Don't let your points expire at the Live Search Club.

I feel a certain twinge of pain after I view my stats page at the Live Search Club, Microsoft's free gaming-with-rewards site. It's not because I'm not proud of my exploits in the various word and other casual games at the Club -- I actually am -- but rather because at the end of my stats page there's a listing that shouldn't be there: Expired Tickets. Since tickets are the basic currency of the site, capable of being exchanged for such items as games, X-Boxes, and Zunes if you have them in sufficient quantities, it goes to figure that expired tickets are like money you can't use anymore. They totally suck, and I've got them. Oops.

A quick glance at the Live Search Club Terms & Conditions reveals what happened to my lovely tickets. Evidently, if you're not active on the site for six months (180 days to be exact), your preexisting points expire. Evidently, I wasn't active there for six months despite my big plans of winning an X-Box from the site. To be honest, that activity requirement is pretty reasonable as far as activity requirements go...I can't believe I went such a long time without playing the games there. It won't happen again, that's for sure, and I hope it won't ever happen to you. If you think you want to quit the site for a while, why not redeem your points for SOMETHING, anything, so they don't get the chance to expire? If I had done that I might at least have had some playing cards or a pen or something instead of all this sorrow and regret. Don't be me, people...use your tickets!

I believe the site is still doing well. There are some new (well, new to me at least...granted, I am expired ticket guy) games that I've been checking out lately...they're not all word games, either. "Discover the World", for instance, is a straight-up geography quiz and a lot of fun, while "Hidden Expedition: Titanic" is a find-the-image type of game that's strangely addicting. Given that Microsoft is going to be rebranding their search once again, I admit I do wonder a bit about the future of the site...but I'm hoping it will stay. It has plenty of good games and is one of the best ways to win (or, really, earn) electronics and other good prizes online -- in a world full of scams, the Live Search Club is a beacon of hope for Internet prize seekers.