Okay, Why did they have to do this?
 

I only joined Menewsha a month ago, and I thought it was pretty good. I love it alot mainly because everyone here aren't spamnoids, and Menewsha isn't flooded with a whole ton of stupid offers, Ads, and such, like Gaia.

I don't know about any of you guys, but Mennies or whatever you call them seem to be the same thing as Gaia Cash. It's just another weird way to pay real money just to get pixelated items that you only like for so long. As well as if there are "Mennies" it seems like the most logical thing is that there WILL start being stupid offers and Ads.

I don't know about you, but that's how I see it. Discussion starts now. :3

Here's a good thread about the Cash shop: http://www.menewsha.com/forum/main/s...cash-shop.html

I know it's long, but if you read through it, you'll see that they've been stating that there will be a cash shop eventually for quite a long time...around a year. It's not something they took lightly before they implemented it, so I trust them to not go overboard with it. They also let users know well beforehand and gave them time to respond and make suggestions. I know you've only been here for a month, so you haven't had lots of time to get used to it, but maybe reading that thread will help you feel better about it.

I think that if you read through both the Cash Shop thread that juniper linked to above, as well as the Mennies announcement thread IN THEIR ENTIRETY, you will find that the staff has no desire to go down the same road that other sites have. I think that if you read through both of those threads, they should help calm some of your fears about the direction this site is taking. Members of staff, as well as our site Administrator, have responded in the Mennies announcement thread. Please take a minute to actually read through all of the replies before jumping to conclusions. :D

As of right now, Mennies are only used to buy CIs. They're just an alternate form of currency that allows more people access to Contribution Items. :yes: While yes, there will be a cash shop down the road, it is going to be reserved for items that aren't fancy enough for a CI, and are too nice for a common -- for example, a golden halo. While a lot of users would love to have a halo, it's not really appropriate for a contribution item. It's also not really appropriate for a common either, so it's likely going to be an item that goes into the cash shop. :yes:

I hate to contradict you Sizzla, but that's not precisely true (and I'm objecting to the phrase highlighted - if you'd used a different phrase, I wouldn't have said anything). There are some items that are so generic or would be in such demand that it makes more sense to have them as a Cash Shop item so there will always be a supply of them. Also - items that would be "too risky" as a CI. But all of our Cash Shop items would be fully fancy enough to be sold for Mennies.

You have to understand that I'm entirely putting my notice in because I don't want anyone to run off with the idea that we'd put something out for Mennies that wasn't up to our high standards.

I've already said my piece elsewhere on the site about how the staff has no intentions of gouging our users and letting our quality standards slip. I stand by that.

Yeah, that's a much more eloquent and specific explanation. No problem. :D I didn't really take the time to ensure that every word was succinct. :yes:

Gaia is not the only one with a Cash Shop or whatever. Other sites has them too. And for one reason, MONEY TO KEEP THEM ALIVE.
I could understand that many people gets the wrong impression at first because of the "trauma" from that one beloved site. But they need to understand that Mene is different in many ways. Like the staff has already mentioned, contribution items and future Menny Items will only be good quality worth spending for. Staff will work for hours and days to bring out new items and new additions to the sites. And they will make sure that the money people are donating is worth it. We just have to have faith in our staffs. :)

I like Gaia's Cash shop, and I'll probably like Mene's. ;]

Mennies are just an easier way for people to donate to the site.
I use it because I don't have a creditcard or a paypal.
So paying by phone is the only way I can donate.

I don't think Menewsha would turn out as corrupted as Gaia. I trust them. End of story.

I'm actually rather looking forward to a Cash Shop, for it might be a way to make some really nice items available to a broad mass without the 1-month-only restriction. =3

Until then I'm just glad they implemented Mennies for getting CIs, since although it takes a couple of clicks more to go through the whole process of donating, at the same time it's a nice way to reduce the actual number of PayPal transactions you have to go through - for you can now basically get the Mennies for a couple of months worth of collectibles in a single transaction.

It's one rather nice addition, I think, and with the increased number of ways to get the Mennies it will help a lot of people to finally get their hands on those collectibles.

Just don't let your bad experiences with other sites blur your judgment about new Menewsha features, for with the current staff I don't see any risk for this to go out of control like that.

For an active forum of any sort, one must be able to support the forum and keep it online. Unfortunately as much as we would like, server costs to host the forums are not free and so the owners of forums such as Gaia or Menewsha need funds to pay off for server costs.

Most forums which you can think of that don't have a cash system generally are either supported in some other way (for instance Battle.net forums owned by Blizzard does not have a cash shop of any sort because they generate so much money from their games).

Think of free MMORPGs. How do they maintain being free given the huge server costs and costs for staff/etc? They do so through a cash shop/donation system.

I personally don't mind if Menewsha pulls up a Cash Shop and offers or such. As long as the staff do not pull quality for quantity in order to make as much money as they can I am perfectly fine.

Y'know, I was a bit startled to see it, but I think it's pretty cool. Now I can buy from my cell phone, and that's a lot easier. I mean... I probably won't, but I'll think about doing it and someday I just might.

I think it's a good addition. I tell you what, it's better than a hundred thousand weird ads and crap sponsored items you can't get rid of.

This is exactly right!

Devs need moolah to survive - you don't want us starving to death while making pretty pixels for your avatar to wear do you? As well as coders to make more games and add new features to the site :O

Even if we wanted to (which we dont xP incase someone takes it out of content), we don't have the dev power to produce 375673+ items each week to put into a cash shop and ask for ridiculous amounts from our users xP thats just not on...we need an hour or so of sleep a day you know >.> lol

You just had to shove the fact into my face that you get half an hour more sleep each day than I do, right? :D

Just wanted to agree with Son Zack - I'd rather get additional items for me to spend money on (yes, even to that terrible extend mentioned by Tre :P) than pages that consist of 20% content and 80% sponsors/ads!

I'm more worried about Menewsha using the money earned from the cash shop to fund weapons research. And I'm really not all that worried at all.

Wow, I must be tired because at first I thought you were serious, and for that half second I was so confused as to why mene would be researching weapons. So they can take over a small country? Well I guess that'd be okay if they used it for more money to power the site. =D

I am also looking foward to a cash shop... as long as that's not all mene does. If mene gets a cash shop and that's all that ever gets updated then I will be a sad panda. ...without the whole being an actual panda part. But I don't think that will happen. In my mind cash shop = more pretty pixels. And I love pretty pixels. <3

Curses! I thought those plans were top secret. :ninja:

I bet you the slave in the dungeon gave that out. Imma go whip the shit out of him.

Not too many bruises. He is to be fed to the Dark Lord tonight and the DL doesn't much like 'em when they're too tenderized. :B