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The Shady Relief Fund
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The Shady Relief Fund
The Shady Relief Fund

Jul-2-2016 05:35

The Shady Relief Fund (hereinafter "the Fund") is a fund organized to help provide financial assistance to detectives owing between $500,000.00 and $1,000,000 to the Shady Character due to False Accusations.

The rules are simple:

1. To receive assistance you must contribute to the Fund a set amount monthly (amount to be determined).

2. You must have 2 False Accusations on your record before the Fund will pay monies towards your Shady fee.

3. The Fund will only pay half of your total Shady fee as per Shady's associate in Delhi.

4. The Fund will only provide assistance to a detective once in a 12 month period. If you apply for assistance from the Fund and are approved, you will not be eligible to receive assistance from the Fund for the next 12 months. However, if you wish to receive assistance from the Fund at the end of that 12 month period, you will be required to continue making monthly contributions during the deferral period.

5. You must have been a member of the Fund (i.e., contributing to the Fund on a monthly basis) for six months before you can apply for financial assistance.

6. You may make your monthly contributions by wiring money to The Shady Relief Fund from your nearest financial institution.


Replies

David Adams
David Adams
Red-Nosed

Jul-2-2016 21:51

I suspect you'll need verification from somebody other than yourself for people to take you seriously. Come back when you have it.

B.

Autumnsprings
Autumnsprings
Con Artist

Jul-2-2016 23:47

What David said.

Sounds like a good thing, but we're detectives afterall. That means we tend to be a cynical bunch. We're going to need someone's word other than a 0 day old detective. It doesn't have to be the anonymous backer, but it's got to be someone other than you.

Also, while there's nothing in place to protect us from being taken advantage of by you, there's also nothing in place to prevent unscrupulous detectives from taking advantage of you. I could contribute for 6 months. Do nothing but AIs during that time period. Get two falses. Get you to give me the money for half, then send all my money to another detective, store my gear in an agency locker (even the whiskey cellar would be big enough), then retire my detective. That puts everyone else who contributed to the fund at risk.

Unless your backer is capable and willing to insure everyone's money, AND IS WILLING TO ATTEST TO THAT TO ONE OF THE POWERS THAT BE, not only are you out, but so is everyone who contributed.

I think this is a good idea, I really do. But it needs a lot of work for it to be practical and safe for everyone involved.

The Shady Relief Fund
The Shady Relief Fund

Jul-3-2016 02:40

Thank you so much for your post, Autumn Springs. That's exactly the type of feedback I was looking for. You raise some very salient points.

As to your first concern, a very legitimate one, I believe that Secret Squirrel could verify my connection with a well-established detective by the IP address associated with this detective. Perhaps he will be so kind?

Yes, someone could attempt to fraudulently use the Fund's money, but I think that by the time a detective has reached the point where his Shady fees are $500,000 to $1,000,000 s/he will be pretty well established in Sleuth which is not to say that that necessarily makes them honest, but it does reduce the chance (I think) of them doing anything openly dishonest (and it would be immediately obvious that was the case as a player loses his contacts when he retires, which can be seen by looking at a detective's profile.)

Again, I thank you for your post, Ms. Springs. :)

The Shady Relief Fund
The Shady Relief Fund

Jul-3-2016 02:45

It was neither my intention nor my expectation that people would jump in and start sending money to the Fund, but rather to open a dialogue to see if anyone would have an interest in this type of Shady "insurance."

If enough people are interested, of course I would take the steps necessary to have the Fund sanctioned by "THE POWERS THAT BE.

So, please feel free to offer your opinions, positive or negative, here.

Thank you.

The Shady Relief Fund
The Shady Relief Fund

Jul-3-2016 03:12

Another step toward fraud prevention would be the requirement that a detective applying for relief give his password to the Fund for 1) verification that the detective does indeed have two FAs and, 2) the Fund officer could then make the payment to Shady's Delhi associate.

BadAss
BadAss
Charioteer

Jul-3-2016 04:15

Another safeguard could be that detective Shady Relief creates an agency and puts all the contributions into the safe of that agency AND hires an agency clerk. That all contributors get the password of detective Shady Relief so they can check out the safe and all financial transactions.

Everyone who claims to have two FA's and has contributed (of course) must give their password for verification. You could create a temporary password for that purpose.

shell marple
shell marple
Con Artist

Jul-3-2016 06:34

Even if all the mechanics of having and operating a Shady fund can be worked out, I'm not in favor of the idea. Shady is part of the game for a reason, he gives an edge to the game. Shady's power over our detectives has already been dulled over the years. First we were given a cap as to how much he could charge us. Then we were given the ability to reinstate our detectives if we accidentally retired them.
The price range in which this fund would help is basically geared toward the experienced player, who should probably be able to play the game without getting into FA trouble. And before anyone goes red on me, I did end up retiring my detective and having to reinstate her when I first returned so I do understand how it can happen. The thing is that the reasons for my being in FA trouble in the first place, were due to my own bad decisions. Including playing while half asleep, not paying attention, and simply taking the risk and guessing(my first FA). Anyways, avoiding FAs and paying off Shady are challenges that should be embraced. Shady and his prices are there for a reason. If the already implemented changes that take the sting out of paying Shady off and accidental retirement are not enough, maybe a different question should be asked. Do we really want to have consequences for making false accusations? Should we relegate Shady to nothing more than a colorful character in the game?

The Shady Relief Fund
The Shady Relief Fund

Jul-3-2016 07:53

Shell

Thank you very much for your post. Yours is a very valid viewpoint and I agree with much that you say. I had mixed feelings when a cap was put on Shady's fees and I was against the decision to allow a player to reinstate a retired detective. I agree that Shady was the key component that gave an edge to the game of Sleuth. However, decisions were made that started us down the slippery slope.

I also agree that avoiding FAs and paying off Shady are things that should be embraced. That is why the Fund would only pay a portion of your Shady fee, and will only pay once in a 12 month period. The Fund would not be a "get out of jail free" card.

I disagree that once you reach a certain point with a detective you shouldn't be making FAs anymore. I (and most everyone in Sleuth I know) gets them occasionally. If that were not true, there would be lots of detectives running around with $27M + in their little Sleuth accounts. At a certain point, what else is there to spend money on? (Other than helping noobs pay off their FAs.)

But, nevertheless, this is exactly the type of opinion I wanted to see expressed in this thread and I thank you for taking the time to post.

shell marple
shell marple
Con Artist

Jul-3-2016 08:39

I didn't mean to imply that a veteran detective would not get FAs. What I meant is that they should know how to handle paying off shady. I know two Fas in a very short time can happen (Sleuth Sindy) being a recent example, but it's not really the norm. Most of us will start working on collecting the money to pay off shady after our first FA, and have the full amount or nearly the full amount before we get our second FA.
You made a great case for not doing this when you talked about starting down this slippery slope. This is just taking it one step further, and in the years to come I'm sure someone will feel that the whole fee Shady requires should be paid or that a player should be able to use it more than once a year.
Also there really is not that many detectives who actively play the game to support a fund, without asking for a large monthly fee. If four or five detectives needed the maximum amount at the same time, or within the same month the fund could be depleted. What happens to the player who contributes money on a monthly basis just for backup? Only not to need the fund, until they have invested more than a million dollars. Shouldn't they get more than half?
I have always thought that it would be nice to have individual bank accounts for detectives. That way you can save just like in real life. Also instead of a fund we could go with a bank loan, to be paid back to the bank (possibly with interest)

Sophie4
Sophie4
Gopher to the Sleuth Gods

Jul-3-2016 08:45

Since this is a community, rather than buy insurance, how about helping each other? When I was a young sleuth I borrowed from a more established sleuth and I didn't pay any interest just the bank fees when I paid it back. I paid in installments.

A person could post a plea for help, that would avoid too many of us rushing to send money. And to the sleuth-in-need - there's no shame in asking, we've all been there.

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