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Site Update
Good evening everyone! It is with a heavy heart that I come to you now. Unfortunately we have to make several financial changes rather quickly. I want to be completely open about everything, so I am going to try to address all of the points that I feel need to be discussed.
I was discussing finances with Slash recently and he discovered a major source of the financial issues that we have been having are due to the site making 30% less income these past few months than in previous years. This is understandable, as many have noticed the active user count has gone down substantially last year, and many countries are in a pretty bad state economically and people are nervous about spending. There is a lot of concern about the stability of the site with how behind several aspects have become.
We have been working on catching up on these things to try to earn your faith back. We are in the process of more changes to help streamline background productivity (such as getting breeding helpers, the commission panel fees, etc). We know that it won't happen over night, and that many of our changes will also upset the user base. We do not want to disregard your feelings, but please understand that everything we do is to benefit the site in the long run. We have a lot of damage to repair, and it is a very long and tedious process. I personally spend almost every waking moment when I am not at my offline job, investigating options and discussing changes with the staff to keep pushing forward.
That being said, some of the changes we are making are:
- Alidae Egg, Transitional Fossil Egg, and Grand Edit Potion are having their Prediction Payout dropped to $10. When an Egg and a Grand Edit Potion are combined they will pay out $15. Any breedings submitted before Tuesday February 14th at 11:59 pm will not be effected by this pay change.
- Offering different payment options for USD breeding teams.
- Shrinking some of the larger USD breeding teams. (However, if we end up with enough artists taking different payments we won't have to do this!)
- The GCC and MDT teams will be shrunk. If you are on one of these teams and are interested in receiving GP or working out another payment system please pm me, Kaiyo (#489). If there are enough people willing to accept different payments I won't have to shrink them.
- The monthly site contests are going to have the USD pay dropped starting next month. It will still be offered but it will not be the same amount.
I appreciate everyone reading this, and I apologize again for these changes. Many of them will be temporary, such as the artists adjustments. Over time we may be making more adjustments, but we hope that these changes will be enough to cover the expenses, and we may be able to bring on another artist or two with the new payment methods for some of the backed up breeding teams.
If anyone has questions please feel free to ask, send me a PM if you would like, I will try to answer whatever I can. I want to be completely open about this situation, and withholding information does nothing for any of us. However, due to certain restrictions, there is some information that I am not permitted to share.
I do not come to you today with only bad news, however! The Commission Fee Panel is now live! You are now able to pay your own fees, select which ones you pay and when. There is a minimum of $5, so if you don't have that much in owed fees you won't be able to pay it yet!
It will work the same way it currently does in regards to dates, and all fees of the prior month must be paid within one week of the new month. So January must be paid within the first week of February, February within the first week of March, etc. Of course, this month is an exception since the feature is new and did start late, however please make sure January fees are paid quickly!
If you have any questions regarding your fees, please send me a pm! Only ping to the news comments if it is a general question about how something works.
Posted by 🐼Kaiyo🐼
(#489) on Fri Feb 3, 2017 2:19pm
- Glynda
(#21034)
-
Posted on: Sat Feb 4, 2017 12:52am
I have always wanted to become a breeding artist. I have not put in my MBC application, but would love to and I am more than happy with a GP payout. I am still learning PS but have a hunger to learn and better my skills, both with MBC predicts for my pets and coloring Customs. I think this site is awesome and I love everyone I have met here. As one who can not spend too much a month here, though I wish I could, would hate for this site to be gone. I have met so many people who this site helps with their anxiety and getting out there creatively. I am super excited when I am able to create here and find the hunger for creating here increases every time I am here and see everyone's pets.
I hope everything works out and I want to say a great job to everyone trying to come up with great ways to help out and keep something afloat that has a wonderful community.
- NINE
(#13049)
-
Posted on: Sat Feb 4, 2017 1:10am
Ever thought about doing like a monthly raffle with tickets you could buy from the USD shop? :'O
Perhaps for like rare items, or even designs?
She knows designs would mean paying artists, but some people might be willing to do it for GP/cash shop items. (Nine would actually be up for that herself, it'd be fun.)
It might not be much, but that could be another way to bring money to the site. o:
- Fluffy - Gone
(#998)
-
Posted on: Sat Feb 4, 2017 1:32am
Rather than firing artists I'd rather see some more accountability with the site money. How much of the money from Aywas is going directly back into the site? Do we have percentages?
- Loveless
(#19023)
-
Posted on: Sat Feb 4, 2017 1:42am
I am not sure how much interest there would be in this but for something to add for people to take part of.
Perhaps have a weekly contest, similar to the HA contest but for pets? As not everyone is into the HA thing, maybe more people would be interested in a pet spotlight contest that is run similarly to the HA contest.
As far as more ideas for USD, you could do something along the lines of allowing people to pay to have their name displayed in a color they like (just exclude being able to use colors that staff are using). Also, you could perhaps could do something like a cash shop wheel (if you could get one programmed). Basically, the user would pay X amount for a ticket to the wheel. The wheel would have the chance at various USD items, AD pets, etc and you could even add designs to that like "You won a custom of X percentage, please message X with your design to have it uploaded" and have restrictions like no Xaoc or what not. Another chance thing which people love and you could change around what it offers monthly or whatnot.
- Kazna (Pirate@142)
(#233)
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Posted on: Sat Feb 4, 2017 2:10am
Turning the breeding queues into a system like the pbc queues sept with addition of pens and artist tockets to unlock the selection of specific artists?
- Linchan
(#57480)
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Posted on: Sat Feb 4, 2017 2:57am
thanks for being more open about aywas situation kaiyo :) that's def a breath of fresh air~
- Kitsune
(#23799)
-
Posted on: Sat Feb 4, 2017 3:23am
Thanks for the imformation. Maybe an artist call out for GP/USD shop items only breeding artists could help? Some people may be interested in doing something like that.
- Nhotemau
(#175)
-
Posted on: Sat Feb 4, 2017 6:56am
To be honest this is actually giving me a lot of hope for the future of this website! I do truly feel for the artists that will be losing out on money though.
- Broken
(#1464)
-
Posted on: Sat Feb 4, 2017 8:21am
Hikaru (#15577) Ok wasn't sure as I was going by the breeding status page (which says 2012 is where they are at), so that being said HBP/HBC is the one with the longest wait times at over a 1yr standing for a breeding to get results back. So thanks for the correction....
Posted on: Sat Feb 4, 2017 12:52am
I have always wanted to become a breeding artist. I have not put in my MBC application, but would love to and I am more than happy with a GP payout. I am still learning PS but have a hunger to learn and better my skills, both with MBC predicts for my pets and coloring Customs. I think this site is awesome and I love everyone I have met here. As one who can not spend too much a month here, though I wish I could, would hate for this site to be gone. I have met so many people who this site helps with their anxiety and getting out there creatively. I am super excited when I am able to create here and find the hunger for creating here increases every time I am here and see everyone's pets.
I hope everything works out and I want to say a great job to everyone trying to come up with great ways to help out and keep something afloat that has a wonderful community.