NenaDice Posted January 4, 2013 Share Posted January 4, 2013 Hello, Now first of all let me say that I am not complaining nor do I mean to tell Ips how to run their business. This is simply a feedback/opinion/suggestion. That being said, lately I have noticed that the mods take more than usual to get approved. Before it hardly took more than one day for a mod to get approved, not the approval time is taking several days. It is my understanding that being a moderator in the Marketplace is a non paying job and being done on the moderators free time. And it requires quite some time to check each item that gets submitted to make sure that it works as described and it does not pose any security risk. Not to mention the other work like dealing with various issues and working as go in between the seller and buyer whenever an issue pop up etc etc. So this kind of delay is natural and logical. My question is, seeing that the amount of work required is the same, if not more, as that of the support staff, why is Marketplace Moderator not a paid position as well? Imho Marketplace plays a great role in the Community and this is a paid/commercial software after all. And by making this position paid I think that Markeplace will become primary in priorities rather than secondary as it is the case now. Just my 2$. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Posted January 4, 2013 Share Posted January 4, 2013 If this happens, I want back pay. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adriano Faria Posted January 4, 2013 Share Posted January 4, 2013 I don't want to become repetitive. This was expected and announced but did not happened. Seriously now, why only 2 moderators? Why not 5 or 6? Only those 2 are trustable? There are SEVERAL other developers/users who are able to follow some protocol and test files/skins to approve it or not! If this happens, I want back pay. Fair. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ajouz ♞ Posted January 4, 2013 Share Posted January 4, 2013 I think that there is something we do not know preventing them these days from approving files, maybe a marketplace bug or maybe they making some upgrade ? I say this because I saw the moderators active and they also approving marketplace blog entries ! anyway It will be helpful to see more moderators . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NenaDice Posted January 4, 2013 Author Share Posted January 4, 2013 I don't want to become repetitive. This was expected and announced but did not happened. Seriously now, why only 2 moderators? Why not 5 or 6? Only those 2 are trustable? There are SEVERAL other developers/users who are able to follow some protocol and test files/skins to approve it or not! I have missed that announcement. Can you please link me to it? I agree, that a couple more moderators is not a bad idea. However finding people that are willing to put in a lot of time and work for free might be a challenge. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Management Lindy Posted January 4, 2013 Management Share Posted January 4, 2013 We are catching up from a holiday. The Marketplace is not a moneymaker for IPS. As it worked out, we make just enough to cover costs - which includes chargebacks, administrative overhead dealing with dissatisfied customers of mod authors, fees, etc. We would be happy to entertain the notion of actually employing marketplace moderators if the consensus amongst the developers is you'd be willing to forego a larger commission in the spirit of getting your submissions approved sooner. Let us know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NenaDice Posted January 4, 2013 Author Share Posted January 4, 2013 We are catching up from a holiday. The Marketplace is not a moneymaker for IPS. As it worked out, we make just enough to cover costs - which includes chargebacks, administrative overhead dealing with dissatisfied customers of mod authors, fees, etc. We would be happy to entertain the notion of actually employing marketplace moderators if the consensus amongst the developers is you'd be willing to forego a larger commission in the spirit of getting your submissions approved sooner. Let us know. Thank you for your reply. Personally I do not have a problem if my mods get approved late. I am in no rush :) The thing is that the Markeplace is part of the Ips and the community here and a very big/important part at that. And imho its moderators should be paid by Ips and not from the mod authors work. Because that is the Ips 's responsibility after all and not mod authors. Anyway, that is how I see it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Management Lindy Posted January 4, 2013 Management Share Posted January 4, 2013 Just so I'm clear you do want the marketplace moderators paid, but you want us to absorb all of the marketplace costs in order for you to make money in the marketplace, is that a fair assessment? Just so you know, Apple takes a 30% commission for purchases in their app store, they don't deal with customer service issues/refunds/etc. for the app and approvals take days, if not weeks. We take 10% and deal with issues such as a mod author not responding to a customer and the customer then contacts us for a refund based on a failure to deliver (true story on several counts.) Initially, we thought that would be enough to fairly compensate marketplace moderators, but alas, due to poor IPS customer to marketplace author interaction and other various factors, we rely on the kindness and generosity of our member marketplace moderators -- a truly thankless job, for sure. Please let me know your standing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dmacleo Posted January 4, 2013 Share Posted January 4, 2013 while maybe not actually paying them perhaps free licenses for the few involved would be doable? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Management Lindy Posted January 4, 2013 Management Share Posted January 4, 2013 while maybe not actually paying them perhaps free licenses for the few involved would be doable? Our beloved marketplace team have a special group in the client area where they get free downloads, etc. We do take care of them the best we can, short of a regular salary. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dmacleo Posted January 4, 2013 Share Posted January 4, 2013 ah cool, I did not know that so thought maybe I had something worthwhile to offer :tongue: :smile: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aiwa Posted January 4, 2013 Share Posted January 4, 2013 Apologies for the recent delays.. We MP moderators have had limited time available to approve file submissions due to the holidays and personal issues. I'm assuming you mean you've seen me active... I'm currently restricted to my iPhone and iPad, not devices capable of downloading and testing submissions. I have been keeping up with file reviews and MP blog entries as they do not exceed the abilities of my devices. I will be returning from vacation late this weekend and things should get back to normal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dmacleo Posted January 4, 2013 Share Posted January 4, 2013 I'm on and off all day long, could help out some if needed. not sure I could help enough to warrant any price breaks on licenses but would help where I can. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CnCNet Posted January 4, 2013 Share Posted January 4, 2013 We are catching up from a holiday. The Marketplace is not a moneymaker for IPS. As it worked out, we make just enough to cover costs - which includes chargebacks, administrative overhead dealing with dissatisfied customers of mod authors, fees, etc. We would be happy to entertain the notion of actually employing marketplace moderators if the consensus amongst the developers is you'd be willing to forego a larger commission in the spirit of getting your submissions approved sooner. Let us know. Then make it a money maker, so developers have a reason to release mods/skins for more than $15 without getting slammed for being overpriced. The pricing in the marketplace is a joke. :( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stoo2000 Posted January 4, 2013 Share Posted January 4, 2013 Then make it a money maker, so developers have a reason to release mods/skins for more than $15 without getting slammed for being overpriced. The pricing in the marketplace is a joke. :sad: But that's the circle, if your price was higher, the share IPS get is higher... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Posted January 4, 2013 Share Posted January 4, 2013 Then make it a money maker, so developers have a reason to release mods/skins for more than $15 without getting slammed for being overpriced. The pricing in the marketplace is a joke. :sad: IPS charges between $50 and $75 for their official addons for IP.Board. And as part of that you get guaranteed support from a legitimate company. Do you honestly expect someone to pay that much for a third-party mod released by someone that, for all the customer knows, could rage-quit the IP.Board world tomorrow? I just feel it would be very hard for a potential customer looking at the Marketplace to justify paying much more than what files are currently listed at knowing that the files there are not officially endorsed or supported by IPS. I have no problem with authors charging whatever they think is fair, though, but I think that charging more than what IPS charges would probably turn off more customers instead of attracting them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adriano Faria Posted January 4, 2013 Share Posted January 4, 2013 Seriously, I don't think it needs to go to that level. I'm sure that will be fast and simple to find more 2 or 3 users to help on MP, for free. The more moderators, less overworking for each and things will return to happen fast. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NenaDice Posted January 4, 2013 Author Share Posted January 4, 2013 Just so I'm clear you do want the marketplace moderators paid, but you want us to absorb all of the marketplace costs in order for you to make money in the marketplace, is that a fair assessment? Just so you know, Apple takes a 30% commission for purchases in their app store, they don't deal with customer service issues/refunds/etc. for the app and approvals take days, if not weeks. We take 10% and deal with issues such as Adriano not responding to a customer and the customer then contacts us for a refund based on a failure to deliver (true story on several counts.) Initially, we thought that would be enough to fairly compensate marketplace moderators, but alas, due to poor IPS customer to marketplace author interaction and other various factors, we rely on the kindness and generosity of our member marketplace moderators -- a truly thankless job, for sure. Please let me know your standing. No, that is not a fair assessment. I think that maybe you did misunderstood what I was trying to say. I did not start this topic for any personal gain at all because I have nothing to gain, financially or otherwise. Can you consider at least to add more users to the Moderator group so they can share the workload among them which will make things easier/smoother imho? Anyway, it was just a suggestion, nothing more and nothing less. Thank you for reading my topic and for your replies :) This re-enforced my positive opinion regarding the Ips staff that you guys really listen to your customers opinions/suggestions/feedbacks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aiwa Posted January 4, 2013 Share Posted January 4, 2013 You need to keep in mind the recent short delays are not a regular occurrence. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GreenLinks Posted January 5, 2013 Share Posted January 5, 2013 Lindy , i personally think the main reason on low app purchase is related to how arketplwve is designed. It is huge pita to browse and find what you are lookimg for. If you want kore interaction girst resolve UI , search , and various other issues on Marketpace Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyF Posted January 5, 2013 Share Posted January 5, 2013 I'm sorry to hear of the delays for file approval over the past few days. Typically, around this time of year there is usually a slightly longer duration between submitting and approval due to the holidays, however we do check for pending files when we are here, there is more to these duties than meets the eye as its sometimes necessary to contact authors about their submissions etc to request further information or where something is not clear, amongst other things. Its not a simple matter in some cases of examining a file then clicking 'approve'. There's also a very high level of trust needed for this position too. I'm currently away (temporarily limited internet access amongst other things) for a short time but I expect in a few more days when others return from their vacations etc things will return to normal regarding file approvals. :) , and there are three of us normally around which given our differing timezones usually means no one has to wait too long. I would regard our approval process here relatively quick though, given that (under normal circumstances) a file author has their submission approved or is contacted if there's something amiss with a day at most in the majority of cases. Having said that, while I have a bit of time now I shall endeavour to look at any pending / outstanding files now and attend to them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.