Ot donation center

[dotsh]

hey there

I have this merely idea that I would like to discuss.

What is this about?
Ot donation center should act like a middle man between server owners and players. Where you can donate for example 10 euros, and then choose to distribute the points between the servers if you so wish.

But why?
Have you ever felt like you have donated to a server but then discovered that this server is not worth anymore? I did. But people usually go on PayPal and then force a refund, this hurts both the hoster and the economy of ot.

The idea is like this, once you donate real money on the donation center, u enter into agreement which makes your money non-refundable. However, that donation center can help you refund your donation points that you have donated to a certain server if you so wish, and of course there should be some rules to this, like u have 3 days period to be able to refund points or after a server reset.

This will make developers able to have a full time job out of this, since the money doesn't get withdrawn back by the customer.

This will force a higher ot quality standards, and a United ot currency ratio.

Ofcourse, this will be hard at the start, but overtime, flows will be revealed and fixed.

Finally, as I said before I neither have the means not the knowledge to make this happen. I only happen to have this idea and which to see it come alive.

Let me know what you guys think about this.

 

[Sun]

Nope, I'm close to 100% something like this would fail, since there's big flaws in this.

I've used middle man services on different sites and what they had in common was: Delivery takes ages, you must send in a picture of a your id/passport and there's a ton of headaches for the middleman.
Now this is a really big problem; why? well...

1. As a server owner, I wouldn't give a player their premium points before receiving the donation
2. As a player I wouldn't donate to a server knowing it would take days maybe even weeks before I receive my points and I'm confident in beleiving that most ppl think the same way.
   
3. The rest explains itself

If big sites with a ton of staff doing middleman services for a ton of different things which takes ages to deliver. Then more than most likely, so would this.

 

[Michael Orsino]

This would work if it were automated, which it could be.

- Create account with middleman service
- Must link a single PayPal account and independently verify their identity (this is the only part where human auditing would be required)
- Deposit funds instantly into your middleman service account
- List of available servers to donate to (the server owners would need to implement a system in their webaac or similar, and then add their supported server to the list)
- 'Donation Points' or whatever the server likes to call them would then be attributed instantly, knowing that the payment has come from a reputable source

I like/support this idea for the protection of server owners. I doubt it will ever happen though.
I also don't think players need protection from servers resetting/closing. It's a donation without any guarantee expressed or implied, not a purchase.

 

[Sun]

This would work if it were automated, which it could be.

Not trying to be negative or anything, but... There's a reason why veteran sites in this area don't do things automated.

 

[STiX]

I set up a system like this, but for purchasing OpenTibia scripts, maps and the like instead of items on a server (same concept though).
Buyers win because they are ensured they get what they paid for and there is a vetting process for sellers and sellers are covered against charge-backs.
Sellers could also use the funds they receive to purchase things themselves, else just request a payout once they had made at least US$10.

Because of conflicts with similar sites, I withdrew from continuing to provide this service.
At present, the only leveraging of this is done by Necronia, who I won't give specific details on profits or the like - but have sold over 160 beta keys.

 

[Michael Orsino]

@Cade - we are talking about a niche market here with the ability to create a direct interface between a middleman service and individual servers.
The 'veteran' services you are referring to are dealing with a wide range of products and services where the above is not possible.

 

[STiX]

@Cade - we are talking about a niche market here with the ability to create a direct interface between a middleman service and individual servers.
The 'veteran' services you are referring to are dealing with a wide range of products and services where the above is not possible.

I disagree.
Just look at MineMarket or BuyCraft as similar examples, but for Minecraft.

 

[Michael Orsino]

I'm not familiar with how minecraft works but you might be right.
I just don't see why the proposal of this thread could not be viably automated when integration can be achieved.

 

[Syntax]

Credit card companies, PayPal, and Banks could give two shits about whatever agreement you asked a user to sign.
Chargebacks can be filed 6+ months later. The service would need to be reputable and absorb any chargeback costs.
This means the service would have to make enough money to cover potential chargebacks, resulting in fees for use.
This idea is not new, there are many payment aggregators that do this for the aforementioned fee, with the added benefit of multiple payment methods for customers.

Tl;dr: you can't stop chargebacks, you can only buy insurance for them.

 

[Michael Orsino]

I'll submit that you cannot stop credit card forced chargebacks. I've never lost a PayPal dispute over virtual goods though.
Anyway, you are right in what you say.

So perhaps this middleman service would have to charge fees to cover their asses (which is pretty much a non-starter IMO) but lets play it through anyway.
I still can't see any reason why the middleman service and individual servers wouldn't be able to interface directly to avoid any delays as described by others in this thread.

 

[Syntax]

I'll submit that you cannot stop credit card forced chargebacks. I've never lost a PayPal dispute over virtual goods though.
Anyway, you are right in what you say.

So perhaps this middleman service would have to charge fees to cover their asses (which is pretty much a non-starter IMO) but lets play it through anyway.
I still can't see any reason why the middleman service and individual servers wouldn't be able to interface directly to avoid any delays as described by others in this thread.

My main point was it's been done and a serious server owner is better off using a payment aggregator than some niche service developed specifically for Tibia that you can't trust and will probably be shut down in less than a few years.
A server owner would be stupid to implement this for many reasons.

 

[Michael Orsino]

I agree with your argument entirely.

 

[Wason]

Lol kidding me guys,
You just think about how to keep server online and donation center service and you don't even care about cancer? donate to them and help them it will keep your life you will be happy if you donate for them (its not mine but you can think about them) maybe it happen to you're one of your family you won't be happy. For you 5$ is nothing but this money can help cancer ! Think about it don't waste your money for shits...

I work hard and i gain money every month i just got 60$ every month its nothing in your country same here...but my life is good

You need to think about the cancer!

I don't like to say that! sorry for my words.

 

[Michael Orsino]

Off topic, but needed:
@Wason Has it ever occurred to you that you can both discuss concepts concerning money and still 'care about cancer' as you put it? Shit, you can even spend money on things. Mind blowing, I know.
You assume far too much about your peers when in reality you know nothing about them at all.

 

[Wason]

@mdwilliams
Lol i know everything about them i helped them alot and i don't waste my money in nothing.
I've to know first where's my money will go.

 

[Sun]

Off topic:
@Wason I couldn't care less about doing cancer donations.
I haven't seen any real cancer antidote so far. All they do is make "preventing" medicine to slow down the process.
They could've made a cure long ago, no doubt, but medicine companies would lose billions, probably even trillions of dollars making a cure.
No way in hell would I donate my money to money leeching scumbags.

Also you don't need medicine to prevent cancer, it's all just a big scam of big money profiting companies & the government.

 

[Wason]

Also you don't need medicine to prevent cancer, it's all just a big scam of big money profiting companies & the government.

At egypt they kill cancer but they need the money and im one of peopel that i give to them not much just 1$ it can help

 

[Sun]

At egypt they kill cancer but they need the money and im one of peopel that i give to them not much just 1$ it can help

Or one can just fix their diet and not even get cancer to begin with.

 

[whitevo]

Don't think its needed.
Currently:
User - PayPal - Server

Seems fine to me.

You want:
User - something - PayPal - server

All you do is, pay to the something to press 1 button in PayPal site.

 

[robbydeath]

I'll submit that you cannot stop credit card forced chargebacks. I've never lost a PayPal dispute over virtual goods though.
Anyway, you are right in what you say.

So perhaps this middleman service would have to charge fees to cover their asses (which is pretty much a non-starter IMO) but lets play it through anyway.
I still can't see any reason why the middleman service and individual servers wouldn't be able to interface directly to avoid any delays as described by others in this thread.

Cool idea, needs automation as stated above. I apologize I did not read all posts.
This would be hard to do because it's simple enough for owners to take donations as is, withdraw the money instantly, even when taken back the owner does not lose anything, however its disputable and goes negative.
This would make owners get less or donations cost more right? (where does this middle man get paid from)
How could you protect the middleman from the same fate? (reversed payment) and how does middleman receive funds to pay the new server? (if the old server owner does in fact have the funds spent)
It would require mutual agreement between all owners/middleman. I can see it now.... It could be like a OT CORPORATION lol You could create contracts and give players 'donation loans' IE; 10 dollars on this server but 15 automatically comes out of their bank account next tuesday.
(Or whatever the contracts state, 30% interest every week after the 2nd week and on the 6th week the full amount + interest and fees automatically deducts from their bank. Fees added if they default, ect ect ect)
Meanwhile, not only do you own the banking system handling the donations, cards and bank accounts, you also own the servers the money is being donated to.
I will buy every OT server from everyone, use this system, and create a monopoly. bitches

Kind of off topic I got about 1,500 in donations from one individual over a 6 months period.
One day I got a call from a woman in Canada, his mom. Apparently he stole her card and used it over a 6 month period. (without notice?? rich much??)
PayPal seized my account, it went negative the amount he donated.
Luckily I always withdrew the money immediately so I had nothing in there to begin with .....
After talking to his mom/PayPal it was clear they wanted me to pay. I told them even if I could pay it back, I would not. Due to the fact he clicked agree every time he donated. (typical googled terms 'must be 18+, your card, ect')
I stopped answering their calls, logged into PayPal a few weeks later and it was all good again. Balance back to zero. (Kind of a cool story I wanted to share)