[Elorendil]

Mods, if this is not the correct place to put this, please move it, I wasn't quite sure where this really fit.

Hello all,

Many of you will remember me as a relatively long-time user of Yarolds. After some drama that I was forced into last year, I lost my enjoyment of this site and decided to take a break to see if I could regain my enjoyment of clicking. I have found that a return is not possible for me, at this point, and I wish to express why.

I made a point of avoiding the many drama fests that occur here and tried to be friendly to all. My dynasty was founded on the idea of people having a real life outside of the internet. We were a small dynasty, but everyone stayed positive or was removed before too long. Most of all, we were honest clickers and followed through on our clicks.

I observed from a distance when the drama fest erupted last year when Alba chose to leave the MOB to open her own alliance. I used to hang out in the MOB chat a lot and naturally had chatted with Alba a decent bit. As a dynasty that did not discriminate against alliances based on politics, but only on a potential ally’s activity and ratio of positive and negative members, I immediately accepted an alliance with Alba.

Within a few days, I began receiving these PMs:

“I have ended our alliance. I don't support Alba in her choice and I choose not to be allied to anyone who is allied to her.

Should you at some point choose to end your alliance with Alba I will be more than happy to ally again.”

Nearly all the larger alliances dropped me within a week. I and my leadership team chose to maintain our alliance with Alba for the following reasons:

1. When I asked for an explanation from both sides to try and figure out what was going on so I could make an informed decision for myself, this is the only response I received from Jay: “If I were you I would listen to my allies & try to get them back.” Given that I could only get one side of the story, my leadership team and I decided that we would not make any judgements on the situation and would maintain my friendship and alliance with both sides.
2. We objected, very strongly, to having our alliances dictated. The mega dynasties do not have the right to bully small dynasties into changing their alliances by threatening to withhold their alliance. This is nothing short of blackmail.
3. This is incredibly childish behavior. It smacks very strongly of 7 year old children on the playground saying “You can’t be my friend if you are Sally’s friend.” If you have a disagreement with someone else, it’s fine to not hang out with them, but telling someone else they may not hang out with the third person is ridiculous and petty.
4. My team and I saw no reason to change our policies on choosing who to ally with. Alba’s new dynasty had strong clickers and very few negatives. This very easily fit into our requirements for our allies.

Over the next few weeks, our alliance size shrank from just under 400 to somewhere in the 200 range.

For an alliance that was founded on having a real life and clicking for leisure and enjoyment, being drug into the middle of a drama fest like this was beyond annoying, it was downright discouraging and incredibly frustrating. I stuck around for a bit, but no longer enjoyed clicking, so I decided to take a break.


In addition to this unwelcome drama incident that ruined my enjoyment of the site, I have come to question the ethicality of this site, as well as the honesty of its.

I was very shocked to come back and discover that my stockpile of over 50,000 credits had dwindled to under 20,000 even though I made sure I did not leave my links on Main, Dynasty, or History. After speaking with some friends that continue to use Yarold’s, I discovered there has been a tax instituted on credits that saps from the credits you have accrued in your account. I understand the idea is to encourage balancing, but balancing is not written in to the rules. In addition to this, the site continues to allow members to purchase credits, which will then be taxed away. But there is no warning on the credit purchasing page that this will occur. I consider this to be unethical and bordering on being a scam, particularly when the section in the FAQ regarding credits does not say anything about this.

From the FAQ:
“Why am I losing credits even when I don't show my link?
Other users are clicking your links from history. Normal members will have theirs showing in history for other users whose link you've clicked. VIPs have the option to hide their links from history. If you have multiple links but are only showing one, others will be able to see those as well.”

This says NOTHING about the credit tax. This would imply that, if you are VIP and are not showing your link in history, you will not continue to lose credits. Many members purchase credits in order to obtain VIP status. This is misleading and, in my opinion, dishonest.

Furthermore, Yarold’s continues to ignore the fact that a shockingly large percentage of its members do not follow through on their clicks. I did an experiment with several of my creatures from Unicreatures over the course of several weeks to see how many clicks it would take me before my creatures actually reached 500 care points. In order to make this as controlled of an experiment as possible, I linked directly to each creature so that only a single click was required to interact with my creature. I did not post my creatures on any other click exchanges during this time. Here is an analysis of my results:

Harlequin:
Original number of Care Points before posted: 52
Number of clicks from Yarolds to obtain Care Point goal: 3,098
Ending Care Point total: 500
Percentage of follow-through from clicks: 14.46%

Mao:
Original number of Care Points before posted: 61
Number of clicks from Yarolds to obtain Care Point goal: 3,100
Ending Care Point total: 500
Percentage of follow-through from clicks: 14.17%

Kalay:
Original number of Care Points before posted: 150
Number of clicks from Yarolds to obtain Care Point goal: 2,700
Ending Care Point total: 502
Percentage of follow-through from clicks: 13.13%

Tictoc:
Original number of Care Points before posted: 102
Number of clicks from Yarolds to obtain Care Point goal: 2700
Ending Care Point total: 500
Percentage of follow-through from clicks: 14.17%

End result from all creatures: 13.65% of clicks are actually followed through on. This means that 86.35% of users cheat and do not follow through on their clicks.

I posted these creatures in 500 click increments (except at the very end when they were getting close to their goals). If anyone would like to see a breakdown of how many clicks it gained each time I posted it, please let me know and I will be happy to provide that data.

13.65% follow through is absolutely heinous. I may never have been the most active member of the site, and I will admit it did take me quite a while before I actually started balancing my clicks, because it was never emphasized or truly explained in my original dynasty. Balancing is not part of the written rules of Yarold’s, though. Following through, in the other hand, is, and at least I followed through consistently. I always knew that there were a relatively large number of users who routinely do not follow through, but I had no idea this problem was so rampant. This is a terribly broken system, when it allows for such a large percentage of its users to cheat with such ease. If Yarold’s will not put something adequate in place to insure that it’s members follow through, then it should not allow for links that require follow through, or at least have a notice posted so that it’s hard-working, honest members are aware that they are being robbed blind by posting these sorts of links that require follow-through.

Given all of these things, I have made the decision to leave Yarold’s. I will continue posting my creatures until I run out of credits, as I do not wish for them to go completely to waste (although, it could be argued that I am wasting them anyway, when the follow-through is so pathetically low). Once those are gone, though, I will not be coming back. Not unless this site addresses the glaring flaws in the system that allow users cheat and blackmail others, as well as correcting the unethical taxes on purchased credits without providing adequate notification to it’s members.

To those whom I have known and enjoyed hanging out with for years, I wish you all the best and I thank you for your friendship. If you wish to maintain contact with me, please look me up on Dragon Cave or on Unicreatures with the same username.

~Elor

[Ferrari]

woooow what a story...

I agree all points with you.
I removed my dynasty ''Just 4 Fun'' for same reasons, I also get mails like you get.
My joy disappeared also, Last months after the credit tax lots of my friends stopped with yarolds. Some people say its only 0,01% tax, but that can not be true. see only your example from 50.000 to 20.000. My good friend sks lost lot of credits every reset, we made printscreens, we mailed admins, only answer was, ''you are not losing tons of credits, its only 0,01% = 1 credit on 1000 credits, in your case that means every reset 50 credits tax,
how could it be your credits go from 50.000 to 20.000...I say from the begin there is a bug in the tax, but no one is believing me .
My friend sks has 90.501 credits, after reset 89607 that is 894 tax. but 0,01% would be 90 credits tax, we made 3 days after reset printscreens, every day 800 tax, and no one listen to me.
The new rules from last year means for me, yarold digs his own grave.
Your whole story is so true!!!and that is so sad.
Sad you go, and lots will follow..our long membership for years do not get rewarded

[DemonicJ]

11/10/23 10:32:57 The Mob dropped you
11/11/14 07:48:32 Ring of Glory ended aliance
11/12/04 16:25:36 POB ended alliance
11/12/19 07:05:37 Elorendil has left the dynasty (auto remove - inactive for 30days)
12/01/04 23:22:04 POB ended aliance (again)
12/01/23 22:15:21 sara4cows ended aliance with smashing pumpkins (small alliance didnt mean much then I guess)
12/05/13 07:47:29 MMC UBC ended aliance with dynasty
12/05/17 10:47:21 POB ended aliance (3rd time)
12/05/17 22:53:54 IMMC (ferrari is in this dynasty) ended aliance
12/07/01 22:04:55 POB ended aliance with dynasty (4th time. assume you guys were used to fill alliance then dropped to make room because of your dynasties lifestyle)
12/07/05 23:15:02 MMC UBC ended aliance (2nd time)

Seriously I just think you dynasty was dropped because of your laid back clicking & showing style. That is your right to do that too. Good allies rarely get dropped, unless its a planned mass drop (ask ferrari as she has been involved in a few of those against certain dynasties. Kind of makes her 'wow what a story' kind of laughable). The Mob dropped you way back then to make way for the merger that happened a few days later, as for the rest of your allies dropping you (some multiple times) & some the Mob werent allied too, kind of makes the 'pick a side' story a little out there! The list above is over 9 months!

As for my lack of giving you any kind of story in the beginning or even now, put that down to leaving the drama in the past where it should stay. Some around here seem to only be able to look backwards (I think they walk backwards & have probably hit there heads a few times [thats humour people, not a disparaging remark])

As for the changes in yarolds, simple answer to be seen at the bottom of the page;
"SWLE public beta 0.78"
Taxes are needed to combat THIS!
There are approximately 22 million credits in the system, that page of 50 members has half of the credits! Could taxes be done better?? Of course they can be, but as the owner now has a full time job, getting time to make changes is hard (to the point it gives me the .....). Should/could the guides be updated, same answer there too. Limited people to do the work with very limited time. (Unlike those that seem to have time on their hands to criticise everything with no valid counter point or idea)

Ferrari, as usual we can count on your inane answers. If Yarolds is digging a grave why persist with being here & commenting negatively at every opportunity? Last I checked no one is forcing you to be here at all. Next time consider very carefully before clicking login if its too hard for you.

Sad your leaving Elor, even sadder the reasons that dont bear out entirely.

Now move along people, nothing to see here [humour again]