To be honest, I don't see the koin market improving unless things get changed soon, so here are some suggestions to improve the system.
These suggestions will most definitely increase the value of koins to their target value of $1, and will also promote forum activity.
I believe that adding more features to spend koins on would increase their value.
A single award and the ability to upgrade is great, but for somebody who has already done that, there is little value left.
Another point is that they are most definitely inflated. I sense that you already know this, and plan to reduce the availability of them.
Culling the circulation of koins would also increase their value. This could involve ruling out koin giveaways, and removing the ability to buy them from the /buy.php directory.
Making koins a primary currency for forum related purchases is also a good idea. This includes buying groups and award ownerships, and even transfer fees. If you want people to use koins, give them a reason to. In combination with limiting koin supply, and giving users more options to spend them on, you will most definitely have an increase of activity and koin value.
All of this will be a slow process due to the fact that koins are currently very easy to obtain and aren't considered to be worth $1/koin. You may feel a little ripped off in the beginning of it all, because you could be asking for real money instead, but if you want koins to be at the value that you want them to be, treat them just like money, and accept them for almost anything (besides site donations).
Here I've broken down some ideas.
Decreasing the availability of koins:
Increase the pricing and options to spend koins on:
Koin Rewards:
Koin Bank and Transaction History:
I would love to see this implemented. Being able to view previous deals made with koins would be a great feature. This would be similar to viewing a bank balance page, and could be /bank.php.
The closest thing we have to this, is the 10 recent donations in the koin statistics page, which I don't think is good enough.
The "Jackpot" Award:
This is an award I came up with that is simply granted to users that win the koin lottery. I believe that this will encourage more users to participate to the weekly lotteries, and therefore have koins circulating the forum rather than sitting in peoples possession.
These suggestions will most definitely increase the value of koins to their target value of $1, and will also promote forum activity.
I believe that adding more features to spend koins on would increase their value.
A single award and the ability to upgrade is great, but for somebody who has already done that, there is little value left.
Another point is that they are most definitely inflated. I sense that you already know this, and plan to reduce the availability of them.
Culling the circulation of koins would also increase their value. This could involve ruling out koin giveaways, and removing the ability to buy them from the /buy.php directory.
Making koins a primary currency for forum related purchases is also a good idea. This includes buying groups and award ownerships, and even transfer fees. If you want people to use koins, give them a reason to. In combination with limiting koin supply, and giving users more options to spend them on, you will most definitely have an increase of activity and koin value.
All of this will be a slow process due to the fact that koins are currently very easy to obtain and aren't considered to be worth $1/koin. You may feel a little ripped off in the beginning of it all, because you could be asking for real money instead, but if you want koins to be at the value that you want them to be, treat them just like money, and accept them for almost anything (besides site donations).
Here I've broken down some ideas.
Decreasing the availability of koins:
- Drastically reduce the amount of koins received per post/thread (important, in order for many of my other suggestions to be effective).
- Rule out koin giveaways from users, restrict to staff only.
- Remove the /buy.php directory.
- All koins that are used to pay for upgrades be removed from circulation.
Increase the pricing and options to spend koins on:
- Restricted access subforums - koin entry fee (potential for R rated content access or something).
- Another koin award "K.R.E.A.M" (koins rule everything around me) - 50 or 100 koins to buy.
- Transfer fees, UIDs, groups, and award ownerships can be purchasable with koins.
- Forum game center/arcade - koin entry fee (potential for tournaments etc).
- Koin slot machine - no koins generated, all prizes are simply circulated from a pot system, similar to the koin lottery.
- Increase the cost of koins to change your username - also prevents name whoring.
- Koin only payment methods on certain things (auctions with koin bidding only, eg. groups/awards).
Koin Rewards:
- Milestone rewards - receive koins for reaching a certain number of posts/reputation/kudos.
- Gaming competitions such as Halo 3, Counter Strike, League of Legends, and Call of Duty. Winner(s) receives a sum of koins.
- Richest user (excluding Philly) gets the privilege to wear the "Baller" or "[insert name here]" userbar and name colour - in other words, a one-person user group for the most koin wealthy user on the forum.
Koin Bank and Transaction History:
I would love to see this implemented. Being able to view previous deals made with koins would be a great feature. This would be similar to viewing a bank balance page, and could be /bank.php.
The closest thing we have to this, is the 10 recent donations in the koin statistics page, which I don't think is good enough.
The "Jackpot" Award:
This is an award I came up with that is simply granted to users that win the koin lottery. I believe that this will encourage more users to participate to the weekly lotteries, and therefore have koins circulating the forum rather than sitting in peoples possession.