You may have noticed something called "Coffee Credits" underneath your user details. What are they, and what do I do with them? These are a sort of forum currency, which can be used to purchase things like banners, customised icons, and custom themes through the various Shops (https://tch-forum.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=10). They're earned in a variety of ways - primarily, by making posts on the forums. The standard rate is 5 Coffee Credits per post and 50 Coffee Credits per topic - but, there are a few variations, as follows: [table][tr][th colspan=2]Coffee Credits per post[/th][/tr][tr][td]Standard rate[/td][td]5 Coffee Credits per post; 50 Coffee Credits per topic[/td][/tr][tr][td]Posting in Forum Games[/td][td]2 Coffee Credits per post; 20 Coffee Credits per topic[/td][/tr][tr][td]Posting in Counting Corner[/td][td]1 Coffee Credit per post; 10 Coffee Credits per topic[/td][/tr][tr][td]Making a long post (more than 1,000 characters)*[/td][td]+1 Coffee Credit per 1,000 characters[/td][/tr][tr][td]Holiday season (December)[/td][td]All Coffee Credits from posts doubled[/td][/tr][/table] * - Do note that anything in 'quote' tags does not count towards your characters for long posts; after all, this will usually be something you copied and pasted, or some other person's post you quoted :P . Furthermore, if I get the sense that people are trying to abuse this (e.g. by posting large amounts of filler), then I reserve the right to dock Coffee Credits from these people! Of course, posting isn't the only way to earn Coffee Credits. There are others too:  [table][tr][th colspan=2]Current ways to earn Coffee Credits[/th][/tr][tr][th]Method[/th][th]Coffee Credits earned[/th][/tr][tr][td]Sign-up bonus[/td][td]1000 Coffee Credits[/td][/tr][tr][td]Posting[/td][td](See above table)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Winning contests[/td][td]Varies (usually 300-2500 Coffee Credits for the contest winner; lower prizes for other entrants)[/td][/tr][tr][td]Reporting spam/inappropriate posts[/td][td]250 Coffee Credits per incident reported[/td][/tr][tr][td]Birthday bonus[/td][td]500 Coffee Credits[/td][/tr][tr][td]Referral bonus[/td][td]250 Coffee Credits per member referred[/td][/tr][/table] Of course, the contests vary considerably - so, these require some elaboration. Here's a guide to the different types of contests that exist here, and the prizes that you can expect to win from them. In short, the community-voted awards carry the highest prizes; followed by the more involved creative contests (like in Minecraft); with the simple word games being the lowest:  [table][tr][th colspan=2]Contest prizes, before and after changes[/th][/tr][tr][th]Type of contest[/th][th]Current prize[/th][/tr][tr][td]https://tch-forum.com/images/awards/rosettelightblue.png Word games[/td][td]Up to 750CC for winning (usually around 250CC)[/td][/tr][tr][td]https://tch-forum.com/images/awards/rosetteyellow.png Caption contests[/td][td]500CC for winning 200CC for 2nd place 100CC for 3rd place[/td][/tr][tr][td]https://tch-forum.com/images/awards/rosetteorange.png Mad Libs[/td][td]500CC for winning 200CC for 2nd place 100CC for 3rd place[/td][/tr][tr][td]https://tch-forum.com/images/awards/rosettered.png Prediction contests[/td][td]Up to 2000CC for winning (Anything more than 500CC is unusual in practice)[/td][/tr][tr][td]https://tch-forum.com/images/awards/rosettepink.png Creative contests[/td][td]2500CC for winning 1500CC for 2nd place 1000CC for 3rd place 500CC for 4th place 250CC for anyone else receiving at least 2 votes[/td][/tr][tr][td]https://tch-forum.com/images/awards/award-controller.png Forum Contributions awards (quarterly)[/td][td]2500CC for winning 1500CC for 2nd place 1000CC for 3rd place 500CC for 4th place 250CC for anyone else receiving at least 2 votes[/td][/tr][tr][td]https://tch-forum.com/images/awards/goldrmedalgreen.png Newcomer of the Year[/td][td]2500CC for winning 1500CC for 2nd place 1000CC for 3rd place 500CC for 4th place 250CC for anyone else receiving at least 2 votes[/td][/tr][tr][td]https://tch-forum.com/images/awards/goldmedal2.png Member of the Year[/td][td]5000CC for winning 2500CC for 2nd place 1500CC for 3rd place 1000CC for 4th place 500CC for 5th place 250CC for anyone else receiving at least 2 votes[/td][/tr][/table]  In general, hosts will be expected to provide their own contest prizes. However, there will be cases where a host enters their own contest (this is common with prediction contests, for example). In this case, the prize will come from the central "Coffee Credit Bank" account (that is, the account from which I have posted this :P ).  So, once you have these Coffee Credits, what do you do with them? Well, as indicated above, you can use them to purchase items in a variety of shops. You can also use them to purchase tickets in our periodic lotteries, in the hope of winning bigger prizes. Or, finally, you can donate them to the central bank account (by clicking the 'Send' link on the left of this post). Anyone who donates the following amounts will receive a Donor's Medal, to go in their signature:  https://tch-forum.com/images/awards/goldmedalblue.png - For donating 60,000 Coffee Credits or more https://tch-forum.com/images/awards/silvermedalblue2.png - For donating 30,000 Coffee Credits or more https://tch-forum.com/images/awards/bronzemedalblue2.png - For donating 10,000 Coffee Credits or more Just to be clear: in order to be eligible for a medal, all of the money would need to be donated in one lump sum. I'm afraid I won't be able to award a medal for a series of small donations which adds up to 10,000 Coffee Credits over time: such a system would be very error-prone, and would be too much hassle to keep track of :( . However, you can win multiple Donor's Medals by making multiple large donations: these aren't like the Special Contributions trophies, which can only be won once! So, if anybody has any questions, ask away, and I'll do my best to answer them (from my regular account :lol: ).