New feature: bonus points transfers!

We recently added a new feature with which you can send a portion of your accumulated bonus points to another member. A number of you have already noticed the feature and have used it to send points to friends and others. For those of you who don't know about it yet, the feature can be found on the bonus points page, alongside various other options to spend your points. You can also find a "send points" link near the top of every member's profile (other than your own, of course), to make sending bonus points to them simpler.

The ability to send bonus points to another member is just one more thing you can do with the points you have earned. You can use it to send someone a more tangible thank you for uploading a DVD that you really wanted, for custom subbing a movie, as well as for many other actions. It also provides another way of sorts for members who have no difficulty maintaining a good share ratio to spread their wealth around the community. You be the judge of how to spend the bonus points you have earned.

There are a few restrictions and other aspects of the feature that you should read about before attempting to send points to anyone. Chiefly that each transfer must be of at least 300 points and that there is a 20% tax charged on the amount of points to be sent. The minimum and the tax are in place, in part, to prevent abuse. An unfortunate necessity. If you have JavaScript enabled in your browser, the total cost for the transfer will be shown next to the input field on the bonus points page so you don't have to spend time calculating the amount yourself. If you do not have JavaScript enabled, you will still be able to send points but you'll miss out on seeing the final cost automatically update on the page and will have to do the math in your head. The feature also automatically sends a PM to the recipient of the points informing them about the transfer. Optionally, you can include a message in that PM letting the recipient know why you sent them the points, wishing them well, or whatever else you want to say.
Bonus points tweaks

On a somewhat related note, we also recently made a few adjustments to how bonus points can be earned by seeding torrents. These tweaks make earning points by seeding torrents a little easier, which benefits everybody who seeds, but should prove most beneficial to newer members who start out on ADC by grabbing older torrents or less popular torrents that provide fewer opportunities for them to upload data. This change can make digging your way out of a ratio hole a bit less difficult, though it will still take time and plenty of seeding to get your ratio in order.
Donations!

It's been over a year since we have needed to ask for donations to cover the bills, thanks to the generosity of our community, but our funds have run dry again. We have been working on setting up a more traditional donation system, but it's been delayed due to various setbacks and a few real life matters that had to take priority. Nevertheless, we should have a permanent solution up in the near future - hopefully within the next week or two.

In the meantime, we do need some donations to help us cover more immediate site expenses, including domain renewal. If you are willing and able to make a donation of at least 20 euros through PayPal, please send a PM to gfk to get our PayPal address. Please understand that we can only share the address with members who have been here for at least a year and whose accounts are in good standing (i.e. not in ratio trouble), due to past issues we've had with accepting donations through PayPal. The donation system that we will launch in the near future will be open to all members, regardless of their status, however.