[A] Customer Reward/Credit/Loyalty System

[ATh e a r t]

Even if it is not suggested, doesn't mean it doesn't feel negative. The first paragraph you have is basically commenting on staff and staff credits. The second paragraph basically says, "it's awesome! But... for you!" It basically feels like, to me "oh! you guys do so much, but you get so much awesome for yourself, but what about us?"

Let me just break this down a bit more for the general populace, because... I feel like a lot of people don't understand how much time it takes to save up.

Non edited soquili are 50c. Minorly edited is 75c. Moderately edited is 100c. Heavily edited is 125c.

Breedings are 200c unedited, and 300c edited.

1 regular custom takes a colorist 1k credits.
- 20 unedited soquili
- At least 14 minorly edited
- 10 moderately edited Soquili
- 8 heavily edited Soquili
- 5 unedited breedings or at least 4 edited breedings (and these all have 3 stages, 2-4 baskets depending on if there are elders).

1 mutant custom takes a colorist 2k credits. So basically double the above.

1 megamutant takes 10k credits. x10 the first amount listed.

SC has been staff incentive for a reason. There's a lot of work put into Soquili. I don't see a lot of just color fill ponies.

Suggestion thread or not, it seems like, to me, a lot of people do not appreciate what has already been done.

I'm not irked at people. I'm irked at ideas. I'm irked at the fact that I color because I want to and because I like making people happy, but because we can't offer mutants all the time, it's not enough. Why wouldn't I be irked?  

[stella cinere]

.Tortured. .Pumpkin.

And from a customer's point of view, we understand that you guys do a *LOT* of work here. And that most of the drive for doing that work is usually based around that pretty custom you've been wanting from a certain colorist, or that mock breeding you've been thinking of for ages.

Honestly I was not going to post in this thread but I must say this for once I am incredibly insulted by this comment. As much as you were trying to tell us yes we are working hard, but you have the motive completely wrong and you make something that we want to do for people seem completely selfish.

Colorist aren't driven to make things for credits, a lot of us work because we want to color for the customers. We want to help people get things they have been trying for, to do events, freebies, even plushies were a way to give customers a way to get something maybe even a custom they had wanted. THIS year was the first year we had even made a pony for every person who posted in the cyo. I was so incredibly happy to see this happen I didn't even care about the stupid SC I was making it was just ******** awesome to see everyone actually get one. I haven't even counted up how many SC I made off of them, didn't care, still don't care.

If you don't believe that just look at Mind, she has a crap ton of SC she half the time barely gets around to using them all but she still makes ponies. She does raffles with her SC and quite frankly it may seem easy to make sc but a lot of work go into them and there are still people on staff who want to spend it on other people. Some still are waiting to do events and giveaways with their SC's in order to GIVE people who have wanted things a chance.

Honestly thats all I have to say on the matter.

Edit: As for the suggest I don't mind it being suggested tho I think it would be difficult task in even getting organized and being able implement without issues sad  

[Sabin Duvert]

I think for edit levels - they're currently pretty well defined with the bullet point system.

Custom flutter wings are considered a moderate edit. Any other custom wing could be a heavy edit (just like getting a super long rapunzel mane). You couldn't get more than three heavy edits on a soquili without it going into the "extreme" edit territory.

Likewise, currently a custom breed tail is a moderate edit. You want two fox tails? That's two moderate edit bullet points.

I think it stands to reason a tree would be a heavy edit bullet point

So the system is already in place.

If this were CC to begin with, it's not an issue as to whether or not a colorist wnats to take on this crazy extreme-level mutant edit monster. If there is some rolling involved, a colorist could limit what they're taking to, say, a heavily edited soquili. or just limit the opportunity as a whole to heavy edits to begin with.  

[.Tortured. .Pumpkin.]

hanging gallow

.Tortured. .Pumpkin.

And from a customer's point of view, we understand that you guys do a *LOT* of work here. And that most of the drive for doing that work is usually based around that pretty custom you've been wanting from a certain colorist, or that mock breeding you've been thinking of for ages.

Honestly I was not going to post in this thread but I must say this for once I am incredibly insulted by this comment. As much as you were trying to tell us yes we are working hard, but you have the motive completely wrong and you make something that we want to do for people seem completely selfish.

Colorist aren't driven to make things for credits, a lot of us work because we want to color for the customers. We want to help people get things they have been trying for, to do events, freebies, even plushies were a way to give customers a way to get something maybe even a custom they had wanted. THIS year was the first year we had even made a pony for every person who posted in the cyo. I was so incredibly happy to see this happen I didn't even care about the stupid SC I was making it was just ******** awesome to see everyone actually get one. I haven't even counted up how many SC I made off of them, didn't care, still don't care.

If you don't believe that just look at Mind, she has a crap ton of SC she half the time barely gets around to using them all but she still makes ponies. She does raffles with her SC and quite frankly it may seem easy to make sc but a lot of work go into them and there are still people on staff who want to spend it on other people. Some still are waiting to do events and giveaways with their SC's in order to GIVE people who have wanted things a chance.

Honestly thats all I have to say on the matter.

I worded that incorrectly. That's not how I wanted that to come out at all. ;-;
I'm just going to leave it be and not try to explain myself in fear of making it worse.  

[ATh e a r t]

Quote:

Point Suggestions:

* A Soquili at 100% stats earns one point.
* Earn one point for every X months in which a customer is active in the shop.
* Earn one point when awarded a pet or teepee spotlight.
* Getting a Soquili to Elder earns one point.

1. A soquili at 100% basically earns their 5th breeding as well as an almost guaranteed 3rd basket depending on the breeding partner.
2. A lot of customers don't post. A lot lurk, both the main thread, event threads, and post a lot more in guilds than in thread. There is no way of keeping track of this without being called 'biased'.
3. A pet or teepee spotlight isn't a big thing in Soq. Sirenz did it for a while, and the staff originally never wanted to bring it back. The reason why it was brought back was because Puu wanted to do it, and she did it voluntarily even before she was on staff.
3. Elders already have: +1 basket, +1 breeding, + new art.  

[xxx Yuki Bear xxx]

The only thing I am going to say about this is that we are given so many perks already, and posting this on the eve of a 99% free huge event that the staff worked extremely hard on for us was incredibly tactless .  

[saedusk]

Two negatives don't make a positive.  

[ATh e a r t]

LydaLynn

And yes. I'm saying 'what about us?'

Because I don't want to get into this more, this is all I'm going to respond to.

What we do to earn staff credits, is for customers.

1 regular custom for SC is 20 ponies that we do for customers.

1 regular custom is at least 4 edited breedings which is at least 8 ponies with 3 stages each for customers.

So 'what about us?'.  

[saedusk]

What about you? It is active users, the kind that are being referenced by this suggestion, that provide you a customer base to color Soq for in the first place. Without those customers, you would have no one to color for, and so no way to earn the credits you use to fund your dream horses.

Yes, sometimes people can be out there in their requests, and no, I don't think staff should be asked to cater to every single little thing, but this particular thread doesn't seem that way to me. I don't see why it's so unreasonable for people to ask for ways to work towards their dream horses that are otherwise next to unobtainable.

What exactly would you ask customers to give you in return besides their activity?  

[one over three]

Hey guys. Just so you know Uta's going to reply she's just at work and can't get online right now.  

[Uta]

All right, so I see things are getting a bit heated over here considering Lyda's suggestion.

First off, let me tell you that officially, we aren't going to make a customer credit system. I completely understand why people would like the idea, I know other shops have a credit-based or token system, and that works for them. Unfortunately, staff and its owners think the way things work in soquili works out well for as large as a shop soquili is.

While this is a suggestion and it is on our radar to come back to, should we ever decide to revamp how people obtain soquili in the shop, at this present time we aren't going to support this system.

That doesn't make it a bad idea, or a wrong idea, it's just not something we're going to do, sorry guys!

That being said, we understand there are some hurt feelings and discrepancies concerning what our staff members are allowed to get with their credits, versus what our customer base are allowed to get in events & through customs and bribes. This has been noticed. This very fact, and possible ways around it, have been discussed prior to this conversations.. Due to trying to organize this event, as well as keep the shop running to day to day, it hasn't been something we've decided or implemented yet, but it is something we're discussing. We've just had other issues and things come up that have taken precedence.

So please don't think we're trying to be unfair, or trying to make it so you guys don't get what you want. We want this to be a fun place, and while staff are able to cash in for things using credits, they do work hard for them. There is a lot of behind the scenes time put into the shop to make it fun for you guys, and some staff do share their credits with others.

Additionally, please remember that the shop isn't even officially re-opened! There are changes coming down the pike -- we're trying to make this shop open and affirming and welcoming. We want to give out more soquili, we want our customers to be happy, we want to hear your concerns and try to fix what we can . . .

Unfortunately, sometimes we aren't going to be able to make others happy. Sometimes giving more won't be enough for what some people want, and we're sorry about that. Sometimes, unfortunately, we do have to say no regardless how passionate some people are about their ideas or how they would like to see the shop being run.

Please don't take that as us being cruel or unkind. It's just operationally, for whatever reason, it's not something we're going to want to support.

The feedback forum is to provide feedback and suggestions, but it should not become a fight, or have people becoming so vehement on one side or another that tempers flare. It's a place to talk about ideas. Some are good, some maybe not so good, but they're all valid thoughts.

Please guys, let's remember that we're all here because we choose to be here and are drawn to the shop for whatever reason -- to RP, to make friends, to get pretty ponies, to watch family lines grow, etc. etc. Some volunteer their time to make ponies or run events and keep the place alive; others just want to enjoy and try to get more ponies as a regular customer. Some lurk, some are active. We're all here together though, and I promise things will get better.

We're working on new templates.
We're working on giving you guys more events.
We'll hopefully have more breedings, customs & Wishing Star events, as well as in-thread giveaways after our Re-Opening Event.
We've been in discussion over mutant/megamutant/pawed-walker availability.
We just updated some lifemates rules to be more inclusive.

We're trying to do right by you guys, but unfortunately, we're all only human. Please, let's all just be a little more patient with one another, especially when ideas of how things should be handled are at odds.

Thanks!  

[Inkvore]

Uta put it well.

My only take on this is, staff anything aside, you want to find away for everyone to have a shot at mutants and the ilk. I'm not keen on lecturing but you could have said that without throwing the staff into the equation and making anyone feel invalidated.
I digress.

For future, this is something that will probably keep cropping up as we move forward with the reopening and getting the shop back on its feet. As Uta said many things are coming down the pipeline and I'm sure this is going to be on that insane, ever growing to do list. So rest assured it is being assessed but also be patient, as we have a LOT on our plates.