New Tool Members -- Instructions page

[Wayne]

I am a new tool member as of this evening, and I don't know what to do next or when to expect things. I have a suggestion to help new Toolbox members. When signing up, have the sign-up web page either list all the steps and what to expect, or have a link to a new page titled "New Tool Members -- Instructions / What to do and expect" page.

For new Tools, it's a little confusing as there are multiple logins, especially if you haven't created any Erf accounts before. Some suggested posts that could benefit from a link to "Instructions/What to do and expect" page are:
--This post New Tool Memberships Delayed Slightly saying there are delays between subscriptions to activation.
- This post: New Subscription Options: Yearly, and
- anywhere you process / announce subscriptions.

What I suggest for the web page. Most of it I took from user Romanosuke, with a little modification. I noticed he posted this in several replies to people asking the same question as mine, indicating Erfwold should clarify the process.
----------------------------------------------------
[ __ ] Create monthly recurring subscription (Your Forum Name or New Tool ID)
[ __ ] Create annual recurring subscription (Your Forum Name or New Tool ID)

Thank you for choosing to become a Tool. When creating a toolbox account, there are a few things you should know.

When creating a new account, if you haven't already been around the Erfworld site, then you should create:

• An Erfworld Forum account (If you want to join in conversation / ask questions). Strongly recommended you do this first so you can have the same forum name and Toolbox ID.
• An Erfworld Store Account (if you want to purchase things)
• An ErfWiki account (if you want to edit the ErfWiki)

When your subscription Toolbox account is approved, we will email you with the details to log into the Tool account and get all the extras. Please note that Toolbox Subscription approval is a manual process. First, the electronic payment has to clear (3-5 business days) and then its activated by hand. You will receive an email when it's set up.

Once your Toolbox membership is activated, you will get an email saying:

Your account has now been set up for the forums, the store and the Toolbox.
Your username is:
Your Toolbox password is:
Feel free to change this password.
Let me know if you have any problems logging in.
Thank you for being a Tool!

You should now be able to login as a Tool and get all the extras (full sized comics at lower compression, wallpaper of the month, lost panels, ad-free site, private Toolbox forum, podcasts, scripts, and more).

As a reminder, the Toolbox login is in the upper-right corner of any main Erfworld page, click on "Toolbox Login" (clickable link)

You should also have your store credit. You can check your store credit by:
-Logging onto your Store Account
-Click Modify Profile (Top Right in between Wishlist and Delete Profile)
-On the Modify Profile page, look for Points Available (between Profile Details and Personal information)

When you are ready to make your purchase, just fill your shopping cart, check out. Use to the Tool Point Payment option. The next step will ask you how many points do you want to use. Note that Tool points can not be used to pay for shipping fees. Finally, you pay the remaining balance.

If for some reason you did not get any points once your account is activated, fill out a Erfworld Customer Support form here:
http://www.erfworld.com/erfworld-customer-support-form/
Give them your account name and email address associated with your account.

[smack that isaiah]

Wow, this is a huge help, thank you for compiling this stuff!

I'm also a new tool and was wondering about a lot of this

[Wayne]

I appreciate the response. Please note I cobbled that together from my own experiences up to the point of payment, plus some other posts, mostly by the helpful member Romanosuke. I can't verify what happens after submitting payment as I'm still waiting for the above-mentioned email.

Hopefully a link it will make it to their main page so new Tool's aren't left wonder, "what next?"

[Wayne]

There are still delays in getting fully set-up.
- I registered on Dec 5, 2010 per the first post above.
- My full points were available, and I pre-ordered the books, less than a week later.
- Creation of my Toolbox account has not happened yet (5 weeks).

This is not just me, people are posting the same issue in the Bug Reports forum, see Toolness not activated yet" and "Unable to log into toolbox. (both those are clickable links)

On Jan 3 I used the web feedback and got a very polite Mal the next day. He explained the same as the forum postings; it takes a while to set up each account, and he's new and getting caught up. My speculation is he's focusing on the toolbox points first, as he should (due to the discount countdown). As long as I'm not forgotten, I'm not upset.

I would again recommend an Erfworld page where you list the material I listed above, and also expected wait times.

I also suggest that if it takes two months to activate an account (and I'm not insistent or mad about it) that the toolbox login lasts 12 months from the time of activation, not the time of payment. It would be a nice thing to do.

Either way, it's a great comic and I appreciate both that and the opportunity to purchase the books, and look forward to the extras as well. The extra picture Xin posted Dec 31 on the main comic page might have roped my friend in, too.

[ZedPower]

I also suggest that if it takes two months to activate an account (and I'm not insistent or mad about it) that the toolbox login lasts 12 months from the time of activation, not the time of payment. It would be a nice thing to do.

Yeah, that would be all kind of classy.

[Junkyarddog]

There are still delays in getting fully set-up.
- Creation of my Toolbox account has not happened yet (5 weeks).
- My full points were available, and I pre-ordered the books, less than a week later.

Whoa, you're right. I didn't realize that you could end up with the tool points before becoming a tool. Thank you for pointing this out, now I can buy stuff.

[Wayne]

I joined Dec 5. I was activated for the toolbox on January 11. So just over 5 weeks.

Speculating based on the posted news (and my luckomancy), I expect I joined at the absolute worst time, during a sale, holiday rush, and personnel changeover.

I am willing to bet things get get caught up quickly as the Mal gets up to speed. I already see a lot of people besides me have had the Tool icon next to their name in the forum, so it appears Mal is working hard and fast to catch up.

Thanks again for a great web comic. First and only one I've paid for.

I'm finally in the toolbox. My God......it's full of stars......

[Mal]

Glad to see ya so happy with us, Wayne ^^

I'm doing my damnedest to get everyone set up as quickly as I can!