My Feedback: Upgrade Sytem

Shift said:

A new user bar should be easy as it doesn't require too much knowledge to implement compared to a security feature or such.

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Userbars aren't the problem. I'm happy to change those if Philly agrees, it's the actual MyBB plugin features that I'm drawing blanks on.

Raptor said:

Userbars aren't the problem. I'm happy to change those if Philly agrees, it's the actual MyBB plugin features that I'm drawing blanks on.

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I see, you and Philly can hopefully agree on something since it would be nice to see new changes especially when it has mostly been the same since I joined.

I personally love the userbars and would not be disappointed if they never changed.

Beam said:

I personally love the userbars and would not be disappointed if they never changed.

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I personally don't mind power+ but hate the power one, I've felt it needed a change for a while.

I stand by everything Jason has said. When Power+ became inflated with buy-in users, it lost its prestige. Instead of tightening the requirements to uphold its value, we introduced Supporters. While a subscription based upgrade is a cool idea, it never really went anywhere - the promised ongoing features were never implemented and it pretty much died out. So next came Investors, a group that promised profits from the site and more exclusive ongoing features. Not only does it look unattractive in every way, (hideous font and userbar) but barely any of the initial features that were promised ended up lasting, and it just became an extremely expensive buy-in.
We seriously need a revamp of the upgrade system, and I'm willing to help out with graphics if that's what is needed.

Astro said:

I stand by everything Jason has said. When Power+ became inflated with buy-in users, it lost its prestige. Instead of tightening the requirements to uphold its value, we introduced Supporters. While a subscription based upgrade is a cool idea, it never really went anywhere - the promised ongoing features were never implemented and it pretty much died out. So next came Investors, a group that promised profits from the site and more exclusive ongoing features. Not only does it look unattractive in every way, (hideous font and userbar) but barely any of the initial features that were promised ended up lasting, and it just became an extremely expensive buy-in.
We seriously need a revamp of the upgrade system, and I'm willing to help out with graphics if that's what is needed.

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I really respect the fact that Jason came out and did this, and Astro is now offering his services to the site in order to improve it. I have had many of these same suggestions crawling around in my brain, but I was never sure how to bring the conflict at hand to the table. It always seemed that those who spoke out had their accounts terminated, and I really like the community we have here. We just need to work together towards a common goal and communicate rather than bitch and moan.

Astro said:

I stand by everything Jason has said. When Power+ became inflated with buy-in users, it lost its prestige. Instead of tightening the requirements to uphold its value, we introduced Supporters. While a subscription based upgrade is a cool idea, it never really went anywhere - the promised ongoing features were never implemented and it pretty much died out. So next came Investors, a group that promised profits from the site and more exclusive ongoing features. Not only does it look unattractive in every way, (hideous font and userbar) but barely any of the initial features that were promised ended up lasting, and it just became an extremely expensive buy-in.
We seriously need a revamp of the upgrade system, and I'm willing to help out with graphics if that's what is needed.

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hit up @seven about investors please, man..

I posted this in a thread a week or so ago, may as well re-post it here.

- FK really needs a UK Moderator. Countless times you can see spam bots and CC dumps which aren't dealt with for hours on end. The team we have are great, but unless I am mistaken there is no one on at this particular time zone.

- Scam reports should be dealt with within 24 hours (or at least a reply from a Mod). I believe if a scam report is raised then that user should be placed in the TRADE WITH CAUTION usergroup until the report has been solved. This would then at least alert members what is going on and stop more scams.

- It would be nice to see if FK can tap into the gaming market a little more - e.g Twitch streaming and the like. This is a big market and can really help the forum blossom.

- There needs to be a rebrand of some of the paid usergroups. I donated for Power+ a few months ago as it seemed like a prestigious rank - now a tonne more people have it. Long time supporters of the forum should be rewarded - whether this be via Koins, competitions or something similar. Ideally, there should be a usergroup where you CANNOT pay to get into and you get into it on merit alone, however I don't see this happening as there are a few upgrades as it is.

- I get that this is a forum and hosting and SEO need to be paid for on a monthly basis - however offering paid upgrades every month or few weeks just devalues it a little more everytime. In order to raise the money, maybe FK should have a donation bar and everyone who donates over a specific amount e.g $20 would get a "Contributor" award or something. This way you get the money needed and don't piss off everyone else who paid a lot of money for their upgrades. It could also be changed everymonth to Koins etc.

- Please re-evaluate the transfer fee for awards. I understand it's $30? Awards these days are selling for around $20, the transfer fee should be around $15 for awards imo.
This should be a priority - Sort out who is giving out awards. It's been a few months now and NO ONE has been doing this? Awards keep people interested in the forum, make people want to donate and be active, but if no one can find the time to give them out then people are eventually going to stop bothering to attain those awards in the first place surely? I understand you can't give them out yourself all the time due to time constraints but @Raptor could do this as he is now admin? It's not really a time consuming thing to do either.

This pretty much sums up everyones thoughts on upgrades....

I'd also like to suggest you utilize : https://www.forumkorner.com/usercp.php?action=style_your_nick
This would be a power+ only feature though.

Also new UBs would be great to see.

Thanks for the contribution, @"Hobbs". You and I seem to see eye to eye on most topics, which is a rarity in itself. @Raptor genuinely seems interested in seeking improvement, so I hope our feedback does not go ignored and we see the changes that we drastically need. All of your points are valid, but I cannot seem to agree anymore with lowering the transfer fee for awards. It is a shame to see awards sell for less then the transfer fee. It makes no sense. That is what happens when you have an absurd amount of user-owned awards.

jason said:

Thanks for the contribution, @"Hobbs". You and I seem to see eye to eye on most topics, which is a rarity in itself. @Raptor genuinely seems interested in seeking improvement, so I hope our feedback does not go ignored and we see the changes that we drastically need. All of your points are valid, but I cannot seem to agree anymore with lowering the transfer fee for awards. It is a shame to see awards sell for less then the transfer fee. It makes no sense. That is what happens when you have an absurd amount of user-owned awards.

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Yeah I guess it's kind of damage limitation now. Lets see what happens I guess.

Not that many people even want to purchase awards anymore because of the transfer fee.

I agree with you in some cases such as how much all of the upgrades add up to, donator being a requirement and the Supporter usergroup.
Maybe this thread can bring some changes to the usergroups to give them their value due to new extra features that are worth it.

Oh and I read the entire thread, what do I give myself? A pat on the back?

Bump. . .bump, bump it up!

We deserve more for what we pay!

I've bought both Onyx and Power upgrades, along with the Donator award in the past week and I don't think we should have to donate to the site in order to buy the next available upgrade as donating to the site should be optional. I also think there should be an option on the upgrade page where you can receive the upgrade you paid for automatically.

[font=Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif]I agree with everything you said and I also agree with @[/font][font=Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif][font=Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif]Hobbs[/font][/font][font=Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif] [/font][font=Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif]that there should be a European/UK moderator, as I've reported CC dumps and multi accounts and they're not dealt with until several hours later. On the topic of upgrades, there's several spelling mistakes on the upgrade page that need to be fixed.[/font]

Just stopping in to leave my thoughts; The main reason I've not re-bought my upgrades after being banned is that although it's nice to support the site, the perks didn't really re-hook me. I'd really love to see where this thread ends, and what gets implemented/changed after.

I'll wait until this thread is resolved/closed to re-buy my upgrades I guess.

Good luck @Jason

Didn't see this thread because I was on vacation. I agree with everything being said. As for feedback, I think +20 for supporter as an upgrade basically makes Power+ useless. I'm not saying the perks of Power+ are bad but let's be honest, most people buy it for the +/-15 reputation.

You think Philly gives a fuck about anyone's opinion on the site? All he cares about is making that money

Killer Turtle said:

You think Philly gives a fuck about anyone's opinion on the site? All he cares about is making that money

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And...he's gone. I agree totally though.

Should the prices be reduced? Yes. Should more benefits/perks be added for each level? Yes. Is anything going to happen? Nope. It's pretty obvious Philly needs money. I cannot tell you how many times I have seen Philly say that he is will never sell any more groups and then turn around and start selling more groups. Moreover, he gives "discounts" on upgrades every week it seems like. Then there was Phillys idea to start unbanning users a few months back but once unbanned, you lost all your upgrades so you would have to repurchase them. The thirst for money is real. I highly doubt anything will come of this thread. The majority of staff are incompetent and lazy. Look at the pardons/disputes sections. They sit around for months unanswered. Before we even think about rewriting the upgrade system we need to fix the pardons/disputes sections. QUESO out