Why I will never donate another dime to UOF

[Shane]

This seems like a weird thing to me.

So if you buy 80k donation coins, another 10k will mess up the economy?

10k won't, but if there's a lot of donations through the week then i do 10 dono tiers that week too it will directly effect the economy. It's not like i'm making this shit up, it happened when coins went from 210 down to 180/190 per 1k actually and they NEVER came back after that just from that one time. However i found if i do them more slowly and gradually it does not effect the economy which is why dono coins have stayed at a good value since then even though there's more gold out there than ever. Keeping more value in the coins helps all future donators as well.

It's from experience, my son.

 

[Shane]

I'm sure this will probably be taken down, or the admins will close the comments, or that I will be flamed by the masses for QQing, that's fine, I feel I have a legitimate gripe and here's my beef. I was taught when you claim to do something, you do it. In life or in business. I live by that rule, and I run my own successful small business by that rule. Even when it has cost me, I still honor my word.

So... when someone says as a reward for spending x amount of your hard earned dollars to support the shard, you will receive x bonus, then at some point you expect they will follow through. Not here though.

I asked immediately after purchasing $500 worth of plat coins as I expected based on the verbiage, that was part of the purchase, but it's not, it is something you "will receive at a time that is whenever they decide is a good time". Now maybe to some people, that isn't anything and not worth complaining about, to me it is. I was told it takes time, Shane is a busy person etc... Ok, I get that.

I asked after a month. I was told the plat (tier bonus) is released slowly as to not over saturate the economy. Even though I could have purchased another $1000 worth of plat and received it instantly, Ok, I get that.

I asked after a few months, then 6 months, I was told the same thing and once even Shane said sure no problem, send me over your paypal info (again) and I'll get it sorted out, nothing again.

I even finally asked @halygon who politely said he would look in to it for me, then told me to pm Shane, again. So again, after a full year now, I asked and my messages aren't even looked at by Shane.

So this is how you are treated, the customer. I would have donated way more by now, simply because I enjoy the game and the shard. However, the powers that be here have no honor, they do not keep their word. It's just excuse after excuse.

So no, I will never give another dime to this shard, it's too bad really.

I'll go out with an old favorite of mine....

“There's an old saying in Tennessee — I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again.” - W.

@Ledz Epplin

7 hours later and i still did not get your bumped PM.
I searched through all the messages and found yours, you pm'd me back in January, never bumped it since and i also explained to you back then how it works and how it can take some time.

I gave you your first donation tier that you hit back in January and an extra 2k dono coins for the issues of your messages getting flooded out.

You never have to spend a dime here again and that is your right. Still you are welcome to play here for free, forever and apologies it took so long to get your free bonus item for supporting us.

Enjoy.

 

[pacrsfan]

@Ledz Epplin

7 hours later and i still did not get your bumped PM.
I searched through all the messages and found yours, you pm'd me back in January, never bumped it since and i also explained to you back then how it works and how it can take some time.

I gave you your first donation tier that you hit back in January and an extra 2k dono coins for the issues of your messages getting flooded out.

You never have to spend a dime here again and that is your right. Still you are welcome to play here for free, forever and apologies it took so long to get your free bonus item for supporting us.

Enjoy.

As always nice job @Shane
donation sent

 

[Shane]

I've decided i am going to make a new forum section for tier rewards right away.
Something like how we are handling lost passwords, then they won't get mixed up in my pms.

bonus.uoforever.com will lead to a forum you can fill out and then communicate with staff about your tier.
This will seperate PMs from tier reward requests.

I think this is a good solution to this issue going forward, again keep in mind these are growing pains. We are learning to adjust as we gain more and more popularity.

 

[Shane]

I've decided i am going to make a new forum section for tier rewards right away.
Something like how we are handling lost passwords, then they won't get mixed up in my pms.

bonus.uoforever.com will lead to a forum you can fill out and then communicate with staff about your tier.
This will seperate PMs from tier reward requests.

I think this is a good solution to this issue going forward, again keep in mind these are growing pains. We are learning to adjust as we gain more and more popularity.

This is now complete.

AS of now all tier bonuses will now be going through
http://bonus.uoforever.com

Hopefully this clears things up and makes things easier both for the staff and the users.

 

[Projectstfu]

So if I requested my tier rewards a year ago and am still waiting I should reapply for them at that link or I am already in the queue of people on a list to receive?

 

[Silly Santa]

So if I requested my tier rewards a year ago and am still waiting I should reapply for them at that link or I am already in the queue of people on a list to receive?

See below. I would fill out the info on the link.

AS of now all tier bonuses will now be going through
http://bonus.uoforever.com

 

[Modus]

Nice handling and solution Shane. 1k PMs - i get the problem.

 

[Bromista]

I am very thankful for this post as it seems to have expedited the creation of a great service to the community that was long overdue. That being said I guess this isn't as much advice for handling a donation issue now as there is a proper channel to address those issues, this is a guide to getting ahold of Shane for pretty much whatever.

If you really wanna get Shane's attention, I mean really really get his attention you are gonna have to be a nuisance to be noticed. Sorry @Shane you're not gonna like this but I'm gonna spill the beans and tell everyone my dirty secret for getting ahold of you.

Get in IRC. When you see Shane active in the main channel you message him privately.

It's that simple and it's much more effective than messaging him on the forums because you are getting his attention then and there. It can't hurt to try forum PMs and don't be afraid to bump your message when you do, but IRC is the way to go through and through. Effective damn near every time.

I understand there's a fine line between not wanting to be a nuisance, yet actually needing to be a nuisance when it comes to donation stuff. I feel like an idiot when I bug the man for a couple reasons:

A. I know Shane has a bunch of crap to deal with on top of being the only dude to issue donation related bidness

B. I donate because I believe in the product. I donate to support the product. I like the coins I get for donating and that alone is enough reason to be patient when it comes to getting any bonuses.

It's not just that, I donate both my money and my time and it's not totally selfless either. I really do like to help people, but I also want to help make people's UO lives easier because I know it'll be more likely that they iwll stick around. I do it all to try to help make sure that I myself have a place to play tomorrow. And the day after that. And the day after that.

As far as donating though, it brings with it extra attention/consideration which is awesome. You just gotta work for it. Just keep it within reason...give it a week or two then don't be afraid to be a nag lol.

I guess what I'm saying is I don't mind being put off, in the end I have always gotten my coins and rewards. Sometimes sooner than others but shit happens. One time my donation coins slip through the cracks, but luckily Shane must keep a pretty meticulous log of his activity because he made it right and has always gotten tier rewards right for me.

 

[stunoma.]

Aren't these "donations" [emoji136]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Bromista]

They're actually not donations, I'm told. Shane said it works more like a store because it's a transaction, an exchange of goods.

Which is al the more reason to be patient IMO. While I understand rewards need to be delivered as promised, it's not like you have gotten nothing in return until that fulfilment is made.

 

[Lexington]

Hey man,
Like people are saying h re you really need to keep it bumped every week.
I can't do the coin bonuses non stop because it would effect the economy and value of those coins server wide which then is bad for everyone who buys them.

I do them in batches, usually when we've had a slow donation week.

I get 20+ pm's per day on the forums here, and that's just the forums. So you can see if you don't bump it for even a week it will get totally swamped down into the bottom of the page.

We are looking at better ways of doing the tier rewards, there's a lot of pros to doing these coins yourself and manually and that's not the problem. The tier rewards are the problem. Keep in mind these are free rewards, a bonus, and we don't really state anywhere that they will be done in XX time.

I'VE BEEN TRYING TO OBTAIN MY TIER REWARD FOR AWHILE NOW!
I cannot stress this enough, WE WILL NOT FORGET ABOUT YOU. As long as you PM SHANE on the forums with your PayPal Email i will eventually get to it. You may n[eed to keep bumping it, but it will eventually get done for sure. We only do so many tier rewards per week to keep from in fluxing to many coins into the server at one time.

I HAVE MESSAGED SHANE FOR 3 WEEKS NOW, WHAT GIVES?
We can only do only a few donation tier rewards PER week as to not effect the economy value of the rewards, or donation coins. If we did all donation tier rewards in one night, the economy would take a serious hit in value (for donation items, coins, tier rewards, etc). This is something we feel is wrong to juggle with in any aspect. We want to ensure that the value for your tier rewards is kept as well as the value of donation coins. If you have private messaged Shane, simply keep BUMPING the message every couple days, and he will for sure, 100% get to it. If for any reason a month or more passes by where you have not been attended to, please contact Shane about it VIA our general mirc chat, or page in about the length of your bumped message.



Why i put in there to contact me over mirc is so i can have a personal talk and explain all of this to you one on one.
We also have new tier rewards coming in, and i figure a lot of people would rather wait until the new ones come out anyways specially if your in the 1k range (new mount etc).


Hope this explains a bit and i apologize if you feel i was ignoring you that was never our intention. There are a lot of people to deal with on a daily basis here and unfortunately sometimes people slip through the cracks.

I will do your free bonus tier item tonight here if you keep your PM bumped. This is seriously the reason and issue why. I've done tier rewards many times this last year so it's just that you weren't bumped and your pm got sunk into the tons of pm's i recieve.


EDIT:
Also why are there people having a total different conversation in this thread that has absolutely nothing to do about the topic? lol come on guys.

You could create a thread called "Pending Donation Tiered Rewards" Make it so only you, Adam and the OP are the only ones that can view each post.

There is no way the donator should be responsible for bumping PMs... they are the customer @Shane.

 

[Shane]

Aren't these "donations" [emoji136]

"Donations" is simply a label. It is straight up an online store.
You can't be a free to play sandbox mmo as a non profit organization.
We pay bills, we have a light payroll, and we all pay taxes on any and all profits.

Any income that hits your personal bank account you need to pay taxes on, online or otherwise.

 

[Darkarna]

*Comes back looking for his post* -

Hey, has anyone seen my post around here? I am sure I left it around here somewhere, but I think it was sitting on a nerve and must have been flicked away.

*Scratches head*

Honestly? Has anyone seen it?

*Searches some more...*

Oh... I never thought that mentioning pay-2-win was illegal on here, are we now making rules up as we go along? Can I have a rule also? Pllleeassee...

@Shane You have broken my heart once more...

 

[Shane]

If you really wanna get Shane's attention, I mean really really get his attention you are gonna have to be a nuisance to be noticed. Sorry @Shane you're not gonna like this but I'm gonna spill the beans and tell everyone my dirty secret for getting ahold of you.

Get in IRC. When you see Shane active in the main channel you message him privately.

It's that simple and it's much more effective than messaging him on the forums because you are getting his attention then and there. It can't hurt to try forum PMs and don't be afraid to bump your message when you do, but IRC is the way to go through and through. Effective damn near every time.

I understand there's a fine line between not wanting to be a nuisance, yet actually needing to be a nuisance when it comes to donation stuff. I feel like an idiot when I bug the man for a couple reasons:

This is all true.
If you have been missed at some point you need to make a stink about it, and rightfully so.

No one should EVER feel like they are being a nuisance or that they are coming off as annoying to me. This is our job, it is what we do and servicing players is important to us.

What we won't stand for however, is if you are being a nuisance with questions like "can i donate XX for XX", "What is the spawn timer for XXX" , "I have XX item, how many are in the world?" and so on... We get these all too much.

If it is something legit and a real level headed concern or problem then yeah, annoy the shit out of us with that until we get to it.

 

[Trojandrew]

"I have XX item, how many are in the world?" and so on... We get these all too much.

Guilty as charged lol,

on the other side, i'd rather donate here and play a game i love, than pay $15 a month for a watered down borefest. at least here the people in charge Listen to the concerns of the player base and adjust accordingly. So i thank you for that.

 

[halygon]

This is now complete.

AS of now all tier bonuses will now be going through
http://bonus.uoforever.com

Hopefully this clears things up and makes things easier both for the staff and the users.

Added to FAQ section under Donations category.

 

[Silly Santa]

If anyone thinks that Shane is not busy.. Look at how many forum msgs and tags he has in his SS .. Hes a busy guy

 

[Ledz Epplin]

@Ledz Epplin

7 hours later and i still did not get your bumped PM.
I searched through all the messages and found yours, you pm'd me back in January, never bumped it since and i also explained to you back then how it works and how it can take some time.

I gave you your first donation tier that you hit back in January and an extra 2k dono coins for the issues of your messages getting flooded out.

You never have to spend a dime here again and that is your right. Still you are welcome to play here for free, forever and apologies it took so long to get your free bonus item for supporting us.

Enjoy.

Thank you Shane, I will now become a donor again

 

[Ledz Epplin]

@Ledz Epplin

7 hours later and i still did not get your bumped PM.
I searched through all the messages and found yours, you pm'd me back in January, never bumped it since and i also explained to you back then how it works and how it can take some time.

I gave you your first donation tier that you hit back in January and an extra 2k dono coins for the issues of your messages getting flooded out.

You never have to spend a dime here again and that is your right. Still you are welcome to play here for free, forever and apologies it took so long to get your free bonus item for supporting us.

Enjoy.

I wasnt bumping my orig ones, I was sending new ones, I guess that was my issue