Yes, we've been thinking about Gold for a long time
पदक are nice, but they are too coarse-grained to give feedback on contributions (you only know after आप earn a medal, and आप don't even know which contributions in that club caused आप to earn a medal and which contributions were a waste of your time).
This is where सोना comes in. Your hottest contributions will earn सोना each दिन (think of them as micro-medals), and आप will have a private console that shows which are your hottest contributions.
Basically: पदक are earned per club, but सोना is earned for each लोकप्रिय contribution आप have made since joining फैन्पॉप and dumped into your piggy bank for आप to hoard like Smaug या spend on various preciouses.
लोकप्रिय contributions will earn a lot of सोना each day, contributions that are semi-hot will earn less, and unloved duds will earn zero. What is "hot" will be determined द्वारा our dedicated army of humans and benevolent robots analyzing all activity on Fanpop.
We've worked hard to make sure सोना is fair. Don't worry, users who spam a club with a thousand identical crappy screencaps या कचरा, जंक, रद्दी दीवार posts will not earn gold, and cheaters will be utterly... well, आप don't cheat, so no worries there.
It's clear that there are many veteran प्रशंसकों that have contributed across a wide array of clubs... Maybe they haven't earned a Legendary medal in one particular club, but, when added up, they have done a huge amount for प्रशंसकों in dozens of clubs.
Since पदक are per-club, but सोना is earned from all of your contributions, सोना is one of the best ways to recognize and reward those widely-spread-out veteran प्रशंसकों with numerous contributions across many clubs. आप don't even need to be a प्रशंसक of a club to earn सोना for a great contribution in that club.
We'll be launching the first phase of सोना in the अगला several weeks. Your contributions have already been earning सोना as we speak, so once it goes public, many of आप veterans will start out with a nice fat balance.
Here's another perspective: आप don't need to use Gold. If आप just want to use फैन्पॉप the way आप always have, nothing will change, especially if you've racked up a few medals. You'll have enough सोना to do anything आप want normally. आप can just ignore that yellow number on your profile. But, if you've always wanted to deck out your प्रोफ़ाइल या send someone a nice thank-you gift, now आप can, and because आप earned it, it will be all the और meaningful.
Gold can then be spent on:
-profile customizations like geocen's प्रिय क्लब्स module, user प्रोफ़ाइल banners, background colors, and custom modules (each of these are very inexpensive, gold-wise). द्वारा now, you've certainly seen the trio of rodent engineers we employ here at फैन्पॉप HQ snacking in the staff kitchen. Imagine your own प्रोफ़ाइल super-banner taking their rotund prairie dog places!
Users who are already big contributors with red Fanatic पदक and higher will be swimming in gold, Scrooge McDuck-style, due to their countless hot contributions earning shiny new सोना every day, so unlocking a प्रोफ़ाइल skin या banner will be a drop in the gold-bucket. आप could probably buy it every घंटा of every दिन without making much difference in your सोना balance.
New fans, on the other hand, should learn the ropes and get some experience with what the community is about before immediately going and blinging out their profiles.
For new users, it will also help guide them to the idea that फैन्पॉप is about contributing and collaborating with other प्रशंसकों to build great प्रशंसक clubs, and not about inciting drama.
We'll first launch with these प्रोफ़ाइल features as they are among the most requested. After this, we'll add:
-User name changing. Yes, apparently, a few people want this for some unknown reason. What the heck is wrong with bonerAlert89 ? सोना will keep this from going too crazy as it's hard enough to keep up with your 1,000 प्रशंसकों and all their new names each week.
-voting for replacement club banners, icons, skins, and themes (very cheap in terms of voting per club, and users with पदक in that club will be able to vote for free). Giving प्रशंसकों control of club आइकनों and banners has been one of the most requested features, but the concern was that the small percentage of nasty people may try to rig मतदानो and vote unfairly if it was just implemented using a regular फैन्पॉप poll.
The reason for spending a little सोना to vote on club banners/icons/skins/themes is multi-fold: it will reduce vote cheating as cheating bastards will have a tougher time working the system, and it also makes sure that people voting really mean it, versus just spam-voting ugly banners on every club they come across. People with new/fake accounts won't have enough सोना to rig the vote. Of course, if आप have a medal in that club, आप have earned the right to vote for free. Club elections for banners/icons/skins/themes will come up every two weeks if new candidates are पेश द्वारा fans. The current "incumbent" banner/icon/skin will always be a candidate, along with any new candidates.
-profile skins, प्रोफ़ाइल themes, प्रोफ़ाइल super banners, and future items that are और expensive, Gold-wise. और on this later, but we are talking about प्रोफ़ाइल videos, gifts to other fans, fully-unlocked profiles [enter your own HTML] and much more.
Yes, प्रोफ़ाइल स्किन्स could look amazing या fugly, depending on one's taste, but in the opinion of the फैन्पॉप staff, any user who has achieved veteran status has demonstrated pretty good judgement and probably won't अपलोड a vomit-inducing skin. In any case, if you've earned thousands of Gold, you've definitely earned the right in our book to customize things a bit.
-Another one of many new items: the "Rose-Colored Glasses". Do आप despise all skins, themes, etc? Does individuality and personal expression make आप want to puke? This high-value सोना item lets आप customize the फैन्पॉप world to how आप want things to look. As the name implies, it only affects how आप see things, not how other प्रशंसकों see stuff. Unless, of course, आप have enough सोना to gift your entire army of प्रशंसक minions Rose-Colored Glasses...
-There will be an option to दिखाना या hide your total Lifetime सोना earnings, which will be public द्वारा default. Lifetime सोना earnings is just the sum total of all the सोना you've ever earned, regardless of how much आप have spent. The चोटी, शीर्ष प्रशंसकों who दिखाना it will be ranked on a leaderboard.
Even if आप spend some या all of your Gold, it does not reduce your Lifetime earnings number since that is all the सोना you've ever earned (and is not your current सोना balance, which is a private number shown only to you). आप can also think of Lifetime सोना earnings as one's संपूर्ण, कुल मिलाकर total फैन्पॉप score.
-new cheat-resistant मतदानो and quiz! मतदान rigging is a bummer. We'll give मतदान creators two new options (they are optional and not required):
1. poll/quiz voting to people who have earned at least X Lifetime सोना या at least X medals. Voting is free.
2. This option requires people to spend a few सोना to vote in a poll/quiz (along with free वोट्स for medal holders in that club). Don't worry, that सोना does not go into the मतदान creator's wallet. मतदान cheating will be dramatically reduced because cheating bastards won't have the सोना and पदक to rig मतदानो (since they are too busy trying to cheat instead of building real प्रशंसक clubs). We don't see this option being used very frequently, but it can be used for important polls.
-new cheat-resistant 5-star ratings! Veteran प्रशंसकों will remember 5-star ratings. If आप vote something a 3,4, या 5, it will count the same as being a "Fan of it". प्रशंसकों will be required to have earned at least some सोना to rate stuff and prove they are a real प्रशंसक and not just a cheating bastard. We could rating to someone with medals, but that is hard on people who are real प्रशंसकों but spread out all over Fanpop, so we'll go with a minimum Lifetime सोना number. Again, rating is free. It won't cost any सोना to rate; आप just need to have earned some सोना at some point in time to prove आप are a real fan. Aside from stopping cheaters, do आप really want a n00b who knows nothing about फैन्पॉप and who has earned zero सोना to have the power to downrate your stuff? If they are real fans, they will be able to rate soon enough, and द्वारा then they will hopefully have learned the फैन्पॉप culture.
Nothing is 100% cheat proof, but it will greatly reduce cheating, and it makes it much easier to nail cheaters and ban them for life. Yes, cheaters can try to earn सोना on their cheater accounts, but that can take a long time if they have a lot of accounts, and it's easy to catch and ban them in the process. Cheating is certainly a lot harder with सोना than just creating a bunch of fake accounts instantly as is done now.
-spam-resistant walls and private messages! आप will have an option in your प्रोफ़ाइल to block users trying to message आप या write on your दीवार who have earned zero gold. This is in addition to the existing filters and block lists. Goodbye, spammers!
Your personal सोना console दिखा रहा है your hottest items that day/week/month will be hidden/private द्वारा default, but आप can share it if आप want to help teach new प्रशंसकों what is hot and what is not.
Your contributions will earn सोना every day, and at the end of the week, आप simply make one contribution to automatically collect your gold.
The first phase of सोना will be launched in the अगला several weeks. We'll be starting with प्रशंसक प्रोफ़ाइल customization and then roll out club banner/icon voting.
