IconBuffet | Free Icons, Stock Icons, Custom Icon Design

mhayes on Mar 21, 2007

I agree - it would make it easier if one could see how many tokens a friend has before sharing.

iconmaster on Mar 21, 2007

Tokens will always be invisible to others, but you can post in your profile or box to the effect that "I'm out, don't send me anything."

Laurwren on Mar 21, 2007

do deliveries have an expiry?

Laurwren on Mar 21, 2007

do deliveries have an expiry?

josh on Mar 21, 2007

Deliveries expire after 1 week.

watehey on Mar 21, 2007

7 days - if they're not declined before.

slypix on Mar 21, 2007

I don't think the chefs want others to know when we're out of tokens. The deliveries expire after 7 days, and the donating users get their stamps back.

I keep the deliveries until they expire, just in case the chefs have some sort of surprise or token promotion.

mhayes on Mar 21, 2007

And the reason keeping tokens invisible to others ... national security ... or just plain being mean???

watehey on Mar 21, 2007

It encourages communication between members.

Rather than just ambushing someone with deliveries, you should ask what they want and if they have the tokens to receive it.

slypix on Mar 21, 2007

I think that even if you can accept a delivery, it's fun to give and receive one anyway :)

iconmaster on Mar 21, 2007

Exactly what watehey said.

josh on Mar 21, 2007

Our primary reason for keeping the tokens secret at this point is simply that there are a few issues that we're still working through on our end in terms of how we want IconBuffet to work. We really enjoy the "game" aspect of swapping icons, and until we figure out some more of how that all works, we'll be keeping token counts private.

So this isn't to say that they'll always be secret. But until further notice, this is the way it's gonna work.

josh on Mar 21, 2007

Watehey is definitely right. One thing we certainly want to avoid is creating a roboting system where you never have to communicate with others. Because the people is what make the Buffet special.

mhayes on Mar 21, 2007

What about for us anti-social types who love the icons and sharing them but would prefer to do without the idle small talk business.

iconmaster on Mar 21, 2007

Save your tokens and wait for unsolicited deliveries, which IME happen often enough anyway.

josh on Mar 21, 2007

Perhaps we'll launch a sister site — anti-social.iconbuffet.com — in the near future. ; )

ChickAzul on Mar 21, 2007

LOL! @ the sister site XD

yea, I never asked for deliveries, they sorta just appeared :D

mitten on Mar 21, 2007

@iconmaster sez: but you can post in your profile or box to the effect that "I'm out, don't send me anything."

I did! Twice! And I still keep getting deliveries I can't accept. Perhaps you can make an official suggestion to check someone's box for 'I'm out' messages right within the 'Send Deliver' box? I'm guessing you won't outright block deliveries to people with zero tokens, as that would eat into your VIP sales, but sheesh - you gotta do something.

I'm finding it way too much 'housekeeping' to have to keep turning them down. I'm getting annoyed and thinking I'll have to turn off email notifications but then I'll miss new stuff and darn it all, I'm just not having fun!

tamashii on Mar 21, 2007

@mitten: stop turning them down. If they are sitting in your "inbox" so to speak, no one can send you that set again until either 1) it is accepted, 2) declined OR 3) expires.

slypix on Mar 21, 2007

I don't care so much about the "housekeeping", because they expire after a week. But I do agree it floods my email inbox and like mitten, I don't want to turn off email notification.

watehey on Mar 21, 2007

If the emails are flooding your inbox, then divert them with a filter so you can peruse them at your leisure without having them clog your main folder.

slypix on Mar 21, 2007

@watehey, ya it's the first thing I did, when I got 5 deliveries in a span of 10 min.

josh on Mar 21, 2007

For what it's worth, all deliveries come from the address "delivery at iconbuffet dot com" if you'd like to set up mail filters.

watehey on Mar 21, 2007

I haven't had the problem since I started the new program with 62 sets, but I could see how it would be a problem.

Nice avvy BTW - you make?

watehey on Mar 21, 2007

Josh, if you're gonna keep posting while I'm typing we're gonna need some kinda quote system so people will know who I'm talking to.

The avvy comment was directed @ slypix

justG on Mar 21, 2007

@ watehey: or you could just use @<username> always, even if you post directly after the person to whom you want to respond. =)

Candy on Mar 21, 2007

Yeah! Ever since the new site...I've been getting random deliveries for all the sets I was missing. Its very more...generous, lol?

[And thank you for the whole "Comment cannot be blank" thing...I did that more than once already.

justG on Mar 21, 2007

@ Candy: Well, yes, it's generous, community-building, etc., but only to an extent. The fact is that if I send you a delivery and you accept it, I get points; so the sharing of free deliveries isn't *entirely* altruistic. =)

Candy on Mar 21, 2007

Haha, its still a win both ways :D

One gets the points which hold the ever coveted soon to be released use and the other gets an icon set.

mitten on Mar 22, 2007

tamashii sez: @mitten: stop turning them down. If they are sitting in your "inbox" so to speak, no one can send you that set again until either 1) it is accepted, 2) declined OR 3) expires.

Ok, I'm trying this approach. But makes my profile page ugly and it seems decidedly anti-social to just let people hang out there like that. (And yes, I've received 6 more deliveries, even though my box says I can't take them. Sigh.)

Please, please, please to the powers that be: if you could just put a little line of text in the box that comes up when you send a delivery, something along the lines of "Have you checked this person's profile to see if they want deliveries right now?" - that would be so helpful. I know it won't stop all of the unwanted deliveries, but it might get people into the more polite and desirable habit of checking before sending.

josh on Mar 22, 2007

Mitten, I think a helpful notice line is a nice idea, and the type of solution we would try to find. When possible, we prefer that most problems be solved by people and communication that technical solutions. Anyhow, we'll see what we can do here.

Jahnoth on Mar 22, 2007

Here's a thought. Change your Avatar? Perhaps you put a closed sign, or full sign, or something superimposed on your usual avatar. Then, when you're "open for business," you change your avatar back? I know, personally, and I've only been on the site for a short time, I don't go looking at my friend's site to read what's in their comments. I barely read my own. But I always notice the avatar. Especially since it's prominent in my friends list.

justG on Mar 22, 2007

@ Jahnoth: I love that idea! =)

ehooton on Mar 22, 2007

@Jahnoth. I agree with you. I don't check because I like giving random gifts. I see mitten's point, tho. But still, it would be easier if it were right on the avatar where I couldn't help but see it.

slypix on Mar 22, 2007

@watehey re:avvy, I actually "borrowed" the badge, blanked it out, changed the color, and added my logo+VIP to it.

@jahnoth I think your avatar Idea is a good, I changed mine yesterday, after I upgraded to VIP, and quite a few people noticed, so yes if you "mod" your avatar to say no deliveries, people will notice.

watehey on Mar 22, 2007

@ slypix - yes, I can see that now, but at the time I posted asking about it, it was a smaller badge with a 'chain' of sorts. I can't recall if it had your unique logo at the time.

I like the updated one even better. :)

slypix on Mar 22, 2007

@watehey - Excellent memory, it did have a necklace, but my logo and type ended up being too small, so I cropped it.

thanks :)

watehey on Mar 22, 2007

It looked so professionally done that I thought perhaps the chefs had decided to reward VIPs with their own special avatars.

Nice job.

slypix on Mar 22, 2007

I'm trying a temporary one, 24hrs, I'm not sure I like it though.... supposed to mean "no tokens left"

watehey on Mar 22, 2007

I saw it right off - NICE.

gswd on Mar 22, 2007

Sly, I also saw the "No" blinking and immediately understood what it meant.

Also, I find that I will go through my Friends list, especially when I get a new set, to see if anybody needs something (like the new set), and send it off to them. So, since all I am seeing is the Avatar, and not their message box, I am "sending blind" so to speak.

Keeblerelf on Mar 22, 2007

Yeah, avatar or something in the Send Delivery popup would be the best. Especially like the other day when I was just sending out lots of Neanderthal I was going from the icon page that shows which friends don't have it.

Trying to keep track of just which blogs I've posted comments in is tough enough. Trying to keep track of who all I've asked what sets they want and if they have tokens would be impossible without busting out a spreadsheet or something.

ChickAzul on Mar 23, 2007

ooooo spreadsheet!! (^_^)

mitten on Mar 28, 2007

Ok, finally had a minute to add this to my avatar. Hope it works!

mcd on Mar 28, 2007

Just an idea...

I think most people are annoyed with the unsolicited deliveries for two reasons: Deliveries appear prominently on your "My Icons" page, and you get an email for each delivery.

So what if a.) you had a delivery Inbox, where all deliveries appear on a separate page from the My Icons page. There would just be a thing in the right column saying "You've got deliveries" or what-have-you. And b.) There was an option to disable email delivery notifications.

That would solve the problems for most people, I think. I wouldn't care about unsolicited deliveries if they all went to an Inbox page and didn't crowd my My Icons page. And obviously email notification opt-out is a logical feature in any system like this.

Jahnoth on Mar 28, 2007

An inbox would be a great idea. At first, I was constantly refusing deliveries so that people could have their stamps back quicker. But then I kept getting deliveries. If I just let them sit, at least the system doesn't let me get another delivery of the same set. So I just leave them now. And an inbox to let them sit would be ever-so-much-nicer.

Lunac on Mar 28, 2007

I don't have a problem with the out-of-tokens issue. It seems the goal is to get us to want the icons so much that will either trade more to make tokens or go ahead a become a VIP. Both of which seem to be the idea of the new system.

What I would like is a "not interested" type of system. There are some sets that I just don't want (not many, but enough to make a point). In these cases, it would be nice to just turn them off from our list so people won't see that their missing collects. But something reversalable so that we change our minds.

Also an inbox would be wonderful.

What I do miss was the ability to search forums and save topics that we liked. Can we have that back?

justG on Mar 28, 2007

Lunac wrote: It seems the goal is to get us to want the icons so much that will either trade more to make tokens...

You can't get more tokens by trading. Trading only affects your stamps and points tally. At the moment, the only way to get more tokens is to wait until they're refilled by the Chefs once a month.

---------------

Currently when we click on Edit Profile on our My Icons page, there's this AJAX-y transition and our settings appear. The same approach to an Inbox, rather than a separate page, would be really cool. +1 on the Inbox idea, mcd, I like that one.

---------------

@ Lunac: You can save topics by bookmarking the URL in your browser. I don't think that functionality is necessary as part of the site, but that's just my opinion. As for search, yes, the Chefs are working on it.

bdelisio on Jun 07, 2007

Excellent idea mcd. Just move the deliveries off the "My Icons" page.

webmonkey on Jun 07, 2007

I think it should be a part of a 'mood' icon/badge that changes color or opacity depending on how many tokens you have, or don't have... yes, I'd relocate for a good job - esp. Texas as my husband grew up there. <lol>
Personally, I like to see what surprise deliveries are waiting for me. A simple general post of "I have tokens" creates floods of deliveries to choose from; it's kinda like shopping for me, less like trading.