[Taletha]

Originally Posted by Illusion

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

Agree and disagree. They are a dying fad because they're prioritizing money before activity (trust me, Gaia isn't the only example). At the same time, unless you have something special to offer people just won't come.

In the grand scale of things, Trisphee is a pretty small place with a small community. Out of the 12,000 members, how many are active? I've been here just a day, and I already only see the same faces (so to speak) post. All said and done, is that such a bad thing?

[Sei]

Originally Posted by Taletha

In the grand scale of things, Trisphee is a pretty small place with a small community. Out of the 12,000 members, how many are active?

Unfortunately, we ran into a horrible bot problem a year back and they registered quite a few accounts that are now no longer active. I don't know how many active accounts we have currently - that would be a question for the coders, but the fact that the 'most users ever online was 798, 11-10-2013 at 05:28 PM', means that it should be around that number.

[Taletha]

That's a good number. I like small numbers like that. Creates a friendlier, more homey atmosphere and makes it much easier to deal with trolls and other undesirable types.

[Gallagher]

No, because the most users online counts all the guests and botguests, just like the currently active users list does. Either way, though, we're a bit too small even for a small community at the moment.

[Taletha]

Don't jinx it! The moment you start getting all...wishful and ambitions, the parasites will invade!

Like with Rapture. Only....less spliced up and insane. Bad example. Okay, better example: Charming! From Sons of Anarchy (my latest obsession!).

Small towns are always the best, right?

[Tohopekaliga]

Huge communities can be troublesome, but even with small communities, at least a small net growth in population is ideal.

Trisphee could, in my opinion, do with having more people. Too few people makes it hard to do much of anything interesting, you see.

I don't think I'd enjoy becoming the new Gaia (in terms of size)... That's just a crazy amount is people. I think the ideal number is more like 4000 active users (users who visit every day or three), instead of 40,000.

We'll see what the future brings us.

[Taletha]

The issue with growth is, it's entirely based on momentum. And momentum can be deferred.

When you start moving the site towards growth, if it starts going up consistently, it will exceed your expectations. At which point, you just get to one of those immovable object situations, and activity will plummet. I'm not suggesting we lock down the gates and live a life of hermit-hood.

What you guys need is focus. Something unique to Trisphee. Obviously, avatars ain't it - hundreds, if not thousands, of other sites have the same thing. You need a focus that will reel in a specific type of crowd, and not much else. That's how you stay in that safe middle ground.

[Tohopekaliga]

Indeed. That is the trick. Everybody needs a niche, and "avatar site" is not really a good definition.


Truth be told, i'm not sure what Trisphee's thing should be beyond that. We have the story and events, which are cool... But I'm not sure it's enough.

[Tiva]

Only 122 users have posted since the Start of 2014 as opposed to the 459 since 2013. This does not account for the people who have left Trisphee since that time but it does not include bots.... so 1/4th of the user base from last year has posted this year in the first 3 months, though avatar sites have a larger up swing in the summer months when people have more time off from school since they focus on the 13 to 22 range which deals mostly with people in school.

And with 897 that have posted since 2012 we are declining, losing around half of our active users a year. This does not figure into the fact that some of these posts are made the mules of different users which on average a user has one that they make some post on but others don't use their mule or have one while others have 2. Meaning that an ip address has probably 1.9 users per address meaning that really there were 472 people on Trisphee posting. Assuming that this number hasn't dropped off, which it probably has to around 1.3 given my own experience of who is posting, Trisphee now has 64 active people posting. The corrected ratio (1.3) makes it 93 people.

No Bots or NPCs were included in these statistics only the people that can be found on a regular users members list via search.

I believe our uniqueness is in our Avatars, the layering system makes us much different than many other sites which only give you a set pose and layer, such as Gaia.

[Taletha]

Originally Posted by Tohopekaliga

Indeed. That is the trick. Everybody needs a niche, and "avatar site" is not really a good definition.


Truth be told, i'm not sure what Trisphee's thing should be beyond that. We have the story and events, which are cool... But I'm not sure it's enough.

I may have an idea, but it's a bit of a long shot.

A webcomic, but the unique focus of it being that it's userbase driven. Most other avvy sites that have story comics just...sort of use them as a means to an end to get items out. They got the NPCs, and stuff, and then us who just...sort of follow along as outsiders. Means to an end. With this, think...an end to the means.


The point I'm making is, the users (staff and every other folk) actively participate and shape the story and comic. In that regard, rather than advertising the site as just another avatar site, you showcase it as an interactive webcomic. Register, make an avvy, and you got the potential to be a character. No matter how big or small. Puts a good deal of potential towards some fourth wall breakage as well.

From what I can see, this idea is far from impossible. Just by looking at the banner, I know we have a talented artist or two on board. And from peeking at the story section, we got decent writers to boot. The only question at hand is commitment.

[Alpha]

The artist that did banner isn't on staff anymore and I'm not sure if we can get a hold of him. However, I do agree that he did an amazing job. He's actually doing his own webcomic now if I remember right....would have to check though.

The idea is certainly a unique one. Perhaps to be included in the comic you could have been selected as the "Avi of the Week" or "Avi of the Month"...I know that sort of recognition has been done elsewhere, but just throwing it as an idea. Could have it either be selected by staff, or nominated by users and then voted on (at least in terms of for the month). Would likely require a slightly larger user base to start at the very least though.

[Taletha]

Avvy of the week would only suffice for something like character design. What I meant was...incorporate the user's activity and presence on the site as a fully realized character with personality.

You know, it's....not just how good you look, but it's what you do that defines you. \(~V~)/

[Tiva]

... But Ulti would win every time. Their Avi's are beautiful!

Also, while webcomics are fun it does require a different writing and style than the normal writing.... But giving the writers more work is always a plus in my book.

I would love if the NPCS became more active again during the events, staying in character of course and in an rp thread.

[Lawtan]

Oh...ohh!! Idea Brainstorming! I love this sort of stuff!!!

(Just want to say I'd love to chat about this when I don't have my classes in my throat)

And I've seen one person be able to support their family by doing that sort of thing - essentially coding a simple Flash text-based game...and letting the forum write his content beyond the initial universe/setting.

I guess one thing is that Trisphee has multiple universes/RP's (and, I think, 3 worlds in the Trisphee Roleplay)

Minus the drawing, and addressing the problem of multiple nonsynchronous worlds, was sort of the intent of my "Bards of Taliesin" idea.

[Alpha]

Ah, okay. I get what you're saying now. Definitely something to consider...though a larger project which might warrant it's own position. *shrugs* Up to the powers that be to consider it then.

Yes...NPC's being active. Let it happen! Muhahahaha! All the posts are belonging to them! *has had sugar and deviated from serious conversation momentarily*

Edit: Law, you are correct in that there are three worlds within the Trisphee universe. Beyond that, all the characters exist in it, albeit possibly on different planes/levels of existence/phases of being.

[Taletha]

Originally Posted by Tiva

... But Ulti would win every time. Their Avi's are beautiful!

Also, while webcomics are fun it does require a different writing and style than the normal writing.... But giving the writers more work is always a plus in my book.

I would love if the NPCS became more active again during the events, staying in character of course and in an rp thread.

I wrote a comic once. ;) And I almost had a short story published in an anthology volume...til the lead writer got bored of the project and scrapped the whole thing. :< An awful centipede of a man who gives barefooters and fantasy writers a bad name!

But I digress.

Originally Posted by Lawtan

Oh...ohh!! Idea Brainstorming! I love this sort of stuff!!!

(Just want to say I'd love to chat about this when I don't have my classes in my throat)

And I've seen one person be able to support their family by doing that sort of thing - essentially coding a simple Flash text-based game...and letting the forum write his content beyond the initial universe/setting.

I guess one thing is that Trisphee has multiple universes/RP's (and, I think, 3 worlds in the Trisphee Roleplay)

Minus the drawing, and addressing the problem of multiple nonsynchronous worlds, was sort of the intent of my "Bards of Taliesin" idea.

I wasn't really talking about that, but it's not a bad consideration either.

Originally Posted by Alpha

Ah, okay. I get what you're saying now. Definitely something to consider...though a larger project which might warrant it's own position. *shrugs* Up to the powers that be to consider it then.

Lol, don't we have a couple of admins lurking about this very moment? Comon, someone cut the wire!