Updated Premium and VIP Membersips

[the_future]

I think this new perk (CC per post and thread) for VIP members is a great idea, but I have a feeling that it will be abused by some. Depending on how it plays out, we might want to consider establishing a daily limit on CC distribution for posts and threads. Otherwise, the substance of topics and responses could become an issue. Another thing to consider is that the value of Card Cash will likely decrease due to the increase in CC. CC normally sells at a rate of 300 for $1, which I think is okay. Overall, it's definitely something that could help increase activity in the forums.

[kevinh1919]

Got it.

Thanks for the quick response.

[kevinh1919]

I think this new perk (CC per post and thread) for VIP members is a great idea, but I have a feeling that it will be abused by some. Depending on how it plays out, we might want to consider establishing a daily limit on CC distribution for posts and threads. Otherwise, the substance of topics and responses could become an issue. Another thing to consider is that the value of Card Cash will likely decrease due to the increase in CC. CC normally sells at a rate of 300 for $1, which I think is okay. Overall, it's definitely something that could help increase activity in the forums.

I thought about that, too - then I realized the amount of posting that it would require to accumulate 300CC (3000 posts, 1200 threads, or some combination of the two).

Even if someone played the Count Up/Count Down game daily, it would take quite some time to amass.

[patsfan1106]

Just finish cofiguring each events, so pay off should start occuring as of now. I still have to tweek the configuration maybe so it might be done late night daily or only when you actually hit you CC transaction page. I still have some reading to do so I can be sure this is not paying everytime someone post as I don't want to tax the server with additional task on peek time.

You can view your transaction by clicking the top CC balance link on the top right of every forum page and even in the Storefront/inventory/trade manager section too!

Thanks a lot!

[andrewhoya]

Good point.

I thought about that, too - then I realized the amount of posting that it would require to accumulate 300CC (3000 posts, 1200 threads, or some combination of the two).

Even if someone played the Count Up/Count Down game daily, it would take quite some time to amass.

[ReedAutos]

i used to upload images but the time it takes to do so is grueling. i understand that someone has to create the scripting for the uploader but when will there ever be a simplier version where you can use the control button, click upload and many will be uploaded at once and into the right spot on the inventory?

[CoolHandLuke]

i used to upload images but the time it takes to do so is grueling. i understand that someone has to create the scripting for the uploader but when will there ever be a simplier version where you can use the control button, click upload and many will be uploaded at once and into the right spot on the inventory?

This will not happen as we don;t want to create ro much stress on the server and let a person use too many processor and disk writting ressource of the server. Mainly I need to cut down already on some query that take way to much time to execute. A good programmer, even if he is able to code such bulk feature, always need to keep in mind that making such function available can kill a server experince for other member browsing the forum. Also making free application, fre of publicity, one need to keep in mind that server ressource come at a cost and it's not the few publicity revenu we get and Premium and VIP membership that can pay for many server into one big room. So one need to keep in mind that free stuff always have limits. I would not be responsable to code such feature and could mean the begining of the end for SCF if we were not prudent in custom coding we provide to member.

If I would have charge the owner for coding this application, I can tell you this application would simply not exist as the owner would not have the revenu to pay for developpement. If some member would not step up to enter data, we would not have such database with 5 millions + cards. So everything has a price tag. Consider youself lucky That I don't charge for all the coding I have done here since 2008. Look at other trading site and what they can offer.

I had a few member offer to help coding but when they saw the size of the project, they all back out. With the owner, we have o constantly work on optimising the server just to keep up with the growth of the site. This month we are beating all records in new member and this is constant. For instant this winter we had a average of 2600 unique member connecting daily, since we move on the new server, the average is now of 3000 unique members connecting daily, so this is 15% increase just in the past 6 month in activity. If we are not prudent SCF will start seing member lleaving if the performance level is not what all expect us to deliver.

Name me other community free site that do as well as we do. SCF is in the big 100 biggest site running VBulletin in the world. Just to be able to keep a stable server on such big site is really asking for little optimisation miracle just to keep this site fluid.

So this is why I will never code such function on a free application hosted on a community site. Maybe one day if the storefront bring enough revenu to insure to pay for bigger server that I will code a advanced inventory that we would charge for the advance version and that would open up more function and such bulk function unlimited card entry per unique card and grading field etc. but that would not happen on the free version now available to all.

Note that on the free inventory we even pay CC when uploading image we do not have in our image archive, not bad for a free tool!

[Good Ole Jim]

We had a similar occurance on an old site I was a moderator on. The abuse was indeed becoming an issue. We did find that people would abuse a reward system, even though they knew that it would take forever to amount to anything. To fix this, we implemented an "8 word rule", where every post had to be at leat 8 words long. This eliminated all of the people who were just coming in and saying stuff like "nice!, cool!" etc.

Now I'm not saying this will happen here. Every forum is unique, and I think the majority of our members are mature collectors. I don't think anyone cares about their post count, regardless of the reward for posting. But if it ever happened, I can say that the 8 word rule did work very effectively.

[CoolHandLuke]

We had a similar occurance on an old site I was a moderator on. The abuse was indeed becoming an issue. We did find that people would abuse a reward system, even though they knew that it would take forever to amount to anything. To fix this, we implemented an "8 word rule", where every post had to be at leat 8 words long. This eliminated all of the people who were just coming in and saying stuff like "nice!, cool!" etc.

Now I'm not saying this will happen here. Every forum is unique, and I think the majority of our members are mature collectors. I don't think anyone cares about their post count, regardless of the reward for posting. But if it ever happened, I can say that the 8 word rule did work very effectively.

I am aware of this setting, at the same time, not sure it would make a big difference for us and would definitly add to server load. So the benifit versus server performance, this is why I did not set such setting. With over 70 moderators we can spot member abusing the system.

Also the new system will let us know exactly on a given period how much CC we spent on this feature, so we can ajust it down the road. The CC we inject in the membership is removed via the cards we sell in the CC store and this store is working well and we get regular sales so this is how we remove CC from circulation. We need a good balance in how many we inject and remove and this new system tell us exactly that. Before we could not even know how much were given out.

[kevinh1919]

We had a similar occurance on an old site I was a moderator on. The abuse was indeed becoming an issue. We did find that people would abuse a reward system, even though they knew that it would take forever to amount to anything. To fix this, we implemented an "8 word rule", where every post had to be at leat 8 words long. This eliminated all of the people who were just coming in and saying stuff like "nice!, cool!" etc.

Now I'm not saying this will happen here. Every forum is unique, and I think the majority of our members are mature collectors. I don't think anyone cares about their post count, regardless of the reward for posting. But if it ever happened, I can say that the 8 word rule did work very effectively.

Good suggestion. Hopefully, it won't be needed. (nice to have it in the bag, though)