Your profile has been modified: What it all means

Store & Marketplace Store Announcements & Feedback
1

Hello to the most amazing friends on a forum a guy could have. Let me just tell you it’s been a pleasure to be a part of this group. There are so many cool people I get to talk to everyday here on the forum, email and by phone.

Lately we have had a slew of more incredible people joining us and sharing experiences about their pheromone use. I always find it inspiring to hear another person’s story especially when it’s right along the same lines of an experience I have had. What better way to build bonds then through the sharing of our experiences.

On many occasions new users have bought and tried out advanced products reserved for more mature users. Who can blame them with everyone else sharing their success here on the forum? I know when I joined I was overwhelmed with anticipation and desperately wanted to try MX this and P that, but was scared to death that I wouldn’t be a good tester.

I know now that everyone is a great tester as long as you go about it honestly and do your best to further the research.

There are, on the other hand, some who who like to test and yet want to keep their testing more quiet for whatever reason. This is OK with me, Jasmin and MHarris too. Believe me, we have been trying to sort out the order system to make things more fair to those who report results, and those who wish to keep their results more private.

Then there are those who promised to report and have just not done so and that’s OK too. Everybody gets busy in life and most of the time we all can be run haggard. We sometimes need to choose living life to rehashing it on the forum.

In the interest of fairness for everyone here is the solution I have come up with. All Putatives and ExperiMones have their base price doubled for those users who still want to test them but don’t want to share results, and for those who still new and want to rush ahead into advanced products without having yet proven they’ll post the results. The advanced users who post results will receive 50% off the new prices as a reward for sharing their results.

This gives everyone a continued opportunity to test the advanced molecules. After you have posted your results about your incredible and not-so-incredible experiences every month I will review users and add them to the Advanced user level of the store, eligible for discounts as a thank you.

Just to make this clear: For the advanced users who share results with the forum the price has not increased, but stayed the same to encourage publishing your experiences.

When you’re in the advanced level, it is very important that you continue to post your results of molecules. The lower price level is designed to encourage and facilitate research only. We lose some money on some of these molecules at the advanced pricing level, but we’re willing to do so when you share your experiences.

Advanced users must be logged into the store to see your special pricing.

Again I believe this to be a very fair opportunity to post test results of advanced products “if you choose” and after doing so for a while you will reap the benefits of your tireless research efforts. It’s an elite club to be a part of.

Oh and if you believe I missed you and you only see the increased prices after logging in you may send me a PM with your store user name and I will research a decision for you.

Welcome to the new Androtics :cool:

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2

All that you have done is to discourage experimental purchases by newbies. I personally wait until there are a few reports of effects by others before buying experimentals, and I only buy them if they have both unusual reported effects AND if they’re inexpensive. If you’d like to encourage their purchase, use, and feedback by more people, I don’t see how this approach will work. I could give you tons of suggestions, but judging from your course of action I think that would be like trying to advise President Bush - a total waste of time.

3

Many of the advanced products are sold at or below cost to the members in exchange for feedback. They don’t make a profit on many of the newer and experimental molecules (and actually lose money on some), yet a lot of people buy them and never report on them.

Sometimes you’re paying $9.95 (or less) per mg for something that costs $23 per mg to synthesize. That’s hardly fair if you’re not posting results.

We have been warning everyone for a long time to please report on the molecules and that changes were coming to the store.

Jasmin didn’t want to exclude anyone from buying the advanced if they really loved a certain molecule or mix, but didn’t want to share results, so this is the most sensible solution. You pay a little more if you don’t want to share results, and you pay less if you do. Simple.

If you want them at or below cost then you will make a effort to post good or bad feedback so the info can be used for research.

If you dont want to post, that’s fine, but you will have to pay a higher price and the money will go to furthering the research and new products.

Either way it benefits research, and help the technology to progress.

Tisha

4

I think you might have taken everything I’ve written out of context texaspete. We actually are encouraging more users to post and post often. There have been countless users who have bought the ExperiMones and Putatives and never reported on them. I know for a fact that many, many users receive free MX’s and other products all the time in the hopes that they will test and report.

Unfortunately there are those who choose not to report for whatever reason, and yet the prices of the items sold are based on encouraging research, not to go broke. We are such a small company and are doing our best to facillitate research by offering most of the Putatives for well bellow their cost. If no one reports on them then all research suffers.

We are not trying to discourage newbies from buying at all. It’s exactly the opposite, in fact. By raising the base price ONLY and not the incremental increases for microgram increases we are doing our best to recoup some of the losses suffered from those who don’t post. Every user has an opportunity to post on the free stuff the girls send them or the products they buy. They still have the opportunity to buy products for a very little price difference from advanced users and after they post about their results the price break opens to them too. At the same point if they choose to remain anonymous then that is OK too.

This way instead of having an entirely separate store section closed to everyone except advanced users, like many have suggested, now everyone can still buy.

Like I said please share your “tons of suggestions” of how we can stay in business as a research forum while offering research inspired prices to those who share their research and non-research prices to those who have not shared there feedback?

It’s an open honest question for anyone who would like to make suggestions?

5

How will you know who is who? Forum name and linking it to the customer, how will you know who is who?

I do research at a hospital and being let down over and over and over again becomes frustrating and hinders research and costs a lot of money. This makes the most sense considering that if some new person wants to try the the putatives or experimones, they’ll have to start with the instant series, learn about them, and report. And say it’s a person new to Androtics but is experienced, if they buy the putatives and experimones and want cheaper prices, all they have to do is report on them.

6

There are many positive ways to encourage participation and feedback, but if you want to both encourage feedback and to facilitate purchases by newbies, then you need to provide rewards rather than negative penalties and you need to provide easier access to them. Make experimentation more appealing rather than erecting barriers to entry. The bottom line would be to provide rewards rather than penalites, but the mechanism for doing so is up to you, your budget, your goals, and your software. Whatever the situation, it should be clearly apparent that doubling the prices for newbies is not the least bit encouraging - unless you’re trying to create a feeling of exclusivity.

You’re looking for feedback on your products but your members are not all here for that, so you should begin by polling them, to see what the non-trolls are here for. Typical reasons for using a forum (any forum) are:

  • Earning or saving money
  • Reputation building
  • Exclusivity
  • Learning/Education
  • Experimentation/Research
  • Seeking status / recognition
  • Socializing
  • Exchanging information
  • Self Expression

As far as encouraging feedback- continuing and clearly designated, positive rewards for both posts and purchases might work. I’m not overly familiar with the vbulletin software or with the online store / order processing software that you use, but I am familiar with CMS software and the use of coupons and discounts to manage membership. Manually linking purchases to (possibly adjusted) member ranks on the forum, and dropping prices (across the board or otherwise) based on the number of posts a member has, might be one reward. Providing coupon codes based on the number of posts and/or reputation is a possibility, and restricitng those coupon codes to specific sections of the store (such as putatives, experimones, MX’s)
might also be viable choices. What got my attention was your raising the prices, and my immediate thought was

A slight mark-up to generate positive cash flow is understandable, but
doubling prices for experimental products?! That’s like a software company charging people to beta-test software (ahem. Kinda like Microsoft’s Windows ME and VISTA fiascos…)

Play with these ideas, blend them together, take what you need and abandon the rest… Yes, this is just off the top of my head, in no particular order…
#1: A sliding scale for prices on select products based on some combination of forum activity, member longevity, and reputation points. Markup your experimentals to 15% over cost and taper the cost down to break even, say, oh, 1% discount per 10 posts. This way you at least break even, people are encouraged ot post frequently, and you even turn a profit on some experimenters purchases.
#2: E-mail coupon codes to encourage repeat purchases at either random intervals and/or during designated time periods. Borders book stores does this with their rewards program. Heck, they even charge for the priveledge. Hint-Hint.
#3: ALL Coupon codes or SPECIFIC codes and discounts can be restricted to experimones, putatives, MX’s.
#4: The Vegas approach - set a monthly budget and cater to the big spenders, frequent posters, and their readers – roll out the red carpet for certain people – you should have a handle on the social dynamics of this forum, so you should know who to cater to and who won’t have an impact. How? Hype experimental products in specific threads. Jump in on a popular journal or thread and publically tell the writer that you are sending them a product that you think they may be interested in. Send it overnight before you even post to the thread, then track it, and follow up on it by posting to the thread… “Joe Bob signed for their package yesterday - maybe
they’ll post about it today…” and/or pick someone who has posted on the thread who hasn’t made a purchase recently, and send them a freebie… (“I think you’ll like this because…”)
#5 Tailor your approaches to each of the kinds of forum members I listed above.
Earning or saving money - Certain members have low budgets for purchases. Send them “To Go” bottles with an agreement that
you expect X number of posts per month and explicitly allow them to be negative in their reviews.
Reputation building - admins can give out rep points to newbies who start X number of threads, or give them to people who
are asking for rep points in their signatures, give them to people who are undervalued, give them out daily or weekly for the
best post or the most popular threads.
Exclusivity - unlock certain things for senior members only, high reputation members, frequent posters, and high-spenders.
Learning/Education - I think the forum already has this covered.
Experimentation/Research - use google apps to create spreadsheets editable by testers / product purchasers only. Create a
wiki that covers all pheromones and which is editable by members.
Seeking status / recognition - reference specific members / threads for follow-ups, hand out coupons and rep points, send
freebies in “to go” bottles.
Socialising - parties! Throw them. Travel a little. Provide wingmen/wingladies. Use social network profiles and groups on
Facebook and/or myspace as well as youtube and post especially interesting, funny, controversial, or dramatic, threads to StumbleUpon, Digg, and Reddit.
Exchanging information - all of the above suggestions pretty much cover this.
Self Expression - I like to write and I can be bribed. I’m sure I’m not the only one.:smiley:

7

You flatter me SteveO :o

8

Tater thinks this is some form of progress, but understands that not everybody will love the idea.

The new model is an effective discount for posting feedback. No problem with that. Theres regular price, and then theres an “insider” price.

Many software packages have been provided at a discount to beta testers when theres a consumable portion of the product. Ive beta-ed a lot of stuff and the advantage is a healthy discount on buying the real thing…OR…if youre very active, a free copy. The beta version typically expires.

The danger of using a numerical measure to provide additional discounts is obvious. Give me 1% off for every 1000 posts, and ill make 100,000 worthless posts so i can get free stuff. Quality of posts in the forum would suffer.

Tater would like to see a “club” with 2-3 levels for those who want to do testing on a regular basis. That would keep Androtics honest for regularly pumping out putatives, enough valid ones that its worth joining the club, while rewarding those who put effort into testing.

Example: Join the invitation-only pheroBoy/pheroGirl club for $20/month, 3 month minimum. This gets you the two hottest putatives every month, 2 to-gos. If you post usable feedback, you get 1, 2 or 3 additional months free. Plus, you get discounted access to highly regarded putatives and mixes that are at levels one, two or three. Maybe level three isnt available unless youre a tester extraordinaire.

Coupons dont motivate feedback as much because you need to spend money to redeem a coupon. Being able to delay additional spending is a big deal. Having a club means that both parties have made a commitment. Theres lasting prestige to being a member at a certain level, and there should be privileges attached, just like bronze, gold and platinum frequent flyer clubs. Maybe it should be the Frequent Phero Feedback Club. Oh, and if you dont provide feedback, you should fall down a level every quarter, until youre just like a newbie with no special benefits. Keeps everybody posting.

Why invitation-only? If you post junk just to be posting stuff, you wont get invited.

9

Basically a Advanced users club is what we have now. It’s invitation only for the lower prices because Jasmin didnt want to exclude the new people from buying the advanced totally which is understandable.

There are some people doing their own research and they don’t wish to share, including some academic activity which is kept private. So be it. They can still buy, and we won’t suffer as much for it.

Advanced membership is like a club that gives you a major discount on the products if you participate. Its not by how many posts you have made. We look at the quality of the posts as well. Sometimes you don’t have to be around very long to show that you’re the type of person who regularly posts feedback.

I agree Tatar Coupons and discounts don’t cause people to post feedback even when its a stipulation of getting the product. This has been proven with the forum specials that go out free with orders. A lot of people get them knowing they are getting something free for the feedback but only a few will actually uphold their end of the deal and post the feedback. This new way rewards the people who’ve actually proven themselves to post feedback.

This is not a problem, upon reviewing each quarter as steveO see’s someone posting alot of quality feedback he will contact them if he cant match the forum name to the store name.

Tisha

10

Sounds like a fair solution to me though you will have to decide who can join the club based on tests of the standard products which you already have results on because of the price difference on the experimental products.
Personally I am an analyst so testing and reporting are not really an issue for me. My credit card has taken a rather large hit in the last couple days already for what I have purchased so it will be a while before I get anything new.
Ponderu

11

This is true, but then people who have taken the time to post feedback on the consumer products when they first started are 95% of the time the ones who frequantly post feedback when they buy the advanced so it does work out pretty well gageing this way.

Tish

12

I guess I am confused.
I did get the email with my status. I promptly accidentally deleted it of course. But for some reason I thought that the user level would be noted in the signature of the person (like pheromone experienced).
Is there somewhere that we will be able to reference our status?
Will it change over time?
How often will you be updating the user status?
Is this something we will see when logging in to purchase items?

Sorry for all the questions, I am blonde. Is that a good excuse?:stuck_out_tongue:

13

I agree with Tater. If you have a club membership that you consciously pay for, you know you’re joining a group of people who are buying solely to test. More incentives means more reason to test. Memberships should entail, freebies and discounts. (Really it’s not free cuz you paid for the membership!!!)

When I’ve been invited to do “experiments” the scientists actually paid me and gave me paperwork to say I hear by agree to give true and accurate information. I either got free stuff or money out of it.

As for at cost…I’ve seen substantially discounted prices on chemistry sets sold elsewhere. Selection, though, is limited to the main pheros.

Anyways, I’ve gotten a lot of free stuff out of it, from reward points that probably subtracted from your profit margin. With that said, I’m not complaining.

Too bad you don’t have a software that can track test results. Like, for every mention of this phero, you get a point and at x points you get access to the next level @ cost.

14

Your forum signature and profile only has to do with your posting on the forum. This in turn reflects your store profile. It’s about whether you post or not on the forum about advanced products that you have used. Other than that everything else is the same.

I will be reviewing user status regularly like once every week for new users who should be able to buy advanced at the research prices. I believe in giving people chances and opportunity. That’s exactly why three people have PM me already asking for advanced status and have been granted that status based on only a month of posting.

There is of course the special items April sends in orders to almost every new person. I would say a generous estimate of those who reported on those gifts are maybe 10%. SHOCKING!

These users are given the opportunity to post about there results on the honor system. Most will honor this commitment, but the ones who don’t shouldn’t hurt the entire group. Again I will review those who do and don’t.

The prices of the advanced products in the store reflect the base price only as doubled from $14.95 to $28.90. If you are an advanced user when you log in you will see the $14.95 price. Incremental increases have not been altered at all for the mcg content.

This is not to punish anyone, it is to encourage those users who like the advanced products to post their research at a discounted research enticing price. While at the same time those who choose not to post still have the opportunity to buy, but not at the discounted researcher price.

There have been some users who want to try the advanced products and I didn’t want to exclude them because they want to remain private. That is just unfair, but at the same time I also didn’t want the research to suffer and have to raise prices across the board for everyone. I’m not sure if anyone has noticed but prices have increased everywhere in this world. Androtics has stayed unbelievably faithful to the researchers who make this forum awesome.

Products such as Come Talk To Me Mix 2, Raw Power, Spaceland and a few others and all MX’s have not increased.

15

I understand :slight_smile:

16

Yep, I actually doubled the price of some articles in my store just last week…no other reason than the fact that my cost had increased substantially since the last time I stocked them. No club, no feedback issues, just plain old supply and demand.

I think it’s a great solution SteveO. Profitable Androtics = Happier world. JMHO

17

The way i look at it…Being ‘in’ on everything, its not affecting me too much. But I have lots of trust in Androtics and the people who run it. So I know and feel comfortable exclaiming that i know Steve, Jas, MHarris all know what their doing. Drastic changes like this would not be implemented unless extreme caution and thought were part of it. just my 2.49777 (repeating) cents.

18

I think that Jasmin, Harris and SteveO put a lot of thought and effort into the system they have developed. I think it is terrific, entirely fair and will cut down on the number of members who join the forum, buy a bunch of experimentals, then disappear. And, for those who do buy experimentals and never report, Androtics at least has made a little bit of money.

Personally I do not like the idea of a membership club, as I think that a lot of people would figure that since they paid for a membership they don’t have to report, and Androtics reshearch would suffer for it.

19

…And a crashing economy.

20

Thanks, SteveO.
Anyway, why do all this if there is no research and no reporting?

The system makes sense to me. Good times, good times.