Moving forward

[quintin3265]

After last week's discussion about the site and its future, I took some time to evaluate the current situation and decide how to move forward, with the input of many of the comments from the previous thread. First, I'll list the things I definitely decided, and then the remaining questions that are open to suggestions.

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The things I decided upon:

First, I'm not going to promote this site at the Shizz any longer. So that nobody thinks I'm ignoring their messages, I disabled private messaging at the Shizz. While I may still post at Overclocked ReMix, where the reaction to the site has not been as negative, I also disabled private messages there to avoid ill will in the case that I don't visit often. You can contact me here or by E-Mail if you need to get in touch with me.

Second, while help is still welcome and I'm willing to discuss compensation for anyone willing to provide programming or graphics work, beginning now I'm going to leave open the possibility of the site making a profit. Up to this point, people have basically been saying: "make us something that we like, alone and for free, and then we'll use it." I don't have a problem with doing things non-profit, and originally intended this site to be non-profit. But a non-profit organization requires substantial work from the community in order to succeed. I understand that people are busy and have other things to do, but there's no satisfaction in getting neither help nor money in return.

I'm going to make the site closed-source, and contact everyone who has volunteered to help with programming and graphics to notify them of this decision. They can decide to continue their contributions, but at this point there is no opportunity for compensation and I'm not going to try to hide from people that the site now has the possibility of generating a profit. I contacted Chris from the VGMdb several months ago and he was OK with this decision. While still following community suggestions, I'm also going to exercise greater control over decisions.

Third, as to songs, the site will remain free to use. Songs can still be removed at any time, they can be downloaded by anyone, and registration will continue to be free. If the site ever makes a profit, revenue will be generated using the proposal below.

Fourth, the current site, as it is, is dead. It cannot continue without significant changes.

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Now onto the proposal for addressing the issues discussed before. While I agree that focusing the site on either originals or remixes is a good idea, a significant weakness is that focusing will eliminate a good portion of composers from participating. The other problem, particularly with a focus on originals, is the site's domain name and title, which has recognition at other sites and incoming links. It is desirable to change the domain name and site title at some future point, but only when enough people are visiting to carry over. I believe that both types of music should continue to be allowed.

At some point soon, I'd like to make slight graphical changes to the site by somehow adding more "game-themed" graphics. I also plan to move around things on the front page to highlight music, as suggested by one poster.

I propose that the central focus of the site be a new "experience" system. Using this system, most operations will lead to either a gain or reduction in experience points, following a table like the one below:

things to gain experience
-post song or video:  5 points
-high ratings:  rating points every 6 months:  a song with rating 6.6 gets 6.6 points every 6 months
-song is a lossless file, or video is HD quality:  1 point
-post review:  1 point for each 250 words in a review
-update profile periodically to keep it up-to-date:  1 point for profile update, per three months
-host compo:  3 points plus 1 point per entered song
-submit song to compo:  3 points
-place in a compo:  (# of entries - place + 1) points
-vote on compo: 1 point for full voting list
-buy experience:  $0.15/point using PayPal, minimum 25 points; will change to control inflation if necessary
-update toplist:  1 point every time updated; limit once per month
-song view: .01 points per view
-song download: .01 points per download
-post a new song revision: 2 points in addition to the standard bonus for posting any song

things to lose experience
-unacceptable comment or obscene images or songs:  -1 point
-posted songs not video game songs:  -1 point
-DMCA takedown notice:  -50 points
-remove song: -10 points
-add feature to display some sort of badge for people who have large amounts of experience saved up
-invalid song or profile information (wrong length, invalid location):  -1 point
-spend for song promotion on frontpage:  highest bidder gets highest placement above the fold - at first, prices may be as low as one point per day
-compo prizes:  however many points the user wants to use as a direct transfer to the winner
-free link:  highest bidder gets highest placement
-redeem for actual prizes:  periodic promotions; -300 points for free games or CDs, for example
-songs with "not selected" influences:  -1 point per 3 months
-entry into random lotteries for stuff like T-shirts or software (except in the four states where this is prohibited)
-VGMdb forum bullying or harassment without constructive criticism:  -1 point
-accounts with total experience falling below -10 suspended

Most people will earn experience by participating in the site. Revenue can be generated by selling experience points to those who participate less often or who want to get the word out about their music. The key use for experience points will be for people to promote their songs on the front page. Like Google AdWords, placement will depend on how many points the user is willing to spend. New and charting songs will continue to be displayed below the fold as they currently are.

If enough people participate, they will earn enough experience to fund prizes for compos. To pay for hosting costs and to provide me more time for development, the redemption value of experience points will be slightly lower than the cash value of the prizes. Since experience is awarded for generating site hits, everyone is encouraged to link to their songs, which in turn generates more listens for everyone. That, in turn, generates more revenue from advertising, which results in greater prizes and more development and more exposure, and so on. The greatest part of all this is that, if it works out, you can earn free stuff simply by spending your time contributing content to the site without actually paying for anything.

The hooks for all this were programmed from the beginning. They can likely be implemented within two weeks. But believe it or not, this exact idea as presented here started entirely from zircon's post. It's funny how things turn out.

If you're interested, I'd like some comments on this proposal. Would you be interested in participating in such an experience system? Would it make you more likely to post songs? Or, should I simply sell the site because there is no demand?