Tip your Porter

[Odeseus]

Originally Posted by tristantio [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Buffs don't require zoning.

I also believe most people mention "porting/buffing for donations" because you are (in most cases) more likely to get a larger sum of plat that way.

If I know I typically give 100pp and see someone "porting for donations", I will likely give them 100pp. If I see someone saying "ports, 20pp" it is a lot more likely that they will get 20pp.

This. It is dumb to state how much you're asking to port. First, people who will normally pay more will probably just pay what you asked. Second, people who don't have your price won't ask you because they'll assume you won't port without that price met. Get a bad reputation for not porting people on CRs or newbies and you'll have less people coming to you for ports in general.

As for buffs/ports. Buffs do not require you to completely abandon what you're currently doing. Buffing in EC doesn't force me to stop buying/selling. Buffing when I'm camping something or killing mobs makes me stop for a couple mins to get my mana back but it won't force me to give up my camp (usually).

Ports require you to stop whatever you're doing, give up any camp you may have and possibly go pick someone up. Then you have to take them someplace new, and then back to whatever you were doing. Unless someone is just straight up offering rides, you have to abandon whatever else you could be doing to port that person. That is why you donate. Not only are you costing the porter time and money, but forcing them to give up doing anything but porting you.

Don't know if I made that clear, but there is a BIG difference between buffing and porting.

[Nordenwatch]

Originally Posted by Odeseus [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

This. It is dumb to state how much you're asking to port. First, people who will normally pay more will probably just pay what you asked. Second, people who don't have your price won't ask you because they'll assume you won't port without that price met. Get a bad reputation for not porting people on CRs or newbies and you'll have less people coming to you for ports in general.

As for buffs/ports. Buffs do not require you to completely abandon what you're currently doing. Buffing in EC doesn't force me to stop buying/selling. Buffing when I'm camping something or killing mobs makes me stop for a couple mins to get my mana back but it won't force me to give up my camp (usually).

Ports require you to stop whatever you're doing, give up any camp you may have and possibly go pick someone up. Then you have to take them someplace new, and then back to whatever you were doing. Unless someone is just straight up offering rides, you have to abandon whatever else you could be doing to port that person. That is why you donate. Not only are you costing the porter time and money, but forcing them to give up doing anything but porting you.

Don't know if I made that clear, but there is a BIG difference between buffing and porting.

Luckily druids and wizards are never in groups after 40 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[Faisca]

Originally Posted by Nordenwatch [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Luckily druids and wizards are never in groups after 40 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Exactly!

Apparently, in P99, porters are supposed to be playing by themselves in a corner of the world and stop what they are doing to provide taxi services for a few coins, and when the service is finished they are supposed to get back to that same corner until taxi services are required again, cause people don’t want them in their groups.

Well, to me that’s not fair nor fun.

If people want to have their perfect group set, fine. But if you’re never going to invite porters for groups, you shouldn’t be bothering them for ports either.

[aerah]

I had a post half-written, but I think Kautin put it best:

Originally Posted by Kautin

If you only port for plat say so and no ones feelings get hurt.

I do feel like I should add:

Asking for a donation is asinine, it's no longer a donation. The reason you do that, instead of charging a <flat/variable> fee, is generally because you're betting the person will give you more plat for your services than what you think they're worth. Example: If you're offering a port for 20p, but someone would have paid 100p, you aren't losing if you get the "sale." You've valued your service at a rate, and got that compensation. To make an EC analogy of what that example is about, if I put any item in a trade window with someone and said "just give me what you think is fair," it's my own fault if someone gives me 100p for a 1kp item.

If tipping is such a problem, and you don't want to charge a "flat" fee because you don't want to scare off the lowbies, offer a variable rate based on level and/or gear. You know, negotiate for the services you're about to provide. I'm sure it won't take more than 30seconds for you to list a price and the person to accept.

Left to my own devices, I'll give anywhere from 30-50p for a port, and 50p more for each boat I'll miss.