New year, new rules, new thread to watch the slow collapse in -- especially since they finally made the mistake of going after their foundation.

In the last few weeks before the official extension began, MCR was asking randomly-chosen users some survey questions on how they felt about the site. Chief among those were 'Should we raise or remove the weekly points limit?' and 'Should we have an MVP club for those with high balances?' Well, the new year came, the day when all new rules go into effect, and there was no raising or lifting of the weekly points limit. There was no MVP club. Instead, Coke just decided to devalue the base worth of everyone's account by 25%.

They raised the points redemption cost of a 20oz coupon from 30 points to 40.

Now, as far as MCR goes, I am the One Percent. I don't have the points balance some members accumulate -- I know of people who are over 20k -- but I get 120 points in every week. This does not represent the majority. On the day I came in, the foundation level of the program was happily chanting 'Buy eight, get one free, repeat' and doing so: eight caps, 24 points, one coupon. Whee! And then it went to ten caps, one coupon, which irritated them, but they got used to it. And now... now it's fourteen caps, one coupon, and you can have a little left over towards your next.

MCR has a Facebook page where the rank-and-file go to complain. And those complaints are, as per policy, ignored: 90% of all answers from Coke are 'Call our Customer Service line so they can ignore you.' Whoever's in charge of posting that generic dismissal is about to put it some overtime. You don't annoy the 99% without getting some kind of backlash. And as Wall Street found out, ignoring these things can get to be serious work.

Realistically, what this did was standardize the redemption rate. Figure a 20oz bottle normally comes in at a dollar and the 1000 points=$25.00 formula for gift cards now applies to soda too. But no one's going to want to hear that unless they're receiving an Atlanta-based paycheck.

I really am curious to see that Facebook page right now. But that would mean going through Facebook.

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New magazine: People. Twenty-six issues for 949 points, making it the most expensive magazine by a factor of more than double and working out to one point per complete sentence over the lifetime of your subscription. Also ten points per radical weight loss story and twenty for each fall of sobriety. If that appeals to anyone...

There were only a few new Rewards overall to start the year, and most of them seemed to have escaped from the schools catalog. Most people aren't going to feel a need to spend over a thousand points for...

...well, take a look for yourself.

http://tinyurl.com/7xgdysn
http://tinyurl.com/7g99lce

Because your kids will totally respect the power of the chart.

Kimmah might like this one.

http://tinyurl.com/744abe6

Oh, and this probably does not come with a pump.

http://tinyurl.com/7cfvl5t

Beyond that, it's a small splash of new sweeps, one Instant Win (Universal Studios Orlando), and the foundations finally begin to shake.

By the way, have you seen the new 42oz bottle? The one that's $0.99 every day everywhere? You've got to drink fourteen of those to get a 20oz coupon too...

They also raised the 12-pack cost to 250, but that kind of got lost in the shuffle.