Happy Friday, everybody!

When Furry Network was first launched as a beta site, quite a few people came forward and asked how they could support its growth, both through volunteer work as well as financially. We’ve had many volunteers for site administration and moderation, and we’ve appreciated all the tremendous help.

For the financial side, our plan has been to cover costs through the commission tool. At this point, no fees have been charged for our testers; they’ve given great information on what to improve. Once the commission tool moves to open beta testing – likely in the next two to three months – we will have fees added to the transactions. These will cover any card or PayPal transaction costs, pay for server costs, and help us continue developing Furry Network.

Below is a breakdown of the fees that will be included.

Furry Network Fee

Furry Network will take 5% of successfully-processed payments. These fees go to support the site, both in development as well as server costs.

Payment Processing Fees

Payment processing fees are the costs that our payment processor charges whenever a payment is made from a buyer. For credit cards, this amounts to 6% of the costs. We have been fortunate enough to work with a processor that understands the commissions being purchased, and we’re happy to know that payments are reliable through this system.

We’re also looking into adding PayPal as a payment method. The fee is considerably lower (generally about 1%), but explicit content can sometimes be an issue. We will continue looking into this option.

As the number of commissions grows, we will continue to look for options to reduce these fees.

Payout Fees

The payment to the seller goes through PayPal. The fees associated are up to 1% of the transaction amount.

What This Means For Sellers

When pricing commissions, be sure to take these fees into consideration. The price that you send to a buyer is the amount that they will pay; up to 12% of that amount will go towards those fees.

We understand that in order for these fees to be fair, the service for the site needs to be worth what you’re getting in return. We have some large feature announcements in the upcoming weeks, and we’re hoping these help change the way commissions are done throughout the fandom.

Thank you all for your support as we work towards open beta testing for commissions. We hope this proves to be a helpful tool for buyers and sellers alike.

Digby