Hey wammilatorz.

This is something I brought up before. It was basically shot down, but now I have a new approach.

I am occasionally asked by producers how they can see who is buying their downloads. But they cannot do this because UMD is set up with what's basically a brick wall between the customer and the producer. They can see their stats, but only I can get in there and actually see who is buying what. I agree with the producers and I want to change that so they can see too.

Now I am NOT talking about personal information. I am NOT talking about credit cards (I don't have those anyway), email addresses, physical addresses, real names, or any of that. All I am talking about is letting the producer see is which UMD profile is doing the buying. This is the way it works pretty much everywhere else--content owners will generally know who is buying their stuff. But on UMD it would be restricted to basically only telling them the customers' usernames. So if I bought something from, say, Messygirl, then Messygirl could look and say hey, Messmaster bought one of my videos.

When I brought this up a few months ago, a good number of pollsters said they STILL didn't even want producers to know their usernames! Okay, fair enough.

What I am going to do is this. I am going to go ahead and make this information available to producers by default. But on the checkout page, there will be a checkbox that you can check to prevent that from happening. It will be unchecked by default, meaning producers will be able to see that your username bought his stuff. Checking it prevents that from happening

Again to be clear: Checkbox unchecked (default) = producer will ONLY see your username and nothing else. Checkbox checked = producer will not be able to identify you in any way.

I have not implemented this yet, so no checkbox is there yet. I'm just posting this for transparency and to gauge feedback from producers and customers here alike. I'm sure some producers can chip in with the reasons they told me this would be favorable.

Thanks for your input,
Messmaster
p.s. sorry for the purposely badly-worded poll questions LOL

Let's just make a quick point here of WHY producers may want to know before anyone gets ants in their pants.

Knowing who and what people are buying can be very helpful in figuring out how to make videos better, or develop certain videos in certain ways... in particular if you start seeing patterns.

For example, if you notice PiePeter and a few others are only buying videos with larger ladies in, then perhaps the producer he is purchasing from will start deliberately doing more videos with larger ladies.

It's like any business relationship - sometimes it helps the customer as much as it helps the business they are dealing with.

Of course, that depends on the business and where what I am saying falls down - Time Warner are still trying to sell me cable packages six months after I cut their cord.



Personally, I sit on the fence with this. It would be useful probably but I know I would be wary despite having no real reason - my username after all isn't identifying me in any personal sense.

As a general rule, I prefer opt in rather than opt out of giving information out... but then, as I said, username is not exactly a personally identifying here.

Omg Noise! You fucking crack me up! LMAOOOOOO

Well the link to opt out will be clearly labeled and prominently displayed so there is no confusion. But you if they overlook it, so what, now the producer knows your username. Big deal, right?

Don't other stores let their sellers know some basic info?

With Vidown on Soundguy's System, you can see the:

-Order #
-Customers email
-Customers name as used on the card but the "ACTUAL" Credit Card info is secure, we can't see that.

Its good to know the above because you know if you have certain repeat buyers, if your attracting new people and you know what people like and what to market. I like the idea you have proposed MM. I think its a great idea. I know some would disagree but I like how people with umd stores have an option if customers dont check the box off, to let the producers see what certain people are buying. It would only help the producers in the long run. Even though personally, I film what I enjoy and like and of course take in consideration other peoples likes, feedback to make my material better and better each time. People will always come back if they know your putting time into your stuff and they see your working hard. Everyone has their own likes on what they decide to buy. So many options out their for people today. Your on the right track MM. Way to go!

Regards,
--Chris

The Mothership merchants have always seen the basic customer info because the system started out as a DVD catalog store. If the vendor doesn't know who you are, how are they going to mail you the DVD?

I remember! I love that scenario. It's good anyways to see all that info, because when you have a large catalog of tittles, we know what works and what doesn't. Its good to rotate and move things. I know Ken does that very often. I like how I can view the stats and see how many videos of any specific volume sold total, etc. Its like a pos (point of sale) back end. It makes it easy to do paperwork, file taxes and all that good stuff. I appreciate all your hardwork soundguy and MM your getting there fast with all your upgrades and add-ons. Wonderful work to the both of you.

Regards,
--Chris

Yes. You know that :p

But to be honest, knowing a username on UMD would be quite useful - I can't look see what sort of videos a group of customers from my mothership download store leaves positive comments on. But I can sort out issues where I need to confirm X person bought video Z.


Which brings me to another point. A couple of times I have had people contact me about videos they have bought on the UMD, and if they have lost a copy of something they have bought it's impossible to confirm that... I don't have the heart to tell people to go buy it again.

Maybe it shouldn't even be opt out. A UMD username is certainly useless as identifying info.

I think its a good idea, with the opt out button. As long as the producers don't harass the buyers that don't opt out...

But I like harassing my customers!

Jessie xxx
www.messy-jessie.com

Well, I handle all customer service issues like that so you don't have to. And I can see who bought what. If a customer lost a video and contacts me about that, I'll likely reactivate the download in his My Purchases area for a couple of days. It's like flipping a switch back on. There's really nothing to confirm because the store transactions are linked to the person's UMD account after the sale, so the wrong person can't get 'em if they need to be re-activated.

On any site that uses CCBill, the site owner gets an email for every signup with the customer's name and email address, plus the username and password the system created for them, the package they signed up for, and the price. I'd imagine it's the same for any on-line billing agency.

TBH I'm not that bothered whether I get to see which UMD users have bought my downloads, other than that it would be interesting to see if there's repeat business, or if it's all random folk, and whether where there is repeat business, is it specific models regardless of outfit, specific outfits regardless of model, or specific scenarios / substances that generate repeat sales. Though TBH I can guess quite a lot of it anyway, people who like savoury will buy those sets for the substances, people who like girls in boilersuits (or wedding dresses) will buy those sets regardless of which model is in them, people who particularly like one of our people will buy all of her work, etc.

Knowing that the producer will see who I am wouldn't put me off making a purchase - after all they get to know rather more if I sign up to their main site.

yeah i think thats a great idea
with the option of remaining anonymous is awesome

Hm but then you will see how many of your videos I buy Dragon..I might be considered a stalker

I use my buyer's card everytime I'm at the supermarket (a large chain), and in return they know what I prefer and in return mail me coupons - obviously so I'll keep on shopping with them and buying even more! They also then can weed out coupons I'll never use - diapers, for instance (although I know a couple of you who would be happy to have them ). If my (and others) preferences collected from purchases will help the producers in any way, I think that's a win-win situation.

Sounds reasonable, as long as the opt-out option is clearly signposted.

Aren't you getting a lot of splinters, Noise?

He can't figure out which side the grass is greener on

Is it greener or stickier?

Both