Yes, we've been thinking about Gold for a long time
تمغے are nice, but they are too coarse-grained to give feedback on contributions (you only know after آپ earn a medal, and آپ don't even know which contributions in that club caused آپ to earn a medal and which contributions were a waste of your time).
This is where سونا comes in. Your hottest contributions will earn سونا each دن (think of them as micro-medals), and آپ will have a private console that shows which are your hottest contributions.
Basically: تمغے are earned per club, but سونا is earned for each مقبول contribution آپ have made since joining Fanpop and dumped into your piggy bank for آپ to hoard like Smaug یا spend on various preciouses.
مقبول contributions will earn a lot of سونا each day, contributions that are semi-hot will earn less, and unloved duds will earn zero. What is "hot" will be determined سے طرف کی our dedicated army of humans and benevolent robots analyzing all activity on Fanpop.
We've worked hard to make sure سونا is fair. Don't worry, users who spam a club with a thousand identical crappy screencaps یا جنک, فضول دیوار posts will not earn gold, and cheaters will be utterly... well, آپ don't cheat, so no worries there.
It's clear that there are many veteran شائقین 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 شائقین in dozens of clubs.
Since تمغے are per-club, but سونا is earned from all of your contributions, سونا is one of the best ways to recognize and reward those widely-spread-out veteran شائقین with numerous contributions across many clubs. آپ don't even need to be a پرستار of a club to earn سونا for a great contribution in that club.
We'll be launching the first phase of سونا in the اگلے several weeks. Your contributions have already been earning سونا as we speak, so once it goes public, many of آپ veterans will start out with a nice fat balance.
Here's another perspective: آپ don't need to use Gold. If آپ just want to use Fanpop the way آپ always have, nothing will change, especially if you've racked up a few medals. You'll have enough سونا to do anything آپ want normally. آپ can just ignore that yellow number on your profile. But, if you've always wanted to deck out your پروفائل یا send someone a nice thank-you gift, now آپ can, and because آپ earned it, it will be all the مزید meaningful.
Gold can then be spent on:
-profile customizations like geocen's پسندیدہ کلب module, user پروفائل banners, background colors, and custom modules (each of these are very inexpensive, gold-wise). سے طرف کی now, you've certainly seen the trio of rodent engineers we employ here at Fanpop HQ snacking in the staff kitchen. Imagine your own پروفائل super-banner taking their rotund prairie dog places!
Users who are already big contributors with red Fanatic تمغے and higher will be swimming in gold, Scrooge McDuck-style, due to their countless hot contributions earning shiny new سونا every day, so unlocking a پروفائل skin یا banner will be a drop in the gold-bucket. آپ could probably buy it every گھنٹہ of every دن without making much difference in your سونا 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 Fanpop is about contributing and collaborating with other شائقین to build great پرستار clubs, and not about inciting drama.
We'll first launch with these پروفائل 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 ? سونا will keep this from going too crazy as it's hard enough to keep up with your 1,000 شائقین 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 تمغے in that club will be able to vote for free). Giving شائقین control of club شبیہیں 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 پولز and vote unfairly if it was just implemented using a regular Fanpop poll.
The reason for spending a little سونا 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 سونا to rig the vote. Of course, if آپ have a medal in that club, آپ 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 کیا پیش سے طرف کی fans. The current "incumbent" banner/icon/skin will always be a candidate, along with any new candidates.
-profile skins, پروفائل themes, پروفائل super banners, and future items that are مزید expensive, Gold-wise. مزید on this later, but we are talking about پروفائل videos, gifts to other fans, fully-unlocked profiles [enter your own HTML] and much more.
Yes, پروفائل skins could look amazing یا fugly, depending on one's taste, but in the opinion of the Fanpop staff, any user who has achieved veteran status has demonstrated pretty good judgement and probably won't لوڈ اپ 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 آپ despise all skins, themes, etc? Does individuality and personal expression make آپ want to puke? This high-value سونا item lets آپ customize the Fanpop world to how آپ want things to look. As the name implies, it only affects how آپ see things, not how other شائقین see stuff. Unless, of course, آپ have enough سونا to gift your entire army of پرستار minions Rose-Colored Glasses...
-There will be an option to دکھائیں یا hide your total Lifetime سونا earnings, which will be public سے طرف کی default. Lifetime سونا earnings is just the sum total of all the سونا you've ever earned, regardless of how much آپ have spent. The سب, سب سے اوپر شائقین who دکھائیں it will be ranked on a leaderboard.
Even if آپ spend some یا all of your Gold, it does not reduce your Lifetime earnings number since that is all the سونا you've ever earned (and is not your current سونا balance, which is a private number shown only to you). آپ can also think of Lifetime سونا earnings as one's مجموعی طور پر total Fanpop score.
-new cheat-resistant پولز and quiz! سروے rigging is a bummer. We'll give سروے creators two new options (they are optional and not required):
1. poll/quiz voting to people who have earned at least X Lifetime سونا یا at least X medals. Voting is free.
2. This option requires people to spend a few سونا to vote in a poll/quiz (along with free ووٹ for medal holders in that club). Don't worry, that سونا does not go into the سروے creator's wallet. سروے cheating will be dramatically reduced because cheating bastards won't have the سونا and تمغے to rig پولز (since they are too busy trying to cheat instead of building real پرستار 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 شائقین will remember 5-star ratings. If آپ vote something a 3,4, یا 5, it will count the same as being a "Fan of it". شائقین will be required to have earned at least some سونا to rate stuff and prove they are a real پرستار and not just a cheating bastard. We could rating to someone with medals, but that is hard on people who are real شائقین but spread out all over Fanpop, so we'll go with a minimum Lifetime سونا number. Again, rating is free. It won't cost any سونا to rate; آپ just need to have earned some سونا at some point in time to prove آپ are a real fan. Aside from stopping cheaters, do آپ really want a n00b who knows nothing about Fanpop and who has earned zero سونا to have the power to downrate your stuff? If they are real fans, they will be able to rate soon enough, and سے طرف کی then they will hopefully have learned the Fanpop 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 سونا 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 سونا than just creating a bunch of fake accounts instantly as is done now.
-spam-resistant walls and private messages! آپ will have an option in your پروفائل to block users trying to message آپ یا write on your دیوار who have earned zero gold. This is in addition to the existing filters and block lists. Goodbye, spammers!
Your personal سونا console دکھانا your hottest items that day/week/month will be hidden/private سے طرف کی default, but آپ can share it if آپ want to help teach new شائقین what is hot and what is not.
Your contributions will earn سونا every day, and at the end of the week, آپ simply make one contribution to automatically collect your gold.
The first phase of سونا will be launched in the اگلے several weeks. We'll be starting with پرستار پروفائل customization and then roll out club banner/icon voting.
