Hello PucaFam! As you may have read, there have been a lot of changes here at PucaTrade. I understand there's a range of emotions that you could be feeling right now. It's amid these feelings of uncertainty and fear that we have the opportunity to build something together as a community. There's no question that 2018 will be the most challenging year yet, but I believe that not only can we make it through, but that we can come out better on the other side. We've found ourselves in a very exciting moment in the life of PucaTrade.

Finances

One of the challenges that we will face entering into 2018 is resources. PucaTrade is currently having financial troubles (also summarized in Mitch's post). It's not a good situation, but we don't intend to be paralyzed by it. We are actively working to overcome the problem and are taking steps to that end, such as:

Cut the founders from the payroll. (This has already been done—we've been operating like this for some time now.)

Analyze other areas for cost-cutting in the budget. For example, some of our backend data analytic services (Periscope) can possibly be reduced or shut off all together.

Investigate non-invasive advertising opportunities and partnerships. We occupy a unique space in the Magic: The Gathering market. We have a large audience and we are not in direct competition with companies selling cards. We have had talks of partnerships in the past with Magic vendors and content sites, and we will be seeking these kinds of things in 2018.

Continue exploring options with some individuals who have approached us about investing in PucaTrade.

Lastly, and most importantly, we are working on our platform to provide a service that members deem valuable enough to pay for.

Transparency

Some things might have jumped out at you from these last two posts: We are speaking plainly about PucaTrade's struggles. This is because of a change we're making to help improve our relationship with you: Transparency. One of our new goals is for PucaTrade to be embodied by our community and to be propelled by its energy. To do that, we need to ensure that you, the community, has the information needed to help contribute towards PucaTrade's success. You need to know if we are winning or losing and what steps we are taking in response to each situation. Here are the steps we plan to take, beyond these posts, to increase transparency:

Publish our platform statistics. This includes points in the system, total members, active members, and the rate of trades.

Share our financial goals and how we are progressing.

Member-Centric

The last set of action items will be related to you as members. We want to change our posture toward you as members. This means that when making decisions, we involve you and weigh your input heavily. Our initiatives will be focused on your experience as a member and the development of our community. Listed below are our initiatives for 2018:

Turn off common dues (This is already done).

Collect data from the community to provide you with an improved experience.

Improve our turnaround time for case administration. We've already taken action in this area by bringing on a veteran admin to help resolve customer concerns in a timely manner.

Release (within the team) a social media map, to ensure that we cover your feedback from all potential platforms.

2018 is going to be an exciting year. I love to cheer for the underdog, and that's the position that PucaTrade finds itself. Let's cue the Rocky music and march into 2018 together.

We'll talk soon.