Hello everyone and @
TheJordans,
I will try to explain as best I can about how the cash out system has the potential to fail. It is a bit tricky, but I will do the best I can.
- Paypal has a standard fee of 30c per transaction
- Paypal has a 3% fee on the transaction on top of this. (For the sake of the example, we will forget about this fee to keep it simple, but please remember the fee is still there, so it is more money lost)
For the sake of the example we will work with 10 users. However, the more users there are who participate, the bigger the problem becomes. This is a best case example of a potential. Worst case is if there are a lot of points in the system, and a lot of small point purchases.
10 users decide to purchase $1 worth of gold each (10 points each). Each time a user purchases Gold, there is a 30c paypal fee.
- User 1 buys $1 ( 10 points ) - Reefuge receives $0.70
- User 2 buys $1 ( 10 points ) - Reefuge receives $0.70
- User 3 buys $1 ( 10 points ) - Reefuge receives $0.70
- User 4 buys $1 ( 10 points ) - Reefuge receives $0.70
- User 5 buys $1 ( 10 points ) - Reefuge receives $0.70
- User 6 buys $1 ( 10 points ) - Reefuge receives $0.70
- User 7 buys $1 ( 10 points ) - Reefuge receives $0.70
- User 8 buys $1 ( 10 points ) - Reefuge receives $0.70
- User 9 buys $1 ( 10 points ) - Reefuge receives $0.70
- User 10 buys $1 ( 10 points ) - Reefuge receives $0.70
Total points in system: 100 points
Total worth of points in system: $10
Total money in The Reefuge Bank: $7
Now, as an example a user accumulates 100 points of Gold and decides to cash out their Gold.
Total Points: 100
Worth of Points: $10
Money in The Reefuge Bank: $7
Even if the end user was to pay the transaction fee of 30c, The Reefuge still needs to pay $9.70 to the user, even though there is only $7 in the bank.
This is just a very simple example, but it becomes more obvious as the point system grows larger.
A few users messaged me yesterday, and it seems most users are not interested in cashing out their points, but rather gifting them to other users and spending them on account upgrades. Couple that with the pain of automating the cash-in system, and the chance of an error, and there is a huge problem when it started out as a donation system to The Reefuge.
For this reason, cashing in will not be available, and the system will be used as a fun way of donating to the site to help with the ongoing running and development costs.
Thanks.
