A Yellow and Blue Cluster

So, I'm new to this site, relatively speaking, and I don't say a whole lot. The primary reason I use CivitAI is because I can generate "nsfw" images - I don't count nudity as inherently "nsfw" but that's my own personal venom directed at the ass-backwards and frankly stupid Victorian mores of the modern era, and I understand why some do. A quick look through my catalog will reveal nothing spectacular; usually just single character images with a preference for a few things that aren't really relevant, but only a handful of real, NSFW images that I made in a whim.

I also understand that there are a number of external pressures. For instance, power is not getting any cheaper, server costs are only going up, and more and more folks are getting choked out of an economy that forgot it's supposed to be there for them. Energy costs are going up because natural gas is getting shipped overseas by the tankerful, courtesy of that bill they just passed in June, and that directly affects the costs of running literally anything. Again, my personal bugaboos. However, this preface is to acknowledge that even if I don't agree with the decision, I can understand the logic behind it.

However.

The roll out hit quickly, and the backtracking makes this whole thing look like a disaster. So, what can be done?

I Am Not Presumptive Enough To Tell People How They Should Be Doing Things

At the end of the day, I'm a free user. I understand my voice isn't inherently as valuable as the voice of a person who pays for this stuff. However, there have been a handful of times over the last few weeks where I have given though to purchasing a membership. Those thoughts are gone now, but that highlights the business model that should be at work, doesn't it? You bring people in with the free stuff and them promise them an improvement with membership. The membership becomes what it should be - "Free+". This, of course, is my perspective, and I understand free users like myself cost money at the end of the day. I respect and acknowledge that.

So if the problem is money, and if the problem is credit cards - and let's face it, I began this piece with invective against Victorian mores for a reason - then perhaps a way to fix the problem is a conversion. A lot of individuals, such as myself, have a fair amount of blue buzz. I've already acknowledge that I only use this site because it's not as bound by the backwards nature of, ahem, "mores" (or the self-righteous indulgence in the illusion thereof). So by locking me out, you lock out my primary reason for using the site.

From where I'm sitting, as a person with little experience in this whole affair, a simple solution would be to institute a conversion metric for Blue to Yellow Buzz. That way, there's a barrier to entry, sure, but it's not insurmountable and free users can still experiment with the LORAs and Checkpoints to get results they like. Perhaps a rate of 100 to 50 or 10 to 1 Blue to Yellow. Not Ideal, I understand, but little about this situation is ideal. Those who have memberships just don't have to worry about the conversion, which makes having a membership valuable while at the same time doesn't just wipe out the value of Blue Buzz to folks like me.

I've seen some calls for rolling back to previous settings; I don't know if that's anymore practical. I do know that I plan on keeping my powder dry for the moment and seeing what happens before I make any decisions; the leadership here does listen to feedback, and I have no doubt it's a cacophony right now with the only clear sound being, "Wrong way!". So hopefully the management does something, if not reverting it then implementing a conversion metric from Blue to Yellow so that way free users aren't locked out of one of the primary reasons for using this site.

Anyway, that's all I have to say on the matter. Everyone who read this, stay staff out there.