Help Center

A Zomb is a request for data or for work to be done. The member who is requesting the work to be done is referred to as the launcher. The member who is accepted by the launcher to do the requested work, is referred to as the catcher. A zomb is composed of several elements.

Topic Describes what the zomb should be about in a few words

Intent The primary kind of work involved. For example, it may be related to an experiment, a calculation or design work.

Labels Labels allow other member to easily find the zomb you’ve launched. You can pick from existing labels or create your own.

Description More detailed information about what the work involves

Bid The approximate amount of credits you’re willing to spend on the work.

You can choose from two different types of zombs:

Standard Zomb

Choose this option if you need to hire someone to work for you. When creating your zomb you must specify an approximate bid amount. This is how much you're willing to pay to have your work completed. Members who are interested in completing the work will apply with a cover letter. Included with the cover letter is the amount that they're willing to do the work for. Once you've found a candidate you'd like to hire you must have at least as many credits available as they've requested to complete the work. These credits will be suspended when you hire them. Once both parties agree that the work has been completed successfully, credits are transferred to the person who completed the work.

Bounty Zomb

Choose this option if you'd like many experts to answer your zomb without having to hire them. When creating your zomb, choose a number of credits that you're willing to give to award the best answer as a bounty. After your zomb has launched, all Zombal members will answer it to the best of their ability. Once you get an answer that you're satisfied with you will awards the member who provided the best answer with the bounty.

A zomb can be in several different states. Below is a list of states and what they mean:

Standard Zombs

Open

The zomb is open for bidding and anyone can apply. Members will add a cover letter and a bid amount (how much they're will to do the work for) when applying.

Agreement Pending

The launcher of the zomb has asked for an NDA to be signed before they commit to hiring the catcher. Once the NDA has been signed and returned, the launcher confirms they've received it and work begins.

In Progress

A member has been hired to complete the zomb.

Awaiting Mediation

The zomb has not been completed successfully and both parties are seeking a mediator to settle a dispute.

Completed

The zomb is no longer open. No one else can apply. The results from successful zombs may be placed in a vault.

Bounty Zombs

Open

The zomb is open and all members at Zombal can answer it

Deadline

The expiry period of the zomb has elapsed and the launcher must choose the best answer to award the bounty to

Awaiting Mediation

A member who has answered the zomb has filed for mediation as they believe that they have the best answer and should be awarded the bounty

Closed

Bounty zombs can be closed for several reasons. A correct answer has been awarded the bounty, a meditor has closed the zomb or no answers were given and the expiry period has been reached. No other applicants may answer zomb after it has been closed.

There are three ways you can find zombs to work on:

1. You can browse new zombs and also filter the results based upon feedback rating, bid range, and labels that have been applied to the zomb.

2. You can create a net which will automatically find new zombs for you. You will be emailed daily with new zombs that match your net.

3. You can be invited to participate on a zomb. Ensure you’ve filled out your profile so that people are more likely to ask you to participate!

Bounty zombs are a great way to get a question answered without having to hire anyone. The launcher will choose a number of credits that they're willing to pay for an answer to their query. This amount is the bounty and will be awarded to the member who gives the best answer.

Some things to note about bounty zombs:

• The maximum expiry period for a bounty zomb is 30 days.
• The number of credits that you're awarding as a bounty must be purchased before your launch your zomb.
• You can only modify the details of your bounty zomb if no one has given an answer.
• Upon launching your zomb these credits are suspended until one of three things happen: you award the bounty, you don't get any satisfactory answers, your zomb is mediated
• If you are satisfied with someone's answer your credits are unsuspended and paid into their account as soon as you mark them as having the best answer.
• If you don't get any answers or you're unsatisfied with the responses you get you can choose not to pay out the bounty.
• If one of the members who've answered your question believe that you've unfairly not paid out they can request mediation from a Zombal mediator.
• A Zombal mediator will award the bounty to one of the members answers if they believe them to be well answered and correct.
• The mediator's decision is final.
• If your zomb receives no answers you can close it at any time.

Once you've launched your zomb, candidates will submit applications to you if they're interested in performing the work. Their application will include a cover letter and a bid amount (how much they're willing to work for). Prior to candidates sending through a cover letter, they may ask for clarification regarding your posting. This clarification is conducted in a publicly viewable Q & A session so that all other candidates may see answers to questions.

If you're not receiving many applicants once you've launched your zomb, you may consider inviting desirable candidates to place a bid on the work. You can use the member search on the site to browse member’s profiles that have skills relevant to the job posting and invite them to bid on your zomb.

1. Profile: Biography, Experience and Feedback

Read each applicant's cover letter and profile page. Make sure their experience is relevant for the task at hand. Past feedback is very helpful, based upon the freelancer's previous work you can see how they were rated and any comments applicable to work they've conducted.

2. Interview process

Ensure you've included a detailed description about what the job's about. Make sure you're both aware of expected time-frames and the level of detail required for the work to be considered completed successfully.

3. Testing

If you have a large task that needs to be conducted, it may be worth breaking it down into smaller tasks and starting candidates on one of them to test their skills. If their work quality is good, you can rehire them for further work.

4. Multiple Hiring

You can validate that the results you're receiving are correct by employing several people to perform the same task alongside one another. Each time you hire a candidate, you're given the choice about whether or not you want to close the position. If you keep it open, you can continue hiring more candidates at any time.

Part of the hiring process is the option to enforce the contractor to sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA). The NDA is a legal contract between at two parties that outlines confidential material, knowledge, or information that the parties wish to share with one another for certain purposes, but wish to restrict access to by third parties.

When you bid on a zomb you must specify how much you're willing to do the work for. The person who has launched the zomb will have placed an approximate bid amount. This approximate bid is how much they're willing to pay to get the work completed, but they're usually flexible and you can offer to do it for a lower or higher amount. Remember that 1 credit is equal to 1 US Dollar.

Once a candidate is hired, the number of credits agreed upon to be paid out on work completion is "suspended"; neither party can access these funds. This protects both parties while the work is in progress.

If the freelancer believes they've completed the work, they submit it to the launcher. If the launcher is satisfied with the results, they mark the work as completed, and arrange to transfer 100% of the agreed-upon payment.

If the launcher is not satisfied with the work submitted, they'll try to resolve the issues with the freelancer themselves. If both parties agree that useful work was submitted, but it was not to the standard that was expected, a partial payment can be agreed upon.

If there is a dispute about the quality of the work delivered and parties aren't able to reach a resolution they can file for arbitration. Arbitration will cost both parties a small fee and the arbitrator will request to see the work submitted and hear arguments from both parties. They will reach a conclusion about the percentage payment that the launcher must pay the freelancer. The percentage payment will range from 0-100% of the agreed upon amount. The arbitrator's decision is final.

1. Either party submits a request for arbitration

2. The other party agrees that mediation is needed and is willing to pay the arbitration fee.

3. The arbitrator reads the zomb's description and contacts both parties. The catcher provides evidence of their completed work to the arbitrator.

4. The arbitrator queries both parties about aspects of their work. The arbitrator then decides how much of the work has been completed and the percentage of the original agreed upon bid that will be paid out.

5. If the percentage to be paid out is a non-zero amount, credits are transferred from the launcher to the catcher. The zomb is closed and feedback can be submitted.

Work on the site is paid for with credits. The party that is paying for the work must purchase credits prior to hiring a worker. Credits can be purchased using credit card, Paypal or Google checkout. Each credit on the site is worth 1 US dollar. If you buy 100 credits, it will cost you $100 USD.

All work is paid for at a fixed price rather than an hourly rate. The amount to be paid out is negotiated during the interview phase prior to the freelancer being hired. When work has been completed and both parties have come to an agreement upon the amount to be paid, credits will be transferred from one member's account to another. You can keep track of anything to do with your credits through your financial history.

Once you've accumulated credits on the site you can cash them out for real money. You must have a paypal account to transfer the cash into. When cashing out credits you will receive 1 US Dollar for 1 credit less a 10% service fee (credits must be cashed out in multiples of 10). For example, if you cash out 100 credits, you will receive $90 USD in your Paypal account ($100 less 10%).

If you're finding yourself consistently creating zombs with the same set of labels, you can save time by adding the labels to a plan and then applying this plan to all your zombs with that plan's set of labels. Perhaps you have a large project with many sub-components. You can split the task up into multiple zombs, but keep them grouped together under a common plan. A plan is only visible to you, other members can't see what's in it or if you've created any.

Nets allow you to easily catch and view zombs that you might be interested in. They do this by matching based upon labels that you select. If a member launches a zomb with labels that matching the labels in your net, your net will catch it. For example, if you create a net called "Chemistry Net", with one label "Chemistry", and then a member launches a zomb with the label "Chemistry" or any of it's sublabels, this zomb will appear in your net.

You don't want to make your net label too broad, it will quickly fill up and won't be very useful. For example, if you're interested in particle physics, choose the label "Particle Physics" instead of "Physics", otherwise you'll receive zombs from all physics sub-disciplines.

Labels are one of the most important concepts on Zombal. They are used to categorise zombs, nets, plans and even your member profile! They're used to match zombs to nets, to auto-apply plan labels to zombs and to help people find your profile. There are already many labels on the system, but if you can't find the one you need, you can create your own.

Using labels is easy. When creating a net or zomb, you will see a labels section. Simply start typing a label that comes to mind, it will probably appear in the drop-down list for you to select. There's no limit to the number of labels that you select.

Head over to our label management section to see what labels are available. If the one you want isn't there, you can create a new label as a sub-label of an already existing label. Your new label won't be instantly accessible; it will first need to be approved by a label moderator. Once you've had enough labels approved, your account will be promoted and you'll no longer need to have new labels approved. Following this, you can receive awards relating to your skill with labels and be granted the ability to create top-level labels.