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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
- 🐼Kaiyo🐼
(#489)
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Posted on: Fri Feb 3, 2017 4:53pm
🌈Allysun🍀 (#317) We have a lot of people trying to register with multiple accounts, is why we keep the application process. We have discussed removing it, so it is still on the table just right now isn't on our list of priorities.
The second idea is pretty cool, we could use the achievement feature for that.
I wanted to do a permanent pet sink but got vetoed :( I might try to bring it back in a fw months
That.. is actually a kind of cute idea regarding the backgrounds, I'm not really sure how we would do that but that is cute.
- 🐼Kaiyo🐼
(#489)
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Posted on: Fri Feb 3, 2017 4:54pm
♥ Mochi ♥ LL ♥ (#70211) If you wanna do that go right ahead lmao, I won't argue, just send it off to me when you get it xD
- Riri
(#48591)
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Posted on: Fri Feb 3, 2017 4:57pm
Oh I agree with removing the application process to join the site. I feel like that served a bigger, more logical purpose at one point but is since outdated.
- Mynia
(#5309)
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Posted on: Fri Feb 3, 2017 5:01pm
Another random thought to toss into the ring (sorry to spam the news post, but it's such a tiny idea it's not really worthy of a suggestion thread)
It regards the Speedy Bredding Ticket item; which as far as I am aware, doesn't give an artist payout (correct me if I am wrong, and if I am disregard this entire idea lmao). It's currently only compatible with BC, LBC and HBC coins, why not make it compatible with a couple of other coins? I can see it working okay with coins like the Painted coins, or the sketch coin?
It would be a tiny thing maybe, but it might see more people using it if they have a breeding they simply can't wait for (which is something I experience when I breed xD)
- ♥ Mochi ♥
(#70211)
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Posted on: Fri Feb 3, 2017 5:06pm
I can confirm that I've had friends on other pet sites that were curious to try Aywas, but stopped at registration because they didn't want to fill out a box answering why they wanted to join - and admittedly, if someone is just trying out a site to see if they like it or not, I can see why that question would push people out. <:D
- 🐼Kaiyo🐼
(#489)
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Posted on: Fri Feb 3, 2017 5:11pm
Timi (#5409) That is a pretty decent idea, I will pitch it to staff and see if it has an outcome!
♥ Mochi ♥ LL ♥ (#70211) Lmao, honestly if the reason why isn't blank we accept almost everything xD
- ♥ Mochi ♥
(#70211)
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Posted on: Fri Feb 3, 2017 5:12pm
"I would like to join Aywas so I can do nothing but post terrible puns on the forums all day every day."
- 🐼Kaiyo🐼
(#489)
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Posted on: Fri Feb 3, 2017 5:20pm
♥ Mochi ♥ LL ♥ (#70211) Thats better than some of the reasons I've accepted, that would give me something to look forward to.
- Gone x2
(#550)
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Posted on: Fri Feb 3, 2017 5:21pm
I'll be honest, the reason I lost interest in the sight is because a lack of new features.
Being a long-term player, I understand a lot of back-end stuff needs to be done, but outside of buying/selling customs and breeding, buying useless items, or talking on forums, there's not a lot to do. Expecially for new players. One of the biggest things that pulled me in is the events - there was always something new to do, everything was never slow-paced, and the breeding and custom wait seemed like not a big deal because yeah, I didnt have my pet, but that didn't matter as much - there was other things that had my attention.
About a year ago, we had events every other month which drove people in. Two years ago, there was Scav - by far the biggest and most rallying event of all. People use to spend hundreds to keep their item collections up to date - but now there's no need.
Anyway, that's my take on it. Sorry if this seemed abrupt or something - I'm pretty out of it right now.
Posted on: Fri Feb 3, 2017 4:51pm
Glad to hear it's on the to do list for the recent future. :D I was planning on going through the entire site part by part and writing up a big list of suggestions to improve the site and make it more appealing/accessible to newer players, so I'll probably see what I find while I do that. <3
(Am also excited to hear the prospect of cheaper GP items maybe, since a lot of other sites I go on have a lot of cheaper items that make players who can't spend as much feel just as involved and able to participate in buying stuff heh)