Problem is that user doesn't use voice chat or streaming or other infrastructure
i think this is a compelling argument why discriminators should not be gated behind plutonium at all. it's not something that costs anything to provide. so why charge for it?
Root is another chat app like Fluxer and Discord. with their equivalent to Plutonium they make this promise:
purely cosmetic touches [...] are free today and always will be. We're never putting self-expression behind a paywall. [...] We charge for things that cost us real money to provide, like HD streaming, that deliver genuine value beyond decoration, [...].
i think that ultimately, if accommodating users who want a discriminator but no plutonium is desired, it should only ever be under this principle.
the idea of having several different subscriptions or purchase options in the app feels inherently dangerous, because it easily leads to the perception that Fluxer is predatorily monitized. almost nothing can make that worth the risk.
Signal usernames have a discriminator but they're not monetized at all. you have to pick some digits, and if they're available, they're yours to keep!
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one thing i always liked about discord was that its usernames were this freeform thing where your desired name was never "taken". the discriminator would just be different. i actually think allowing discriminator customization kinda goes against that? because if you can choose your discriminator, then your desired discriminator can be taken, so now your desired full username can be taken... so you're back at the problem that discriminators were invented to solve. why have discriminators at all if they're not arbitrary for everyone?
besides making it free for everyone or abolishing the perk, maybe discriminator customization could be a perk, just not of Plutonium? maybe it could be for people who are recognized as being significant in some way for fluxer? like, if you report a bug or submit a pull request? something where you are not paying money, but still somehow making Fluxer better? that way, people who want this username customization don't need to decide whether it's better to just buy full Plutonium instead.
in the back of my mind, I'm inspired by Hypixel's nickname functionality, where only YouTubers (a status you apply for, rather than pay for) get to choose their nickname freely. all others can only get a randomly assigned one. you cannot pay for exactly this perk.
I can see the argument for de-pricing discriminator customization, however I think it's a value proposition of the Plutonium subscription (yes, I know, I'm a Plutonium subscriber, so I am psychologically biased to "protect my purchase", but I can see your perspective). Granted, I'm not an ecommerce wizard or even like thinking about ecommerce topics, so my opinions on value props and subscription allure is limited.
I think raising the bar for discriminator customization to "significant in some way for fluxer" is risky - why: it would encourage spam "contributions" just for the purpose of the perk, or the perception that "those who are selected for discriminator selection" are some kind of "sEkRiT cLuB" that are opaquely determined by platform staff or moderation. I wouldn't like to see Fluxer get that kind of perception for having those groups (I know I'm not the Fluxer team, but that's just my wish as an observer and community member).
i agree that it's a value proposition . and that can be a good thing. in that case, i want to argue that "Plutonium should be reasonably priced, such that most users can comfortably afford it". if it's considered "too expensive" for a user, maybe that's the real problem and the price should be lowered? [see also: regional pricing, income inequality]
at any rate, having more than one subscription option within the app feels like it is a dangerous slippery slope to "overmonetization", or even just the perception thereof.
one thing that i noticed about Fluxer when i heard about it at first which immediately turned me off big time was that Plutonium perks are just Discord Nitro perks. i had the impression that "this is just as much of a moneygrab as discord is". only with the launch of FluxFur, with entirely different leadership, did i actually let myself try Fluxer. i've obviously since fallen in love with it, but i still think Plutonium feels like the one thing that should DEFINITELY NOT have been copied from Discord. the main reason i'm not more vocal about this is because i understand that development needs to be sustainable; the last thing I'd want is to try and kneecap the revenue source of a small team pouring countless hours into improving the software i want to bet my social life on.
like, for months, i completely ignored Fluxer, because i perceived its monetization as being predatory without even trying it.
adding another user-facing transaction will contribute to others dismissing Fluxer for the same reason.
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I think raising the bar for discriminator customization to "significant in some way for fluxer" is risky - why: it would encourage spam "contributions" just for the purpose of the perk
i think Not Having A Quantifiable Requirement can go a long way to prevent the spam. do NOT make it "anyone who gets a PR merged"; that's how you get AI slop in your review queue.
make the requirement be to actually do something cool. impress the core maintainers. make them think you're cool.
the perception that "those who are selected for discriminator selection" are some kind of "sEkRiT cLuB" that are opaquely determined by platform staff or moderation
the opaqueness is kinda the point to prevent it becoming a target. if people can "optimize" for it, then it's a bad measure.
i think this reputation is less bad than the reputation of being predatorily monetized.
but really, the concerns with making it a park of any contribution (financial or otherwise), are a good reason for why it shouldn't be a perk at all.
just let anyone customize their discriminator. or let nobody customize it (random for everyone). or only let it be customized if the name is unique across the platform (this would encourage people to actually pick unique usernames still, perhaps, without forcing them to).
with federation, it would feel unfair that remote users get to customize their discriminator for free but you don't. so i think that's also a great reason to make it free for everyone.
i really like Signal's approach: every username must end with at least two digits (it's a discriminator, but you must choose it along with the rest of your name). it really does go a long way towards preventing people from feeling like "someone else took my name :( "
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