Shop Proposition

Your idea has some merit to it and your observations are correct. The Artober Event did cause a noticeable drop in publicity (though I sort of treated it like a vacation). I will consider your proposition of conglomerating our shops, but I believe there are many things we would need to discuss before coming to an arrangement that is suitable to all of us.

Separating us by person would be something nice to consider, but if we were to do that there should be parameters set in place to address issues such as:

How to deal with abandoned shops. (such as shopkeepers who decided to stay closed forever, or left their store open but clearly are not accepting work anymore).

Non-rotating publicity (who will get top billing and will that change? Will we have a cycle of featured owners/stores?)

Competitive Pricing (if we are conglomerating and each individual charges their own rate, where's the competition coming from? Independent stores? Won't that lead to being undercut in prices?)

Trending Shops being more popular regardless? (newer shops getting more requests due to being newer shops)

Membership, what its benefits and responsibilities are, what our duties are to our members?

How we would interact with independent shops.

And many many more I am sure.

I am, and always have been, open to discussion on discord. If you do decide to create some sort of server to host discussion centered around Hio art businesses, please include an invitation for me. I would be honored to help, even if it is just to provide feedback.

Thank you!
Sylvain

I am fond of that idea, though I do agree with @Sylvain Indarys. are a few things that would need to be figured out beforehand though. I am open to discussion, but unfortunately I don’t have discord.

-Nell

Addressing Sylvain's post! Syl in bold text, me in regular:

We can also separate by what people are offering, however, I feel that would be more difficult if shops close and open.


How to deal with abandoned shops. (such as shopkeepers who decided to stay closed forever, or left their store open but clearly are not accepting work anymore).
An idea would be to have a section for closed shops (temporary) and if the shop holder chooses to completely close it, we can simply get rid of them on the list.

Non-rotating publicity (who will get top billing and will that change? Will we have a cycle of featured owners/stores?)
I think cycle might be interesting or spotlight shops upon request weekly? Otherwise, they could be sorted by something like alphabetical order or something non-discriminant

Competitive Pricing (if we are conglomerating and each individual charges their own rate, where's the competition coming from? Independent stores? Won't that lead to being undercut in prices?)
This will be a tough one to address. I offer that we keep our prices independent from this. I was imagining this conglomerate more as a 'Masterlist' of which shops are open and what they are selling and perhaps a few examples, then we can link to personal shops so no matter if they are on the first page or the last page, it is still easy to find.

Trending Shops being more popular regardless? (newer shops getting more requests due to being newer shops)
Going back to one of the first idea, if we spotlight shops, then we can rotate through new and old shops.

Membership, what its benefits and responsibilities are, what our duties are to our members?
If by this you are meaning who gets added to the list, then I say we leave it open to shops open for more than a week? And shops might be taken off if they are inactive for three months and the shop holder hasn't given mention of temporary leave or other things.

How we would interact with independent shops.
I say we let them do their thing. If they don't want to be a part of the list, that is their choice. This is just an easy way for people to see shops easier.

1. How to deal with abandoned shops?

I agree with Kat. Temporary "closed shops" with a deadline in place. Failure to "re-up" membership means being removed.

2. Non-rotating publicity

I like the idea of all of the shops voting for who to feature each month. Maybe a single featured shop gets to the top each month, then the rest are shuffled in non-discriminant order. We draw numbers, roll lotto, or just go alphabetical

3. Competitive Pricing

I agree, there shouldn't be a limit to what we are allowed to charge our customers, there should be some sort of regulation in place to prevent "lost payment" in this case. Each shop owner should refuse to work with anyone who hasn't paid another in the conglomerate. I.E. Amara refuses to work with "made up name" because he never paid Kat what she was due.

5. Membership. What are it's benefits? What are the responsibilities? What are the conglomerate's duties to its members?

I think we should be selective in who can join. This will create an environment of people who are dedicated to producing good work, and I am not willing to surround myself with other artists/shop owners who won't take it seriously.

I suggest three of each.

Benefits
5.a- Each Shop Owner will have the benefit of being equal in terms of opportunity to be featured.
5.b- Each Shop Owner will have the benefit of ensured non-service. (Won't work with anyone who has been reported as not paying/denying received service, etc)
5.c- Each Shop Owner will have the benefit of conglomerate shop discounts. (meaning all conglomerate shop owners must have a "conglomerate membership discount price"

Responsibilities
5.d- Each Shop Owner will vote at the end of each month for the next featured shop.
5.e- Each Shop Owner will maintain their own store, and will be responsible for the content within it.
5.f- Each Shop will maintain a good standing in the Hio Community, and will agree to abide by the site rating and rules.

Conglomerate's Responsibilities
5.g-The Conglomerate won't favor a single artist or permit favoritism of a single artist.
5.h-The Conglomerate will be moderated like any other forum of Hio and is subject to the site rating and rules.
5.i- The Conglomerate will be responsible for monitoring shops that are delinquent / closed / shutdown / abandoned

(feel free to agree or disagree I just want to discuss)

6. How will we interact with independent shops

I agree, let's pretend they don't exist/not bother them.

I agree with all of this! I’m personally in (:

Awesome! So 'the Conglomerate' is still getting things up and running, but to those who do not have discord (where some of the current planning is being held) I will shoot those interested an owl as we get significant things happen. Hoping to get this idea up and running ASAP!

Could you shoot me an owl @Katrina Walker? I sadly do not have discord.

To answer your questions @Elisabeth Erner:

And @Sylvain Indarys correct me if I'm wrong with any of this since most of it was regarding some stuff you contributed. My answer in bold, Elisabeth in plain text.

1. Featured Shop: If I understand things correctly, the plan is to have one featured shop each month and this will be based on voting. Instead of voting, why not just feature one alphabetically? I think it'll be more fair, considering the possibility that voting would only lead to "more popular user's shop would be featured first" or even perhaps Store A would be featured more often that other stores.
Yes, we as shop holders (and other people?? possibly??) would vote for the featured shop each month. The featured shop would just be at the top, the rest of the shops would be sorted randomly (probably using Tatsu or some other machine). As I do understand that the more popular user may be voted more, so we may choose the second or third if the same shop is voted twice.

2. Membership: Is this charged or something? Like, being a member means we must pay a certain amount to someone? No, there would be no charge. Membership would simply be a 'title' that comes with a few benefits.

3. Conglomerate: Could anyone define this for me, please? In my native language the word conglomerate means "a rich person, usually a businessperson". Doesn't sound correct when I applied to our context here... Of course! I apologize that, that word was difficult to understand! According to the internet, conglomerate is, "a number of different things or parts that are put or grouped together to form a whole but remain distinct entities." So basically it's a fancy word for a group of businesses working together but are still separated in a way.

4. Discount: Does it mean each member would have discount when ordering from fellow members, but also has the responsibility to give discount for other members? How much is this discount? Is it fixed/required or is it up to each shop owner? So, yes, this means that if you are a member of the conglomerate, you would get a discount on other stores in the conglomerate. The amount of a discount will be up to a shop holder for the sake of personal preference. It feels a bit rude to force people to take an amount off since the prices and styles for things vary so much.

5. Benefit Guarantee: This may be especially important if membership is charged (see Question 2). Members would likely to ask, "OK, so I have to pay for membership, which means I'm already losing some money. What's the guarantee that I can earn more than what I've lost? That a certain number of people would order from me?" Well, since we are not having a charge, that answers a part of this. There can't be a certain guarantee that this will result in more business. However, having all of the shops in one place ensures that we all have an equal chance. Shops that may be pushed to later pages get an equal opportunity to be seen. And people looking for a specific thing can find it easier than having to go in and out of each of the shops until they find it.

I hope this answered some of your questions, and again, Syl, please correct me if I'm wrong with any of this. THANK YOU FOR ASKING QUESTIONS! It is things like this that make the idea better and stronger. Also thank you for taking the time to write up that and consider any missing things.