Do you think it would be worth making XP available to those who donate funds to keep Radio Rivendell up and running? Simply, for each DOLLAR donated earns you 1 XP……thus donate $100 and get 100XP's…….a good way for those to gain XP fast and the station obtains more funds. 'What say you!'

I love this idea, though I think 1 XP is a little low, even for just $1. Liking a song and making chat comments are more than that and don't give the site much of anything, so I think they can dish out a little more xp for donating to keep the site up and running. Maybe make it like 5-10xp per $1 or something. In other cases I'd worry about purchasing privilege and stuff but I don't think anyone gets anything besides titles for xp, so, the least they could do is make it a little more worth the effort than just listening and liking and rating.

Hey Abalyth! After reading your post and pondering upon your suggestion, I have to agree. 1 XP for $1 is too little.....yes, the 5 to 10 XP's probably comes out to be a better more fair amount. Considering the amount of XP required to advance to upper levels......only getting 50 or 100 XPs wont make a dent when you might need thousands to level up...yet you will feel $50 or $100 in regards to your bank account. Anyway, it was only a suggestion. I was just thinking out of the box....anythiong to help keep Radio Rivendell on the air. All the best.

Absolutely, I was just expanding on your very good idea and I hope they think about it!

This is an excellent idea! I actually have it on my agenda for future updates of Rivendell. 1XP is too low as you both agree upon, more likely between 5 and 10 is good I think. Or perhaps even more? Then I have ideas on adding special time-related ranks or tiers somehow. Say for example if you donate $10 you'll get some extra privileges for a few months, or some extra badge on your profile. This makes it worthwhile, plus it also encourages people to donate over time Keep the ideas flowing folks!

SUPER! It's nice to be a part of something special....I'm glad our suggestions may help and continue to help this radio station grow. I'm sure whatever the final decision is, it will be an awesome addition to the site...that's why you're "Friggin Lord Elrond!

XP devalues on the higher levels, so it wouldn't be much of an incentive for frequent users. Also, additional privileges would make little sense since that would mean introducing new, probably rather trivial, functions to the site. A badge would be the most sensible solution: it's an easily implemented feature that is nonetheless effective at denoting prestige.

The idea itself is great, far better than a premium account. In my opinion, it's very healthy to give freely and then receive, what the other is willing & able to give. That way it's more like giving presents to each other, rather as with a premium account, where you buy something and maybe not get what you wanted. But, as you MuadMouse, pointed out. 5 xp for one dollar is very little on higher levels. One way to equalize it would be the following method: 1 xp for 1 dollar, multiplied by the profile-level of the donating person. I did some calculating and it works quite well. For example: A fresh Guard (Level 14, 3.500 xp) who'd donate 5 dollar would get 70 xp. Depending on the size of the donation, one would occasionally jump to the next level (especially at the levels 1 to 5, 21 and 23), but at 25 $ per donation one would need to donate roughly 2,4 times to get to the next level each time. I admit, that I don't know the amount of programming involved, but it looks very good on the paper. On the matter of additional privileges, I'm also with MuadMouse. Personally, I dislike trivial functions on websites very much, like flash-games or news links. Badges on the profile and maybe Radio Rivendell-fanstuff like stickers, mugs or even t-shirts in the webshop for the badged ones should be enough reward for helping the site, which pleases a donator enough to donate.

These are all super ideas! I hope something evolves out of this for real. Can't wait to see what happens.....

I really like what Werwolf said, scaling the donation to convert to XP for the levels. Though, then we'll have to consider the effort involved with coming up with that algorithm, versus just a flat rate. We could make that easier by combining the two, where instead of it adjusting with each individual level, every few levels (say, 1-5 is 5xp per $, and 10-15 is 10xp per $). Because as far as I can tell (I am not a computer person, lol) a switching per level scale would be more complicated and require input than just different sections of levels, while still providing a good incentive to donate. Include badges, too, and it's even more incentive and I think a little more balanced.

I'd say 100 exp for 1$. Because why would you reward someone less and someone more for the same input.

You've got a point there, Etherlord. Although I still think continuous support should be rewarded more than donating 1 D4 times. Maybe not 1 xp for 1 dollar multiplied by the profile-level, but by the number of donations from that person.

Posted by WerwolfYou've got a point there, Etherlord. Although I still think continuous support should be rewarded more than donating 1 D4 times. Maybe not 1 xp for 1 dollar multiplied by the profile-level, but by the number of donations from that person.

If the number of donations, then people will donate $1 five times instead of just donating $5. Or worse, some people will do the former, and some, unaware, the latter, and these of second type will feel cheated for getting lower reward.

As I see experience, it's a reward for input to the site. You don't get increased reward for every next forum post, you just get exp. Indeed, with time, you need more and more input to the site for a promotion, but this is a standard design: in order to let everyone (also very casual visitors) experience promotions, but never run out of ranks, you make the relation between exp and levels to be an exponential function, where experience_needed = constant1 + constant2 * level^constant3 ; for example:

EXP_NEEDED = 0 + 10 * LVL^2

Level 1: 10 exp

Level 2: 40 exp

Level 3: 90 exp

Level 4: 160 exp

Level 5: 250 exp

Level 6: 360 exp

Level 7: 490 exp

Level 8: 640 exp

Level 9: 810 exp

Level 10: 1000 exp

Level 11: 1210 exp

Level 12: 1440 exp

...

or EXP_NEEDED = 10+ 1 * LVL^3

Level 1: 11 exp

Level 2: 18 exp

Level 3: 37 exp

Level 4: 74 exp

Level 5: 135 exp

Level 6: 226 exp

Level 7: 353 exp

Level 8: 522 exp

Level 9: 739 exp

Level 10: 1010 exp

Level 11: 1341 exp

Level 12: 1738 exp

...

While Radio Rivendell doesn't use an exponential function and Elrond has set all values manually, by putting them on a chart you can clearly see it actually looks like an exponential function:

If you want to fix something, it's rather changing the curve to become steep later, that is lower the constant 3 (let's say you could raise LVL to the power of 1.5), and if first levels are gained too quickly, then increase constant 2.

Updated 18 September 2014 (10:08)

Impressive! Most impressive. (without the heavy asthmatic life-support breathing)

"If the number of donations, then people will donate $1 five times instead of just donating $5. Or worse, some people will do the former, and some, unaware, the latter, and these of second type will feel cheated for getting lower reward." This issue could be solved with the addition of badges and temporary benefits, as Elrond suggested. Since they'll be an addition to the site there would be an info page so donors can see and decide what they want to do. Have 2 separate types of badges: Overall donations and Continuous donations. And then ranks of those two categories based on amount donated: Continuous Bronze: $1-20/month Continuous Silver: $21-50/month Continuous Gold: $51-100/month Continuous Platinum: $100+/month Continuous Donor: x/month (any amount, so long as it jumps between the categories) M1: $10, M2: $50, M3: $5, M4200; you get it. Once you make donations on a regular/monthly basis for x many months (at least 2) you've earned the badge. Once you stop donating, you lose the badge. But your donations are still rewarded with Overall donation badges: Bronze: $1-100 Silver: $101-500 Gold: $501-1000 Platinum: $1001+ I don't know the average donation, so I just pulled those numbers out of the air and you can adjust them accordingly. Of course after a certain amount of time we'll have to add more badges for the overall donations, but you get the gist of the concept. Donate once: get a pretty shiny. Donate regularly get two shinies, donate more money more regularly get shinier pretties. And also Elrond's offered benefits. And XP.

Another idea for female part of community - donate $50 and more and you get to see Elrond's naked photos!

Posted by EtherlordAnother idea for female part of community - donate and more and you get to see Elrond's naked photos!

Umm ... no, thanks.

Posted by KitharisUmm ... no, thanks.

You can't rate it before you see it!

Well, that was a very sudden and unexpected turn of comments.

Great ideas folks! I love the donations, but I like the community and things here more. This means that money donations won't be better or replace community partaking in any way. Okay, give me a million dollars and I might think otherwise but constant logins, music rating, comments, forum posts and help with interviews etc etc will always be more rewarding I like the idea of permanent donation badges and by giving a timed boost of some sorts for continuous donations. The typical donation range from 5 to 10 dollars I think, but also less and considerably more on some very kind occasions. As I don't get that many donations that I cannot handle it manually, it won't (currently) be a problem adding XP manually for each donation. I like the tiered XP-bonus, but members donating $50 (on any level) shouldn't be higher ranked than the one logging in a couple of days a week, rating everything and posting a lot in the forums. So perhaps a gentle XP-boost plus a separate scale/ranking system for the donations? It should be visible that a person is generous but you shouldn't be able to buy respect Just my two cents! (Oh and I'm even more excited now to get us some new stuff! )