How is it a conflict of interest if I may ask? I'm genuinely asking, not trying to start anything because we're in this sub, I have no problems with you guys. I'm legitimately curious about the thought process.
Like, if Sonic or myself were specifically given the skins as content creators and we got that advantage because we were mods, I can see the conflict. But thats not what happened.
I can't speak to the exact process on how this was done. But it wasn't some thing where they specifically sought out people. The program that much of the community already knows about was ALL invited to participate, every single person in that program were given the opportunity. We mods asked if we were included and they gave us access. There was no expectation to deliver content, there was no NDA on the skins, there was no sponsorship. Obviously CD likely does it to hopefully get us to post about them, obviously, I'm not gonna sit here and lie and debate that. But there was no expectation for that to happen and no pressure on us to. It was just a sub program in place for their already established "illuminati" program as the community likes to call it.
If the perceived conflict is that mods shouldn't get any kind of incentive to moderate the community, I get that, but with that we have been doing it for a year already with no expectations of incentives. More of a thank you for doing it in the first place.