This is a scaled claim based on the number of paid subscribers to Michael Kinsley's new web-zine, Slate. It can be found at http://www.slate.com.
The claim will pay according to the following formula. X represents the number of paid subscribers to Slate.
Payout = (log10(X) - 3)/2
and will be rounded DOWN to the nearest cent and (obviously) restricted to the range [0,1]. The formula is set up to pay ZERO if Slate receives 1000 or fewer subscribers, ONE if it receives 100,000 or more subscribers, and somewhere in between in all other cases.
Clarifications
The term "paid subscriber" means subscribers who have actually paid. Any deals that give you free access for some months or weeks and then charge you will not be counted until actually charged. If this is complicated to answer, tough beans. I'll just do my best.
If a subscription is "bundled" with another subscription, for example MSN, in a deal in which becoming part of MSN carries with it automatic subscription in Slate, does not count, unless the subscription to Slate is an extra charge. (Note that the use of MSN is purely for the sake of example. Any such bundling would be treated equally.)
If a group account is allowed, it will be counted as a single subscription.
Examples: Slate has 250 subscribers, payout will be $0.00. Slate has 5,000 subscribers, payout will be $0.34. Slate has 45,000 subscribers, payout will be $0.82. Slate has 500,000 subscribers, payout will be $1.00.
Being both owner and judge of this claim, I know precisely what my intent was. In cases of ambiguity, I will follow that guideline.
The current state of Slate is that it is not a subscription site. The zine is available in a paper edition, however, and this was not foreseen when the claim was created. I judge this to be counter to the intent of the claim, in which I am looking for paid subscriptions to the web-zine Slate.
I will make further clarifications if and when that is called for.
