New system for commissions? (repost)
Which system? (read post)
EDIT: Reposted because of typos everywhere lol
I opened my commissions two days ago but the slots were gone quite quickly. This has been an issue for a bit; I got messages from people who missed the chance to get a slot, one of whom has been waiting for a while. Ofc some people can't help not being around when I open, and leaving it to who comes quickest will probably always lock the same people out. So right now I'm thinking of a few possible systems that would give everyone a chance while also keeping my workload manageable.
System 1: Raffle
Every round, I would open 6 slots:
- 3 guaranteed slots that would cost ~$5 to grab, and
- 3 raffle slots: free to go for—but I will gather a list over 24 hours. If there are more than 3, I will select the 3 winners from there. If there are 3 or fewer, everyone gets theirs.
System 2: Waitlist
I'll keep a waitlist, and every time I open, I'll ping those people first, giving them 24 hours to claim a slot before opening it to the public. This is good for people who have been waiting, but useless if the waitlist gets too long and it ends up being like the current system anyway...
System 3: Always open (EDIT: or, open 2 times as many slots every time you open)
Easiest, but most stressful. You will always be accepted to the queue regardless of how many people are already on it. I'm nervous about trying this because it was my first system and it was bad for my sleep schedule, but it's the only way to make sure no one loses out because they're not around at the right time.
System 4: Keep the current system
Maybe some people like the predictable timing? I'll keep opening commissions at the same time every round (about midnight EST), and it's first-come-first-serve.
You could try reformulating how the slots work? You currently have the system that a single piece of art can take multiple slots (or that was the last I saw), so you could rejig it that 1 slot = exactly the effort of the most involved option, and also the max that one person can order, max one slot per person. Less involved combinations still to equal subdivisions of a slot, but once someone orders in that slot it's still full. This would make it that you might have more or less work with the same number of slots, but you wouldn't get the distressing appearance of one person taking up half the available slots.
4 years, 10 months ago
I can see that working, yeah, but I would definitely have to lower the number of slots as well. To clarify my intentions with my current slot system, it's 100% for my own sanity, it helps me gauge and regulate how much work I'm taking on at once, haha.
4 years, 10 months ago
Haha, yeah I definitely get the idea behind it, I think it just makes it look a little more unbalanced than it is, from a customer side! o/
4 years, 10 months ago
That's true, that is the downside with price based slots. I think the truth is, it is probably me limiting the amount of work I am willing to take on in one go that's making it hard for people to get a slot, over everything else haha. Maybe I'll enforce a cool down so others have a chance, but that seems unfair to the people who buy a lot 😂
4 years, 10 months ago
4 years, 10 months ago
my only issue with the waitlist is that it's labour intensive, in that I would have to PM a lot of people individually and keep track of two deadlines. edit: to me it is the most anxiety-inducing option but it also does seem like the most reasonable for others. I'll try it for the next round. And in defense of the raffle system, (minus the slot-buying, which I'm not sure on but I mean if people are willing to, it's an option) it is technically the same as what I have now, except instead of leaving it up to who comes first (which is arbitrary but skewed), it's left up to chance (completely arbitrary), which is fairer in my opinion.
4 years, 10 months ago Edited 10:24 am
4 years, 10 months ago
Oh I see, yeah, if I switched to raffle system then the slots would be back to usual (one per comm rather than price based). But that explains what you meant.
I considered a cool down system too, more along the lines of, if you bought something in the past week you can't buy in the next round or something. But either way a cool down would be a problem with the couple of people with "permaslots" 🤔 I feel like working with permaslots is part of the issue as well and I may have to think of a way to deal with that in the long term.
4 years, 10 months ago
4 years, 10 months ago
Thanks! It seems like waitlist is the most popular on both polls, but since a lot of people seem to be interested in a raffle system, I might maybe hold those every now and then after ironing everything out.
4 years, 10 months ago