PriceSplit Service

louisa.uno

I think it would be a great idea with a trusted middleman oc.

Finn

would be very interesting, but we need a trust middleman between the money and the buyer so no scam happen

Boa

A great middleman would be someone with a great reputation on the site.

louisa.uno

@Boa Yeah, consider a standard marketplace with independent middlemen. It wouldn't be high risk if people act as middlemen and set their own fees (e.g., 10%). The likelihood of scams should be low since there's a clear understanding of who is trusted in the community. To enhance security, I suggest implementing a policy of banning middlemen involved in scams and allowing only individuals with a reputation of 50 or more on the site to participate. This approach ensures that no new accounts are used, reducing the potential for fraudulent activities.

Edit: Or with 100+ reputation...

Kurozatorumary

I really like this idea! Plus the minimum reputation for a middleman being high is a good anti-scam idea as well.

louisa.uno

@Kurozatorumary That way a scammer must put real effort in just to be banned after the 1st time scamming. Thats not worth it for most people

Kurozatorumary

@Louis_45 I see what you mean, BUT. I feel like the effort they would have to put in would be equal to or greater than the amount they would scam in the end unless they were offering to pricesplit for a really premium avatar. I feel like the idea still has merit.

Kurozatorumary

Oh pfft i thought you were disagreeing w/ me... disregard the first and last sentence.

louisa.uno

@Kurozatorumary No my english is just sometimes overcomplicated. Have a great day ^^

eiron

maybe we could set up a paypal account, and then whoever is willing can put themselves up to manage it but we have to vote to decide who we trust the most. Then when we want to contribute to the fund we inbox that person and exchange details. Then maybe once a month or so we they tally up the funds and then we vote on what assets we want to use it on.

And then after a couple of months we could vote once again to elect a new person to manage it.

Now i haven't thought this completely through so feel free to point out problems with this.

RollThatRick

Having the account be managed by a new person every few months might raise the chances of someone running off with the funds though

eiron

That always a possibility. But I imagine no one is gonna manage it indefinitely, and it gonna have to change hands at some point. In lieu of an automatic secure system it's the only thing i could think of. I mean we could just vote the same person to continue if we are happy and they are happy.
Also it couldn't be just a newb to the site, you'd have to be known long time member.
It's more for people who have only a bit of disposable money, to pool small amounts to enough to get maybe one model or outfit that's not too likely to be shared otherwise. Maybe just each person contribute $1 or $2 or the equivalent in their currency. It's not like they'd be running off with thousands.

RollThatRick

Yeah I think if we don’t hold too much money in there at once just in case, it might work

CodeAngel

My initial plan was to automate the majority of this by hosting a new website as a service. Various groups of people would be interested in different avatars and sign up for one, once the avatar's payment was made, everyone who contributed to its funding (or is in that group (not sure yet?? - give your ideas)) would receive the avatar. You are correct though; this does require a middleman to buy the avatar.

i'm more concerned about it actually working, creators are able to block certain paypal accounts / emails from buying their goods, correct?

louisa.uno

@CodeAngel Yes the blocking of paypal accounts or emails could be a very real problem but it is pretty easy to get around by using single use credit cards for every payment & different emails.

I would suggest that every one which helped raising funds receives the asset but that it get's publicly released on here after 1 month for example.

Asira

Wanted to revive this thread and toss in some comments since I actually did this with paid mods for FFXIV in a private group for about a year which split out later into the booty bay. IYKYK. Anyways.

I absolutely love this idea, This is honestly what I dream for and a huge reason why I stay here on the forums and try to participate so much. I know I get a lot out of this community, and I genuinely try to put back into it whenever I can.

If there could be a system where people could toss in a dollar for an outfit set's fullpack, It'd only mean 25~30 people have to pitch in for an outfit set making the purchase a lot more accessible for everyone.
I grew up pretty poor and still have problems some weeks to maintain everything.. Just how life is for a lot of people.

Something to consider with a lot of this though is fees, You can bypass it entirely by sending to friends/family but only in the same country and only with certain payment methods..
The other potential issue is also the legal identity of the "middleman" buyer, as well as the split-payers would be known or acknowledged to at least the middleman.

In the issue of the fees for paypal at least, as a freelance artist my fee per dollar outside of the country or by direct donations is about $0.20 per dollar.
This would be about $6 per 30 contributors all contributing $1., So either the contributors would need more to cover costs.. Or the Middleman in question being the "owner" of the assets themselve's would pay a slight premium covering the fees.

As far as Who the middleman could be, I feel like you could have a multi step process for.

Are You capable of doing that job?
Do You want to handle it to begin with?
These could be handled with a public form to take in applicants sort of.
Then There could be a handful of applicants to vote for.

To avoid people running off with money as mentioned maybe just keep it to 1 or 2 outfit sets at a time so that way only around $50 is in the pocket.
This is what I did personally in my private group for Paid mods, And worked out great. People would dump in some money to be used for modder's patreons or specific paid mods for XIV and we'd just share a google drive I paid for.

Anyways, I'll cut it off here since I could ramble for awhile on this. Just really hope this website service goes somewhere and gets some updates. T_T

Bryan

Reviving this post to say that it's a very good idea I would most likely participate in