Imagination is everything…
Archive for July, 2009
Civic Holiday Long Weekend
Jul 31st
This weekend will be a long weekend, and as is typically the case on long weekends, some of you may be out of town.
Could you confirm, either by phone, email, pm, or by commenting on this post, whether you will be available for DnD this weekend? Also, if you can make it, what time would be best? (Saturday? Sunday? Monday?)
Let me know!
Special DnD Session This Afternoon
Jul 25th
As per our conversation two weeks ago, this week’s DnD session will take place this afternoon. Now I’ll be busy working on my backyard most of the day today, but expect that I’ll be needing a break around 4pm, so if you can show up then, I’ll get some pizza ordered and we can play into the night.
See you then!
EDIT: As everyone knows now, the “Special” DnD session yesterday wasn’t a DnD session at all, but a ploy to get Ingram to show up to his surprise birthday party! I’m glad everyone was able to show up, and hope you all had fun!
Our next real DnD session will be Sunday next week. See you all then!
My Beef with CafePress
Jul 21st
As some of you know, I play rockband with a couple of friends every week. Our band has its own blog and has seen its share of successes (and failures) in local RockBand competitions. We even made a video for the Disturbed song Down with the Sickness containing footage of our performance in the AMP Rock Band challange.
Well, what does that have to do with anything? You see, several months ago I created an online store for the band using CafePress, the self proclaimed leader in User-Generated commerce. I created a couple of products using some ideas generated by the group, and posted them on our store, for all to see and purchase.
On June 1st 2009, several months after the launch of the shop, CafePress modified its royalty policies. Where we, as shopkeepers, had once decided how much our products would sell for, CafePress would now state the price for all products, giving shop owners 10% of every sale.
Now, this may seem reasonable, but let me take you through an example:
On the 3MaaR store, we have a “They’re Buttons You Know” T-Shirt posted at $21.99. Of that $21.99, CafePress takes $14.99 for the shirt, and we receive $7. Not bad huh? Well, if you happen to buy our T-Shirt off of CafePress’ website (which all people do, as we have virtually no traffic going to our shop) you’ll have to pay $25 (3$ more than what we ask for it). Not only that, but CafePress will only give us 10% of the sale, meaning we get $2.50 and CafePress gets $22.50, up from $14.99!
So to reiterate:
Old System:
- Our price – $21.99
- Our cut – $7.00
- CafePress’ cut – $14.99
New System:
- New Price – $25.00
- Our cut – $2.50
- CafePress’ cut – $22.50 (That’s $7.50 more than before!)
Customers get screwed because they have to pay 3$ more for our shirt, and we get screwed because we receive $4.50 less than what we would have originaly. The only ones who are happy in the end is CafePress, who laugh all the way to the bank.
Well, you suck-didely-uck CafePress! And with that, I am sad to say I will be closing the 3MaaR online shop, as I can’t stand seeing a company so blatantly screwing over its customers.
As for any potential shop owners out there who are looking to publish their creations, don’t use CafePress. There are many other great alternatives (like Zazzle.com for example) who are much better, and a lot less devious…
28
Jul 19th
Well its official, I am 28 years old today! Because of this, I’m currently lying in a boat somewhere in the St. Laurence river and, as per our discussion last week, will not be able to make it back in time for D&D. So no session tonight.
Also a reminder for next week that our session will be moved up to Saturday afternoon instead of our usual Sunday evening. I’ll confirm the time sometime this week, and be sure to let you all know.
Great D&D ressources
Jul 15th
I recently found a website full of interesting resources for D&D players and Dungeon Masters. Its called ADnD Downloads. But don’t let the name fool you; it covers all versions up to 4E.
Of particular interest to DMs is the Creator System; a free tool designed to help create maps and scenarios for RPGs. There’s some other useful DM tools such as Dice Rollers and some useful condition and effects trackers on the Character Sheet page.
There’s tons of other stuff as well; so have fun exploring.
