So, I wanted to share my little adventure with this whole Bleacher Report class action settlement thing. It wasn’t exactly a life-changing event, but it was certainly an experience, and I figured someone out there might find my story mildly interesting, or at least relatable if you’ve been through something similar.
Stumbling Upon the News
It all started a while back. I was doing my usual email sweep, you know, deleting spam, flagging bills, the usual. Then, an email popped up with a subject line that mentioned “Bleacher Report” and “Settlement.” My first instinct? Total spam. I almost trashed it without a second thought. I mean, who even remembers all the freelance gigs they did years ago, right? I vaguely recalled writing a few sports pieces for them, way back in the day, probably when I was just trying to get some bylines.
Doing a Little Digging
But something made me pause. Curiosity, I guess. Instead of clicking any links in that email – because, you know, internet safety 101 – I decided to do a quick search on my own. Typed in “Bleacher Report class action settlement” into my search engine and, lo and behold, it seemed like a legit thing. From what I could gather, it had something to do with how they classified contributors or maybe something about payments. The legal jargon was a bit thick, but the gist was, if you’d contributed content, you might be eligible for a piece of the pie.
I thought, “Well, what do I have to lose?” I definitely wrote for them. I remembered the platform, the old interface, the whole shebang. So, I decided to proceed cautiously.
The Claiming Process: A Bit of a Fumble
Finding the official settlement website (again, through my own search, not the email link initially) was the next step. The process to file a claim wasn’t super complicated, but it wasn’t exactly a walk in the park either. The main hurdle for me was proving I was a contributor.
- I had to remember the email address I used back then. Luckily, I’m a bit of an email hoarder.
- Then, I had to dig through old emails, searching for any correspondence with Bleacher Report, any confirmation of articles published, anything that would serve as proof. That was a trip down memory lane, let me tell you! Found some truly ancient stuff.
- The form itself was pretty standard: name, address, a bunch of attestations that you are who you say you are and that you’re not trying to pull a fast one.
I filled it all out, uploaded some blurry screenshots of old contributor dashboards or email exchanges I managed to find, and hit submit. Then, I promptly forgot all about it. These things usually take ages, if they ever amount to anything.
The Waiting Game and the Small Surprise
Months went by. Seriously, I think it was close to a year, maybe more. I’d completely moved on. Then, one random Tuesday, I got another email. This one looked a bit more official, from the settlement administrators. It said something about payments being disbursed.
I was skeptical. “Yeah, right,” I thought. But a few days later, I checked my bank account, and there it was! A deposit. Now, don’t get too excited for me. It wasn’t a lottery win. Not even close. We’re talking, like, enough to buy a couple of decent pizzas. Maybe one fancy pizza if I splurged.
So, that was it. My grand Bleacher Report class action settlement experience. It wasn’t a windfall, but hey, it was something. It mostly just reminded me of a different era of my writing hustle. A little bit of effort digging up old stuff, a long wait, and then a tiny, unexpected bit of cash. Better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick, as they say!
It’s always interesting to see these class actions play out. You hear about these big settlement numbers, but then it gets divided by thousands, sometimes hundreds of thousands, of people. Still, I suppose it’s about the principle of the thing for some. For me, it was just a weird little errand that eventually paid for dinner.
