[FACEBROWSER] Remove purchasable verification

[Fergie]

Short description: Remove the ability to purchase the blue check mark that denotes you as a 'verified' user. Remove all current verified users.

 

Detailed description:  At present you can pay for verification on Facebrowser, giving you the blue check mark that should show others that you are a person of significance to the RP world. The issue here is that the blue check mark is overused and doesn't denote anything more than the fact that you have real-world cash to spend to make your profile look important.

 

Realistically, the blue check mark should be a REQUEST that is only given to those that meet certain criteria. A celebrity, political figure, or really any person of note within the realm of GTA:W (icly). However I've seen so many blue check marks lately that it's just breaking the feel. From people with 10 followers, to police officers or FD members that want to be "FB Famous". Realistically, these are people that, and I say this lightly, do not matter in terms of public recognition.

 

I (somewhat) agree with being able to boost posts for a fee, however I'd like to see IC cash being used for that purpose rather than real world money. However buying a blue check mark just shouldn't be possible. If we want to keep it immersive and somewhat connected to the real world, take a step back and look at how many patrol officers, mall rats or wannabe Instagram models ACTUALLY have verified profiles IRL. On GTA:W, everyone can be verified and look famous.

 

Commands to add: None. If you're using the social media script I think you are (sngine), it's already possible to do requests rather than payments.

 

Items to add:

 

How would your suggestion improve the server? It would help with immersion and help actually create a sense of making it in ICly. It would help define actual IC celebrities.

 

Additional information:

 

Creating an (IC) request system for verified profiles would be easy. While yes, someone has to be able to go through the requests, it could also open up another job for people. Pay people ICly to be moderators and go through the requests on Facebrowser.

Edited July 24, 2020 by Fergie

[Raindance]

I fully agree with this. This was suggested multiple times in the past but for some reason it never really took off. 
 

Quote

While yes, someone has to be able to go through the requests, it could also open up another job for people. Pay people ICly to be moderators and go through the requests on Facebrowser.

Having actual ic mods would also be an interesting touch ?

[.George]

No. If you want it, donate and support the server with your $. That is literally not even a important feature, especially seeing as probably 50% of players don't even use facebrowser.

[Fergie]

2 minutes ago, DjoleK said:

No. If you want it, donate and support the server with your $. That is literally not even a important feature, especially seeing as probably 50% of players don't even use facebrowser.

Please explain why people should pay real cash for an IC perk of looking important? People already support the server through donations. They shouldn't be able to pay real-world money for an IC benefit. There are plenty of methods to donate without compromising the immersion on Facebrowser.

 

Likewise, you're right. It's NOT an important feature, because it's overused. That being said, the blue verification check mark SHOULD be an important feature, and it would be if it was used properly.

Edited July 24, 2020 by Fergie

[.George]

Just now, Fergie said:

Please explain why people should pay real cash for an IC perk of looking important?

Same reason we have to donate for /bad, it's an optional and not a pay2win feature and it gives server $ so it can keep running.

 

Just now, Fergie said:

People already support the server through donations.

People donate for server but facebrowser isn't free either, it would be kinda ‚‚selfish'' for people donating for server that their funds are fully and completely redirected to facebrowser as well.

[Fergie]

Just now, DjoleK said:

People donate for server but facebrowser isn't free either, it would be kinda ‚‚selfish'' for people donating for server that their funds are fully and completely redirected to facebrowser as well.

Sure. And that's why I suggested we leave advertisements/boosting of posts to being paid with real money.

[Aellerix]

27 minutes ago, DjoleK said:

Same reason we have to donate for /bad, it's an optional and not a pay2win feature and it gives server $ so it can keep running.

It's different for /bad - that's doesn't make a business seem any more or less important than it actually is. Plus, you are still able to have a blip if you hire an advertiser ICly. Having too many business blips doesn't mess up the business scene nor the immersion, though. Having too many verified profiles does.

 

Facebrowser should be entirely IC, from my point of view. A ton of people donate, on a monthly basis, to support the server and keep it running. Facebrowser is fully pay-to-win right now which again, shouldn't happen on GTA:W. If you want your profile or business to have some recognition, you'll have to pay real money to have your posts boosted, your profile verified and your page promoted. Or you can take the long way and go step by step. That's the definition of pay-to-win. Pay for $1,000,000 IG or make it, dollar after dollar - same situation, different scenario. The next step is to start selling IC vehicles for IRL cash.

[Alexandra]

FaceBrowser should not be allowed to blur the lines of IC and OOC by accepting real world cash for IC benefits 

[Mitch]

What people seem to be forgetting that web servers for this kind of workload (Heavy MySQL usage, storage, you name it) are really damn expensive, something has to give here, I'm fine with it in its current state. Is it ideal? No, but what other options is there? 

[Fergie]

16 minutes ago, Mitch said:

What people seem to be forgetting that web servers for this kind of workload (Heavy MySQL usage, storage, you name it) are really damn expensive, something has to give here, I'm fine with it in its current state. Is it ideal? No, but what other options is there? 

I'm a firm believer that the donations people already give monthly are more than enough to cover the server and then some. They're really not as expensive as one would think. Especially given the small amount of users. Likewise, I'm only suggesting we remove the payment option for verification. There are still other things people can pay real-world money for on Facebrowser to support it's costs.