Crowdfunding Hub Site Outline
Mar. 5th, 2010 05:36 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
crowdfunding There have been multiple previous discussions about what would be wanted/needed in a hub site, so much of the brainstorming is already done. Notes have been collated here for future reference.
General Parameters
* It needs to promote all types of cyberfunded creativity, not be restricted to one or a few types; and be relevant to creators, patrons, and casual viewers.
* It needs to be coded in a way that is popular enough for various people to maintain it if the original coder has to leave.
* Ideally, it should have a core framework that could easily be expanded by adding new sections, creating a modular site that could be developed one part at a time and could incorporate new things without crashing previous things.
* It needs its own domain. A couple different folks have volunteered hosting. The site programmer can talk with them and figure out what is the best location.
* Preferably, the site should be maintained by several people, in charge of different areas to spread out the workload, not just one person. This reduces the risk of burnout.
Commonly Requested Features
* A way to sign up people as members of the crowdfunding hub site. Ideally, this should include an Open ID option to broaden participation.
* A database of creators, patrons, projects, and services with profile pages. This needs to be a real powerhouse that can be sorted many different ways so that people can search for what they want -- a particular person, genre, length, crowdfunding type, service, a type of collaborator, etc. Just figuring out the fields for this will be a challenge, but how well we do that will greatly influence the site's usefulness. We will probably not think of everything we need all at once, so this needs to be flexible too. The basic idea is to help people find stuff they'll like, learn a little about it, and then go there. Same with searching for services and people.
* Ability to sort and list projects by newest, oldest, most popular, etc. This gives people different options for going from one project to another until they find some they like. Some search parameters have included: payment method, type of content, genre of content, or interaction style.
* Ability for members to mark favorites/friends as in a social network. Ideally, one use for this would allow members to dump all their bookmarked projects onto something like LiveJournal's "Friends Page" so that people can just scroll through the recent entries for the projects they are reading regularly.
* Ability to rate and to review projects, possibly distinguished between site reviewers and general audience reviews. This would meet the needs of people who like the "popular" model and the "experienced reviewer" model, hopefully reducing their desire to fight over which is better.
* A way to show "featured" projects to help encourage people to view them. This may be a single spot (frex, if it is placed in a good "bumper" spot on the right side of the screen) shuffling through all categories, or it may be divided into several categories (frex, if it is placed on a pull-down menu, Art might pull down with "Featured Project" first, then other stuff under that). Featured projects might be random or selected. If selected, we probably also want a random one.
* Ability to pipe content in and out of the hub site, connecting it with the original LiveJournal community and perhaps other social networks.
* A discussion forum that allows topics and thread tracking and so forth.
* Some kind of poll/vote feature. This might be used to make decisions about new features for the site, or to choose a "best of the month" project, or whatever.
* RSS feed. Possibly other types of feed feature, depending on what kind of content appears and how it is arranged.
Other Possible Features
Some of this stuff can probably go in a sidebar on the right side of the page.
* Blog and social network widgets. The site needs to be Java and Flash compatible for the best widgets to work on it, but this is worth doing because these can drive significant amounts of traffic to the site. MyBlogLog, Facebook, Twitter, Blog Catalog, Networked Blogs, etc. all have widgets that help draw people to a website, follow it, and see who is visiting the site.
* Ads. There are pros and cons to this. We certainly don't want big conspicuous ads annoying and distracting our viewers; no pop-ups. However, ads can be a good source of revenue, which would help make the site self-supporting, which is desirable; and they're not too pesky if kept relevant and smallish. More importantly, including an ad block would allow people to promote their crowdfunded project to an interested audience, and free ad space could be a perk given to people who donate their time/skills to maintaining the site and the organization. 100x100 ads stack nicely, so are a possibility. Some webcomic sites use huge banners on random rotation to promote comics; that can get distracting, but a smaller box-banner might work.
Other stuff will appear in different parts of the site.
* Tags. Since categories can't cover everything, tags can help viewers indicate the notable features of a project or person.
* A "comment" or "feedback" feature that is separate from the review function. Feedback is candy, and not everyone feels up to writing a "review."
* A "private message" feature that allows members to communicate with each other. This might be available as part of the forum or bulletin board package.
* Separate page(s) for award(s). Various people have suggested putting the Rose and Bay Awards on a crowdfunding hub site or on a separate award site. The discussion about which can be held after we actually have a hub site in development.
* A wiki. This might be a way to combine articles, FAQ, and glossary.
* A venue for hour exchanges/bartering/etc. Possibly doable in the forum.
* Back-end features for tracking site traffic.
Possible Content
* Home page with an assortment of exciting things on it.
* A "mission statement" page detailing the organization's purpose and goals. Developing this could help reveal what we hope to achieve with cyberfunded creativity, and make it happen sooner.
* FAQ page with answers to common questions, sorted into categories.
* Glossary page defining things like "crowdfunding," "cyberfunded creativity," "weblit," etc. There are lots of different crowdfunding models -- those might be described here, or might need a page of their own.
* A list of magazines, websites, and other venues that review crowdfunded projects.
* A general resource list of materials useful to people interested in crowdfunding. This may overlap the links list but ideally should include books and other resources as well.
* Articles about crowdfunding and/or a page of links to such.
* Honor wall for people who have donated time/money/resources to the Crowdfunded Creativity Hub site.
Site Design
Name: crowdfundedcreativity.com is a possibility.
The site should include a home page, a FAQ, and link list, and probably some other stuff. It needs a good navigation system, possibly with more than one option. It needs a color palette and layout that will be 1) reasonably eye-catching, 2) not so lurid it creates eyestrain, 3) fully legible, 4) compatible with as many browsers and screens as possible, and 5) handicap-accessible.
The layout should be attractive for both F-pattern and Z-pattern viewing. Logo with site name should go in the upper left corner, and may extend across the top banner. Top banner should be narrow enough to leave plenty of room "above the fold" for cool content that will catch a surfer's eye and encourage them to scroll down for more; but wide enough to contain appealing art and/or a good menu. The menu can actually be a horizontal bar at the top of the page and/or a vertical bar down the left side. We need to think about what to put in the "bumper points" for both the F and Z patterns.
The site should be search-engine friendly, without mangling anything in an attempt to please all of them. Links should be on content words; tags and labels should be clear and consistent. It should not be overloaded with graphics, so that it will load quickly; and it should probably not have things blinking or spinning or whizzing around.
Some parts of the site should be public, designed to capture even casual surfers in a mighty undertow and not release them for hours. Some parts of the site should be private, offering more information and features to logged in members. Exactly what goes where is up for discussion.
Previous Discussions
"Writer's Organization / Publishing Co-op"
http://community.livejournal.com/crowdfunding/57433.html
"Standardizing Terms"
http://community.livejournal.com/crowdfunding/91311.html
"CFC Community Website?"
http://community.livejournal.com/crowdfunding/104483.html
"Is There a Statistician in the House?"
http://community.livejournal.com/crowdfunding/109733.html
"Distinctions"
http://community.livejournal.com/crowdfunding/113131.html
"Links List Full - Now What?"
http://community.livejournal.com/crowdfunding/115723.html
"Organization"
http://community.livejournal.com/crowdfunding/117013.html
"Editing as a Hobby"
http://community.livejournal.com/crowdfunding/122318.html
"Several Points of Business" (domain names)
http://community.livejournal.com/crowdfunding/122697.html
"Cyberfunded Creativity Website Brainstorming"
http://community.livejournal.com/crowdfunding/145201.html
"Rose and Bay Awards Followup Report"
http://community.livejournal.com/crowdfunding/175690.html
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(no subject)
Date: 2010-03-06 02:06 am (UTC)Yay!
Date: 2010-03-07 12:50 am (UTC)Yay for Drupal! Yay for volunteers!
New Request
Date: 2010-03-08 06:10 pm (UTC)Yes/No/Maybe?
Re: New Request
Date: 2010-03-08 06:27 pm (UTC)New Request
Date: 2010-03-08 06:59 pm (UTC)LastFM has a feature that tells you how close your tastes are to someone else's tastes. If you have favorited or listened to a lot of the same music entries on that site, you have a high match; if not, you have a lower match. Digg has something similar. I suspect this would be really useful for helping people find crowdfunded projects they'd like, but it sounds really complicated to program.
What are our chances of making this work on the hub site?
Re: New Request
Date: 2010-03-08 07:11 pm (UTC)Re: New Request
Date: 2010-03-09 10:10 pm (UTC)Ysabet & MeiLin, this is AWESOME
Date: 2010-03-06 03:06 pm (UTC)As I mentioned before, I am willing to help in one or more of a number of different ways so long as I don't take on too much and cut into my journalism/weblit/existing-volunteer-work time. I'm willing to manage some portion of the site, for instance, contribute graphic design or illos, and, of course, write stuff. If I do articles re weblit for writers I'll want to keep posting them on weblit.us, however, or crosspost.
Again, this is fantastic and I can't wait to see it become a reality.
Re: Ysabet & MeiLin, this is AWESOME
Date: 2010-03-07 12:55 am (UTC)That list is the product of nearly two years of discussion and planning, ideas from over a dozen people, and ... hmm, maybe five or six previous failed attempts. And about half of my workday yesterday.
>>I'm willing to manage some portion of the site, for instance, contribute graphic design or illos, and, of course, write stuff.<<
Huzzah! We will definitely need website personnel, artwork, and content. Ideally, I want to spread out the workload over various people to reduce the chance of burnout.
>> If I do articles re weblit for writers I'll want to keep posting them on weblit.us, however, or crosspost.<<
No problem. We can also copy stuff from this community, which has some fine "how to" posts. I've written a bunch of material that will be useful in seeding the article section.
Hmm ... that article section should have an easy way to upload new material, too.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-03-06 08:53 pm (UTC)Yes, please!
Date: 2010-03-07 12:59 am (UTC)Known types of crowdfunded creativity are likely to include:
Art, Divination, Fiction, Poetry, Webcomics; plus some kind of Miscellaneous category. I'm not sure how much overlap/divergence of genres there will be across those categories.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-03-09 03:11 am (UTC)1. I can work with existing webprogramming fairly well provided it's well documented.
2. I'm a Quality Assurance and Accessibility nut. So, I will also volunteer myself as a tester and wrangler of test-volunteers.