Howdy Faenarians!

I have a bit of an update for everyone. I recently discovered the awesomeness that is Ko-fi and in no time at all had set up an account for Faenaria. It was really simple and easy to build out the membership tiers, add items to the shop, and upload content. I did most of it in a single afternoon, along with working out an easy way of recording and fulfilling orders utilizing good ole Google Forms. When an order is made, the user fills out the short form, I'll verify the purchase, and weezee will deliver the goods. Easy peasy lemon squeezy!

We're so confident in this system that we've now made DS exclusively available on Ko-fi instead of going directly through Paypal integration. We've had so many issues dealing directly with Paypal that we felt the downside of having to wait a bit for your purchase was more reliable than orders getting lost, extra DS not being applied automatically, etc. In the future we may bring direct integration back, but for now, we're going to this method so we can focus our programming efforts on other areas.



Okay, so that was a lot to unpack, let me break it down.

• We will no longer be supporting Patreon as it is more expensive and limited in ways that Ko-fi is not. As such, we have simplified membership tiers and made them available via Ko-fi.
  
• We now have a USD shop for things like Relics, Limited FA sets, etc. and plans to include premade custom pets and FA sets and other exciting items. As an added perk higher membership tiers provide exclusive discounts to the shop!
  
• Items that once only popped out for fundraisers or Black Friday are now available through the Ko-fi shop. (ie. Apocalypse Alicorn and FA set)
  
• All fundraising will go through Ko-fi from now on. When we reach a goal, I will add another. This allows us to be transparent with where the funds go and gives us the ability to improve Faenaria in a meaningful way. There are so many programming needs Faenaria has and we are excited to be working on them with @Distora.

Please keep in mind, Faenaria is a for-profit site that is just badly monetized. We don't want to force users to support the site financially and yet we need funds to make improvements and just to keep the lights on. We tried Google Ads and that had marginal success, but ultimately ads are annoying. So far, our members have been very generous over the years as we toil forward and I personally appreciate every single one of you. Thank you so much. Without all of you, Faenaria would have died a long time ago. So don't think me saying this is from a lack of gratitude, it isn't. Sadly, money makes the world go round and again, I want to be transparent.

Finally, to celebrate Pride month we have a set of gorgeous ponies colored by weezee: Pride Ribbon Daydream Ponies

They are exclusively available on Ko-fi for both the snuggery and wardrobe! You can buy all 5 variations for the bundle price of $25 or a single coloration for $6.

If you have any questions or I forgot anything, please let me know! It is 4am my time and I am rushing to get this done so I can pass out. (weezee already deserted me, how heckin' dare!)

Again, thanks to all of our supporters. I really hope this is the start to a great future for Faenaria and hope you'll share in my excitement!

Cheers!

Looks like the shop preview pictures are all cropped top and bottom (or left and right in case of the alicorn bundle). You may wanna make them square yourself before uploading?

After seeing Ko-fi all I could think of was this chick

(If you haven't seen her, she's on tiktok and has an accent. The way she pronounces coffee sounds like how I imagine you pronounce Ko-fi. I don't really follow her or anything but it pops up in my reels on FB every once in a while.)

Sounds like some exciting changes though! I wish I could donate more and more often but I've had to catch up on some credit card bills for a while now. Definitely will though when I'm able. I really enjoy this site and would like to support it. I've seen too many good avatar/pet/forums sites disappear.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/T5gR1pmQZNg
I've actually seen more reels kind of making fun (in more of just a silly way than trying to be mean) of her videos than just her videos alone.

That's definitely good, when there's a way to get items that may have been available in the past but are either limited or not in circulation at certain times. On some of the other sites I've been one that was always one of my favorite things about events when their was a chance to get older or rarer items that you normally would have a hard time finding. I think things like that or they way ya'll do it is just smart and a good move because if there are an overwhelming amount of items you'd like but know you'll have no hope of getting, it can kind of deter one's interest.

@Etherea

That's definitely good, when there's a way to get items that may have been available in the past but are either limited or not in circulation at certain times. On some of the other sites I've been one that was always one of my favorite things about events when their was a chance to get older or rarer items that you normally would have a hard time finding. I think things like that or they way ya'll do it is just smart and a good move because if there are an overwhelming amount of items you'd like but know you'll have no hope of getting, it can kind of deter one's interest.

All of this. I think it helps Faenaria that all of the staff are virtual pet site enthusiasts themselves. I don't know about other sites, but definitely it's true here. We know the pain of seeing things we want that we can never have because "well you weren't here 10 years ago, sorry". Or you were but you were broke or whatever. So we definitely strive to make sure items are available to our users even if they are harder to get you can still get them eventually.

Rhowyn, I think you're right there with all of staff being enthusiasts yourselves. You understand the, "OMG I NEED THE THING! It's SO PRETTY/CUTE!"