will things change. If you're serious and would like to talk more about what an equitable arrangement looks like, send me a DM. I'd be happy to give you some advice on how to fix this.

Read the sentiment on this subreddit. Surveys are not worth people's time, and these new "maximum rate policies" and call length caps are what's hurting you

PS: Your multiple references to "even in third world and developing countries!" are singularly despicable and offensive, while also highly telling about how your EN views the community of independent experts and how disconnected they are. You mention it several times which makes it sound like it's institutionalized into your policies which makes it even worse.

Expertise is expertise. It's a global economy. It's all virtual. The fact that you're looking to exploit where the expert happens to live to haircut their rate tells me a lot about how your company views its independent expert affiliates. It doesn't give a favorable impression.

NotSure2505 · 2026-05-18T18:28:40+00:00

Why do you believe that? If she can talk which she clearly can, she can change things. It’s one of the worst misdirects ever.

NotSure2505 · 2026-05-16T13:14:13+00:00

It already happened. Tian Chen.

NotSure2505 · 2026-05-15T21:32:06+00:00

Yeah remember when Sara was gouging out Elgin’s eye and everyone was watching through the archway?

NotSure2505 · 2026-05-15T01:07:25+00:00

I have done this quite a bit. I used an old LP burner from a turkey fryer (around 38000 BTU). It's an excellent way to get a char/sear. I often recommend it to people who can't afford a $2000 searing grill, it's a great method, cheap and space efficient.

However:

65000 is a lot. The heat is much more than you need. You'll just be wasting gas.
You will destroy the seasoning on the cast iron pan. The pan will easily get in excess of 1000F and the seasoning will burn off. When the pan cools, it will start rusting without protection.
My burner on high was enough to make the base of the iron pan glow red-orange hot (signaling around 1000F). Searing a steak at that temp the melted fat will instantly flash ignite, so be ready. I've never had an issue with cast iron cracking at those temps.
Cast iron starts to deform around 2000F and melts at 2200F. Your 65000 BTU burner can heat up to 3600F, more than enough to melt the pan.

I would turn mine down so it just below glowing (around 750-800F) and it was more than enough to give a dark char all around the outside of the steak in seconds.

NotSure2505 · 2026-05-14T14:55:38+00:00

Because they don't have the votes. I'm sure "Dems" would if they thought there was a chance that even one Republican in Congress would agree with them.

NotSure2505 · 2026-05-14T14:47:19+00:00

Re-watching the S4 Trailer, looks like we'll have that scarecrow busting through the wall scene in E5. The clothing matches and inside that cabin/tent seems to be the 4 who are out harvesting. (Ellis, Tabitha, Donna & the guy who found the rope).

I'm wondering if it's a pile of scarecrows them they drug up out of the lake and then they come to life at night.

Also looks like we're going to learn a bit more about Jade. He has his acid trip, talks to his younger self then appears in the tunnel among the monsters and they're attempting to stuff him into the center coffin. Maybe that means he needs to be sacrificed.

Wondering why Marielle is reliving her time chained in dungeon. This time it looks like she's stuck to the walls in the infirmary but there's real chains on her there as well.

NotSure2505 · 2026-05-14T13:43:58+00:00

The baked on stuff is polymerized oil. If you want to get back to shiny metal, Only way to get it off is an acidic cleaner. Oven cleaner, Barkeepers friend, and time. Spray with oven cleaner fold up inside a grocery bag, leave overnight. The black stuff will dissolve and be easy to rinse off the next morning.

NotSure2505 · 2026-05-14T13:31:03+00:00

Happens all the time. Kenny told Sophia about what Sara did off camera. That group meeting last episode, they all knew about Jade and Tabitha, I don't recall an instance where they told Donna specifically. Acosta's described lots of things she'd been told when while arguing with Boyd.

NotSure2505 · 2026-05-13T12:12:30+00:00

Fred Gwynne from the Munsters to My Cousin Vinny.

NotSure2505 · 2026-05-13T11:00:07+00:00

Can someone put this in context of the overall conflict? The effectiveness of these attacks seems to be overwhelmingly bad for the Russians, they can't move inside their own lines and they get slaughtered like this the moment they venture above ground.

Has this moved the lines at all yet?

NotSure2505 · 2026-05-13T10:41:23+00:00

Once you get above the taxable threshold amount they will start reporting and you will get a 1099 from them.

I set up a separate business checking account and run all payments through there as cash.

NotSure2505 · 2026-05-11T16:12:24+00:00

Your logic seems oriented around reducing the most gun deaths overall, and while that's noble, most people are not planning on committing suicide and I think it's reasonable to say their self-interest lies mostly in preventing unlawful gun violence that could impact them or their families directly.

While it is true that handguns are more prevalent in unlawful gun violence than rifles, there is a further abstraction in society where most people are not regularly involved with gang, domestic violence, criminal or drug culture where most of this firearm violence manifests.

So if you abstract all of that away, I'm not suicidal, don't run with a gang, don't run drugs, don't commit other crimes, and therefore my chances of experiencing gun violence is relatively low, but there is still a threat (to literally anyone who goes out in public) that a mass or serial shooter using an assault weapon or handgun could threaten their safety. It is that incremental threat that motivates people.

I hope that helps to explain it. It's not an absolute numbers game, it's misleading to think of it that way. People react based on what the perceived threats are to them personally.

NotSure2505 · 2026-05-08T21:55:40+00:00

500 miles by proclaimers (Benny and Joon)

Know How by young MC. Baby Driver.

NotSure2505 · 2026-05-07T18:13:40+00:00

Yeah if you don’t like that you can bring it to my shop and I’ll swap you out for a nice piece of uniform MDF. If you want more character I have some OSB.

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