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TF2 Outpost by Fanbyte
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STEAM GROUP
TF2 Outpost by Fanbyte
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7 August, 2011
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Beef Burrito Deluxe 15 Mar, 2014 @ 11:49am
Donation System
Several months ago, the the new donation system was revealed. Then all options to donate were postponed until the new donation system under way. With the old format, people could donate 1 key for a small benefit permanently. The deadline for these people is April 10th, which is coming through rapidly. But now, people can no longer donate keys, or pay anything for a permanent donator rank. So here is the question you must ask.

What will happen come April 10th and the following months when the previous donators lose their ranks? I know from a personal standpoint that a lot of people with the 1 key donation fee will be leaving outpost for other sites. So what will outpost do to combat the mobs of people leaving the site come April 10th? With the new donation system, there are very limited options. $4.99/mo by BluePay, Paypal, or Credit/Debit. There are a few problems with this that will stop a lot of users from coming back. For one, there is a small "younger audience" that plays TF2 and trade. These people obviously do not have cards that they can pay from. So now that they don't have access to a means of payment, these donors will be gone. I personally would not mind paying by my own card, Outpost has certainly helped me enough. Then, there is the monthly fee. It is $4.99/mo, or ~$60/yr. There are so many ways that you can spend a monthly fee for $60/yr than a website to assist you with trading. Then this $60 is only for a few benefits. Why pay $60/yr for a few extra trades and autobump when you can buy something like a year's worth of Xbox Live or a WoW subscription? Something more worth the money.

I don't mean to rant on outpost, I'm just foreseeing a large portion of trading leaving the site once their donor rank is gone. My suggestion? If it must be a monthly fee, at least bring back the option to pay by keys. Even if the price is higher, I'd gladly pay 2 keys/mo hassle free than pay by card. As of now, the new donation cost is not worth the price tag when there are many other things that are much more worth the money on the market. It was so much easier before to trade a bot and be done with it. With this new system, does Outpost expect to get more money, more donators, or nothing changing? I'm curious on the thought process behind it.

I'd rather not put this as a suggestion, as I am not pleasing directly for a change, I am just looking for open ended discussion about the topic. Please post your thoughts and criticisms.
Last edited by Beef Burrito Deluxe; 15 Mar, 2014 @ 11:56am
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Showing 1-12 of 12 comments
Blue Screen of Death 15 Mar, 2014 @ 12:12pm 
Item #4:
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/groups/tf2outpost/discussions/0/558747922562007365/
#1
Sneeza™ 17 Mar, 2014 @ 11:34am 
There's no way that we'll be able to accept keys as a form of payment, it's totally out of the question (unfortunately).

I am currently discussing internally to see if I can get the cost of premium changed, but that's as much as I can tell you on that front. I'm also looking to see if we can get an alternative method of obtaining premium in place - an idea I've been throwing around is a referral system that would reward you with x days worth of premium per member referred.

Thoughts?
#2
Terminus 17 Mar, 2014 @ 11:45am 
Referral............Well - quite a lot of users already use Outpost. Would be a challenge to find users not on Outpost :)
#3
Beef Burrito Deluxe 17 Mar, 2014 @ 1:27pm 
Originally posted by Sneeza™:
There's no way that we'll be able to accept keys as a form of payment, it's totally out of the question (unfortunately).

I am currently discussing internally to see if I can get the cost of premium changed, but that's as much as I can tell you on that front. I'm also looking to see if we can get an alternative method of obtaining premium in place - an idea I've been throwing around is a referral system that would reward you with x days worth of premium per member referred.

Thoughts?

Thank you very much for taking the time to look at this post, it does mean a lot. I realize my mistake in the key donations after Blue linked me. I can see why they can't be taken in huge masses since they aren't exactly legal tender. You must know how many donators will be lost though due to a variety of reasons. Outpost is a wonderful site and I'd hate to see it die due to other sites having cheaper donations. I do like the referral idea. A lot of complaints on the new system I've seen are 3 things mainly;
1. Price naturally. $60/yr for assisted trading is a lot
2. Monthly fees. It was so much easier to donate and be done with it before.
3. Distrust. In the original terms of donation, it said you would have donator forever. So thousands have donated, and are now finding that outpost has gone back on its word, and donator rank will run out. What will stop this from happenning in the future if Outpost can just change their terms and nobody can do anything about it?
If possible, there could always be ranks, but you can just pay for more bonuses.
$5/yr for 2 hr autobump and 10 trades and a green name
$10/yr for 1hr autobump and 15 trades and a red name
$15/yr for 30 minute autobump, 30 trades, and a blue name for your rank.

Similar to the old system, but more viable for more people

Side note: With PayPal chargebacks, how will Outpost handle people chargebacking their donations?
#4
Nobody_Home 17 Mar, 2014 @ 6:26pm 
Just some solutions to the previously mentioned problems
1. Current Donators Maintain a rank ( i will call them "early supporters")
You would not have to deal with the "I thought premium was forever"
Benefits would include
-Autobump
-Extra Trades
-DOES NOT disable adds

2. New benefits for the new cash only donation system
Some may not be feasible, but implementing more benefits would make even "early supporters" upgrade
Benefits would include
-Disabling adds
-Ability to search closed trades (seperate search)
-Ability to search for items in peoples backpacks (seperate search)
-Embedded spreadsheet (ability to just hover your mouse over an item to see its value on multiple trading websites)
-Access to an outpost exclusive pricing system (outpost can detect item histories, using the item histories it would be possible to detect what items were transferred in a trade, this could be averaged and a mean price [Not including outliers] could be created)
-Access to outpost exclusive bots (scrapbanking, ticket banking, currency exchange, etc.)
-Priority access to the bots (yes I no other websites have this, but having them on outpost would be alot more convenient)
-Bots that would sell items for you, no more waiting for a person to get online or waiting for a person to accept a trade offer
-Cosmetic items, customize trade backgrounds, name color, backgrounds for your backpack etc.
-Increased trade size, include more items in your trade
-More leniance on relisting, the same item is allowed in multiple trades of different types
3. More ranks
For many people $4.99 a month is a bit excessive so have multiple packages with different benefits at a scaling price range

Anyway these are just my thoughts, hope you take them into consideration
Last edited by Nobody_Home; 17 Mar, 2014 @ 6:26pm
#5
Blue Screen of Death 18 Mar, 2014 @ 6:00am 
First of all, we never said the perks were permanent. This is a common misunderstanding and can be verified in old cached versions of the site. The site did not include an expiration date for the perks, but there was never an explicit mention of permanent donor status.

I believe the thoughts requested were about alternate ways to obtain premium (since we can't take items as payment), including a possible referral system. If anyone has any suggestions for website improvements and/or premium perks, they should go here: https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/groups/tf2outpost/discussions/6/

Last edited by Blue Screen of Death; 18 Mar, 2014 @ 6:01am
#6
anakin whore walker 21 Mar, 2014 @ 12:26pm 
There would be issues combining multiple Steam accounts because you log into Outpost through Steam. Theoretically it isn't possible.
#7
Beef Burrito Deluxe 21 Mar, 2014 @ 12:39pm 
That wouldn't be reasonable anyway. Why would they let you pay less just cause you have alts?
#8
361 21 Mar, 2014 @ 12:55pm 
thats a lot for me:tshock:
#9
Aitchy 22 Mar, 2014 @ 1:56am 
Offer incentives for taking out premium for longer than 1 month please sneeza, keep $5 per month for example but offer a discounted 6 month and 12 month plan price, or offer other plans that give less trades/longer auto bump time
Last edited by Aitchy; 22 Mar, 2014 @ 1:57am
#10
Beef Burrito Deluxe 22 Mar, 2014 @ 8:03am 
Originally posted by ...:
4.99 per month? REALLY? i already paid for this shit and now i have to pay 4.99 per month? fuck this greedy site and owners. im out

This thread is for discussion on it, not bashing it. This should really be moved to 'Suggestions' now, but all the comments would be gone.
#11
anakin whore walker 22 Mar, 2014 @ 8:15am 
Originally posted by ...:
4.99 per month? REALLY? i already paid for this shit and now i have to pay 4.99 per month? fuck this greedy site and owners. im out
The forums are not a place to rant.

https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/groups/tf2outpost/discussions/0/810938082097571166/
#12
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Date Posted: 15 Mar, 2014 @ 11:49am
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