Hello users of Hopup. I, like most of you, am very confused, frustrated, and angry at these new changes coming to hopup. I’ve read every thread on here regarding the topic at hand, and would like to address a few things for myself. Firstly, lets discuss the slow but sure corporatization of our beloved app. I remember in 2017, when all sales were private, there were fewer people, HopUp payments wasn’t a thing, and there was no “SS Airsoft” or others like it. Nowadays, these businesses are being shoved down our throats as we scroll endlessly because they decided to post their entire goddamn inventory all at once. But sadly, no matter how much we complain, they are here to stay. Also, as everyone knows, those businesses are making this app lots of money, and HopUp wont let that stop, even if it is at the expense of its users. Now, on top of that, HopUp will start coercing us on how we can, and cannot do business, even if in the end, it is our choice and our choice alone. The important thing to note is, no matter how much we complain, HopUp truly takes little account in our words. The creators of hopup want to make money in order for this app to stay afloat, which can be both good and bad. These new policies that are to be implemented are not in our favor, but are rather mostly in HopUp’s favor. The guise of anti scamming techniques, money transfers, and buyers protection, is over a ploy for them to make money. The need to turn a profit, isn’t always completely negative to users, but can both be beneficial and detrimental for the app. On one hand, HopUp wants the app to run smoothly, be high quality, and have generally good morale, so they will do the best that they can to ensure you have a good time on the app, so you eventually come back. HopUp will basically try its best to make you want to keep doing business on here, and to tell others to do business here as well. This is not a bad thing, and is just basic economics. If the app ran like garbage, you wouldn’t wanna come back right? On the flip side, developers can, will, and have been implementing rules and regulations that will benefit them and them alone, no matter how much they know we would disagree with these proposed policies (which is made crystal clear after they didn’t communicate to users of these changes) Even from the beginning, the corporatization of this app was inevitable. It is, in fact, inevitable for any website/app that gains traction (Youtube and Google namely). What is important, is that the users on this app remain engaged, and vocal of their/our concerns. I will now break down the ominous message sent to us: “More reasons we should celebrate”... yea, sure... 1. HopUp payments is NOT the only way to safely and securely do transactions, not even by a long shot., so lets get that out of the way right off the bat. There is always the ever so popular PayPal, which I have had nothing but positive experiences on, and have even developed a fool proof trading plan that revolves around the idea of using PayPal to trade safely. This plan has has not yet failed me or others in the many times it has been used. Now on to “Instant checkout processes”. I know it, you know it, we all know it. The majority of HopUp’s seller base is on the secondary market. Nobody goes to Amazon in order to buy used items, at that point, why buy from users like “SS Airsoft”, when you can purchase brand new items from Evike, Airsoft GI, Airsoft Megastore, etc. Also, bartering will be dead, and we might as well shop on ebay. The proposition sounds nice on the slick surface, but in truth, it will do little to benefit the vast majority if the users. 2. Granted, HopUp has beneficial protection, but doesn’t PayPal also offer the same beneficial protection AND insurance? And at a fraction of the cost at that right? Next up is protection from “Fraudulent Payment Disputes”, which will benefit the seller in minimizing the amount of fraudulent disputes. I personally am glad HopUp is addressing this issue, but this is one of the few benefits of the new update. Nothing that HopUp can do will fully eliminate fraud and scams, no matter how hard they try. There will be always be few scammers here and there, but they are an underwhelming minority, and if you know what you are doing, they are easily avoidable. 3. The five star ratings on your profile without direct rating from buyers already exist, and should not have even been mentioned in the message. It seems like the point was used as filler. The “Commercial Discount” on shipping is not something I am not against completely at first, but I feel it is just another bogus insensitive that sounds nice, but is ultimately not in our favor. They may discount the cost of shipping, but wouldn’t the 10% tax outweigh the discounts of the proposed “deducted shipping”? the Automated payouts on the other hand, sounds very suspicious. Your cash is held in escrow until the package arrives, and there is no telling how much time it will take until the package has arrived, and is given the thumbs up by the buyer, or when the computer decides to give you your cash. Now, HopUp did not say anything about dictating words in our posts (although I wouldn’t be surprised if they did). So at this point in time, there are a few ways of getting around these policies. Here is my advice: Market the post with a placeholder price, such as “$9,999” or “$6,969”. Then, in the description of your post, specify that the price is merely a placeholder, and that you prefer to use PayPal to do business. If not, you can always put “MESSAGE BEFORE PURCHASING” in your description so that you can communicate to the buyer on how you like to do transactions. Last Words: In all, there are a multitude of holes in the proposed policies HopUp has announced and is trying to implement. This app was special because of the ease of communication, and the luxury of privacy in transactions. It used to be a safe haven for people to both connect, and buy/sell/trade their items with one another, without being bound by corporatized rules and regulations, or being forced to use a specific payment method that will only hinder the seller. As I read someone say, the app was indeed sought after for being specifically unlike eBay, but now is ultimately set become *arguably* worse. And I also would not be surprised at all if I saw MANY people start to leave the app as a result of these frivolous changes. The last thing that really bothers me is the sudden lack or communication HopUp has exhibited. There was no warning, no indication that this bombshell of a policy would be dropped on us without warning. And it is obvious why we didn’t get a warning, and that is because they knew we would try to fight these ridiculous changes, and didn’t want to go through the trouble of dealing with the concerns of users (as said above). I had even seen user “Cyma Is Bae” say directly that he will be leaving the app once the changes are in place, to which the HopUp team gingerly replied “Hate to see you go!” That response almost a mockery of his, and all of our concerns, given that that user in particular has been here since even before me, he is indeed a “Veteran” of HopUp. If they really couldn’t care less to see him go, then they have absolutely no problem letting people like you or me leave. I genuinely don’t want this app to die, I’ve been here since the beginning, in the infancy stage of things, and I would absolutely hate to see this app go belly up just like YouTube. Thanks for reading this humongous essay of a post, and please tell me your thoughts below. Please, take to the comment section to express your concerns and thoughts. I really hope HopUp doesn’t just send out some robotic copy/paste message, or makes a post avoiding the topic at hand. Thanks for your time and patience, stay safe everyone... Edit: Wow, this post has blown up. But the reason for this edit is that HopUp literally made a super bland and off point post addressing none of the issues. Hell, I even made a poll of “PayPal v. HopUp”, and HopUp literally dismissed everyones vote how disappointing...