Minimum Point Entry for Request

Unfortunately we do have a few members who request regularly, but do not upload.
That is perhaps one way to address it.
:0/

@legolas18 That's exactly what I'll be doing.

I'm still pretty new around here but thought I'd share some opinion and observation.

This community operates under a social contract of good will sharing (read:piracy) and an assumed economy (the points system). Those that share either by fulfilling bounties or blog posting or both earn points at a greater rate than those who do not. (Although, I do believe that some users have developed some sort of "pyramid scheme" of sorts to boost points, but that's an entirely different discussion!)

The economy is designed to encourage users to collect bounties and post. The points are then used to "purchase" other items, sure, but more importantly I think is that they are used to post bounties to encourage more new items to brought to the site.

One graph looks like this:
X,Y, and Z Users post bounties > User A SPENDS REAL WORLD MONEY to buy Item > User A sends links to users X,Y, and Z and HOPES they follow through and pay those bounties > User A then (hopefully, eventually) will share to the public blog.

It takes a lot to encourage someone to spend real money on something that you also want them to share with a bunch of complete strangers.

I think this is nothing new to anyone who's been here a while and is a user that posts to the blog and/or is a frequent bounty hunter but I thought laying it out might be helpful for those who are "less inclined to share" to understand how this community works.

I agree with @Plebby and @Legolas18 that there should be minimums on the "cost of entry". But we should be wary of causing "inflation" within the economy. Just a thought.

I think Plebby is also on to something regarding "rare" content (Non-Daz, Non-Rendo) items.

Also, I tend to scale my bounty requests based on the real world price of an item. Requesting a Daz Bundle? That should carry a pretty high bounty.

Thanks for reading this far.

-GMGFX

I support the proposed minimum as well. Considering the 100 pts is given just for visiting and be able to grab items once the hit the blog, the minimum of 500 or 1000 to keep the ridiculousness out of the request queue doesn’t sound unreasonable.

@dick I think you mean maximum?

Anyway, I stipulated that because the Request forum was being spammed with single item requests from a few users.
The maximum of 2 threads / day effectively means you can potentially ask for up to twenty items, as I recommended a maximum of ten items per request.

I think that is more than sufficient.

🙂

"In this way, freeloaders will struggle to make silly requests “for 25 points” (yes I’ve read that too!), and will actually push them to actually share stuff or stay off the requests threads."

In what manner does this "push them to actually share stuff"? Please explain. I understand the "or stay off the requests threads", but I don't see any way it encourages the sharing, which is what you claim is your point.

If someone wants an item, then why shouldn't they just be able to request the item, with or without a bounty? If you don't want to fulfill the request, then don't. Simple. Or respond with a "No. Make it worth my while." which seems to be what you're really saying.

I suspect this is a reaction to some recent posts that occurred over the past couple days. Full disclosure: I asked the mods to take those posts down as they cluttered up and also pushed down more legitimate request threads. I was told they'd have a couple days to sort themselves out, which strikes me as fair. I also reached out to the posters to give them links to the the Rules and Anjabear's Tips, as well as offering to help them with any questions they might have about anything on the site.

I feel like previous threads have already flogged the poor "freeloaders vs sharers" horse to death, so I'm not going to retread that ground.

As for new ideas to talk about, 500 points as a minimum to start a request seems reasonable. I'm not actually for that, but it wouldn't bother me if it were to become a rule. Why am I not for it? For me request threads serve two purposes:

1) People often request cool stuff. This alerts me to their existence and if I really like it I add what I think is a valid amount of points for the item.

2) As a sharer, it can be a way for me to bolster my personal point stash when I see a request that is valuable enough and interesting enough that I'm willing to acquire said item. Of course the vast majority of my points are spent on making and adding to requests in the hope that others will do the same as me.

It also seems reasonable to me that people should be able to say they don't want to make the effort of sending out PMs to people under X point value. The request filler could just say "less than X point offers will just have to wait for it on the blog". However, I don't feel that 500 should be the minimum for request reply offers, as the points on offer aren't always the main reason a filler shares an item. Sometimes it's just because they see a lot of people are interested and sharing is caring. Sometimes it's just because they happen to have the item on hand and like helping out. Nothing wrong with kindness is there? 🙂

I'm more interested in a rule that says you have to post a picture along with the link in a request thread, lol. Not gonna lie, if the subject line isn't intriguing enough and there's no picture, I rarely bother clicking the link. Ya, I know, I'm SUPER lazy 😛