Author Topic: Registration Benefits and Supporting the Guide and Forum  (Read 101417 times)

Offline Carl

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Registration Benefits and Supporting the Guide and Forum
« on: April 22, 2014, 05:02:21 PM »
Registration Benefits and Supporting the Guide and Forum

Registration Benefits

Supporting the Guides and Forum




Registration Benefits, Top Notification, and Ad Removal

A few Forum updates to share, all related to Registering.

All members with 5 or more posts enjoy the benefit of no ads on the Forum, aside from our top-right Origin Affiliate Link and Donate button to allow a means of regulars supporting the site. This makes the Forum faster for our members, and gives guests some incentive to join the conversations here.

In addition, a mod has been installed that will now ask guests to register. It will appear as a bar on top of the screen when not logged into the Forum. For our current members, it'll disappear when you log in. If it gets to be too troublesome, I'll remove it. This should not bother people who have popped in through search to find some information, but frequent readers may go ahead and simplify their experience here by registering.  This should encourage our lurkers to come out of hiding and at least make an account to be able to post and:

  • Compete in the Challenge Tournament
  • Participate in Create-a-Sim and Building Contests
  • Share Sims 3 Stories, Houses, and Sims
  • Subscribe to topics
  • Access the hidden members-only Babble Board for non-Sims topics
  • Use the bookmarking system
  • View forum stats
  • View who's online
  • Remove Ads at 5 Posts

The registration process has been simplified and provides the answers to all anti-bot questions at the end of the sentence, as many bots solve simple math problems automatically and register junk accounts that clog up our system. This might make it harder on the bots as I've never seen a registration process quite like it, but easier for guests to register as we don't need a very fuzzy Captcha to solve with this additional measure.

I am hoping the benefit of registration and disabling ads coming earlier will encourage more of our frequent guests to join in and discuss the game.

My primary concern is that a number of people do not get registration emails for whatever reason. If you have attempted to register but do not receive an email from the server, please contact [email protected] and I will approve your account manually. I am also installing mods to help prevent mass-registrations of junk emails so that the mail server is not so overwhelmed. I have done some serious house cleaning for the database, making the site a bit less likely to stall.

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Support the Site: There are various ways to help

There are a number of ways to support the Forum and my Guide-writing efforts, so I've made this all-in-one post to summarize the different means of helping with our server without any additional cost to members. This will aid in development of the design for The Sims 4 Guide and all proceeds go directly toward our server costs. Once members reach 25 posts, they no longer see ads (aside from the little one at the bottom). When you are going to use any of the following sites, use our link to give us a small commission.

** Our affiliate link through Origin doesn't work anymore. As EA/Origin has dropped their affiliate program.

Become a Patron of Carl's Guide
Link here
I've created this Patreon so that users who block ads can feel they contributed to our continued existence without any guilt. Maybe someday, I could do this without relying on ads so much at all.

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Offline lindsaysoderberg

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Hi Carl,

I buy stuff on amazon all the time. Does your post mean that if each time I go to amazon to buy something, I open the webpage through your link, the site will get some sort of funding or support?

If so, that's great! I will do it every time.

Also, I suggest you make this fact more well-known and this post more visible. I stumbled across it by accident, and I'm sure many of your Forum Fan would love to support the site, especially if they knew how easy it is!



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Offline ClayMask

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@Carl When I click on the Origin link, it shows The Sims 3 titles, and the base game for The Sims 4.  If I then do a search for expansions or stuff packs for TS4, the link stops saying affiliate.  Will it still give money to the site if I buy stuff packs or expansions after clicking on this link and then searching for them?  If not, is there a way to give money to the site when buying more recent releases?

Offline sdhoey

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@Carl When I click on the Origin link, it shows The Sims 3 titles, and the base game for The Sims 4.  If I then do a search for expansions or stuff packs for TS4, the link stops saying affiliate.  Will it still give money to the site if I buy stuff packs or expansions after clicking on this link and then searching for them?  If not, is there a way to give money to the site when buying more recent releases?

I am getting all The Sims 4 titles, and the link still says affiliate. Could it be the browser? I'm using Chrome now.

Offline ClayMask

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@Carl When I click on the Origin link, it shows The Sims 3 titles, and the base game for The Sims 4.  If I then do a search for expansions or stuff packs for TS4, the link stops saying affiliate.  Will it still give money to the site if I buy stuff packs or expansions after clicking on this link and then searching for them?  If not, is there a way to give money to the site when buying more recent releases?

I am getting all The Sims 4 titles, and the link still says affiliate. Could it be the browser? I'm using Chrome now.
Doesn't seem to be.  i just tried the link with Chrome and am still seeing all the same titles.  I wonder why you see them and I don't.

Offline sdhoey

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That's strange, when I click it, The Sims 4 is the first games that are on the top. The Sims 3 are below them. Let me grap a screenshot



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Offline ClayMask

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That's strange.  Here's what I see when I click the link:



@sdhoey, do you own the expansions shown in your screenshot?



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Offline sdhoey

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@ClayMask Sad to say but yes, I own the complete series for Sims 2, Sims 3 and so far sims 4. But I don't think I have a problem, Shhh, *shifty eyes* Don't tell my hubby. LOL

Offline Carl

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@ClayMask I totally missed this somehow, must have been a glitch in my email notifications. When you go through the link, I believe it tags you for at least 24 hours and gives the site credit for any purchase that is made. Thanks a lot for using it, for all of you who do. I basically got to disable ads for everyone because of this affiliate program.

I am actually trying to see if I can do the same for guests soon.

Offline Deklitch

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Re: Registration Benefits and Supporting the Guide and Forum
« Reply #9 on: June 24, 2016, 11:34:25 PM »
@Carl

I'm going to be getting Civilization VI when it comes out in a few months time. It isn't put out by EA through Origin but rather by FireAxis through Steam. Is there some way that my purchase of Civilization VI can support this site?

I usually by direct from Electronics Boutique here in Australia, but am more than willing to try one of the linked stores if it can contribute to site costs.

Regards

Dek

ETA: I just tried following the Gamestop link. On the page it took me to, it suggested that Electronics Boutique was part of the Gamestop 'network' of companies. I went to the Australia link, and it took me to the Electronics Boutique homepage. I then put in my username and password for EA and it took me to my page there. Should that mean it'll credit the site with any purchases I make?

Offline Carl

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Re: Registration Benefits and Supporting the Guide and Forum
« Reply #10 on: June 25, 2016, 05:43:20 PM »
Hey @Deklitch I don't know about electronics boutique but don't think it's related with the actual Gamestop program I participate in. It's OK because hardly anyone uses that particular link anyway, I appreciate you trying! I don't think steam has or ever will have an affiliate program, because they already take a little bit for themselves to distribute the game for developers (I think) and that would cut into both sides' earnings. Actually, steam hardly needs anyone to say, 'hey go buy this through steam' since most PC players know about it already, or else the games are only available from that distribution platform :)k

Enjoy Civ VI. I know I'm going to. Just don't know about a guide until I find out if I love it or not. Because my Civ V work was fairly popular and helped a lot of new players I originally wanted to write about Beyond Earth, but the game wasn't very good at launch and couldn't hook me. I'd only want to spend 6 months writing on a game if I enjoy it at least a bit. It was also clear they'd be making way way too many changes for one guy to document.

Offline grabgl

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Re: Registration Benefits and Supporting the Guide and Forum
« Reply #11 on: February 16, 2017, 10:34:40 PM »
Hi Carl - new member here.  I've been using your guides since last year, when I became a new Simmer with TS3, and have kept using it through TS4. It's been very helpful, to say the least, and I appreciate the work that you all have and do put into it (though I'm sure I can't imagine exactly how much work it is).

On to my reason for registering and posting:  I just tried to use the Paypal 'Donate' button, but when I select my country (Canada), the address section still only shows US states in the drop down list.  I cannot select any of them since doing so will not match my billing information.  Just thought I'd let you know, in case there's something you're willing and able to do about it.  I'll check back at some point to see if it works; I don't really buy much off Amazon at all, and don't use Origin too much...but if I go for another GP, EP, SP, or other game, I'll try to remember to go through your link.  Donating through Paypal is my preference, though.