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NEW questions concerning the Membership options

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RejectReality
Testing The Waters.
This just popped into my head.

Does using the setting to hide your Gold badge include hiding it in the submission queue, thus negating the priority posting? Or is whatever indicator/process involved unaffected by that setting?

Good Will ---|--- Three Alarm <= Both almost famous, give them a read and get them one step closer!
sprite
Her Royal Spriteness
Quote by RejectReality
This just popped into my head.

Does using the setting to hide your Gold badge include hiding it in the submission queue, thus negating the priority posting? Or is whatever indicator/process involved unaffected by that setting?


in theory, no, you still go to the top of the que - that said, if it's not there as a visual for the mods, or they just recognize a well known gold member submitting a story, it could be overlooked. it's not likely, but it does occasionally happen.

You can’t truly call yourself peaceful unless you are capable of violence. If you’re not capable of violence, you’re not peaceful. You’re harmless.
RejectReality
Testing The Waters.
Well, bugger.

I like the ability to hide the badge, but it has the potential to negate my #1 perk of Gold.

I guess I'll make up my mind the next time I go to submit something new.

Good Will ---|--- Three Alarm <= Both almost famous, give them a read and get them one step closer!
sprite
Her Royal Spriteness
Quote by RejectReality
Well, bugger.

I like the ability to hide the badge, but it has the potential to negate my #1 perk of Gold.

I guess I'll make up my mind the next time I go to submit something new.


my suggestion, in the little mod note box, simply explain that you're a goldie hiding your badge, that should help. smile

You can’t truly call yourself peaceful unless you are capable of violence. If you’re not capable of violence, you’re not peaceful. You’re harmless.
Sweetaboo
Active Ink Slinger
Post deleted by ADMIN:

"Questions already covered off in the above post, or general complaints relating to the new set up, will be deleted to keep this thread from becoming too cluttered."

This is not a forum for you to complain about site policy relating to banned content, nor whether you will be supporting the site or not.
Coco
Cocolicious
Quote by Sweetaboo
I can't fault anyone for trying to make a buck. But I do think that the "250,000 members" is a bit misleading. As a forum administrator myself, I know that the vast majority of registered "users" are either spam accounts, one-time browsers, or repeated registrations after losing usernames and passwords.

My main issue with contributing financially is the excessive amount of censorship and heavy-handed moderation on this site. I simply cannot justify financially supporting a website that has treated me the way I was treated during the purge of the section. Long story short, I made a sincere effort to change my stories to comply with the new guidelines. One or two sentences remained that the verifiers didn't like. I was banned for two weeks, rather than simply asked to change it. Since that fiasco, I do not publish stories here anymore. I am afraid to. Sorry, you will not be getting any financial support from me until verifiers can treat story contributors (the talent of Lushstories.com) in a manner that is deserving of such support.

Lush is the most restrictive adult-oriented site I have ever encountered. The stories on Lush are not of any better quality than what would be found on less restrictive sites. In fact, many of the stories posted here are also posted elsewhere. The only thing keeping Lush at the top is the social media type features. If those features become locked up to everyone but paid members, then active membership will plummet. When things go from free to fee, users naturally go from free to flee.

That's my two cents.


You have that right, and thank you for your opinion. The fact remains that it was no longer possible for the ownership of this site to maintain free accounts without the infusion of cash this system now provides. If you feel that you cannot support such as system that doesn't allow stories, don't support. The decision was made and the verification team was charged to process stories accordingly. You submitted stories that contained after the new guidelines were installed, and by doing so you were warned once and asked to change all stories as needed. You followed up by submitting a second and third story that did not meet current guidelines, and was subsequently suspended from publishing for seven days. Those are facts, please don't accuse our team of story moderators of mistreating the talent of Lushstories as they do a good job of maintaining a high standard of professionalism while oftentimes being attacked personally.

Thank you and good luck with your stories.
Sweetaboo
Active Ink Slinger
No, those are not the facts. But I'm not going to argue with you. My issue is not that Lush doesn't publish . It's that the story verifiers are excessively punitive. In fact, so punitive that I have refrained from submitting stories because I never know what words or sentences might get me in trouble. The site guidelines are long and complicated and ultimately, it's the verifier's discretion as to how they apply. When writing and submitting, I can only hope that I have complied. I don't submit anything that, to me, looks like it violates guidelines. And when I get a story back saying that I've violated guidelines, I'm usually shocked. And that's the kind of mistreatment I'm talking about.

I'll give you one example. I submitted a story a while back, where I referred to a character as a senior in high school. I was given a warning, stating that this could be a violation of the rule that says all characters must be over 16 years old. The story takes place in the US, where there is no such thing as a high school senior under 16 years old. The clarification that the character was a high school senior, from my point of view, demonstrated compliance with the guidelines. A verifier saw it differently and chose to give me a warning. This is the sort of thing I'm talking about. This is the issue I have with Lush, not the exclusion of specific genres, such as . In the case of the section, however, it's important to remember that those stories were submitted during a time when that was allowed and a certain amount of understanding and flexibility should have been exercised when stories were re-submitted to comply with new guidelines.

I also know what it costs to run a website such as this. I am very aware that the revenue will greatly exceed the cost. More power to you. Nothing wrong with using what you have to make money. I just won't be contributing.
Coco
Cocolicious
Quote by Sweetaboo
No, those are not the facts. But I'm not going to argue with you. My issue is not that Lush doesn't publish . It's that the story verifiers are excessively punitive. In fact, so punitive that I have refrained from submitting stories because I never know what words or sentences might get me in trouble. The site guidelines are long and complicated and ultimately, it's the verifier's discretion as to how they apply. When writing and submitting, I can only hope that I have complied. I don't submit anything that, to me, looks like it violates guidelines. And when I get a story back saying that I've violated guidelines, I'm usually shocked. And that's the kind of mistreatment I'm talking about.

I also know what it costs to run a website such as this. I am very aware that the revenue will greatly exceed the cost. More power to you. Nothing wrong with using what you have to make money. I just won't be contributing.


I don't intend to argue with you at all. However, you should know that we keep a record of all history regarding story submissions and breach of site situations, and they are readily available to the admin team. If you would like to discuss your issue with the verification team privately, I will be happy to do so.
Sweetaboo
Active Ink Slinger
I will probably do that. I have not named names, because I do feel that the specifics should be dealt with privately. However, this forum is called Site Announcements/Feedback, and feedback is not always praise. I have serious issues with the way things are handled here and that's my feedback. I had left this alone until I saw a message stating that the site would be asking for contributions. That's why I chose to speak up.
sprite
Her Royal Spriteness
Did someone say Gold Member...?

You can’t truly call yourself peaceful unless you are capable of violence. If you’re not capable of violence, you’re not peaceful. You’re harmless.
AcidxKiss
Rookie Scribe
I wish it wasn't where we'd have to pay. I won't be able to. That sucks but I'm glad lush has grown so much. I do love lush.

So we won't be able to send any messeges to people whatsoever, am I correct?
coffeeandketchup
Active Ink Slinger
Hello. I haven't purchased anything online from another country; lush membership might just be the first. I'm concerned about international tax rates. Before the purchase becomes final, are we are given a detailed breakdown of what we're about to buy, and will there be a cancel button or such device? It would be easier to ask tax rates for a specific country but I'm not comfortable asking here. Thanks.
nicola
Matriarch
Quote by AcidxKiss
I wish it wasn't where we'd have to pay. I won't be able to. That sucks but I'm glad lush has grown so much. I do love lush.

So we won't be able to send any messeges to people whatsoever, am I correct?


Correct. After your 3 month trial is up (or if you were a member before the start of 2015, after 1 July 2015), you will no longer be able to use the messaging system. It's one of the most resource intensive applications on here.

Paying the $10 yearly Bronze Membership fee (less than $1 per month), unlocks the messaging system.
nicola
Matriarch
Quote by coffeeandketchup
Hello. I haven't purchased anything online from another country; lush membership might just be the first. I'm concerned about international tax rates. Before the purchase becomes final, are we are given a detailed breakdown of what we're about to buy, and will there be a cancel button or such device? It would be easier to ask tax rates for a specific country but I'm not comfortable asking here. Thanks.


We use the second largest payment processor in the world. You do not get a detailed breakdown as there are no taxes passed on. All that appears on your credit card bill is a one off amount, billed discreetly via our site admin's software company.
HeraTeleia
Top Shot
I don't know if this has already been discussed, and honestly, am too irritated to care. Nicola, you know that I am a huge fan of financially supporting the site (you really need to offer that USD$250 Platinum membership, and yes, I know I'm harping on that particular subject), however, finding out via text message from a friend I first met on here that she can't reply to my online messages--she gets some message saying something like "only Premium members can send online messages"--is beyond aggravating.

I know Gav has other worries right now, but I think that at the very least, if a Gold member sends an online message to ANYONE, that person should be able to reply, regardless of their membership status. Please consider adding it as a Gold member benefit. I can only gift so many Gold memberships to friends (no, I don't gift Bronze or Silver memberships, because...well, it seems cheap).

The other thing that I've noticed, as mentioned by someone else above, is that some "new" members seem to be old members who have just changed their names to avoid paying the measly USD$10 it would cost to actually be honest and support one of the best, if not the best, literary erotica sites on the Web. I've had "friends" disappear and then reappear with a new name, sending me a new FR explaining why the name change (this earns you an instant "ignore request" and a block, just to be clear), like it's perfectly acceptable to "play" the site. Maybe Gav can install an IP matching programme so that if someone deletes their account and then creates a new one, the IP matching programme will block them from registering or require payment up front? Dodging fees bothers me, one of those little irritations, like people who use the carpool lanes whilst driving solo or people who aren't handicapped parking in handicapped-reserved parking spaces because they're "just running in for a second".
Want to spend some time wallowing in a Recommended Read? Pick one! Or two! Or seven!
nicola
Matriarch
Hi HeraTeleia.

I appreciate the inconvenience the new setup may cause.

We are looking into what may work out to be a "fairer" system. The last thing we want is for supportive members to lose their love for the site.

What is being discussed currently, is changing it so that provided one member has a paid membership (after their trial ends), then the PM / chat between the 2, will be unrestricted. However, 2 free members who are out of their trial period, would be unable to contact each other. It's an option.

You have to remember, that most pay sites, charge you for access to anything, right from the off. A dating site for example, would typically charge $20-$30 per month. Fetlife charge $60 p.a. for membership, which you need to pay or you can't access the majority of the site's content at all.

It's unfortunate that we have had to go this route, however we cannot continue as a totally free site any longer. Running a site for 2.5 million monthly unique visitors, costs an awful lot. Our server costs are escalating, and if it were not for the additional income from our mobile site, we would be barely breaking even.

I'll keep you up to date on where we are with this over the coming weeks.

Thank you for the feedback, it's most appreciated.

Nicola
simplyjohn
Site administrator
Quote by coffeeandketchup
Hello. I haven't purchased anything online from another country; lush membership might just be the first. I'm concerned about international tax rates. Before the purchase becomes final, are we are given a detailed breakdown of what we're about to buy, and will there be a cancel button or such device? It would be easier to ask tax rates for a specific country but I'm not comfortable asking here. Thanks.


I know you refer to tax rates and not exchange rates but I will chip this in anyway. Whenever I buy a membership it tells me how much it will cost in my currency before I commit to the purchase so for example, UK here, the bronze at $10USD equates to just over £6GBP .. about ten bob a month .. sorry 50pence a month for those not as old as me.
adele
Weaver of Words
Quote by nicola
Hi HeraTeleia.

I appreciate the inconvenience the new setup may cause.

We are looking into what may work out to be a "fairer" system. The last thing we want is for supportive members to lose their love for the site.

What is being discussed currently, is changing it so that provided one member has a paid membership (after their trial ends), then the PM / chat between the 2, will be unrestricted. However, 2 free members who are out of their trial period, would be unable to contact each other. It's an option.

You have to remember, that most pay sites, charge you for access to anything, right from the off. A dating site for example, would typically charge $20-$30 per month. Fetlife charge $60 p.a. for membership, which you need to pay or you can't access the majority of the site's content at all.

It's unfortunate that we have had to go this route, however we cannot continue as a totally free site any longer. Running a site for 2.5 million monthly unique visitors, costs an awful lot. Our server costs are escalating, and if it were not for the additional income from our mobile site, we would be barely breaking even.

I'll keep you up to date on where we are with this over the coming weeks.

Thank you for the feedback, it's most appreciated.

Nicola







I have been on a number of other sites (and I have mentioned this earlier), and the way it works on most of them is if a paid member sends you a message, whether it be an online message (black box) or email (private message), the free member can REPLY to the message. They just cannot initiate an online or private message. By extension, this same premise could be applied to the private windows and private chat rooms. Free members cannot create either of these, but could accept or enter those rooms (whether password restricted or not).

On some sites, members also have to be paid members to whisper to other members. This is a great feature that would discourage a lot of the trolls who just join to use the chat rooms as their personal live sex chat/annoy other members/harass people in secret site. (BTW, not allowing whispering from the get go could be one way to stop the trolls who join for 90 days, then delete and then create another profile. And I have mentioned this before, but i think it is worth repeating. 90 days is an extremely generous trial period. Most other sites require payment immediately, or within a very short period of time to get the majority of the features. Making the trail period shorter could help resolve the issue of those people who are creating new profiles every 90 days.)

I regularly visit a couple of sites I am a member of, and Lush is the only one I support financially (and was one of the first to purchase the gold memberships when they became available) because I feel it is well worth the money . Lush is far and away the best site of it's kind on the internet in every category. It has the best process for posting stories; it has the best chat rooms with features unavailable just about anywhere else; it has great forums; and the profile page has more features and the ability to customize it than anywhere else I have seen. I want to thank you again for creating such a great site.
asian2013
Active Ink Slinger
I looked through most pages but might have missed my question ---> for us members who signed up prior to 1/1/15, what happens to our membership after 30/6 or 4/7? I understand the reduced features, but I am referring to our profile account ---> does it get deactivated? or will we still be able to log in and have access to the free features?
simplyjohn
Site administrator
Quote by asian2013
I looked through most pages but might have missed my question ---> for us members who signed up prior to 1/1/15, what happens to our membership after 30/6 or 4/7? I understand the reduced features, but I am referring to our profile account ---> does it get deactivated? or will we still be able to log in and have access to the free features?


The latter ... your account remains available as a Free member.
asian2013
Active Ink Slinger
Are viewing "friends" page from our profile settings now also a members only feature? I tried to do that, and it went to the "premium members only" page.
nicola
Matriarch
Quote by asian2013
Are viewing "friends" page from our profile settings now also a members only feature? I tried to do that, and it went to the "premium members only" page.


I'm sorry, I don't understand the question. Can you provide a link by way of example, so we can see what you mean please? Do you mean the friend activity page: https://www.lushstories.com/asian2013/activity? Or this page https://www.lushstories.com/membership/update-details.aspx?s=friends? Or something else?
asian2013
Active Ink Slinger
Quote by nicola


I'm sorry, I don't understand the question. Can you provide a link by way of example, so we can see what you mean please? Do you mean the friend activity page: https://www.lushstories.com/asian2013/activity? Or this page https://www.lushstories.com/membership/update-details.aspx?s=friends? Or something else?


The 2nd link. Callisto has mentioned that its not working and its been looked into.

Additionally, the sound notifications are also not working for me. I've checked and all audio on my pc is working fine.
nicola
Matriarch
Ah, when I click that link now from the forum, it doesn't show the friend page. I have to click the "Friends" link. I see what you mean.

These could be side-effects of Gav updating the mongo database server. All should be well within the next week.

Can you report bugs directly to him that you find please, this thread is about membership questions, not site glitches.

Thank you!

I've gifted you a Bronze Membership for your help.
asian2013
Active Ink Slinger
Quote by nicola
Ah, when I click that link now from the forum, it doesn't show the friend page. I have to click the "Friends" link. I see what you mean.

These could be side-effects of Gav updating the mongo database server. All should be well within the next week.

Can you report bugs directly to him that you find please, this thread is about membership questions, not site glitches.

Thank you!

I've gifted you a Bronze Membership for your help.



Yes, I noticed the Bronze Membership only just a short while ago! I was wondering about it and was just about to send you a note about that hoping it wasnt .. ahem... a "site glitch" hehe. (then I thought to check here first!) Thank you!

btw - my apologies. I didnt know where to send my questions.

as a final update to the initial query here (as I've come across a few other members who have experienced this issue too), clicking on the "friends" link wasn't working but it works now... so I'm thinking (unless Gav has fixed it) yea, it is a site glitch for free members.

Thanks again, Nicola!
Guest
Lurker
yes, I have a friend that is a non-premium member. They cannot delete people on their Friends list. That should be a basic ability. They also cannot delete or move pics they posted while bronze member.

Are these issues being addressed?
nicola
Matriarch
Quote by cologolfer83
yes, I have a friend that is a non-premium member. They cannot delete people on their Friends list. That should be a basic ability. They also cannot delete or move pics they posted while bronze member.

Are these issues being addressed?



Yes.

A new "build" of the site is being tested (live, on another site), and expected to be up within the next week or so.
gav
Code Monkey
These issues regarding what you can access once your membership has expired should be fixed now. Contact me via the contact us page if you still have problems.
Simplicity
Just me
I am having problems with pictures posting , and removing some I did post. Also once i put the url in a different pic will come up.

As I have read I probably put this in the wrong place. sad Sorry.
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