Credits and tiers

Your credits in short

Your card on the home page reads, for example, 5 of 12 credits, and underneath "My chains in progress: 3 · Other members' chains: 4".

• 12 is everything you hold. That number grows as you move covers on.
• 3 and 4 make 7 covers you are part of and that are still travelling. Each one holds a credit until it reaches the next member.
• 5 is therefore what is left to enter one more chain, your own or another member's: 12 less the 7 held.

How credits grow

• You start with a small number of credits when you join the club.
• Every chain you take part in costs one credit, your own chain or another member's.
• As soon as the next member tells the website they received the cover you sent, you get two credits back: every cover you pass on earns you one.
• When your own chain comes home, you earn two more.
• Nothing caps your credits. They only go down while covers are travelling, and everything comes back once those covers move on.

When you have no credit available, all of them are travelling: either a cover is with you, waiting to be posted, or you are in a chain that has not reached you yet. As soon as you post a cover and the next member registers it, the credit comes back, and one more with it.

Chains started by other members

In your profile you decide how many chains started by other members you are willing to be in at the same time. Chains you start yourself are never counted there. Lower it if you feel you have too many covers to look after, or set it to zero and nobody can add you until you raise it again. Each tier comes with a usual value, which you may change whenever you like.

The ten tiers

A tier is a thank-you, not a limit: it follows the credits you have earned since joining, and because earned credits never go down, a tier is never lost. Covers you moved on paper chains before the website count for half.