Eric
Posts: 17316
Joined: 10/10/2003
From: Seattle, WA
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I wanted to update people on some changes I have made regarding the way that payment reminders work on CellarTracker.
Before I describe the nitty-gritty details (which I will because I believe in being as transparent as possible in the way I run this aspect of my business), it's worth briefly discussing payments in general on CellarTracker. When I launched the site it was a hobby while I was still working at Microsoft. Since I had no real expectations for how the business might grow, I decided that the site should be launched as "ShareWare" so that appreciative users could express that and help to support my efforts. In December of 2005 this evolved a bit, as at that point I launched the first "premium-only" features in the form of an automatic valuation service. In essence, by paying on an annual basis to use the site, you can continue to unlock this functionality. The actual payment amount is voluntary for each user to decide. Recommended annual payments are now $36/year for cellars of 499 bottles or fewer, $75/year for cellars of 500 to 999 bottles and $150/year for cellars of 1,000 or more bottles.
OK, back to the reminder. The site used to be very simplistic. Every time a payment was posted, that user had 1-year tacked onto their payment reminder from the date of payment. This had two problems: - If a user posted two payments within one year, then the system would 'steal' the float. So for example, if you paid on 5/15/2005, your payment reminder would be set for 5/15/2006. However, if you paid again on 5/1/2006, now your payment reminder would be 5/1/2007. In essence, the most loyal and responsive users were losing days as a result of being prompt. A few people pointed this out, and this is something about which I have been embarrassed for a long time.
- On the other end, sometimes people 'test' out the system and submit a $1 payment. In the spirit of voluntary payment amounts they would get 1-year just like everyone else. The thing is, the copyrighted information is simply more valuable than that, and I have certain contractual obligations regarding access to some of the premium content.
So, I will very shortly after this writing be deploying a rather fancy new algorithm to handle both of these issues. I will also be 'retroactively' applying this to all payments in the system. - Now when a user makes repeated payments, they automatically get 1-year tacked onto the end of their prior payment. No more float stealing.
- While every payment is appreciated, I need to protect the premium content. As such, payments below $10 are now pro-rated assuming a minimum contribution of $10. So a $5 payment gets you 6 months instead of 1-year.
- If a user's payment lapses at any point, a subsequent payment tacks on a reminder from the date of payment without requiring any sort of "back payment."
That's the gist of it. A few users (people making payments less than $10) will have their reminders move in when I deploy this. They will receive personalized email describing this. If any of them are really tweaked out I will make special one-time allowances for this since it is a policy change.
Quite a few more users will have their payment reminders moved out. In most cases this is a few days due to the float issue described above. In some cases this is a year or more. This occurs when some users have been so happy that they intentionally paid me multiple times in a year to increase their annual contribution. All of these folks will also receive a customized note. If any one of these users wants me to move their reminder back in, that is also something I can accommodate, but, taking a long-term perspective, this will all work out over the long haul.
I have tried to be as fair and logical as possible here and to affect the fewest number of users.
Anyway, any questions or concerns, just fire away.
< Message edited by Eric -- 12/28/2010 4:43:26 PM >
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Cheers!
-Eric LeVine
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