Kibin Release Notes for Editors
The following release notes detail changes to Kibin editing since January 2020. All major editing updates have this emoji 💥 around the date.
| Date | Update |
| March 13, 2023 | AI writing tools like ChatGPT are here to stay, which means it's likely that we'll occasionally see AI-generated content in the editing queue. Unfortunately, content written with these tools doesn't announce "Beep, boop -- I was written by a robot." 🤖 Today we published Identifying AI Content (and What to Do About It) in the Editor KB. This article has examples of AI writing, links to AI detection tools, and additional guidance on what to do when you come across AI-generated content in the queue. |
| February 3, 2023 | It's a sad day at Kibin as we say goodbye to our awesome Customer Happiness Coordinator team. Bob and Amber have awesome and dedicated team members and coworkers, and their contributions to Kibin over the last few years were extremely valuable to our needs as a business. What this means for you: Nikki L. and Erin H. are now your go-to sources of support for all things editing and will also be handling customer support. Erin is an early-bird Midwesterner (Central time zone), and Nikki (Mountain time zone - Phoenix) is typically active later in the afternoons/evenings (till ~6 pm PST). See the February Letter to the Editors for more information. |
| November 15, 2022 | Another refreshed landing page dropped today! As part of our efforts to target more academic authors, Kibin now has a dedicated Manuscript Editing page. |
| November 1, 2022 | Two very minor updates were published to your dashboard today. But an update is an update -- no matter how small! 1. The flag modal now has a "Misclassified Document" option to select when you notice that a document is classified within the wrong editing segment. Related article: Kibin Editing Segments and Classifications 2. Hovering over the cute little star emoji 🌟 that sometimes appears next to a document title now tells you that user is a first-time editing client. |
| October 10, 2022 | Your editor profiles are lookin' fresh thanks to a new page design and feature published today. 😎 The profile layout and elements have been redesigned to match the style of Kibin's editing service pages published earlier this year. The design now includes editor profile badges, which aim to illustrate the variety of documents and users a Kibin editor can work with. Segment badges show which users you work with by displaying badges that represent each editing segment in the right-side column. Doc type badges, found underneath your bio section, match the classifications of docs you can access in the queue and can be hidden from your profile if you wish. Read Your Kibin Editor Profile* to learn more about profile badges. *This article has been heavily updated and is now the only editor profile help doc. The standalone article about editing your profile has been unpublished. |
| September 7, 2022 | Have you ever finished typing the most brilliant paragraph of feedback in the Kibin closing comments box when a glitch or sudden act of nature takes out your computer or browser? It’s even worse when your comments disappear into the ether forever because you somehow closed the submission window by accident… 🤦 Well, the pain and fear of losing that feedback is no longer! Today's release publishes an "auto-save" feature that saves your closing comments as you type them. You can then exit the submission screen and whatever you’ve typed will be there when you navigate back to it, even after logging out. Cheers to stress-free closing comments! 💰 Pricing Update: Kibin admins now have the ability to easily manage and change pricing across turnarounds and segments. This release includes the first round of price adjustments:
|
| September 1, 2022 | 🐞 Bug Fix: The “Like this Editor!” button decided it needed a vacation to end the summer. It snuck away from your profiles while we were distracted with other page renovations. We found it on a beach in Cancún and dragged it back to work, which means users can now like your profiles once more. Related articles: All About Editor Likes, Earning Likes from Clients: Tips and Tricks |
| 💥 August 25, 2022 💥 | The user-facing editing releases this summer have made expectations of Kibin’s service clearer than ever for clients. A dose of that clarity has been missing from the Editor KB... until now! This release publishes a new definition of comprehensive editing, updated quality assurance processes, and clarifications to editor incident policies. We've identified six editing "elements" that users have come to expect from Kibin editors and what they might look like in practice. Read: What is Comprehensive Editing at Kibin? Quality assurance now has clearly defined parameters and a streamlined feedback process. Going forward, the Quality Assurance Evaluation Sheet will be used to determine how you've incorporated the editing elements and other case-by-case criteria into your work. Read: Kibin's Quality Assurance Process for Edits Lastly, Kibin’s probation and termination policies have been reworked to better reflect and clarify current practices. Put your crystal ball away because clarity has arrived! |
July 12, 2022 |
Kibin’s summer facelift is moving right along with two new page updates this week. The editing section of the Kibin Homepage received fresh copy and graphics that align with our editing landing pages, and the page design was updated to match our new look. We also revamped the Browse Editors page -- the home of all your lovely faces and avatars -- with new graphics and a new editor profile card design. 🐞 Bug Fix: Some editors were previously unable to change the location details on their user-facing profile. This bug was fixed in our latest release, and all editors can now edit their location. If you’ve never updated your location before, you’ll see “edit location here” under your name when editing your profile page. |
| July 1, 2022 | As part of our ongoing editing service revamp, we published a whole host of new editing pages on the Kibin site. A brand new editing service page replaces our previously student-focused landing page as the main hub for all things Kibin editing. This page then links out to the individual service pages for each editing segment. These pages include a revamped design, fresh new copy to help with SEO, and segment-specific reviews to highlight your editing awesomeness. Check 'em out! Related article: Kibin Editing Service Pages (2022 Update) |
| 💥 June 24, 2022 💥 | All aboard the Editing Service Revamp Express! 🚂 Our first stop is a fully redesigned editing upload page and checkout flow. As of June 2022, Kibin offers six different types of editing services: Admissions Editing, Student Editing, Academic Editing, Business Editing, Career and Resume (Applicant) Editing, and Author and Creative Editing. To target a wider variety of editing needs, our upload system has been changed to categorize documents instead of users. The author will now choose from the segments above with each document they upload, so customers you know as “business users” or “individuals” may also upload documents under different segments now. Since this is a big change on the user’s end, we assume growing pains will happen, which means documents may come through the queue with incorrect classifications. You can and should flag documents that are misclassified going forward. Please see the help docs below for full details. Related articles: Kibin Editing Segments and Classifications, Flagging Documents: What to Flag and Why, What the User Sees When They Upload an Editing Request, |
| 💥 March 24, 2022 💥 |
Level up! *Insert Mario's power-up sound here* Today's release updated the requirements for each level of the editor compensation structure and added two new rev share levels (11 & 12). The word count requirements for each level have been significantly slashed, making it much easier to level up. Related article: Editor Levels and Compensation Structure |
| March 20, 2022 | If you're reading this, it's too late to turn back... Just kidding! You kept your editor account active and survived the Editor Activity Requirement deadline for editors hired prior to 2021. (Or, you were hired after that and the deadline didn't apply.) |
| 💥 January 17, 2022 💥 | 💰Pricing Update: Did someone say more money?! We did! As of 11 AM PST, Kibin's new 2022 editing prices are live. The cost-per-word for all turnarounds (except 120 or 240 hours) was raised 6-18%, with 1-hour and 3-hour rates increasing the most. Business docs will only see price increases on turnarounds 12 hours or longer. Of course, this means that editor payouts for these documents have also increased. 🎉 You can find the updated payouts in the editor pay table here. Please note that payouts for documents submitted to the editing queue prior to 11 AM PST on 1/17/21 do not reflect the new prices. |
| January 13, 2022 | Trustpilot reviews are back! Trustpilot review invitations are now sent to first- and second-time Kibin users. Don't forget that a CHC will personally send you a congratulatory email that shouts hip-hip hooray and probably (definitely) includes lame jokes or puns if your work receives a five-star review! |
| November 18, 2021 | In the past, Kibin admins have had to guess the most efficient way to reach you, but the new contact preference feature released today lets you tell us. The "My Profile" settings tab has been redesigned to include two new fields: a general contact preference and an urgent issue contact preference. We can reach you via email, Slack DM, or even text message if you choose! Sorry, we don't have an option for carrier pigeons. Click here to update your contact preferences. P.S. We also fixed a display bug causing some save buttons on your settings page to hang out where they shouldn't. Bad buttons! |
| 💥 October 20, 2021 💥 | Stay active! (...at Kibin, at least) In the coming months, Kibin will be phasing in a couple of modest activity requirements for editors. Moving forward, editors will be expected to maintain an active account by editing one document every 365 days. The 365-day counter “resets” each time you submit an edit. If you reach a year with no activity, your account will be closed, and you will no longer have access to the Kibin queue or Slack channel. Since our current roster has a wide range of "last active" dates, all current editors have until March 20, 2022 to edit one document and keep their account active. On that date, all accounts with no activity during the previous 365 days will be closed. We also ask that newly hired editors edit 5 documents within their first 6 months at Kibin. Editors hired in 2021 will need to complete 5 edits before the March deadline for your account to remain active. If you’ve already completed 5 edits, your 365 days starts from your last active date. Related article: Editor Activity Requirements |
| September 21, 2021 | You know that page on the site with all of your lovely faces on it? It's been spruced up with an upgraded page design, fresh copy, a new review carousel, redesigned editor "cards", and a "words edited" counter. I bet you can't guess how many millions of words we've edited since 2011. Check out the updates here. We also fixed a bug that caused your editor cards to “rank” improperly. Now, the editors’ page dynamically updates your profile card “ranking” based on your Leaderboard point total for the last 90 days. |
| 💥 September 17 , 2021 💥 |
Automated Trustpilot review invitations will no longer be sent to all editing users as of today. Kibin's internal feedback system is now the primary source for review collection. Authors will be prompted to leave feedback for every document within 24 hours of the edit. Related article: How We Collect User Feedback |
| July 23, 2021 |
These lovely Release Notes are now linked on your dashboard menu. Yay! 🎉 |
| June 17, 2021 |
The doc details modal was updated to include a “Classification Type” for each document, which was a feature request from the most recent Editor Survey. Underneath the Doc Category section, you’ll see the user’s segment (student, individual, business, author, etc.) and the document type (cover letter, college essay, high school essay, email, etc.). |
| June 11, 2021 |
You might have noticed that the buttons on the Kibin site have become slightly more… curvaceous. No, you’re not losing your marbles -- we did it on purpose! The change stems from what’s called the Bouba/Kiki Effect, which "illustrates how the human brain attaches abstract meanings to visual shapes and speech sounds in a consistent way." Long story short, rounded or smoothed edges/shapes create more positive associations in the brain; thus, we’ve rounded our buttons. |
| 💥 May 4, 2021 💥 |
Buckle up 'cause this one's big! We have long talked about updating the distinctions for each of our editing categories -- Final Cut, Stylistic, and Clarity -- and the time has finally arrived. The goal of this update is to better align the author’s expectations for the edit with your expectations when you pick up the document. After payment, the user is now prompted with three choices to describe the state of their draft, and their answer classifies the document into one of the three categories. The new distinctions are laid out here: What's the Difference Between Clarity, Stylistic, and Final Cut Edits? Do I Edit Them Differently? Please be sure to read through this article to familiarize yourself with the new descriptions before your next edit. |
| May 4, 2021 |
💰Pricing Update: Cha-ching! Kibin has raised our editing prices for the first time since 2018, which means the payouts for documents will be increasing across the board.
Of course, these increases also mean that you will earn more for each document! 🎉🎉 You can see the specific details in the updated editor pay table here. |
| March 26, 2021 | Kibin, do you copy? The landing page for our editing service received an important upgrade this week -- we've added fresh new copy about what Kibin editing is and how we do it. Check out the updated copy here. |
| March 9, 2021 | Once upon a time, your Editing History page did not include an entry for any manual Leaderboard point adjustments made to your point total (e.g., missing ESL points, Editor Survey points). Now it does! |
| March 4, 2021 | With the help of some code magic from Jim, the Browse Editors page, where your lovely editor profiles and likenesses are displayed to users, now displays all editors (with completed profiles) who have completed at least one edit within the last 90 days. The page has always been dynamic and based on your recent Kibin activity, but now you will have a relatively static presence on the page if you've edited for Kibin during the previous 90 day period. |
| February 26, 2021 | We want to make sure that we’re referring to you in the way you prefer when discussing edits, doing shout outs in the Update... basically, all the time. :) That's why we added a new pronoun field to your editor settings page. Note that these preferences will not be displayed anywhere on your user-facing profile and are for internal use only. Click here to update your pronouns. |
| December 18, 2020 | 🌟 <--- This emoji will show up on your Kibin dashboard next to first-time editing orders. We wanted these docs to stand out for a couple reasons. If something seems “off” about their note or request, knowing that they’re a new customer might give you more context. New users typically aren’t “committed” to an editor/editing style yet, so that edit can be an opportunity for you to impress them and snag a “like” and/or get direct requests from them in the future. That being said, this update definitely doesn’t mean that docs with stars upon thars demand extra special treatment -- we don’t want the queue to turn into the Sneetches, after all. We simply felt it would be a fun way to show you when someone is new to the Kibin experience. |
| November 6, 2020 | Texting, texting -- 1, 2, 3! Team Kibin can now text you from our toll-free number: (888) 885-4246. Remember, we'll only text you if you give us permission first, so please let us know if that's what you prefer. |
| 💥 October 26, 2020 💥 | More options have been added to the user-facing direct request process. Users can now select an alternate editor if their first-choice editor is unavailable. Orders can also be cancelled if an editor is unavailable for the request. Related doc: What do users see when making a direct request? |
| August 28, 2020 | A site-wide code update was pushed today to help our pages load faster than a speeding bullet. |
| 💥 July 30, 2020 💥 |
The ability to send direct messages to users is finally here! You can now send document clarification questions directly to the user without reaching out to a Team Kibin admin first. Help docs: Messaging a Client: How it Works and Guidelines for Direct Messaging Users. |
| July 24, 2020 |
The Document Flag feature received a functionality facelift (say that five times fast) this week. You can now select a specific reason for the flag and write more information. There's even an option to report missing Leaderboard points! Help doc: Flagging Documents: What to Flag and Why |
| July 16, 2020 |
Wouldn't it be handy to know exactly what time your document is due? Now the doc details modal will tell you! We've added a "Deadline" section that displays the exact time and date your doc is due back. Note: The deadline time shown to you is based on the time zone you’ve selected in your Kibin settings, not your computer settings. |
| June 26, 2020 |
Style guides have been updated with new guidelines regarding the use of Black and Black Lives Matter. The new guidelines are linked under each guide: AP, Chicago Manual of Style, APA, MLA. |
| 💥 February 14, 2020 💥 | Legacy Stripe accounts have been deactivated. All U.S. editors should have migrated their payment information to the new Stripe Connect platform. |
| January 2020 | 💰Pricing Update: Minimum editing price raised to $14.99, which raises the minimum payout on documents. |
| January 2020 | The 7th edition of the APA Style Guide should be implemented by instructors this upcoming semester. All APA uploads should now follow APA 7 unless otherwise specified. Help doc: Changes in APA Manual 7th Edition |