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Every month, I post how much I appreciate our donators. They support Wintreath and the work that I do here, and to date they haven't expected anything in return. Because of them, donations have covered the site's monthly expenses for some time, and we're edging toward the day when donators will have covered all of our expenses going back to the beginning of the community.

But I would like to take Wintreath to the next level...there are a lot of projects we could take on to make us stand out so we're not just a NationStates region with a community attached to it. For example, the Werewolf system we're in the process of building that will serve a community where many aren't involved in NS whatsoever. At the same time, I would like to provide perks to the people who have been generous and who haven't expected anything, so they have something to show for it.

So from this point forward, I will be taking some time every month to consider new perks for our donators. We will not be o putting up paywalls behind things everybody can do now. I am not in the business of taking things away from people. Nor will we give donators an advantage in any of our games...we're not doing pay to win. What it will be doing is allowing cool new things to allow our donators to set themselves apart and be noticed! And in consultation with the Joint Moderation Group, I'm happy to announce our new perks for this month:


New Perk: Custom Forum/Discord Roles
Previously the domain of private servers and the ops' chosen few, donators who contribute $15/month may request a custom role name and colour for the forums and Discord, which will be maintained so long as they continue to donate at that level monthly. Once they have donated $250 in total (we have a few who already have!), this perk will become permanent, subject to their activity and role availability (ie if we're in danger of running out of Discord role slots and someone is no longer on Discord, we may remove the role, then recreate it upon their return).

New Perk: Donator Titles
Similar to the nobility system for merit, donators will now have a rank of titles they can climb up, based on their total overall donations! We're starting with a few ranks and will add more to them as needed...thanks to Michi for coming up with both the idea and the list of ranks.

$25 - Merchant of [location]
$50 - Magister of [location]
$100 - Bishop of [location]
$250 - Archbishop of [location]
$500 - Cardinal of [location]

How Perks Will Work
Perks will be given based on the donation amounts shown on the Donate page, which is based on when I receive the funds. For example, Patreon charges Patrons on the 1st of the month, then usually sends the funds to me on the 5th, meaning that perks based on Patron donations would be given ASAP on the 5th. PayPal donations are usually immediately received, but I may need up to a day to process it into our system for it to show up on the donation page, after which you would receive your perk. When donating, please try to use a name or email I will know or PM/DM me with the information you used so I will know who to credit the donation to.

If You Already Qualify For a Perk
Please contact me to set up your forum role or to set up your donator title. When wanting to set up a title, please let me know what location you want to use. Preferably it would be a name that fits within Wintreath's setting (fantasy/steampunk winter), but this is not an absolute requirement. You may contact me or any Discord op to set up a custom role on Discord.

If You Already Have a Custom Discord Role
Anyone that currently has a custom Discord role may keep it permanently, regardless of donation status.


I hope that these and future perks will better show my appreciation for the people who support me in building Wintreath, and perhaps entice a few more people to donate as well. Of course, if you have any questions feel free to post them here or contact me.

Really cool, but I find the choice of titles to be very odd.

You start with a commerce title, then it shifts to an academic/archaic government one, and then suddenly it's religious titles? Why are we buying religious titles from the government/Administration? How do you deal with existing and new RP religions that also use those titles? This has some really weird flavor/RP implications.

@taulover: I think the main idea was for these titles to be distinct from the nobility titles we confer for merit. @Michi may be able to give more insight though since he put together the list of titles.

Really cool, but I find the choice of titles to be very odd.

You start with a commerce title, then it shifts to an academic/archaic government one, and then suddenly it's religious titles? Why are we buying religious titles from the government/Administration? How do you deal with existing and new RP religions that also use those titles? This has some really weird flavor/RP implications.

Going back to the old Maintaining Citizenship thread, I had originally suggested Baron/Baroness as a potential, but Moot was talking about adding it to the regular list of noble titles, and he suggested Merchant of ____ instead, and then moving up to Doge at a higher amount.  At first I was actually a bit iffy on that one, and then suggested some other titles:

I think the only issue I have with the title of Merchant is that it suggests that they're selling something (at least, that's what I'd get from it), which is really just a nitpick.

I do, however, love the idea of a Doge/Magister/Magistrate title.  If we're going to do it in a tiered system, we could always go the religious route (especially with Potatoism being a thing recognized in Wintreath).  Start off with Bishop of (insert town) with a donation amount, move up to Archbishop of (insert town) when they hit a higher amount, and then cap off at Cardinal of (insert town) at an even higher amount.

Since it's a charitable cause that they're supporting, and religious figures are supposed to be seen as charitable and selfless figures...I think it'd be a nice tie-in title tier.

Which then went into this discussion:

And we could make a Pope rank for the highest donator in order to peer pressure Crush!

I kid, I kid.

I really like the religious idea too, though I try to make clear that a donation isn't really charitable in the legal sense. When someone donates, the money goes to me...I pay the bills for the website and the MC server, but if there were any surplus (there hasn't been in the long run of things), it would pretty much go to me.

Well it's more the trickle effect though.  They know it's going to you, but in a way it's still for a good cause because they know that you're using it to maintain the site, Discord, and regional offshoots (such as the MC server).  And if it goes to you directly, then honestly it's still a good cause because it's giving you something back after all that you've put into the region.

No, it's not charitable in the sense that it's not going to some random organization we know nothing about, but that's okay.  I'd rather know exactly what's happening when I donate my money...rather than giving it to some secretive organization that says where your money goes, but in reality it just goes to lining someone's pockets.

You're at least upfront with "Hey, this will be used to maintain the site and various servers...and sometimes will go to me if maintenance for those areas have already been paid for."

So we know much more where our money is going.  If it pays for site bills, fantastic! If those are paid for and it helps with paying some of your own bills, also great! With as much time and money you put yourself into this place, there's nothing wrong with having a bit of help with it sometimes.

So the short version is that because donations are a charitable thing that people do voluntarily to help out the site (and Moot since he puts a lot into this site), it makes sense to give them such titles since religious figures are supposed to be seen as charitable and selfless (even if that's not always the case).

Ah, it was that discussion. Merchant/Magister/Doge makes sense to me, and the religious titles thing also makes sense in its own way (though to me it is far more reminiscent of buying religious titles and the long history of corruption in the Church). Mixing the two together, though, is really weird, especially since it's, like, getting two completely different hierarchies and placing the religious one above the secular one.

I had forgotten about that thread.

I'm not opposed to making changes if it makes more sense...are there even any titles that we could add to Merchant/Magister/Doge? I'm kinda coming up blank.