[Ginger]

Please don't bite my head off.

I've always wanted a buy now/auction house here. And maybe a Bejeweled game with trisphee critter heads. Just throwing ideas out there. I love to play the market and it would make buying and selling much easier. The game would be something for people to do to win misc items and stick around, even though other sites have the game. But do they have our adorable critters to use in their games? NOPE! ;)

So what do you guys think?

[Ginger]

My heart is sagging at how inactive most people have become. There's not much here to keep interest in the site. Maybe an avatar of the week winner with a prize being one of the current monthlies. A weekly raffle to win a current rune item. A monthly user-designed item contest? Just anything right now to keep the community active and engaged you know?

Also, referral contest please...

[Kenai]

Also keep in mind that as the weather warms up avatar sites slow down, particularly smaller ones like ours it becomes noticeable. Fun features like games keep people here, new and old. So it would be nice for the staff to implement a game or two before they start advertising and at the beginning of summer break would be a great time to get the attention of Americans (not sure how things go outside the states).

Elsewise though I have nothing to add. Games like that never worked for me much. I like stories not collecting high scores and stuff like that.

[Illusion]

I've been suggesting a monthly referral contest for a while now... The few problems with it is that it's easy to fake a referral, and that by even having a (must complete so many posts) we might have another instance of a user randomly chatting to themselves to not only fake out the contest but make easy Aurum as well. If we would use this idea we would have to think of an idea around this.

The only thing I see working is a Avatar contest system, but it would have to built on a better idea and functionality than Gaia online's system because if you ever been on Gaia you would know the 1 - 5 star rating system is too broken, and people who advertise their entry the most usually wins.

Now a auctioning system.. Here's my idea for it, make a weekly auction (or less; it would need trial and error) for new exclusive DI quality items. People can buy tickets for 1k each, or 1 per 1 rune (with bigger bundles that sell more tickets for smaller and smaller price reductions the bigger the ticket bundles you buy.) Now what this will do is to create rarity in items. Because lets face it, if you want a item on this site as long as there is enough people on and you have runes or a fair amount of Aurum you can easily get it. Having rarer items would help stimulate the economy because people will be selling items and start questing to get the rarer items. Making more users active because of their questing, and simply posting more in general for money for tickets.
And I say practice the length of the auction for 7 days or slightly less. We need questing on Trisphee, and because the Auction would run every week or so there will always be a chance to gamble for one of those rare items you've been drooling over.

And for games, we need games that can be used universal and can bring people to the site. I really liked the decision making choice game we had back during that Desert event, it was really original and fun. (Although people easily saw through some of the steps in a long run.) I rather see Trisphee invest time in making a editable quest/decision making game like you where users could edit and make their own story to send to friends on the site (or to link their game on facebook for their friends to come in and play without making an account. But they simply can't play any other story based games unless they make an account, they can only play the ones that you the friend post to facebook.) Also by completing the quest, that user can offer up rewards from their own inventory or money with a certain amount of funds you can edit and place into the game. Also if your friend finishes the story and there is a reward, have it say "Make an account and claim your reward for a jump start on trisphee" or something along those lines.
(And who's to say that staff can't run their events with this free user system as well? Using our main trisphee story and using this system would make reading and experiencing the story more fun as you could have a multiple choice system as you explore trisphee's story in your perspective.)

Also! It would be nice for a animal game, and re-use the items themselves and make a click-able pet game of them. With the bonus that you can wear any of the animals poses as they grow up or "evolve". So sort of like evolving items, but with more focus on simply making the creature themselves. You can make signatures where other users have to touch or love their animals, and people without Trisphee accounts can click and give their animals more love as well.

And finally, a monthly design contest? Eeeh.. Yes and no, we have a hard enough time to get people to participate in those during events. Because normally the person with the best drawing/pixeling skills tends to win, even though I've seen some people with crappy art skills but awesome designs brushed to the side. I've seen sites do contests like "Make you best art piece using only the spray can on MS paint" which limits the contest in it's own right. That and we needs contests like these FOR our events because that's what really keeps events standing out. To have events AND a monthly contest would overflow the site with too many contests, while it's nice to have SOMETHING in between big events. We would have to think of something that everyone could participate in, and to hide other people's entries so other people won't be intimidated to enter.

That's just a couple of ideas I thought of on the spot, but remember our 2 problems right now are member retention, and members joining. So think of ideas that would not only have people join, but to stay after doing so. Kill two birds with one stone.

[Illusion]

Ooops double post.

[Espy]

I've been suggesting a monthly referral contest for a while now... The few problems with it is that it's easy to fake a referral, and that by even having a (must complete so many posts) we might have another instance of a user randomly chatting to themselves to not only fake out the contest but make easy Aurum as well. If we would use this idea we would have to think of an idea around this.

Well, uh, that's easy to catch. Just potentially time-consuming.

The only thing I see working is a Avatar contest system, but it would have to built on a better idea and functionality than Gaia online's system because if you ever been on Gaia you would know the 1 - 5 star rating system is too broken, and people who advertise their entry the most usually wins.

What kind of avatar contest system are we talking about?

Also! It would be nice for a animal game, and re-use the items themselves and make a click-able pet game of them. With the bonus that you can wear any of the animals poses as they grow up or "evolve". So sort of like evolving items, but with more focus on simply making the creature themselves. You can make signatures where other users have to touch or love their animals, and people without Trisphee accounts can click and give their animals more love as well.

That's...an interesting idea. I can't speak for the coders in terms of how feasible it'd be.

Because normally the person with the best drawing/pixeling skills tends to win, even though I've seen some people with crappy art skills but awesome designs brushed to the side.

That is very much not true. (Coming from an unbiased I-don't-pick-contest-winners-but-I-know-how-they're-picked POV)

[Illusion]

Originally Posted by Espy

1. Well, uh, that's easy to catch. Just potentially time-consuming.



2. What kind of avatar contest system are we talking about?



That's...an interesting idea. I can't speak for the coders in terms of how feasible it'd be.



3. That is very much not true. (Coming from an unbiased I-don't-pick-contest-winners-but-I-know-how-they're-picked POV)

Broke your message up into questions if that's ok.

1. It is easy to catch, but I'm just pointing out that it is time consuming and the fact that things have happened in the past where it can go uncaught rather easily as well. So unless there was some sort of extra surveillance or precautions in place I can see where a referral system would go sour.

2. I believe Ginger was referring to a more traditional avatar rating system (avatar arena) and I'm saying that if we would have something to what Gaia has we would need to think of a better foundation for the voting process. Like either up-voting a avatar or down-voting, users can't see their current rank or place in the arena. But that's just one idea, there are many ways around this idea. But that's if we would take the users vote tactic. But even traditional submit an avatar and let admins/moderators choose their favorite could work as well, but that goes back to the same old overflowing the site with too many contests topic I mentioned before. The main difference between the two is user voting, and a traditional blue ribbon contest system. That's why I suggest to keep two different versions of said contest. But when we go to user voting contests my biggest concern is how many people coming to the site now to vote.

3. It was more from my standpoint of things; and it's hard to judge. Trisphee does a good job of having multiple tiers of winners 'Staffs pick' 'Users pick' and 'certain persons pick', things in that nature. So this is more of a standpoint of things no one is really right or wrong to this question as it's perspective. :/

[Vincent]

-squeaks out from the bottom- o-o
Uh. Random two cents. I was thinking about maybe a daily thing where if you post at least 10 times per day (game forum not counting) you got a bit of bonus aurum or a random prize from a pool, or whatever.
Might say that could promote spamming to just get the prize, but then again, I can't think of any posting events or whatevers that don't promote spamming. And some kind of posting event might help. I don't know. x:

[Coda]

It's normal for the summer to be kinda slow on avatar sites. We've seen the same pattern every year since we launched, and sure as can be activity starts picking back up in the fall. (And we get the same worried comments of "Trisphee's slowing down, what do we do?" every year too.)

We have games in the pipeline. I know we keep saying that, and I know it seems like it's taking forever, but we actually ARE making progress. In the interests of stirring up some wild speculation: The idea I HAVEN'T told the rest of the staff about actually incorporates EVERY game idea mentioned in this thread so far... and the idea that I HAVE told the staff about (that has seen progress on both writing and art fronts) would probably satisfy Kenai.

We've talked about having an auction house / marketplace before. We're not going to have any sort of automated system. If you're wanting to see more user engagement, more automated systems is exactly the opposite effect. What we DO have plans for is a way to track the offers that are currently available in the marketplace forum, so that it's easier to locate other users who have the items you want (and avoid locating offers that are no longer available).

[Illusion]

Originally Posted by Coda

It's normal for the summer to be kinda slow on avatar sites. We've seen the same pattern every year since we launched, and sure as can be activity starts picking back up in the fall. (And we get the same worried comments of "Trisphee's slowing down, what do we do?" every year too.)

We have games in the pipeline. I know we keep saying that, and I know it seems like it's taking forever, but we actually ARE making progress. In the interests of stirring up some wild speculation: The idea I HAVEN'T told the rest of the staff about actually incorporates EVERY game idea mentioned in this thread so far... and the idea that I HAVE told the staff about (that has seen progress on both writing and art fronts) would probably satisfy Kenai.

We've talked about having an auction house / marketplace before. We're not going to have any sort of automated system. If you're wanting to see more user engagement, more automated systems is exactly the opposite effect. What we DO have plans for is a way to track the offers that are currently available in the marketplace forum, so that it's easier to locate other users who have the items you want (and avoid locating offers that are no longer available).

Summer (IMO) should be the opposite though; and that fact alone tells you that Trisphee needs to slightly break out of our demographic. (Or any new members to begin with.) A lot of members are out of college and working this summer, while others have always been working. So I understand that from that prospective, but normally summer is the busiest time for all websites because of people getting out of school (from my perspective.) So the fact that Trisphee the opposite is rather.. Bad.

You made me slightly interested, and worried at the same time. I'm all in for games, but if it doesn't have anything special to bring people outside of the site to Trisphee or people to simply stay to keep playing it, it would simply be pointless and doesn't add anything much to the cause. If you look at most IOS games they do have high playability at first but then skyrocket downward. There are other cases though, but most of them are because of how iconic they are or because they play the test of time extremely well. So I hope Coda that your awesome idea is something similar to what I think we need, and I extremely hope that everyone else listens.

And it's true automated systems do turn off user engagement, being able to have both or the fusion of the two is the way to go. And the plan to track offers is a VERY. GOOD. IDEA. No really that's brilliant! Very ingenius, whoever came up with that deserves a slap on the back.

[Coda]

Originally Posted by Illusion

Very ingenius, whoever came up with that deserves a slap on the back.

Oww ;_: That hurts...

[Ginger]

I like illusion's clickable evolving pet idea a lot, actually. I would definitely add them to my signatures on other sites. No other avatar site has done it like before I don't think. Plus, it'll attract more users to the site. I like to hear that more games are being worked on.

[Umaeril]

Summer should be active, not inactive. Every Gaian knows this for a truth.

What I want to know is why is it that the suggestions that many good people have given to this site, including the one's Ginger offered up, which cost the site NOTHING, like an avi contest, why is it that NONE of these suggestions are acted upon?

Hmmmm?

[Illusion]

Originally Posted by Umaeril

Summer should be active, not inactive. Every Gaian knows this for a truth.

What I want to know is why is it that the suggestions that many good people have given to this site, including the one's Ginger offered up, which cost the site NOTHING, like an avi contest, why is it that NONE of these suggestions are acted upon?

Hmmmm?

*Points at my post*

If you want a avatar contest, then make one yourself. Problem solved.
You want a monthly site run contest? Would you enter the 3rd, or 4th, or 5th, 6th, 7th consecutive contest in a row? That's my reasoning; if you overrun the site with the same thing over and over again it gets less exciting and more boring with each re-entry. Especially when the prizes aren't exciting; I remember there was talk to have avatar's on the homepage (and I believe Ginger once suggested before to have avatar contest winners feature on the site's homepage.) That would make an exciting monthly contest in my opinion if that was the reward, but you have to admit that a 12 month executive avatar contest will feel exhausting after a while. It's a good idea, we just need to work around it a little more to make the month after that more exciting for so and so reason.
But overall we do need SOMETHING. A monthly contest of any kind would be great; as long it's not the same thing over and over again.

[Umaeril]

Originally Posted by Illusion

*Points at my post*

If you want a avatar contest, then make one yourself. Problem solved.
You want a monthly site run contest? Would you enter the 3rd, or 4th, or 5th, 6th, 7th consecutive contest in a row? That's my reasoning; if you overrun the site with the same thing over and over again it gets less exciting and more boring with each re-entry. Especially when the prizes aren't exciting; I remember there was talk to have avatar's on the homepage (and I believe Ginger once suggested before to have avatar contest winners feature on the site's homepage.) That would make an exciting monthly contest in my opinion if that was the reward, but you have to admit that a 12 month executive avatar contest will feel exhausting after a while. It's a good idea, we just need to work around it a little more to make the month after that more exciting for so and so reason.
But overall we do need SOMETHING. A monthly contest of any kind would be great; as long it's not the same thing over and over again.

I really do not understand why you should be telling me to run an avatar contest myself. I was not even talking to you. I have nothing to say about your posts. I am making my own post, to the owners of the site.

[Coda]

Originally Posted by Umaeril

I really do not understand why you should be telling me to run an avatar contest myself. I was not even talking to you. I have nothing to say about your posts. I am making my own post, to the owners of the site.

Except you're making said post in a community discussion thread. The fact of the matter is, everything Illusion said is right. (Shock! Horror!) It didn't have to come from a staff member just to be blessed as Word of God for it to be right.

The site staff can't do EVERYTHING. We can, at best, give the community a set of tools. It's up to the community itself to be active. The real secret sauce to a successful avatar site is for the community to be self-sustaining. We can give you everything in the world to talk about and play with, but YOU have to talk about it if there's going to be activity on the site.

That's not to say that we're not going to do ANYTHING. We've got plans and we're working on things.