Introducing: Hive Heroes!

[Archian]

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Greetings Community!

Today we are introducing: Hive Heroes!

Inspired by the Warcraft 3 Heroes, the Hero account upgrade is a monthly subscription/patron membership for registered members of the Hive Workshop. We call it 'Hero' because you will help keep the Hive alive ♥

You can choose to support the site by giving 5, 10 or 25 USD per month. Depending on the amount you will get access to exclusive perks only available to the Heroes of the Hive Workshop.

Becoming a Hero unlocks special perks and awesome swag for your profile. So, if you see a Hero while browsing the site, remember that he or she is helping keeping the site up - for you and for me.

See the list below for a full overview of the perks you can unlock. Future perks may become available as we continue working on the site.

Your support is greatly appreciated!

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$5 USD per month	$10 USD per month	$25 USD per month
Unlock 20 Human Rank Icons Human Rank Banner (Blue) Title 20% more EXP gained * Unique EXP Bar Widget Hero role on Discord * Watermark *	Unlock 20 Human Rank Icons Unlock 20 Undead Rank Icons Unlock Human Rank Banner (Blue) Unlock Undead Rank Banner (Purple) Title 50% more EXP gained * Unique EXP Bar Widget Name Color and Glow * Hero role on Discord Watermark	Unlock 20 Human Rank Icons Unlock 20 Undead Rank Icons Unlock 20 Night Elf Rank Icons Unlock Human Rank Banner (Blue) Unlock Undead Rank Banner (Purple) Unlock Night Elf Rank Banner (Green) Title 100% more EXP gained * Unique EXP Bar Widget Name Color and Glow Avatar Glow * Hero role on Discord Watermark

* Colors change depending on the chosen site theme.
* Rank icons require the corresponding level in order to be selected.
* EXP bonus does not apply to EXP awards.
* Hero role on Discord will be available soon after launch.
* Watermark changes color depending on the chosen site theme.
* Avatar glow changes color depending on the chosen site theme.

Perk Description:

1. Widget - Your name will appear in the 'Heroes Online' widget.
2. Name Color - Get a unique name color.
3. Name Glow - Get a unique username glow.
4. Avatar Glow - Get a glow around your avatar.
5. Watermark - Get a 'Hero' watermark logo behind your avatar.

A message from Ralle:

"I started this site when I was 14. I didn't have a job and had all the time in the world. I spent it making my Warhammer 40,000 TD map and later learned to code and built a website for it, War Hive, as it used to be called. I am now 32 and I have a house, a wife and two kids. I only have a fraction of the time I had back then and it’s harder for me to justify spending time on it because it’s making close to no money. I don’t personally need it to make money because I would work on it for free any day and I take great pleasure and pride in doing just that. But to give Hive the amount of time it deserves, it also has to make some sense economically. I could junk up the site with more ads or put important features behind a paywall and make a few extra bucks that way. But I hate ads and I wouldn't want to corrupt the experience of visiting the site. I don’t even feel good about having the ads we already have (Yes we have ads). But if I remove them, I will be paying all bills uncut myself. I am here to ask for your help. Help me pay for the site and the time I put into it. Help me justify putting lots more time into it. During the run of this site, I have interacted with long time members who picked their career based on the interests they formed during their stay on this site. They are software developers, graphic designers, 3D modellers and game designers today. If you are one of them, think about how it has changed your life. When we reach $300 per month, I will arrange for a full day every month to work exclusively on Hive. When we reach beyond that I will have to seriously reconsider my the amount of time I spend on my day job. This doesn’t come without perks though... I have arranged a handful of tiers as listed above." Ralle, Owner of Hive Workshop

 

[deepstrasz]

The only thing that bothers me is that these accounts can gain faster experience which means paying is more important than resource making.

 

[Ralle]

I get that. But it depends on what your goal is. Is your goal here to become max level or to participate and enjoy modding?

In my eyes this is a no-paywall solution to (hopefully) pay for the hosting costs and my time (and hopefully warrant more time) spent. So I find it to be pretty benign.

 

[Uther1337]

This is a post by a test account on HERO TIER 3.

The purpose is to show you, how it looks on the forum boards.

Try to change the site theme at the bottom of the page, to see how it changes color.

 

[FlameofChange]

The only thing that bothers me is that these accounts can gain faster experience which means paying is more important than resource making.

I completely agree. This is a downright disgusting detail. Experience was before 99% based on reputation points attributed from one user to an other.

I get that. But it depends on what your goal is. Is your goal here to become max level or to participate and enjoy modding?

In my eyes this is a no-paywall solution to (hopefully) pay for the hosting costs and my time (and hopefully warrant more time) spent. So I find it to be pretty benign.

I also understand your statement. Experience points should show activity and modding contribution to the whole Wc3 community, not to the website (except of course retired staff, but that's an other story). Money might distort how we perceive levels. We see them as how much they contributed : it's an indicator not a goal.

Instead I would suggest that experience given to others would be increased, so active paid members could boost up promising rookies, or skyrocket the grand elders. Two birds with one stone : you keep the boost intent while not biasing experience ! Since I'm not an economic manager I will stop here before I tell nonsense.

Since I genuinely like all the other bonuses, I'm finally disappointed. It's comparable a very thicc and marvelous chocolate cake ruined with coconut powder (I hate coconut powder).

 

[tillinghast]

please add an option to rearrange the order of stuff in the sidebar (latest posts, users online etc) so that i can put the hive heroes at the absolute bottom
or an option to collapse/expand leaving only the title of the thing

edit: i'm sorry if this came off as rude to hive heroes, but they're less important to me than latest profile posts (deepstrasz scolding people for doubleposting is the highlight of my day)

 

[Kam]

Let's leave the hyperbole at the door for a moment and view this through the lens of securing the future of this site. If donations aren't enough then we need to pursue other options. Ralle is not required to maintain this site forever or for less than he feels is needed.

If there are concerns the program may be revised. This isn't set in stone.

 

[Kyrbi0]

While I generally don't love subscription-based-status stuff like this (& don't have the funds to contribute either way), I have to admit this is probably the best option for helping you support the site, Ralle. Much like Discord Nitro; it's not very obtrusive.

So yeah, seems pretty solid. And I don't really have concerns about the EXP thing because I've always known that Reputation is just Fake Interweb Points. : )

Good luck!

 

[Uther1337]

Thank you for your feedback! Please keep posting all your pros and cons

The Hive staff is listening.

 

[Goffterdom]

Hey there.

This is excellent news.

I can't stress how much needed such a subscription system was. Fansites can only last as long.

Adding Ads is a big no-no for me, I would just quit using the site (I have AdBlock anyway, sorry but Ads are just impossible to bear, I'd rather pay a fee).
Same goes for gated must-have features.

I for myself will instantly contribute and I invite anyone who is using this site and earns a little bit of money to contribute.

I must say that the subscription starting at 5$ is a bit harsh, I invite you to bring a tier at like 1$ or 2.5$ just because it's better to have 10*1$ subscriptions than 0*5$.

Please, save the community, keep the Hive alive.

Sincerly.

EDIT: I couldn't care less about tier bonuses, XP or not XP, it's just about giving something to the Hive as payback for all your hard work and for keeping it alive.

EDIT2: Just subscribed to Tier 1.

EDIT3: Guess I am a hero now.

 

[Ralle]

The reason for $5 being the minimum is because it gets eaten up by fees. But I guess smaller tiers could work out by making them recurring every 6 months instead of monthly or something.

We'll stick with these tiers until further notice though .

Thanks a lot for your support guys

 

[StormKnight]

Maybe consider a different experience bar to not conflate it to the main one or making it so someone can check the difference between exp gained by the bonus and exp gained by regular stuff. i am pretty much fine with the rest of the idea.

Could also do some contests for people to contribute a required art piece similar to how the new hero ones are, but the winner would have his work added to the standard pool of available ones and a new achievement status will be set for it.

Also i think when clicking on the green Discord text in the hero explanations above it should actually just show an image of a Discord members profile and the role that's added. looks like Kam went ahead and subbed maybe use him ;P

 

[Chaosy]

I am not really a fan of subscription fees. Just a pain to keep track of and I like to know that I have/own something and it won't go away. I mean, surely if you use the 25$ tier for a year and then cancel you deserve the cosmetics permanently at that point, that's a lot of money to throw at a website compared to what you would get through ads or whatever.

I get that it's not really meant to be that you buy cosmetics but rather that it's about supporting the site but software/games as a service is something I am tired of in general. Good ol' wc3 is just the box cost so I would even say its fitting to have other options.

This is why I donated 100$ back in the day and I have no regrets as I still have the awesome Sylvanas icon. Similarily I would rather pay 50$ for the glowing name permanently.

____

Also agree about the experience being questionable in my eyes. I don't think many would buy it for that perk but experience was supposed to be rep 2.0 and you could never buy rep, it's one of the contest rewards. It should not be buyable.

My lust for rep died with the introduction to the XP system so I am not as passionate about it as I used to but even now I really don't see the benefit of muddying the waters of an otherwise pretty fair system.

____

I know that's a bunch of negative stuff but overall I don't mind, if people have spare cash to spend on cosmetics while supporting the site I obviously don't have a problem with that even if I question some of the details.

 

[Retera]

Now I am the most holy and high unemployed glowing sheep lord of doom. Last week I spent $30 on a one-time WoW sub to unlock permission to post on WoW forums and make a joke about Reforged somewhere that I thought it might be really, really fitting.

Will probably get more value out of being the most holy and high glowing sheep lord hero.

To be honest, though, if somebody cuts it so that my only hit points or levels come from rewards or something, that would probably be fine with me. Honestly, I just wanted to be GLOWING for my own entertainment when I talk to people in this social sphere for until being unemployed makes me run out of savings.

Edit: why isn't Warsmash a monthly sub yet, too?

Edit 2: but seriously, I definitely feel morally gray about monthly subs and these other things, but assuming Blizzard doesn't give us much longer for while Wc3 is allowed to exist, I'll enjoy feeling like I supported Hive until then so that we know of the two (wc3/hive) the Hive lasted longer.
Blizz would not have the guts to ask for a monthly sub for Wc3 because they'd not be willing to take our money for improving it, I fear. Seems likely that's how against bothering they are.

 

[Deleted member 247165]

The only thing that bothers me is that these accounts can gain faster experience which means paying is more important than resource making.

Yeah but try putting yourself in Ralle's shoes for two seconds. He made and maintains the best modding platform for Warcraft 3 on this planet and joining it is free. Like, you can literally grow here, learn and so on. I like the concept with the hero. His work needs to be paid off. Long live Hiveworkshop!

 

[Retera]

putting yourself in Ralle's shoes

Sometimes I feel like the Hive T-shirt thing and now Heroes are just basically a way to profit off of Warcraft 3 fanbase as it dies, but Ralle can do it better than Blizzard because he has slightly more goodwill and such, and isn't seen as having enough authority when anything goes wrong so (at least for me personally) there's no sense of feeling of ever blaming Ralle for anything versus how with Blizzard we can blame them for everything and even for things they didn't do just because that's the relationship to them.

But then I think about how I sent Blizzard thousands of dollars across the years for their products, and yet Ralle's product is more fun, and so I thought, I shall shill the moose world because it's more fun.

Someday if I end up hard on money and have to end my subscription until I get a job, do we know if the 100% extra experience gets lost from me at that point like when Arthas loses levels due to Illidan's attack on the Lich King, or is it more like permanent experience?

Edit: (Honestly if Illidan attacked me on the forums and caused me to lose levels, it might boost my entertainment in an imaginary world.)

 

[Xthreo]

This a a Great Idea! Thank you Ralle and the community for the amazing website you're upgrading constantly - I secretly hope that this kind of initiative will wake up Microsoft/Activision/Blizzard and push them towards the good direction.

 

[Shido]

Imagine you took weeks to make a model and your experience lose to someone with tier 3 hero upload bunch of reupload icon. I felt that by a long term.

BTW, where's Hive Matyr? I lost half of sanity when saw that 100% more exp on tier 3.

 

[tillinghast]

Imagine you took weeks to make a model and your experience lose to someone with tier 3 hero upload bunch of reupload icon

what's the point of experience anyway? once you can post without mods having to check your message first and can send private messages it becomes meaningless
are there some features locked behind levels that i'm not aware of? a super secret discussion board perhaps?

 

[Shido]

what's the point of experience anyway? once you can post without mods having to check your message first and can send private messages it becomes meaningless
are there some features locked behind levels that i'm not aware of? a super secret discussion board perhaps?

Maybe some Moose onlyfan? If this was true, imagine how many people subscribe for tier 3.

 

[Shar Dundred]

Been wondering how long until this would be added.

 

[Bernkastel]

Myah! Look at all these people... Their virtual manhood will grow faster than mine, just because they've got their parent's money to hand out?!
Unacceptable! I'm so angy!

 

[Daffa]

Great, could've spoiled it a bit in advance. Already withdrawn my money prior so I guess next time I get payment.

 

[DaneTheBeast]

Personally I don't mind it, but the XP gain thing is a bit iffy, since it will alter the perception of how much someone really contributed.

Honestly the only way you could make me pay for this is if you locked all of Retera's ramblings behind a paywall, now that's worth.

 

[ThompZon]

I've donated monthly for over a year. I like this site and want to show support.

Costs are reoccurring every month so making something that brings income reoccurring is reasonable, but I understand people who prefer single-payment donations.

I used to hate pretty much any monthly cost (because I had low income and needed to be extremely aware of expenses); one-time-costs were easier to calculate if I could afford in such circumstance.

 

[deepstrasz]

I get that. But it depends on what your goal is. Is your goal here to become max level or to participate and enjoy modding?

Is the goal of those that keep the servers fed to gain max level or to keep the site alive?
Please then make available the option to disable experience entirely. I see no reason for it anymore.

Yeah but try putting yourself in Ralle's shoes for two seconds.

Most people contribute if they want to, not to get shiny virtual treasure.

 

[aeman]

what if the glow had a gifs, that must be good

 

[Eikonium]

Hmm, many people are complaining about the exp-system being unfair now, but it has never been "fair", has it?
You could farm exp by post-spamming, by contributing many low-effort resources and even by creating fake-accounts that like the posts of your primary acc.
Remember that the current system is based on quantity and popularity, not on quality (especially Likes have a higher correlation to popularity than quality). Exp does not show currently, how much someone really has contributed.

I could have complained in the past about that I invest a lot of time into producing high-quality resources that only interest a small amount of people (like Lua code resources) and thus get a low amount of likes (and thus exp) for a high amount of effort.
But I haven't complained, because like @Kyrbi0 said, exp is only fake interweb points, and I am not part of the community to work on virtual status symbols, but to have fun with our favorite game and support each other in the mapping-verse.

That said, I don't see much problem with the exp-system getting further biased than it already is.

But to be fair, I see that the +exp gain doesn't have much benefit either. At least I don't see why anybody would want it to exist. That alone can be reason enough to cut that part of the membership, if it makes people happy.

Also, @Ralle, if donations get eaten up by fees to the degree you mentioned, maybe enabling quarterly/half-yearly/yearly payment intervals instead of monthly would be a good idea in general, even for the higher tiers? I subscribed to support you, not to support Paypal and I personally don't care about any of the perks - just want that most of my contribution arrives at your account.

 

[Unholy0ne]

I see the necessity of this and hope it works out for the Hive. I personally do not care about the perk benefits since I rarely post anything anyway.

However I do want to inquire whether those visible perks, i.e. the name glow, watermark and avatar glow have toggleable display settings.
If I were to contribute monthly, I'd be bothered by the reduced readability of my name due to the Name Glow and my contribution to a more crowded forum as a whole since I feel like the Watermark and Avatar Glow deduct from the clean design.

 

[deepstrasz]

Hmm, many people are complaining about the exp-system being unfair now, but it has never been "fair", has it?
You could farm exp by post-spamming, by contributing many low-effort resources and even by creating fake-accounts that like the posts of your primary acc.
Remember that the current system is based on quantity and popularity, not on quality (especially Likes have a higher correlation to popularity than quality). Exp does not show currently, how much someone really has contributed.

That was the case before. Since the new experience system, things got much more balanced. Posting in off-topic forums does not give any experience. Just simply posting in topic related forums gives +1, while uploading resources gives from 10 to 20+.

Sure, the system isn't perfect and has its obvious flaws, like uploading tons of rips and ported resources gets you lots of experience. I'd pretty much tone that gain down and I wouldn't give experience for simply posting. Getting likes for a post isn't great either but at least it's fairer in the sense that not everybody will agree with the post (that might be useful or not to people); a painful alternative here would be for staff members to give experience to useful posts (like feedback on a resource thread) but that would be shallow and time consuming in the long run. Or, we could simply leave it at experience per upload so that no resource maker would get more experience from likes than another due to resource type popularity.

A perfect system doesn't exist but that doesn't mean we should make it worse by pay-to-XP.

 

[Eikonium]

A perfect system doesn't exist but that doesn't mean we should make it worse by pay-to-XP.

I fully agree to what you said.
The pay-to-XP aspect doesn't really serve any purpose. One could argue that people might spend money just because of it (that would be a purpose at least from an economical point of view), but I don't think that's the case for hive users.
So definitely voting for the removal of that aspect, although I personally don't mind it.

My previous post was rather meant to encourage everyone to be less upset about this. The exp-system is not the relevant aspect of hive and Ralle was (rightfully) just asking for support, so let's be nice and constructive

 

[Retera]

even by creating fake-accounts that like the posts of your primary acc.

Actually, this does not work. In my experience from trying to make a "fake-account" to be an alter ego years ago, simply for the fun of social intrigue and not even to break the site like you describe, to be honest the moderators of this site almost instantly detect it with a well-written anti-multi-account detector and then they come and give a strike against my account and ban my alter ego.

RIP the greatest Retera alter ego account(s) ever. They shall be missed.

...
So, if experience ends up going away, Ralle would probably feel obligated to keep some other system in so that it isn't as though the paying people lost anything, and maybe they just got something different for the money.

What if instead of experience gain we add a system of hero abilities? So I could unlock new abilities. For example if I cast Wind Walk then none of my posts are publicly visible for a day, and if I cast Mirror Image then I can double post for a day. If I cast Mirror Image Level 2, then I can triple post for a day. Maybe Feral Spirit lets me summon dog emojis that show up as liking my post similar to the Like button. Brilliance Aura would make it that any post that follows mine in the forum needs 2x as many words required in order to be posted (forcing the other user to be more brilliant).
Animate dead could necro up to 6 locked threads and maybe make them postable for a day, or at least bump them to get people to read them, or maybe provide temporary login access to all the user accounts that are still there but from people who have been gone and never logged in for 10+ years (i.e. "the dead").

The hero skills could come from some really cool talent tree UI thing. It could be a lot of fun.

 

[The_Silent]

I, too, am a bit iffy on the experience gain issue. Mainly because of resources, I don't care about rep xp. Rep (emojis) is arbitrary anyway, and given more often for memes and trolling than resource uploads. As it always has been.

Also, the name glow somewhat obscures the names. Maybe a different color glow would work better.
Maybe people could choose their own glow color? 25 dollars is nothing to scoff at.

 

[Goffterdom]

Why is there even an XP system to begin with is beyond me honestly.

Though if it's the main contention point, why not simply remove the XP things from the tiers?

It's not like people are getting those tiers to get something out of it other than helping the site anyway.

I've been part of several forums with a subscription fee and they weren't even giving something to the subscribers.

As a subscriber, you just get the Ads removed and no other benefice at all (other than having 'Supporter' below your name).

 

[Ralle]

I hear you loud and clear. But I will let it "stew" for a couple more days before I change course. I worked hard on that feature . It really surprised me that this many people are so vocal about it. I can remove it, I just want to give it a couple more days. From what it sounds like from most of those who've become patron by now it's not even a selling point. Even if it was, that wouldn't make it right either, just saying.

 

[StormKnight]

I hear you loud and clear. But I will let it "stew" for a couple more days before I change course. I worked hard on that feature . It really surprised me that this many people are so vocal about it. I can remove it, I just want to give it a couple more days. From what it sounds like from most of those who've become patron by now it's not even a selling point. Even if it was, that wouldn't make it right either, just saying.

Its totally fine to let it roam around for some time. though maybe its worth for me to elaborate my initial suggestions more help out for whatever its worth.

1 - Could make it so we have a way to check someones profile and it would say:
This person has earned xxxx "normal" xp (aka "hard work") and xxxx amount of bonus exp (aka affected by heros plan)
so that their sum total exp is like it is now but one can check to see how much is earned in what way, and by that i mean the 2 major ways i pointed out.

2 - Could rework it into giving them a secondary bar of exp for heros thing, they can "level up" as heros but its like something else not related to regular leveling. i mean even the thing itself says you're getting a "unique exp bar" but in real translation it just means your exp bars art is reskinned ;P

 

[Xthreo]

I hear you loud and clear. But I will let it "stew" for a couple more days before I change course. I worked hard on that feature . It really surprised me that this many people are so vocal about it. I can remove it, I just want to give it a couple more days. From what it sounds like from most of those who've become patron by now it's not even a selling point. Even if it was, that wouldn't make it right either, just saying.

Don’t remove it, it’s a neat feature!
Anything new will always please some and displease the others. You are giving us a a nice way of supporting you and that’s all that matters

 

[Retera]

Don’t remove it, it’s a neat feature!

Are you referring to the Hive Heroes system in general, or specifically the 100% bonus experience gain feature that others were asking about?

 

[Xthreo]

Are you referring to the Hive Heroes system in general, or specifically the 100% bonus experience gain feature that others were asking about?

I am referring to the 100% experience bonus: it's a nice system but I don't believe it really reflects the dedication or "worth" of a user.
For example @Retera, you are a Titan here and it's quite obvious, whatever your level is.
That being said, being able to earn more xp via the account upgrade might incite some users (like me) to participate more, which is a good thing!
I see it as a participation indicator if you will

 

[Retera]

you are a Titan here

No one ever told me this until I paid $25/month for a subscription to Hive. Being told I am that amazing and I'm a Titan is what I'm here for, so actually I just realized that I am getting my money's worth. Thanks.
(Not sarcasm, I am here for my own entertainment like this.)

 

[Xthreo]

No one ever told me this until I paid $25/month for a subscription to Hive. Being told I am that amazing and I'm a Titan is what I'm here for, so actually I just realized that I am getting my money's worth. Thanks.
(Not sarcasm, I am here for my own entertainment like this.)

Ah well I'm sorry you had to wait that long - I mean I constantly use your Model Studio since you shared it here!

 

[Retera]

I mean I constantly use your Model Studio since you shared it here!

Me too. I just wish the real Retera would come back and fix all the bugs and stuff and end the suffering. It's like in that Katy Perry song. All this money can't buy me a time machine.

Edit: song lyrics

Summer after college when you said to apply
We'd dream of a remaster like the pie in the sky
And on the 14th Blizzcon you showed us all the truth

Used to parody your efforts like I was a goof
Talk about your dev team, like I had a clue
Never planned that one day I'd be losing you

In another life
I would make your game
We'd keep all our promises
Be us against the world

In another life
I would make Reforged
So I don't have to say
You were the worst of Blizzard games
The worst of Blizzard games

I was helping you with some Stratholme map
Never knew it was the inside, an on-stage act
Didn't stop me wanting to preorder a ton

Someone said they had your whole team removed
Now you're on the outside, and not with the blues
It's time to face the money, there's nothing you can do

But in another life
I would make your game
We'd keep all our promises
Be us against the world

In another life
I would make Reforged
So I don't have to say
You were the worst of Blizzard games
The worst of Blizzard games

The worst
The worst
The worst
The worst of Blizzard games

All this money can't buy me a time machine, no
Can't replace you with a mobile game, no
I should've told you what you meant to me
'Cause now I pay the price

In another life
I would make your game
We'd keep all our promises
Be us against the world

In another life
I would make Reforged
So I don't have to say
You were the worst of Blizzard games
The worst of Blizzard games

The worst
The worst
The worst

In another life
I would make Reforged
So I don't have to say
You were the worst of Blizzard games
The worst of Blizzard games

 

[stein123]

Me too. I just wish the real Retera would come back and fix all the bugs and stuff and end the suffering. It's like in that Katy Perry song. All this money can't buy me a time machine.

Edit: song lyrics

That song makes you a real hero

 

[Chaosy]

I am referring to the 100% experience bonus: it's a nice system but I don't believe it really reflects the dedication or "worth" of a user.

Then what IS it used for?
I am not saying I have more rep than you and therefore I am a better humanbeing than you, or anything along those lines but if it's not about showing your dedication to the site, or your usefulness, then what? the size of your wallet?

Fuck it, why not add a tier four for 50€ a month you can now get your very own post-bot that spams off topic for XP.
And if you go up to do tier 5 the bot will also ask for likes at the end of every post.
And finally for tier 6 that bot will also upload randomly selected maps from epicwar for even more potential likes from uninformed users.

edit: and directors cut rating will also be added to the hive shop for a mere 1000$

 

[DaneTheBeast]

No one ever told me this until I paid $25/month for a subscription to Hive. Being told I am that amazing and I'm a Titan is what I'm here for, so actually I just realized that I am getting my money's worth. Thanks.
(Not sarcasm, I am here for my own entertainment like this.)

No shot this was written by anyone other than you. Tsk tsk.

At this point we're complaining just to complain, it's some arbitrary leveling system on a forum, it's not like there's PvP here (yet(??)), so that things are unbalanced. I like how someone wrote down to just add another XP bar, if something is wrong you don't add onto it, you change the base.
It's year 2028 and we have 34 XP bars.

 

[FeelsGoodMan]

Just tuning in to say that I'm not a fan of the XP gain. It's basically pay to win.

Also the prices are kinda steep, I believe you'd have more subscribers if you lowered the prices. There will always be people who unsubscribe and so on over time. Having less subscribers who pays more will make the impact of people unsubscribing a lot harder than if you have more subscribers that pays less. Even with a full time job I'd be hard pressed to pay $25 monthly for something that doesn't give me a lot in return instead of putting it into my savings.

 

[ThompZon]

To be clear, I'm positive to this change. I think this is a bit more fun this way than setting up a reoccurring payment via paypal. I hope you keep the concept.
The most controversial point seems to be about exp and my 2 cents is that: It's fine as is and if you were to remove it, it's also fine. I'd keep being a hero for the foreseeable future.

 

[Goffterdom]

Sorry but subscription-based-status stuff like this is usually if not always the beginning of something really nasty called Greed.

It starts out simple with getting something small as an extra bonus but it always develops into more and more until it eventually just falls apart.
It's all about the money in the end... and people thinking otherwise clearly lives in denial.

The beginning of the end.

I've been in several communities with subscription based system and it never went like you're saying.

The subscription remained there forever in the same shape without any addition or meaningful benefits for people subscribing.

It was just a healthy way to support the site.

 

[Archian]

FYI we plan on fine tuning the EXP system e.g. increase EXP gain by submitting certain resources for any author.

We could also remove the HERO EXP boost from submitting resources to make it more "fair". So that HEROES would "only" gain EXP boosts from posting and receiving a positive reaction.

Example: HERO TIER 3 gain 2 EXP instead of 1 when posting. And 10 EXP instead of 5 when receiving a positive reaction.

But like Ralle said, we will let it stew for a bit longer before making changes. And hear the opinion of people who have already become Hero patrons

 

[Ralle]

Sorry but subscription-based-status stuff like this is usually if not always the beginning of something really nasty called Greed.

It starts out simple with getting something small as an extra bonus but it always develops into more and more until it eventually just falls apart.
It's all about the money in the end... and people thinking otherwise clearly lives in denial.

The beginning of the end.

Do you have a job? Do you get paid for it? How is that different from this? Or do you work for free and only eat the vegetables you can grow in the side of the road?

The reason I ask for money is because I want to do this more. I want it to become at least a part time job for me. So I can work more on the site. I want to remove ads and get paid a little for the time I spend improving the site. I want this site to remain free to use so I am not ever going to require people payment to use it. As I don't sell a product, a subscription to support the site is the best alternative.

There is no shame in making a bit of money off something you love doing. Typically it results in being able to do it more instead of one hour every other sunday.

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Oh by the way. I have been planning to do this since we ran XenForo 1. I just never got around to it. I'd rather focus on cool features. This feature is in many ways more for me so I have been putting it off for years.

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EDIT:
Okay upon further reading and getting my head a little bit further out of my rear. I think I missed the point. You are talking about the bonuses in particular. Only time can prove if I am a white knight or a greedy goblin. But waiting years to implement it because I'd rather make the site cool is sort of one piece of evidence. And me most likely ending up removing exp bonus in a couple of days is another.