[Obsidian]

My butthole is unchanged.

[Illusion]

Originally Posted by Obsidian

My butthole is unchanged.

And we thank you for that.

[Tohopekaliga]

Originally Posted by Gallagher

Toho is a great person, and definitely the one I would want running the site the most. The issue is that he isn't really running it yet. He has plans with Coda for improvements, but nothing is moving forward.

But (again) being frank, I am more comfortable having an owner that I know will keep the bills paid, even if we're crumbling apart. We at least have a chance that way. Most site owners see the direction the site is going and call it quits once profit stops.

I can't thank Toho enough for keeping us afloat like this, even if I have no idea what to do.

Profits stopping? Hah. They can't stop!

...They never started. >.>


So, yeah. "Plans" don't translate into actions, of course. But due to various circumstances in my real life situation, I shall make Trisphee my day job, at least in the short term. (Long term, I have no idea how THAT would work, but no job + actual savings = time to do whatever I want.) So, hopefully I can put out some things. Of course, I'm not a very good artist, so most of my work on the front of items is trying to find more people who can work on that type of thing, and entice them to do so.

[Illusion]

Originally Posted by Tohopekaliga

Profits stopping? Hah. They can't stop!

...They never started. >.>


So, yeah. "Plans" don't translate into actions, of course. But due to various circumstances in my real life situation, I shall make Trisphee my day job, at least in the short term. (Long term, I have no idea how THAT would work, but no job + actual savings = time to do whatever I want.) So, hopefully I can put out some things. Of course, I'm not a very good artist, so most of my work on the front of items is trying to find more people who can work on that type of thing, and entice them to do so.

You know.. I did ask a lot of these questions of what you would do when you took over Trisphee, and everything that I feared and was warning you about pretty much happened. :/ And I was hoping you would had listened back then when you had something to work with.

But may I suggest the ever unpopular opinion of closing down the site so you can get things ready/put together during the Summer and then relaunching the site in August or early September? At that point you can mass email every registered account that you will be closing for improvements and have everyone wait until September to log back on for a bunch of new content, games, or whatever. It's the easiest marketing and only marketing strategy you have available right now, and you could actually wisely use that time to take actions and get things done so you are prepared for when you do get a job again and don't have the free time anymore you still have months of work already done in advance, and hopefully you will have some people working on their part during that time.

This is a very short term decision, but in retrospect you simply have no possibility of a long term right now. If you leave things as is nothing will improve or change the site will remain a ghost town. What's important here is what you do in that short time.

Will more items bring people in?
Will people coming in talk more?
Will people pay money for your content?
What does Trisphee have that other avatar sites don't?

There are a lot of things that can be done, and as you said a lot of plans that were made and could be done.

I will be frank, your contribution to Trisphee right now is money, and let me just say I was hoping for far more than that.

edit: I looked around and found the post when we last talked about this (and your responses) interesting enough it has been a year when I asked for your envision. Still a interesting throwback/read to look at. I'm surprised it's been a year, granted it has felt like it's been that long too.

Originally Posted by Illusion

I'm interested to see what comes out of this.
Toho you are an enigma to me; I've never seen you post on the site when I was around, or participate in group streams while I was in Fen's pixel class. I'm not saying that as a bad thing, it's just that I simply don't know what your mindset is or who you are as a person. All I know about you is that you code for the site, so to break the ice let me ask you a few questions if that's okay?

1. How did (or do) you know being the webmaster for Trisphee would benefit the site as a whole?

2. Envision Trisphee in one year; under your leadership, what goals do you want to achieve, and how will you accomplish those goals?

3. Avatar sites are becoming a dying fad, in my opinion it's because of the lack of original ideas, an inactive/ignored community, a broken economy, and failure to make a profit. What actions will you do to ensure Trisphee will not only thrive, but to grow as a business and community

I do expect you to answer these questions, take as much time as needed I really want to hear well thought out response for you. Sorry if I'm being too frank, but these are some very important questions that you need to think about and to constantly refer back to in the future.

Originally Posted by Tohopekaliga

I'd be happy to answer your questions, Illusion. :) I have been around for a while, but I admit I don't post all that often, and I am not (really) an artist, so I have never participated in Fen's pixel classes and the like. I am primarily a programmer and organizer.

1. These things are never certain, of course. I believe me taking over is beneficial because I (typically) do have the time to keep up with what's going on, as well as enough financial security to be able to fund improvements for the site that I cannot do myself. (People who make cool things for cool sites like to be paid, you know!)
   
   
   
2. What I would like to see, in the broadest response possible, is to at least double the amount of activity, more, ideally. More specifically, I plan on having several updates to the site itself (discounting avatar items which will continue to go), for functionality and appearances. More details on that will be shared when there is more concretely something to tell, but I will say that my current first priority is to make sure the trades system works for everybody no matter what crazy number of items you have.
   
   
   
3. They do seem to be dying out, you're right. Avatar sites are neat, but let's be blunt: Cool avatars are not enough to get a site to continue to live and be lively. To that end, I will be working on improving things outside of just avatars. Off hand, making Trisphee's large story more accessable to new comers, as well as perhaps adding more game options are things I would like to see. The trouble with games, though, is that most simple things you'd find have already been done.
   
   I would be happy to hear suggestions and opinions from everybody about what you would like to see on Trisphee.
   
   Regarding economy, that can be a very difficult thing to manage. There is a need, in most digital economies like this, to have "gold sinks" (or aurum sinks in our case, of course), that is, things that users can spend their aurum on that takes it out of circulation entirely. Since posting generates aurum, and people are always posting, there's always more...that means over time people can spend more of it to get the same thing, leading to inflation, which can be bad for newcomers. The economy of Trisphee is still relatively small, in that sense, but it is something I think about.

Do feel free to ask me more questions! :D

Originally Posted by Illusion

So your pretty much the capital of Trisphee then Toho (remind me that when I start applying for college loans xD.) And your priorities is what it has always been, activity, balance, and a working site.
Now my response is, even before Fen wasn't able to contribute as much time needed the site dropped considerably while all those same ideas were being sought after (when Trisphee lost it's "new" factor), after she became more into her work the activity dropped to the single digits. So what are you planning on changing other than being that capital and free go too guy?

Also one thing I can add to about activity (for something you guys can think about) is chart called the four boxes.

Imagine four boxes

Box 1: Is yourself, family, and all your friends.

Box 2: Your co-workers, peers, and possibly your church. (People you are typically around.)

---------------------------------------------

Box 3: Your community, your town, your presence in the area.

Box 4: The world, everything outside your general area.


Trisphee's main demographic is within Box 1 and 2. Box 3 and 4 is basically outside your circle of friends and contacts, something that Trisphee lacks grasp in. Galla is right on the mark about advertisements because Trisphee needs something that breaks out of Box 3 and 4. What I've been learning about a online game I've been playing is that some people who play the game for the first time do not stay for the game, they stayed because they met me and I was their highlight of their whole weak. Evidence to that is when I stopped playing for a week, that friend stopped playing all together after he spammed messages to me asking when I was on. So while you doll up Trisphee, and do try and break out into other boxes you need to remember that box 1 (which includes Trisphee itself) is always top priority, and that you constantly need to judge if you have enough things going in all the other boxes as well.

And finally, even with people talking and a community (again most important part) is Trisphee being able to immerse the user into the site. I hate using the word immerse because it's used too much for video games, but if a person can't find them-self able to immerse in Trisphee's culture, story, or community they will never stay. So your top priority is getting people here, and pushing them to join and then get them addicted. Then you can find ways to keep them addicted, and then do all those super snazzy things that you want to do.
Most of this you should already know, but I'm just breaking this down so it's easy to follow. I really like the idea's flowing into this thread, so you guys are getting more and more ideas to choose from, go wild!

[Obsidian]

Honestly, if the site is pretty much being partially ignored already, I really don't want it shut down for X amount of time and risk them forgetting about the site for even longer. At least this way, we've got somewhere to post for the time being.

They can do edits on a test server. I don't know what comes of their packages but the site I have, I have unlimited subdomains. So they can always created a password-protected subdomain for testing to do changes before releasing.

But something is going to have to get done.

You cannot have a site without a dedicated and active owner.
You cannot have staff without a dedicated and active owner.
You will not have active members without a dedicated and active owner with dedicated and active staff.

It all boils down to an owner. If an owner isn't dedicated and constantly active, the staff doesn't feel compelled to do what needs to be done because they feel like they're not getting the acknowledgement that they deserve.
And without a staff, the members of the site feel less likely to want to come back because there's nothing being pushed through.

How I know?
I've been a pixelist of a site (actually probably still currently listed as one) on another pixel avatar site which is still running but pretty much dead.

[Coda]

Obsidian is right -- shutting down at all, even temporarily, will kill the site. We could pull it off for MAYBE a week if we had a critical maintenance issue, but no amount of e-mail or social networking will help us recover if people stop checking back on their own.

We do have a testing subdomain. When we make larger-scale edits to the code, we use it.

[Salone]

Could we perhaps get a pixelist that...delivers?

[Coda]

We've been trying.

[Illusion]

Originally Posted by Salone

Could we perhaps get a pixelist that...delivers?

If you can find a good one or five. Let a staff member know, they will be hired on the spot.

[Obsidian]

Why have all the pixelists stopped or left?

[Illusion]

Originally Posted by Obsidian

Why have all the pixelists stopped or left?

Well yous see... When a pixelist loves their artwork SOO MUCH.

[Witchchylde]

Y'all can blame me if you want, since I'm so lurky and what have you. I don't mind. Wish I knew how to be a pixellist or whatever.

[Obsidian]

Originally Posted by Illusion

Well yous see... When a pixelist loves their artwork SOO MUCH.

Lol, dork. :P

I was just curious if there were a reason the pixelists for Trisphee keep disappearing.

[Coda]

Making items is a lot of work, so sticking with it requires either passion or money. We can't afford to pay a serious, professional artist the going rates that would be expected to retain someone that way, and the only artist we've found with enough passion for it is Fenris and she's simply not available.

[Obsidian]

Originally Posted by Coda

Making items is a lot of work, so sticking with it requires either passion or money. We can't afford to pay a serious, professional artist the going rates that would be expected to retain someone that way, and the only artist we've found with enough passion for it is Fenris and she's simply not available.

Yeah, I know it's a lot of work. I'm a pixelist too.

Have you guys considered offering runes in exchange for their services? Just as good as $USD and it doesn't break the bank for you guys. Then once things get rolling in, you guys can consider other options of payments outside donation currency.

That's what I offer my staff.

[Illusion]

Originally Posted by Obsidian

Yeah, I know it's a lot of work. I'm a pixelist too.

Have you guys considered offering runes in exchange for their services? Just as good as $USD and it doesn't break the bank for you guys. Then once things get rolling in, you guys can consider other options of payments outside donation currency.

That's what I offer my staff.

You know I asked them the very same thing, and they told me at some point they'd have to or would prefer just paying me money. And if I wanted to be paid in runes, they'd pay me money and I should just spend it all on runes that way.