Sythe.org Donations Center Preview

Sythe Users,

I just wanted to take a moment to share a preview of the new donations center with you all.

Donators are a vital part of Sythe.org and are largely responsible for Sythe.org's continued existence. Without donation income, we would likely not be able to sustain Sythe.org. So, in keeping with our views that donators are so important, I've decided to revamp the donations center again. My goal is to make the donations center friendlier to users, easier to navigate, and more functional.

There are two main change you will notice. First, there is a new layout and menu system. I find that the new layout is easier to navigate and a lot more flexible for future expansion. I also like the look of it and think it's also a bit cleaner and modern.

Second, I've coded what I like to refer to as "Donation Self-Service." A few donation perks, notably user titles and ranks, can only be managed by moderators or administrators. This causes a few problems. First of all, it can take a few days or even a week for change requests to be processed. Second, these requests add to staff workload on an already busy community. To combat this, the donations center's new Perk Manager will allow users to change their rank at any time, request new user titles, and request new username images. Rank changes are completely automated while user title and username image changes will be submitted for approval in a queue which I will monitor.

The benefit of all of this is more freedom for you, our users, and easier management for us. We'll have a single place for user title changes and username image changes which will streamline everything and get your requests processed more quickly.

I hope those of you who have donated will enjoy these new features when they are released and find them to be beneficial. To those of you who are not donators, I encourage you to consider donating as it really does help keep Sythe.org alive.

If any of you have any questions, comments, suggestions, etc. please feel free to reply to this thread. I'll do my best to review everything posted and reply as appropriate. Who knows, one of your suggestions could make it into the Donation Center... ^_^

Preview Screenshot:

 

[ll champion]

This is nice! Loving how it looks, good work with your vb skillz matthew!

Edit: noticed you didn't use the admin title icon

 

[Punjabi3]

I like the new rank manager but does this mean if I become a $100 donater I could still use my $5 donater rank? Also would I be able to switch to the old legacy donater rank?

 

[ll champion]

I like the new rank manager but does this mean if I become a $100 donater I could still use my $5 donater rank?

Looks like it to me, he's got plenty of options in the promo.

 

[ll champion]

Wait do non-legacy rank people have acces to legacy ranks?

 

I like the new rank manager but does this mean if I become a $100 donater I could still use my $5 donater rank? Also would I be able to switch to the old legacy donater rank?

Yes. It will let you choose any rank you're eligible for, including legacy ranks if you have a donation old enough to qualify. There's basically a cut off date in the system. If you have a donation older than that date, it will let you choose a legacy rank.

 

[djweasel]

Will this apply to staff also?

 

[stui]

also will you change the rate @ rsgp/mil?

 

[MrLuckyDraw]

Are there any changes to the payment method?
Or is still RSGP/Mail?

 

[Delta Squad]

Looks great can't wait to see it

 

[Austintheman]

also will you change the rate @ rsgp/mil?

No, that's up to FireZ, he already increased the price though.

 

[STAUNCH_POWER]

Mail (Cash/Money Order) is still available only to Americans. We want other methods (not RSGPs from various legit people, this is NOT an option!) to donate like Moneybookers, Liberty Reserve and other secure e-gold services (Google Checkout, too!). Adding them this will significantly increase the donations from members, I'm 100% sure. Specially for International people (Non-US/CA). The preview of the new donation center is good, yeah. More friendly, easy & better to USE (not to "read only") by members. BUT without any other options to donate… it's useless.

Thanks.

 

[Corey]

Looking good so far, great job Matthew!

 

[Snow Patrol]

Awesome, thanks for this Matthew, looking forward to the release

 

[I_DONT_BOT]

Looks like I'm never gonna have a legacy rank then hehe.

meh, new > legacy.

 

Will this apply to staff also?

Ideally. I'm still working on that but I want staff to be able to do user title and username image requests in the same system.

also will you change the rate @ rsgp/mil?

That has nothing to do with the donations center, that's up to FireZ. The donation center uses a standard rate of $3 USD per RS Mil which was the rate when we accepted GP donations directly. Old GP donations are converted using this rate. New GP donations made through FireZ are recorded in our system in USD.

Are there any changes to the payment method?
Or is still RSGP/Mail?

Nope, not at this time. This is a site overhaul, not a method or procedure overhaul.

Mail (Cash/Money Order) is still available only to Americans. We want other methods (not RSGPs from various legit people, this is NOT an option!) to donate like Moneybookers, Liberty Reserve and other secure e-gold services (Google Checkout, too!). Adding them this will significantly increase the donations from members, I'm 100% sure. Specially for International people (Non-US/CA). The preview of the new donation center is good, yeah. More friendly, easy & better to USE (not to "read only") by members. BUT without any other options to donate… it's useless.

Thanks.

Donations by mail are open to anyone. The only catch is we only accept USD. If you send foreign currency, we have to convert it to USD which usually incurs a fee and exchange rate. Many international people send us money orders by mail because you can purchase money orders in USD in many countries. It's not our fault if people don't want to spend a dollar or two on postage.

 

[x339]

Nice job matthew, it looks really good. Im looking to donate in the future, so when i do this means that i can change my UT whenever I want? Or do I just have to request it through the new system until someone looks at the request?

 

Wow Matthew! I gotta say it's looking REALLY nice, it will also save admins work!

Amazing!

 

[aus aaz]

Good job Matt, I'm looking to donate another $50 in the for see able future, and get a ballin' user title haha

 

Nice job matthew, it looks really good. Im looking to donate in the future, so when i do this means that i can change my UT whenever I want? Or do I just have to request it through the new system until someone looks at the request?

It will still have to be approved since, to be honest, there is so much potential for abuse with user titles.

The idea, however, is that ALL title requests (donors/staff) will be in the same queue and easier to approve. Ideally this will mean requests are approved more quickly than the outdated and inefficient "title request threads" we have now.