So I am writing an app that allows users to design their own t-shirts online, and place them on their profile to show off to their friends and family.  Visitors can view the "Full Store" by going to the Canvas app, at which point they can purchase the custom designed t-shirts that the store owner has designed.  PROBLEM: I am reading the Common Pitfalls for App Developers page, and it says:

• Applications cannot award prizes or provide the ability to cash out, return or convert money into anything of value (e.g., gift certificates, discount coupons, etc.).

• If your application contains user-generated content (such as image or file uploads, forum or message boards, etc.), or if it involves any type of monetary transaction, it must have a clear, and easily discoverable area for users to report abuse.

Ummmm...  Did I just waste the last year, writing an app that is not allowed on MySpace?  Again, the user who designs the shirt is able to add a markup amount to it, at which point it is displayed in their store with the total retail amount (manufacturing cost + user markup).  Whenever items are sold, the user needs to be able to make money from the sale of their items.  If I am reading the Pitfalls, correctly, it is saying I cannot pay out the users of the app, for the items they sell?  This would completely destroy the whole concept of my app, which is allowing users to start their own custom t-shirt businesses.

 Are users allowed to make money with our apps?  I was pretty sure I saw several other t-shirt design / sell apps, back when we were just getting started.  How do they deal with the payout issue?  What if the store owners logged into an external website to cash out?  I'm confused!  Please help, as we are days away from submitting this app for approval, and we need to make sure we didn't overlook anything.  Thanks!

What's your app name?  I'll have to take a look at it.

Johnny

The app name is AP Product Labs, although I haven't submitted it for approval, yet (it is uploaded, however).  The number at the end of the OAuth key is 432366534 - Is that my app ID?  We are hoping to submit for approval, sometime between tonight and Friday; however, we want to be sure we've done everything right.  Thanks for looking into it!

 Probably not if you're talking about "real money" 

Sorry, I don't think I understand your response.... So are you saying I cannot allow my App users to earn any sort of money, even if they are selling a tangible product like a custom designed t-shirt?  Or are you saying that I cannot allow my App users to CASH OUT through the App?  Or, are there certain places I CAN let my App users cash out?

There MUST be a way to do this, since there are existing apps that allow users to sell and barter products on MySpace!  There are also existing t-shirt store apps that do (in concept) what mine does - I know these people aren't selling their stuff for free.

Again, pardon my ignorance, but the terms and conditions are not really clear, and I need to be sure we are doing this right.

Its been two months since the very last post in this thread, and our team has still not received an answer to this... I suppose we can just play "the game" with the approvers, and keep submitting it until we resolve all of our issues, but that doesn't seem like smart developing.  Instead, I wish we could get a clear answer from someone who knows the rules, so we can hopefully avoid weeks of back and forth time with the MySpace Dev crew.

Now getting back to our issue; we removed the CASH OUT button from all app surfaces, and opted instead to allow our users to login to the corporate website to cash out and manage particulars of their custom store. However, in the several months that I have been asking these questions, I have yet to receive a definitive answer.  Obviously, commercial apps ARE acceptable, correct?  As well, you CAN allow the transaction of real money, provided certain restrictions (which are vague, scattered and sometimes conflicting) are upheld?  Does this mean that, as long as our users can't actually REQUEST THEIR EARNINGS through the app, then we are ok?  What about viewing their available balance, even if they have to log into an external website to do the actual cashing out?  I know it seems like I am asking a lot of questions here, but honestly, the TOS and FAQ documentation doesn't really clarify anything, and I have spent countless nights perusing through all the text on this site.

So; several months ago, Johnny asked me to contact him directly about my problem; I did this, and never got a response.  Rondata replied with "Probably not if you're talking about 'real money'" - I am not entirely sure which portion of my questions this was supposed to be in response to, but it did not help clarify anything, yet. Please assist me to figure out what IS and IS NOT acceptable, in terms of managing real money through apps, so we don't have to continue to guess, wasting precious development time on pointless features that you are going to deny, anyways.

rondata:

 Probably not if you're talking about "real money" 

While I am waiting for a reply, I will go ahead and post some other apps that utilize and allow transactions involving REAL MONEY: COLD, HARD CASH.

Lending Club - http://www.myspace.com/lendingclub - this app allows for people to LEND and BORROW money from each other - REAL money.  This one even contains a disclaimer on the signup page, which reads "Available to USA residents age 18+ with good credit" (http://profile.myspace.com/Modules/Applications/Pages/Canvas.aspx?appId=102965) - I must have missed the part where our applications can require credit approval to participate.

ShopIt - http://www.myspace.com/shopitstore -  this app allows user to upload items for sale to the public.  Since users are selling items, I assume there is a mechanism to allow them to collect?  The description even says "Sell your stuff, share with friends, even sell yourself and make money!"

MPayment -  http://www.myspace.com/382240352 - As per their description: "Members can send money to anyone for FREE from their checking account. Membership Required."  They seem to be dealing with real money, as well.

E-Bay Strip Mall - http://www.myspace.com/383935588 - Allows users to post their e-bay auctions on their MySpace, allowing them to increase their sales.  Users can browse the various "stores" in dollar delimited format ($10 / $25 / $50 / $75 / $100 categories).

Spare Change - http://www.myspace.com/393107463 - Boasts the following capabilities:

   - Spare Change is the first and largest micropayments solution on social networks.

   - Put a little money in your Spare Change account - spend it anywhere Spare Change is accepted.

   - Started in 2008, Spare Change has over 1,000,000 members and is growing every day.

Stubmatic - http://www.myspace.com/stubmatic - this app allows users to list and sell events they have set up; look at the screen capture they show on the app signup page:

 ... looks like they are selling items, using real money, as well.

Netcarnation Marketplace - http://www.myspace.com/socialmarketplace - this app allows you to create a free store (much like my app does), and sell items to your friends (much like my app does); they even allow you to be paid via PayPal (not sure how they go about doing this, exactly, but you can read all about it on their app profile page - it seems they display the products on the page, and direct you to the website to make the purchase).

*** Ninja Zoo - http://www.myspace.com/ninjazoo - this online t-shirt store app (much like my own) allows you to design your own custom store, design your own t-shirt products, add a markup, then sell them on your MySpace profile.  It would seem to me, that I should be able to do the same thing, right?  Therefore, I simply need to know the subtle nuances to the TOS, regarding handling monetary transactions, and everything should be ok.***

I suppose I could continue looking for more, but these should do it, for now.  So what is special about these apps?  What do I need to do to conform to the MySpace TOS for Developers?  Do I simply need to move my Cash Out button out of the app (as we have done in more recent versions)?  If that is the case, can I still display the store owner's amount of earned profit, within the app, as long as they can't cash out from there?