Quote by Jen
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New members signing up will receive coins as part of their membership fee, and existing users can buy coins to distribute if they want to.
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This is something I've always disliked, new members/customers/etc. get this benefit or the other. It does feel like "You existing customers thank you for your loyalty but seeing as we've already got you, you get nothing cos you're not as important as new customers."
This is what gave rise to all the comparison sites and why people change or at least review their insurances, phones, energy, broadband, etc. every time their contracts come up. As Lush is the only site offering this type of reward, it won't happen, at least for now.
Yes I have read the renewal bonus or part of the package where coins come as part of the upgrade (I presume expired membership to paid membership is classed as an upgrade.
Just not a fan of "new member will receive..." statements. "New and renewing..." sounds so much better in the headlines.
Now...
This reminds me very much of 'Rays', the currency on Utherverse (aka Red Light Center from your Recommended Sites list). Although on Utherverse you could earn them through activities such as logging in and perving profiles. They also gave a few rays for every month you were a paid member.
In line with what I wrote in response to WWs post, what will these coins be worth?
Will it be a stable market or will there be an exchange where people are effectively buying off other members?
What will be the cash-out currency and procedure? Rays, as mentioned above, could be cashed out but if you didn't have a CC registered with them, it came as a cheque in US dollars.
Quote by WannabeWordsmith
Dunno how it is in the US, but here we have a tax-free allowance that's currently up to about 12k before the government get their grubby mitts on some. Getting 12k from story tips would be a nice problem to have and pass onto my accountant 😎
Bottom line, unless you're a recognised author and it's your only income stream, tidbits can probably be squirelled away as donations or gifts for your hard work. But I didn't say that, if the IRS drop in on you for a coffee. We encourage authors to be upstanding, tax-abiding citizens.
Just a note of caution about that. Yes the UK has £12.5k tax free allowance, however...
Working or not, earning over the £12.5k or not, if you earn £1000 from other sources (hobbies, pin money, 2nd income, selling on ebay/Amazon/car boots/etc.) you MUST declare it to HMRC. That will entail, I think*, completing a self-assessment form by the 31st Jan the year following the end of the tax year you earned the money in. It might be worth finding an accountant that gives a free initial consultation and confirming with them.
So even if you don't have to pay tax on them, IF you are super successful, then you will have to do some declaration.
Having said all that, I have earned currency on other sites and said currency is still on those sites, 1 had the option to cash in, but I never did. In my mind, until it is cashed in, it isn't money and therefore doesn't have to be declared. If someone gave me a dozen bitcoins (hint) I would not declare that until I cashed them in for hard currency. This is MY personal take on it and not any official recommendation.
*I say I think, as I already complete a self-assessment, it is already one of the questions I have to answer.
Quote by Georgia_27_8
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Lushcoin rewards those writers which have truly, top-tier ability and (hopefully) prevents them taking material elsewhere which is financially funded in a professional authorship capacity.
I agree it's going to be easy enough to circumvent the rules, hopefully someone with a single mediocre story earning £10k a month who spends loads of time in chat would be flagged and looked into ![smile](https://static.fxxy.net/emoticons/emote_smile.gif)
I have to question your last comment. I am no means a top-tier writer and yet I earn a few hundred a month here and there off the bits I have on Amazon. A friend who I edit for writes basically from a template and earns a few thousand a month over there. I suppose this harks back to my question on what they will be worth, but will top tier writers be able to earn the sort of money here to be competitive enough to stop them going elsewhere?
Which then raises another question, will there be restrictions on publishing elsewhere? If so, will there be a way for authors to opt out of the scheme?
And yes, I know to some they may jump all over me as being anti this, just as my reports of bugs in the bugs thread were jumped over as being anti Lush2. NOTHING is further from the truth, would I take all the time to put together a post this long if I were? No, I would just move on. What I want to make sure is that the developers have looked at all possible issues that might arise with this scheme so that it is a good as possible and welcomed as well as possible by all readers and authors alike.