Fresh things are always great things
When I first discovered Tensor.art (in my case, some weeks ago), I was absolutely marveled by how great, new and fresh things were. I was completely overtaken by the many features this site had to offer, and on top of that, you could earn credits, by interacting with the users' content? it was really great, and certainly such a fun ride for me. Everything felt so genuine and user centered to benefit the people and looked like a good model to also grow the community. It felt very rewarding obtaining credits back by dedicating some of my time; it really seemed like well-invested time. It made me really believe in the project, and no sooner than later, I was a subscribing member of this site. Then, a few weeks later, I was buying my first batch of credits and training loras like crazy.
Honeymoon comes to an end
Unfortunately, all this exciment eventually stopped. The online trainer, doesn't really operate like your regular kohya training, and even Fluxgym which is super easy to use, has better quality in its outputs than the mess I got with the online trainer here in Tensor.art. When you train either in Kohya or Fluxgym, 1000 steps really means 1000 steps. However, it seems to me like 1000 steps in Tensor.art is more like 300 steps or maybe less -- having most of my created loras ruined by underbaked steps and parameters that by kohya or other trainers standards would mean just about enough cooking! (having a ton of experiments to prove it!) I finally got a few good results. I don't know why, but the site trainer seems like a diluted version of what the other trainers are. I was also comparing it with the online trainer in Civitai.com which is super easy to use and has always given me better results than this one. However, after messing with the parameters, and using the tips and tricks from experieced people from the community (also with the help from an AI asisstant) I got closer results to the training made in Kohya, Fluxgym and Civitai online trainers. However, it costed me a lot of credits to relearn how to make loras and get slightly better results. so I was really full gear on into getting and squeezing as much credit from the interactions as I could before buying my next batch of credits to continue with my experiments which seemed like a logical thing to do. Btw, thumbs up to the people in Discord who were so kind and friendly to give me some tips and tricks to figure out how to use the trainer (which is something that I am really grateful about).
Surprise, surprise!
Everything was kind of getting along. Creating loras, receiving my 300 hundred credits daily + obtaining credits with the interactions. Something that was kind of strange was that I could get more credits sometimes, and sometimes I would get less. I thought to myself, maybe it has to do with different cap resets? One in the morning, one at night? Since I had experienced this in Civitai.com having their resets around 6 or 7 pm my time. So, I just went on with my day as I normally did. Creating more and more, experimenting , and when I had the chance I would hit those interactions to get those extra credits to keep it going. Little did I know that " this extra credit obtaining wasn't meant to happen " and by some bug, flaw or error from tensor.art people; the site was giving more credits than it should. To me it all seemed " normal " (being new to the site), so I kept doing it. Then, a few days ago, that dreadful morning came! I logged in and saw this:
" We recently found bugs in the "earn credits through interactions" feature, allowing some users to exploit platform loopholes and earn more credits than permitted. We will reclaim 2268.00 credits. However, acknowledging our oversight, we will provide a 50-credits compensation, deducting fewer credits accordingly. If your balance reaches zero post-reclamation, we will ensure you retain 50 credits. Thank you for your understanding and support! ----- TA Official "
So, I was branded an exploiter, and all of my credits removed! Surprise, surprise! Oh boy, you have no idea how I felt. I got really disappointed, and like my efforts to get those credits didn't matter. It wasn't just the money, but also the time invested, and mostly the way the TA official whoever that person was made me feel. It was as if I had committed a terrible crime and had to be punished for it. The way I was reffered to ... " An exploiter! " it really impacted me both emotionally and mentally. I was both devastated and felt belittled by the people in tensor.art, and it really seems so unfair since I didn't know this wasn't supposed to happen.
Crime or no crime against tensor.art?
There wasn't malicious intent on my part when it came to obtaining credits like I mentioned before, I just kept going until I reached my cap. And to be honest, I really believed that it was something normal? Sometimes, the automatized program would stopped me at a few interactions, and sometimes it would allow me to do more, so I thought it was just the way things should be accordingly to the program. Being everything automatized, well the machine and programming knows better than I, right? I just let it happen and stopped when the automatization program had me reach my cap. I didn't do anything out of the ordinary to earn those credits, just kept going until I didn't have more time or was stopped by the machine. I wasn't trying to " exploit " the site; how on earth would I know this was bug? And to be honest, it seems like a cheap and poor excuse to me the " acknowledging our oversight " part of the message. And keep in mind how grateful they were to let me keep 50 extra credit! Nice. However, the big blow of branding " exploiters " to people like myself from a bug that was an error or flaw on their side?
Politeness and good customer service comes a long way
After this experience, I feel both wary and doubtful about my situation with tensor.art since I don't like being seeing as an exploiter or someone whose time isn't valuable at all! You see, by taking away all those credits; even when, they might have been earned by an error, costed us time that we will not get that back. So there's an intrinsic value in that, and by belittling us and our time by taking something we invested in, is a big deal to me. Then, there's the good will to the customer and offering a good service practices to them by treating your customers well, and look also for their good insterest. I honestly feel aggravated by this incident and I feel like somehow I should be compensated since it affected me not only emotionally but made me lose my invested time. However being things like they are. It is possible that this won't happen at all. So, all that is left for me is to tell others that practices like these are indeed " Customer abuse".
My take on the whole incident
I think that a warning would have been a better way to deal with this situation, and it would have been a less punishing way to us , the customers (also by being polite and having good will to customers, reinforces and builds a better relations with us) , and I think it is important to see us more than just people that want to somehow get advantage or profit from tensor.art shortcomings at whatever cost. After all we abide and follow the rules established by the site, but when something like this happens we get stomped like bugs. Very deplorable and zero sense of good PR and customer service.
Nowhere to be found?
Finally, I looked everywhere in the site and the web to contact the people from tensor.art support to discuss this issue. However, there's no email or contact address or phone to do so. All we are left with is the Discord app, and the open ticket solution. Having no other options, I left my information and a retelling of the things that happened + how I felt about this. It's been a few days since I opened that ticket, and still haven't received an answer back.
So, this is my story. What do you think about it?
