Therian Guide: Forums

(2017-02-02 12:05)PinkDolphin Wrote: [ -> ]Hey, I know that this might sound a bit.. weird haha. But I understand you got a tshirt if you have enough points (what i'm trying to reach now ) or when donating at least €40.
€40 is a big amount of money :/ especially for younger (16,5 yrs) puppers like me.
I really understand why donating is so important so I don't blame you guys! But for me it isn't possible to amount that much of money for (what my mom thinks: useless) site. I really would want to, don't understand me wrong! But I'm just not able.

And I really am going to save up points.
FIRST of all: I just saw th price of tshirts went up? Like 4,100.000 instead of around 3,600.000 (i think), why is it more expensive now? I'm curious

And SECOND:
Is there a way I could buy these therian shirt somewhere else for maybe a less amount of money like €25 or something?

wooffff

It's so much money because really it's getting a reward for contributing to the site to keep it running. We have to be able to both purchase the reward and have enough left over to do something for the site... as well as pick up some of the lost money from people turning in their points for items... and pay for shipping for those items.

Dust made an algorithm that is tied to how much we have saved back to fund rewards for those who turn in their points. When someone turns in points for a reward, the funds go down basically, thus increasing the needed points to get a reward. However, when someone donates, it goes down.

The money has to come from somewhere, you know?

The merch isn't just merch- it's also a way to help out the site.

It's kind of like a game I play, Furcadia. There's preorders and sponsorships and such. They even had a Kickstarter back in 2012/2013. There were tons of rewards, but you weren't technically buying the rewards like with any Kickstarter, you were supporting them and in turn getting something back as a sort of "thanks"! With their sponsorships, it's the same thing. The price seems a bit much but when you consider what you're getting and what they have to pay plus what they need to keep to actually gain anything of support... well, it makes sense. Of course there is other, cheaper items, that are just "store" format where you're buying just to have the item and so much isn't taken to help support.

Plus, as an extra, you get a cool little shop item on here to show you donated, the TG coin. Or, if you gave points to get something, you get the shop item version of it as well as the real item.

(2017-02-02 13:28)WereRen Wrote: [ -> ]It's so much money because really it's getting a reward for contributing to the site to keep it running. We have to be able to both purchase the reward and have enough left over to do something for the site... as well as pick up some of the lost money from people turning in their points for items... and pay for shipping for those items.

This (and the rest of what WereRen wrote) is the basic principle, though currently we don't fund anything else with the donations, it all goes back into helping make merch a reality.

(2017-02-02 12:05)PinkDolphin Wrote: [ -> ]€40 is a big amount of money :/ especially for younger (16,5 yrs) puppers like me.

Yup that's why there's an option to get it for free if you contribute actively on the forums. It's like all those free-to-play games, you can either put the effort in it and get perks for free, or you can skip that and get the perk in exchange for a donation.

But that doesn't mean you absolutely have to donate. You can always get the merch for points. The donation is just a "skip" option if you don't want the grind of earning points.

(2017-02-02 12:05)PinkDolphin Wrote: [ -> ]FIRST of all: I just saw th price of tshirts went up? Like 4,100.000 instead of around 3,600.000 (i think), why is it more expensive now? I'm curious

The shop prices are automatically calculated based on the budget we are working with. Every donation, makes the prices go down and every points purchase makes them go up. The costs are calculated in such a way that it's always fair and accessible to the most active members of our community.

And myself and Lycan have already committed a bunch of money to making sure the merch is accessible for everybody, since we have so many members who, like you, are young and don't have jobs and stuff.

(2017-02-02 12:05)PinkDolphin Wrote: [ -> ]Is there a way I could buy these therian shirt somewhere else for maybe a less amount of money like €25 or something?

The donation amount for the merch is really more or less what you would pay, only a small fraction of it goes to funding the free merch for top contributors. The total amount is a little bigger for a number of reasons such as there being a lot of shipping costs because our supplier is in Europe, and because each item is made individually... but we're working on that.

If you can understand how this works, you can see it's not really in our interest to offer these shirts outside the donation scheme, because if we did there would be no more free merch for people who can't afford it.

LP,
Dusty

(2017-02-02 20:01)DustWolf Wrote: [ -> ]

(2017-02-02 13:28)WereRen Wrote: [ -> ]It's so much money because really it's getting a reward for contributing to the site to keep it running. We have to be able to both purchase the reward and have enough left over to do something for the site... as well as pick up some of the lost money from people turning in their points for items... and pay for shipping for those items.

This (and the rest of what WereRen wrote) is the basic principle, though currently we don't fund anything else with the donations, it all goes back into helping make merch a reality.

(2017-02-02 12:05)PinkDolphin Wrote: [ -> ]€40 is a big amount of money :/ especially for younger (16,5 yrs) puppers like me.

Yup that's why there's an option to get it for free if you contribute actively on the forums. It's like all those free-to-play games, you can either put the effort in it and get perks for free, or you can skip that and get the perk in exchange for a donation.

But that doesn't mean you absolutely have to donate. You can always get the merch for points. The donation is just a "skip" option if you don't want the grind of earning points.

(2017-02-02 12:05)PinkDolphin Wrote: [ -> ]FIRST of all: I just saw th price of tshirts went up? Like 4,100.000 instead of around 3,600.000 (i think), why is it more expensive now? I'm curious

The shop prices are automatically calculated based on the budget we are working with. Every donation, makes the prices go down and every points purchase makes them go up. The costs are calculated in such a way that it's always fair and accessible to the most active members of our community.

And myself and Lycan have already committed a bunch of money to making sure the merch is accessible for everybody, since we have so many members who, like you, are young and don't have jobs and stuff.

(2017-02-02 12:05)PinkDolphin Wrote: [ -> ]Is there a way I could buy these therian shirt somewhere else for maybe a less amount of money like €25 or something?

The donation amount for the merch is really more or less what you would pay, only a small fraction of it goes to funding the free merch for top contributors. The total amount is a little bigger for a number of reasons such as there being a lot of shipping costs because our supplier is in Europe, and because each item is made individually... but we're working on that.

If you can understand how this works, you can see it's not really in our interest to offer these shirts outside the donation scheme, because if we did there would be no more free merch for people who can't afford it.

Oh my woof :o I didn't thougt about the fact that you guys also needs to pay shipping and probably need money to make the shirts and merch too.
Well yeah, you are right!
And that point-system looks well made! It's smarter than me atleast
I hope I can donate one day too! I would love to help.