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-   -   What's special about being a PC supporter ? (https://www.pokecommunity.com/showthread.php?t=295663)

Renpuu January 25th, 2013 1:30 PM

What's special about being a PC supporter ?
 
These are just very general questions from someone who enjoys being on Pokecommunity but is not classed as a "Supporter".
I don't know much about being a Pokecommunity supporter, but those who are a supporter or not, I'd like the following questions to be answered.

Official questions:
If you have not donated, why not ?
If you have donated, why did you do so ?
Where do you feel your money goes ?
Why is there a tier system ?

I'll kick this topic off by asking my own questions.

Now I'm not trying to be-little Pokecommunity supporters, in the end it was your decision to donate any sum of money to the Pokecommunity forum, just as the same as it is another forum member's choice to not donate any money to the forum.
If I donated money to the forum..how would the forum benefit ?
I don't see any signs saying "Pokecommunity is going bankrupt, we need financial support for servers to be hosted" or "Pokecommunity is raising money for 'this charity' any donations are grateful etc."
I've chosen to not donate any money, because I don't feel that the forum NEEDs my money.

IF I did donate money to the forum, I would like it go towards the general maintenance of the forum and ensure that the server is up at all times.

What I don't understand however is why there is a tier system in the supporters. I mean surely if I gave £100 of my hard money through a donation, that would make me a better supporter than someone who has continually supported the growth and development of the forum itself with smaller donations ?
In that example, £100 may be nothing to me and I could be a very wealthy person, but the person who has worked really hard doing scripting,admin/mod work and been consistent with putting high quality work/effort to the forum should not be given equal recognition ?

Personally I don't feel there SHOULD be a tier system with supporters. Everyone puts in their 2 cents, works hard and makes the forum a happy and welcoming place to be.
Why should we belittle donations that are small when somebody worked hard to give the forum that money ?

machomuu January 25th, 2013 2:05 PM

I'm considering donating 25 bucks. Would a US only gift card (Visa, Mastercard, etc.) work for donation?

Hikamaru January 25th, 2013 2:12 PM

I didn't donate cos my mother is strict and won't let me do those sorts of things.

I got my Supporter title as a gift for my birthday when Toujours won it as a competition prize during PCX and after she found out my birthday was after the event finished she gave her Supporter prize to me. I ended up being a Tier 4 for 3 weeks and then a gift donation from PEDRO12 took me to Tier 5.

For where the donations go I think it's to help maintain the site, deal with vBulletin license costs, upgrades and more.

The tier system is probably to give better rewards to those who donate more.

Honest January 25th, 2013 2:32 PM

I donated 10 bucks via snail mail. Got my blue username in about three days. As for why I did it, I guess it's cause I felt like it's the least I could do to repay the site. Back when I joined, this site really meant a lot to me, and still does. I guess it got me to realize myself as a person. Also, I had 10 bucks to spare, so yeah.

And the money goes to maintaining the forum, specifically server stuff (I hope). Doubt Rukario uses the money to go get so liquor =P

As for the tier system, I think that's a fun add on, while at the same time it categorizes people who've donated how much. Donating 100 bucks is different from donating 5 bucks, and the tier system is a nice way to sort that out.

droomph January 25th, 2013 3:04 PM

$2 a month, baby. I have the income and spending ability of a poor person on meth so I can't really "donate" $100 at a time. But I'll drag it out the long way and that way Steve can buy his crack hits once a year. /sarcasm

I dunno if my donation helps (If you only have $2 it's pretty much useless for anything) but I just like to fantasize at night that the server is flawless because he needed two more dollars that month to pay the tax on the electricity and the rent or something.

Oh also, like yeah who wouldn't want the benefits. It's just like donating to KQED. Lovely, you got yourself some radio programs, but YOU ALSO WANT THAT PHOTO-ZINE WHATEVER IT IS

Livewire January 25th, 2013 4:13 PM

Putting this here because it's about questions about a specific feature of PC, namely being a supporter. Wider audience for the questions as well. :)

Spherical Ice January 25th, 2013 4:24 PM

I definitely donated because I wanted the perks. But I do spend most my time here, so it's a win-win really.

(im ashamed at you guys' dishonesty. you donated for the perks)

Meganium January 25th, 2013 4:37 PM

At first, when I was a new member here, I donated to the site because at most I wanted the perks. I kinda, sorta aimed for the blog and nothing else. Second time I donated on this account, I mainly wanted to support it...didn't care for the perks.

Why did I donate? Because I love PC. I am attached to it. So, I feel it definitely deserves donations, because it's pretty much the best site to go to. I've pretty much put forth about $50 towards PC, combining both my old account and this account. And to be honest, I'm quite proud. I'm pretty sure everyone who has donated here felt proud of themselves for donating to PC, right?

It's not an obligation, but many of us do it because we care about PC.

@macho - If it's a prepaid debit card, Paypal *should* accept it.

Hikamaru January 25th, 2013 4:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Leaf Storm (Post 7509443)
At first, when I was a new member here, I donated to the site because at most I wanted the perks. I kinda, sorta aimed for the blog and nothing else.

This was me when I first joined, I wanted supportership so I could have the blog and the fancy profile.

And look where I am now haha! Supporter changed me a lot and made me care more about PC.

Renpuu January 25th, 2013 6:10 PM

So what is exactly the difference between tier 1-6 in terms of features ?
Wouldn't it be more fair if you just donated a set amount, that you gained access to ALL the features and abolished this "tier system" ?

halcyonic January 25th, 2013 6:13 PM

tbh, i donated for the tier 5 perk which sounds awesome right?

imo, if u set a fixed amount, it would be boring and people would be like......
duhh i just donate and boom all sorts of features yippee

tiers make it more interesting

Hikamaru January 25th, 2013 6:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Renpuu (Post 7509549)
So what is exactly the difference between tier 1-6 in terms of features ?
Wouldn't it be more fair if you just donated a set amount, that you gained access to ALL the features and abolished this "tier system" ?

Tier 1 - Access to Styles Testing
Tier 2 - Access to blogs
Tier 3 - Access to VIP Forum, 150 x 150 avatars
Tier 4 - Extra PM space, up to 1,000
Tier 5 - PokeCommunity email, can be made by PMing Rukario

Not sure about the Tier 6 perks though. Profile pic size also increases with higher tiers.

Kura January 26th, 2013 7:57 AM

I see the different tiers as little incentives to persuade people to donate more :3 They are like little treats for saying thanks.

Nick January 26th, 2013 10:25 AM

I donated because I wanted my name to stand out and I wanted a PC email address. Supporting PC wasn't on my mind. I donated for the perks. I used that as an excuse to donate, though. I told my grandfather the site was closing and needed money to continue to function and that I wanted to help. Since I guess he figured I spent a lot of time here, he did it for me. I think I was only here for about four months before I donated. Then I got promoted to moderator. Had I known that I would have gotten promoted and have gotten those perks anyway, I wouldn't have donated. I also donated on behalf of BeachBoy, Forever, and Toshiro.

Firox January 26th, 2013 2:14 PM

I donated since I love this community and would love to see for a long time. I haven't donated for a while. Medication and doctor visits prevent me from donating often (run out of funds too quickly) I may donate again in March or April

Lunar Crescent January 26th, 2013 2:28 PM

I'd donate if i can, since Paypal isn't accepted for Macedonia i guess i will wait till i can donate via Mobile, if that happens!
I think people donate to benefit the site, and make the site stay alive even though im sure it will stay alive!

mikey January 26th, 2013 3:18 PM

I donated a long time ago, in like 2009 when I first joined, because I wanted an italic blue name haha. But, I didn't have the ability donate a lot, I was tier 1 which was like only $5. And I did that by actually sending $5 to Rukario is the mail, not online haha. So actually donating to help the community wasn't really on my mind since it was such a small amount.

Corvus of the Black Night January 26th, 2013 3:46 PM

Well I donated just because I had a little extra cash and figured, "Why not?". Heh. I do sometimes use the blog though.

The nice thing is that it never expires. You don't need to subscribe to keep the perks, so that's cool. I might donate again sometime soon.

Renpuu January 26th, 2013 3:52 PM

Cirno just quoted me in order to be a tier 6 supporter you need to donate over 100 US dollars ? is this true ?

I mean why can't you just make a set price of like 10-20 USD and allow people to benefit from all these features or a monthly 1-3 USD subscription ?
I mean for the benefits of being a tier 2 supporter, you can just make a free blogs website and just link people to it O_o ?
Bigger avatars and access for being a tier 3 supporter ? What topics are even in a V.I.P section O_O ?

PM space and emails ? Big whoop ? I can't see how that can warrant more moneys when you can create a free email address straight away from google,yahoo,msn etc. ?

Abolishing tiers will stop this stupid "dick measuring" of who can give the most money,have the highest tier name and allow people of all budgets to afford and appreciate the features which come to being a PC supporter.

Corvus of the Black Night January 26th, 2013 3:55 PM

Well a lot of people just donate because they like the site. I mean that's the reason I did. I wouldn't personally spend 100$ on it but I still don't mind pitching in. It isn't just about the perks...

I prefer not having a subscription because then I don't have to deal with all that crap with handling the subscription; plus I don't come here enough to really warrant a subscription (but I did donate because I like the site). I mean, I personally really appreciate the way it is and really am glad it ISN'T a subscription, since that'd be so much easier on Rukario's part.

Captain Gizmo January 28th, 2013 3:11 PM

I want to donate for the extra perks and to support this site. So I'm basically going two ways for this. For me AND the site. This site is awesome and donating would be pretty much helpful for it. But as of right now, I'm kind of low on cash.. so I don't know when I'll be able to donate..

Seth Rollins January 28th, 2013 4:44 PM

You get the perks, like, access to 2 forums and 1 blog, more PM messages space, larger profile and avatar pictures, you can make a blog..etc. I really want a supportership...sigh...too bad I can't donate...

Starry Windy January 28th, 2013 6:11 PM

If you have not donated, why not?
Sadly I couldn't donate, because I live in a place where I don't know how to donate directly to PC, although I wished I could, so that I could get blogging and having extra features. And I want to support PC to upgrade its server that it won't going (temporarily) offline (due to many activities) anymore.

Why is there a tier system?
This is a grateful way of Pokecommunity for anyone who supports PC.

Seth Rollins January 29th, 2013 11:18 AM

If you have not donated, why not ?

I'm only 13 I don't have a credit card and my dad won't donate it to me...I don't blame him...he works very hard...

Why is there a tier system?

Because, I dunno, they want you to pay more. But i don't blame them, they want to make PC a better place, so I agree. For the perks, right?

Mark Kamill January 29th, 2013 2:02 PM

If you have not donated, why not?
I'm new, and although I would love to, I am not in the position for now. Soon though, perhaps.
Why is there a tier system?
For the perks. Gives incentive, and its a nice way to organize how much an individual has donated.

Guy January 30th, 2013 2:38 PM

Truth be told, other than a few perks here and there, being a supporter isn't all that much special than being a regular member. It's all a matter of whether you wish to donate to the forum and if you have the money to do so. I donated back in 2009 mostly for the italic blue username and the perks if I'm honest, but giving back to the forum I spent so much time on felt good to do.

The money itself? Probably goes to maintaining the site's server and paying vBulletin fees. I never really paid attention to those set of specifics. You see, I try not to ask too many questions or else they might silence me.

I kid, I kid.

As for the tier system, it's there as an incentive and a good way to manage the amount of money people donate and place them accordingly.

Ivysaur January 30th, 2013 11:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Renpuu (Post 7510989)
Cirno just quoted me in order to be a tier 6 supporter you need to donate over 100 US dollars ? is this true ?

I mean why can't you just make a set price of like 10-20 USD and allow people to benefit from all these features or a monthly 1-3 USD subscription ?
I mean for the benefits of being a tier 2 supporter, you can just make a free blogs website and just link people to it O_o ?
Bigger avatars and access for being a tier 3 supporter ? What topics are even in a V.I.P section O_O ?

PM space and emails ? Big whoop ? I can't see how that can warrant more moneys when you can create a free email address straight away from google,yahoo,msn etc. ?

Abolishing tiers will stop this stupid "dick measuring" of who can give the most money,have the highest tier name and allow people of all budgets to afford and appreciate the features which come to being a PC supporter.

The problem is, people would donate $1 and get the same rewards as someone who had donated $100. The supporter list was full of people who had sent just pocket money once and expected the same rewards as someone who sent a two-digit donation or kept sending money month after month. It wasn't fair.

You know the humble bundle, how they ley you pay as little as you want to get X games but then there is a threshold you need to beat to get some other Y games, right? Well, it's not an e-penis contest, "ha-ha, I got Bastion and you only got Limbo!". It's just a reward for those who help more. That's it.

Donating is not an obligation. A regular member who has never donated can live exactly as well as one who did. Hell, we even give blogs for free to those who get over 5000 posts. And if you can only donate $1, we'll give you a supporter bar as a "thank you" for donating, even if you don't get the +700 PM space for people who donated $100.

Creating a one-size-fits-all tier of $20 (or whatever) will discourage people who can only donate $10 (or any other smaller account). Different tiers allow us to accept any donation and reward them accordingly. And hey, if you are donating $20, you can get to tier 5 just for an extra $5 next time you can send us some more money. Where is the problem?

Synerjee January 31st, 2013 12:09 AM

For me, donating is a sign of saying thank you to this site for making our everyday online life more exciting and meaningful and to show how much we love being a part of this huge family. The extra additions that you get are thank you gifts for supporting this site and helping to make it a better place. The donations, as far as I believe, go towards maintenance, and to pay for the hosting of this site. It is only fair to give back to what has given to us aren't I right? There is certainly no rivalry or competition just because one donates more than another. So far as I can see, everyone treats each other with equal respect. The tiers are to reward the generous giver with more generous gifts, as well as to sort donations and their donors into groups.

I would certainly love to donate, but I do not have free control of my money. My parents would certainly deny my request to donate their hard-earned money to a website that they have no concern about. If I had the chance and the permission to do so, I would gladly donate, because I know for sure that I Love PC. <3

Renpuu January 31st, 2013 7:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Went (Post 7517626)
The problem is, people would donate $1 and get the same rewards as someone who had donated $100. The supporter list was full of people who had sent just pocket money once and expected the same rewards as someone who sent a two-digit donation or kept sending money month after month. It wasn't fair.

You know the humble bundle, how they ley you pay as little as you want to get X games but then there is a threshold you need to beat to get some other Y games, right? Well, it's not an e-penis contest, "ha-ha, I got Bastion and you only got Limbo!". It's just a reward for those who help more. That's it.

Donating is not an obligation. A regular member who has never donated can live exactly as well as one who did. Hell, we even give blogs for free to those who get over 5000 posts. And if you can only donate $1, we'll give you a supporter bar as a "thank you" for donating, even if you don't get the +700 PM space for people who donated $100.

Creating a one-size-fits-all tier of $20 (or whatever) will discourage people who can only donate $10 (or any other smaller account). Different tiers allow us to accept any donation and reward them accordingly. And hey, if you are donating $20, you can get to tier 5 just for an extra $5 next time you can send us some more money. Where is the problem?

Okay so if you want to argue that $20 for tier 5 is not enough, how about $30-40 for tier 6 ?
Why should there be a super tier of supporter ? I mean if people want to give more money over time, than that's their choice, they're not doing it for more perks/features unless they want tier 6 status.
I've never given money to charity and been given a "title" for however much I wished to donate at that particular time.
I was implying that abolishing tiers would prevent and avoid "dick measuring."
I haven't personally seen any arguments over "who can donate more moneys" but having a section dedicated to ONLY supporters seems a bit odd in a forum which is meant to be public for all !
I'm sure we have all seen people argue about smaller things in life and I wouldn't be surprised in private conversations if people "big themselves up" for being a supporter.

If it was a straight donation of $30-40 for everything, would we see more members willing to donate to the forum rather than having a select few who are forced to shell out more money ?
If you want to see Pokecommunity as a business, would the business flourish from more donations of $30-40 with newer members appealing to these new features or wait for older members to shell out $100 each over time for tier 6 status.
Some may not even want to donate after tier 5 and be happy with that ?
So that's only $25 for a tier 5, when people could easily reach tier 6 for an additional set amount.
You could also allow other members to "gift" supporter status to other members (as long as they pay the set amount for it.)

If you guys wish to keep tiers, than that's your choice and I understand if you feel like it's an incentive to build up on.
But should we not make tier 6 more affordable to those who have already donated ?

We've all done it where we save some money for a particular purchase on goods or services. We could even have monthly bill payments of smaller amounts over time for those tight on budgets who could give $5-10 a month to achieve their supporter status.

I'm sure if people WANT to donate they will put money aside for that purpose.

Seth Rollins January 31st, 2013 7:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Renpuu (Post 7517936)
Okay so if you want to argue that $20 for tier 5 is not enough, how about $30-40 for tier 6 ?
Why should there be a super tier of supporter ? I mean if people want to give more money over time, than that's their choice, they're not doing it for more perks/features unless they want tier 6 status.
I've never given money to charity and been given a "title" for however much I wished to donate at that particular time.
I was implying that abolishing tiers would prevent and avoid "dick measuring."
I haven't personally seen any arguments over "who can donate more moneys" but having a section dedicated to ONLY supporters seems a bit odd in a forum which is meant to be public for all !
I'm sure we have all seen people argue about smaller things in life and I wouldn't be surprised in private conversations if people "big themselves up" for being a supporter.

If it was a straight donation of $30-40 for everything, would we see more members willing to donate to the forum rather than having a select few who are forced to shell out more money ?
If you want to see Pokecommunity as a business, would the business flourish from more donations of $30-40 with newer members appealing to these new features or wait for older members to shell out $100 each over time for tier 6 status.
Some may not even want to donate after tier 5 and be happy with that ?
So that's only $25 for a tier 5, when people could easily reach tier 6 for an additional set amount.
You could also allow other members to "gift" supporter status to other members (as long as they pay the set amount for it.)

If you guys wish to keep tiers, than that's your choice and I understand if you feel like it's an incentive to build up on.
But should we not make tier 6 more affordable to those who have already donated ?

We've all done it where we save some money for a particular purchase on goods or services. We could even have monthly bill payments of smaller amounts over time for those tight on budgets who could give $5-10 a month to achieve their supporter status.

I'm sure if people WANT to donate they will put money aside for that purpose.

Yeah, I don't know why we must donate 100$ dollars for tier 6...whatever, PC does what PC wants. What's the perk of tier 6???

Ivysaur January 31st, 2013 8:08 AM

Tier 6 was never supposed to exist. The top tier was 5, and then someone gave us $200, and some other people made it to 100 in several donations, and we were so impressed that we decided to create a special, super thank-you group for all of them, and we gave them a few last extra perks over the time. But that's it.

Why there must be a great tier of supporter? Because, unless we create a one-size-fits-all group (as I already argued about), then there must be a higher tier and at least one (or several) "lower" tiers. Why 100? Because we wanted to thank the people who had donated that much when there weren't any rewards for that, and it was a nice rounded number.

Why do perks even exist? Because we figured out that members would be more inclined to donate if we gave them something in turn. If you don't want any tier rewards, just tell us and we'll put you back in "regular members", we really don't mind. It's just that we don't mind giving people a few more centimetres of profile picture space in turn for them helping us maintain our sever. What's wrong with it?


Quote:

Some may not even want to donate after tier 5 and be happy with that ?
Such as myself. When I donated, my mod status gave me more perks than anything I could get by donating, but I nonetheless donated $25 just to help the forums. And, you know, any amount helps. Even if it's only $5, it's $5 less Steve has to pay for the server.

Quote:

So that's only $25 for a tier 5, when people could easily reach tier 6 for an additional set amount.
By that rationale, we could have 200 tiers, from $5 to $1000 or whatever. But this is not a bussiness, we aren't a subscription website. We offer rewards as a proof of our gratitude to those who can donate. If you can't donate more than $20 and you can only make it to tier 4, we aren't going to run to your house and call you "cheap" for not giving us $100. It's not "tier 6 or gtfo". It's give us anything you can and we'll be grateful for it.

Quote:

You could also allow other members to "gift" supporter status to other members (as long as they pay the set amount for it.)
This already exists.

Quote:

But should we not make tier 6 more affordable to those who have already donated ?
Tier 6 was supposed to be a special group for those who donated a surprisingly large amount of money. Lowering that thresold would make it lose its meaning. Or we would have to create a tier 7 for that purpose, meaning we'd be back to point 1.

Quote:

We've all done it where we save some money for a particular purchase on goods or services. We could even have monthly bill payments of smaller amounts over time for those tight on budgets who could give $5-10 a month to achieve their supporter status.
It's called recurrent supportership.

Shiny Celebi January 31st, 2013 12:40 PM

The perks are a "thank you for donating" Donating is certainly not required but is certainly a nice thing to do for the forums. Every little bit helps the forums, but you can help out without donating money as well by being a good user, being active, contributing to topics and helping other users and staff. I donated because I like PC and thought it would be a nice thing to do, of course perks are always nice too, and I enjoy those as well, but more I enjoy the feeling that I did a good thing to help and that they appreciate it.

Ben. January 31st, 2013 1:05 PM

Perks, everyone donates for the perks there is no way about it. Sure the odd person donated to support PC in the back of their. Why on earth would we have a donate in someone's name useless it wasn't about perks.
Also it's due to be noted that some people do get a bit too involved and donate because they think it's a prestigious symbol. It's not.

Seth Rollins January 31st, 2013 6:51 PM

Why do perks even exist? Perks exists to thank the members that donate. They MUST thank you for donating, right? That's why perks exists. I have a question for you...why you don't want perks to exist? That's good for members who donate...and they give you a reason for donating...

droomph January 31st, 2013 6:52 PM

I…um…

Honestly, it's good as it gets. If you can't donate, that's fine, but if we're making this a prestige contest, you have to realize that maybe you'll get a couple VMs saying "wow, supportership. huh" (on the off chance that some of your friends want their own blog or something) and a "yay blog!" comment somewhere, but it's really not a big deal to anyone. (trust me. it's not a big deal, as much as becoming mod and stuff.)

A much bigger "prestige contest" is just being around and present wherever. It's a lot more important to be known rather than donating.


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