2015-10-07 Latest News: The Revival and You

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Hello everyone!

First off, allow me to apologize for this being so late. I have been dealing with a series of sweeping power outages at work, and being in IT out here in the real world, that has been a bit of a headache for me (to say the least). But fortunately, the worst is over now and I'm getting this post up as soon as I can!

I still plan to do three posts this week, and so far it looks like I'll be doing them today, tomorrow and Sunday.

That being said, let's move onto the meat of this post!

This week, I'm going to  focus on the state of the project overall by honing in on a few specific things. These things will be: the state of our buying process, the state of our funding, and the state of our development as a whole. So let's get down to it!

The Sweat buying process: 

As you all know, a lot of my on-world activity revolves around sweat - but I believe that, because there is so much going on in this blog, it's difficult for everyone to understand why I've chosen to do what I'm doing the way I'm doing it - and this is nobody's fault. The Entropia Revival Project is a huge idea, and the concept that it underwrites is a little difficult to get your head around (even for me).

So to try and help simplify that process, I am going to be amending my "grand plan" link with a series of mathematical breakdowns (which I wrote out recently during a conversation on one of Entropia's forum pages) to help give a clearer indication not just of why the project needs to work - but why it DOES work. I want to not only explain why we're trying to help Entropia, but also properly explain why I'm taking the approach that I'm taking from a numerical and empirical perspective. I really believe that this will help you, the reader, understand not just our goals, but our journey, and why I believe what we're doing is so important. You can look for that amendment early next week.

That being said, our on world sweat buying campaign has slowed a bit while I begin to save and prepare for a few large acquisitions.

When I first rebooted ERP, the first thing I did was acquire a new headquarters at Medusa - and this has paid off splendidly. We are planning to open up a small shop there, and then branch out. However, I am already looking to the near future. We need a few more things. We need shopkeeper pads, and I'm already looking to make a shop purchase.

So, in order to accomplish these things, I am dialing back on the sweat payouts just a bit. I'm still doing 4 PED, just not in the volume that I was. This is very temporary - I need to simply refocus my time and efforts on growing our profits so that I can resume the buying process at a more aggressive rate. Think of it as a stall for time while I prepare for "Sweat buying Phase 2".

In order to help accomplish this goal, let's move on to part two.

The State of our Funding: 

Although some of you already know this, a big portion of the startup for this project has been out of my own pocket. I intend to make ERP a nonprofit organization, and I have dumped quite a bit of my own pennies into it.

But with the responses I'm getting, I want to do more than that.

So, I am going to begin launching a massive campaign to boost our funds and help us move to the next level. I have outlined this in brief in a new link on the page titled "How Can I Get Involved?" but I want to take some time to go over everything now as well.

Starting today, anyone who wishes can now donate to the project through paypal. Even if it's just one dollar, every bit helps. I have a goal right now of raising $2,000 to fund the startup of a small shop that will really allow me to begin working the sweat market at a much more rapid pace. I am of course going to be putting my own money towards this as well, and I don't expect to raise $2,000 on donations alone - but every penny gets us closer. As I have been outlining for a few posts now, the Entropia Revival Project on key point: Increase player retention to increase trade volume and help kick start our economy. When you donate to us, you're donating to that cause, and investing in an idea that will, hopefully, benefit every trader in Entropia Universe and make everyone more profitable, MindArk included. This donation button will be on the webpage in the new "How Can I Get Involved?" Link, and at the bottom of every page.

Additionally, we are going to be offering several society-2-society business services. I am opening up the blog (and our new upcoming radio show) for society advertisement at a cost. In other words, society leaders and business owners (even private traders) can advertise their society or business services on my blog for a fee. For the level of exposure this blog receives, I believe this is a high-valued service, and something that everyone can benefit from. At this time, anyone interested can email me or PM me for details, but public price lists are on the way.

Once we meet our goal, I am intending to launch into a much more aggressive sweat buying plan and really start to try and make change happen. I've already seen it with my society in small numbers. The pilot is over. Now it's time for the real deal.

The State of Our Development

In the last month, ERP has come a long way. We've revived the blog, revived the society, invested in a new home, reached almost a thousand people, expanded our numbers by 400% and delved into all aspects of communication.

I'm proud of this month. I think we have put an excellent foundation in place - and now, it's time to start taking that foundation and building our Forward Operating Base atop it.

Now that we have all of this in place, my next step is to begin putting together a "core group", a series of people who have invested themselves in the project - to help me manage the volume of work we have at hand. These people - who may or may not have an idea of who they are just yet - are going to, hopefully, help us take what we have here and make it strong. I have a vision of updates on the facebook once every few hours, not every few days - and constant changes to the blog with things like polls and comments - and I have a vision of a strong central team working together on world to make everyone more profitable.


I think we have the foundation to do that now.
No, I don't think - I'm sure of it.

We have the blog, our services, donation options, and a good team. We're on our way.

Conclusion

Of course, there is always more on the way. Tomorrow, as promised, I will be releasing a post ont he effect of vehicles on the economy. This will be a lengthy post, as vehicles marked a serious and fundamental change in our universe - and there are a lot of things that need to be said about that.

I'm already looking forward to next week's Wednesday post. I'm excited to move on to the next step with ERP - and I'll be just as excited to talk about that process next week.

Good Luck Out There everyone. Until next time,
-Faucon ioji VanAlkel