Hi everyone,

As you may already know, there is an upper limit to how much custom credit we allow on the site at any given time. When the limit is reached, this shop closes until the amount of custom credit on the site drops below a certain percentage of this total (previously this was 80%). The purpose of this threshold is to ensure that when it opens, the custom credit shop at least stays open for a little while.

The custom credit shop closed on March 1st, and remained closed for 40 days until late evening on April 9th when the amount of credit dropped below 80% capacity. Because people couldn’t purchase custom credit directly while the shop was closed, a popular tactic was to make deals such that payment was due when the custom credit shop opened again. As a result, it took just 20 hours after the shop re-opened to hit the limit and close again.

Clearly if a shop spends about 50 times longer closed than open, it isn’t working. To alleviate this problem, we’re taking several steps:

• First, we’re reducing the re-opening threshold from 80% to 75% so that when it opens it stays open longer.
• Second, we’re imposing a per-account balance cap of 200 cc, after which no additional custom credit can be purchased for your account.
• Third, in the near future we will be opening more staff artist positions specifically for custom orders.

Custom credit that you currently have is of course unaffected by the new balance cap: if you currently have over 200 cc, you will continue to have over 200 cc until you use it.

An attempted custom credit purchase will fail if the transaction would result in your total custom credit balance being greater than the limit. This failure will occur after the would-be buyer enters their card information — if the transaction fails, the information is simply discarded, and no charge will be issued to the credit card. The reason for the balance check occurring after payment details are entered (but before the credit card is charged) is to prevent the otherwise trivial querying of custom credit balances by initiating purchases and then canceling them if they don’t fail.

There has historically been a lot of confusion on this topic: custom credit is in no way required in order to purchase a custom. Customs are typically purchased with a debit / credit card or in some cases via Paypal. Custom credit is, in essence, a “rolling discount” for customs. For example:

• If you have 5 cc and your custom costs $40, then when your order is claimed and payment is due, the actual price of your custom will be $35
• if you have 50 cc and your custom costs $40, then when your order is claimed and payment is due, the actual price of your custom will be zero, and you will have 10 cc left over

In all cases, custom payment is not due (and the total price of the custom is not confirmed) until an artist claims your order and is about to start working on it.

Isn’t it problematic for users to begin making CC tabs essentially putting themselves in debt and making one sided trades at the time of the shops being closed?Lilael

I have no idea how people actually perform their trades, but if it was me and I was dead-set on selling something for CC, I would just postpone the trade until the shop opens again. I assume this is mostly what’s happening.

hey i just wanted to take a second to be really sincerely grateful that you guys put so much effort into having/maintaining the CC system. i know it’s a pain in the rear and i know you guys don’t HAVE to do it. but as a pretty poor person IRL who can’t afford to put anything but an absurd amount of time into the sites i love, i really really appreciate that there’s a system set up where i can help (tangentially) support the site, and also get custom pets (which ive never been able to do before).

seriously, you… probably don’t understand how much it means to me, haha. ;u; it’s just really really cool, so. thanks n’ stuff.

Isn’t it problematic for users to begin making CC tabs essentially putting themselves in debt and making one sided trades at the time of the shops being closed?Lilael

If you’re referring to the fact that people can create large tabs of custom credit and buy it all at once when the shop opens, there’s no way for us to prevent or restrict that other than restricting trades regarding CC. If we restrict trades surrounding CC, we’re limiting people’s options and capabilities of getting customs, since the trade of custom credit enables users who may not be able to afford a custom to gain one through trading items for credit.

As someone still waiting for a contest prize the fact that this is closed again already is SO FRUSTRATING but I get that it’s unfeasible to be all ‘n0 u can’t make deals for cc while it’s the shop is closed’. Wehhh.
I am happy about the account cap though. And the new artists. Hopefully things will go smoother when there’s more than two artists doing customs regularly. :D;

For the cap do you mean how much CC at once you can have on hand to use or just in general to a point?Alice

As of today, since the announcement was made, the cap for each individual user is $200 CC. Once you hit $200 you cannot go over it unless you already have over $200 in custom credit sitting on your account. (In which case you will not be able to purchase more CC until you fall below $200, at which you will be capped.)

Alice I think they mean on hand. They don’t want people hoarding large chunks of CC and basically preventing others from being able to purchase it. Which I can agree with. I mean unless you’re planning an insanely edited drasilis are you really going to need more then 200 cc at a time?

I love that this site has CC. It makes it a lot easier to put away the money to get customs, and let’s people who can’t afford to spend cash themselves to earn it through selling art or site pets/items/currency. But it really is perplexing how much of it is just sitting there not getting used. It’s not like nuggets that gather interest in the bank, or gems that you can trade/buy other things with. You can ONLY use it to buy customs, and once it’s on an account it can’t transfer. So why hoard it? Yes it takes time to get through the queue but new customs are completed fairly quickly. If it’s being used it should be dropping quicker

But it really is perplexing how much of it is just sitting there not getting used.Hina

Most of the custom credit that exists today is “spoken for” by a custom currently in the queue and only a small amount is currently being hoarded, so the cap is more of a preventative measure than a fix. There have been some instances of individual balances going very high (I believe at one point a user had just over 10% to themselves), and since it takes a long time to actually use custom credit, this over-provision takes a long time to go away. If more than one user had done that at the same time, we’d be in a real pickle. This is what the cap is there to guard against.

At the same time, the most expensive custom in the history of Mycena Cave cost $140 (well, $139.99, because that was before we stopped with the silly .99s), so a cap of 200 really shouldn’t get in the way too much.

For the cap do you mean how much CC at once you can have on hand to use or just in general to a pointAlice

The cap causes a transaction to fail if it would result in your total custom credit balance being greater than the limit.

But it really is perplexing how much of it is just sitting there not getting used. It’s not like nuggets that gather interest in the bank, or gems that you can trade/buy other things with. You can ONLY use it to buy customs, and once it’s on an account it can’t transfer. So why hoard it? Yes it takes time to get through the queue but new customs are completed fairly quickly. If it’s being used it should be dropping quickerHina

The issue with Custom Credit right now is that there is a lot of it sitting around. This could be due to users not having enough to use toward an entire custom, or people saving up for more expensive ones. If 10 users have $100 in custom credit but their customs are totaling over that amount, and they are waiting for the rest to come in CC, then that’s over $1000 in custom credit that is basically being ‘held’ on the site. In addition to that, though we have many artists, not all of them take custom orders due to in-real-life issues (such as work, school), or because they’re more comfortable doing items than coats. (Myla and my own Queues move the fastest, but if either of us ends up ‘out of commission’ for a few days and/or a week or two, the customs start to stack up and the waiting period gets longer.)

The problem isn’t so much that CC isn’t being used (because it is), it’s just that there’s a lot of it floating around that users may not be able to use yet and/or a lot of it is sitting, waiting for the queue to gobble it up.

Which is why we’re going to be looking for more artists to take custom orders. (:

Second, we’re imposing a per-account balance cap of 200 cc, after which no additional custom credit can be purchased for your account.

... *breaks*
I.. can’t fathom… having $200 just… sitting, waiting to be used. One, I don’t have the patience. Two… To me, that’s just… a lot of money. D;

Third, in the near future we will be opening more staff artist positions specifically for custom orders.

...
*vibrates*

Lady Hawkwing better apply to be an artist when the time comes *cough cough*

ouo

Yes, yes. Lawky must. *coughs with Elsa*

This CC thing was only mentioned in-chat sometime ago and I think it’s awesome that you guys are already working on it!

I’m crying that the most expensive custom ever cost 140CC, but I have one I want to make that’s been priced at 175CC. (I’m a little scared if I ever make a mockup that’ll go over the limit, with my flamboyant ways and all.) ;u;

Nevertheless, I’m in full support of these changes. (ouo)b

I’m a little scared if I ever make a mockup that’ll go over the limitErsatzLace

Just to clarify, we are not setting a limit to the price of a custom — just to the amount of custom credit that you can have at once. If you want a $210 custom, you would still be able to e.g. use 200 custom credits and pay $10.

Or, if you were limited to only being able to pay with CC, you could always put it through the queue twice if your order exceeded 200CC (One with almost all of your edits for 200CC, then you’d acquire more CC after that 200 was spent, and then submit your custom back to the queue to get the rest of the edits added). 

It would be pretty hard to go over $200 — a dras ($80) with a complex custom background (~$40), a pet ($15), a complex hair edit ($20), a tail re-make ($15), expression edit ($5), a complex item ($15), a simple item ($10), and some simple jewelry ($5) would get you to $200. 8)

Ah! Thankies Myla! Yeah, I’m in the limited to CC boat so if I were to ever want an extraordinarily extravagant custom, that is very heartening to hear. :D

(Do you remember the armor? Just that was like, $75.) ;u;

Ooh, custom artist positions. *w*
You guys are awesome for putting so much effort in keeping the CC system going. ^^

“The most expensive custom in the history of Mycena Cave cost $140”

I have one in the queue worth more than that… Oops? XD It’s not over 200 though, so.