[Demonskid]

You need to fix this site up. I'm sorry but the state it's in is really sorry and disappointing. The staff is too inactive and it's also unbalanced. From a users point of view, the site looks dead and uncared for. From an ex-staff's point of view, it looks as though it's been abandoned but with only the first mate, and.. second mate's ghosts appearing from time to time. It's like a ghost ship where the crew are the ghosts and the users are just people who are finding the ship and wondering around for a while only to leave once they see that the ship is abandoned.

Trisphee needs a way to bring in money. To get money we'd need more items, more games, and more coding done. But to get those we'd need money. Now staff can beg and plead to the users to donate, or they can think of an alternative suggestion.

Like ads. It's been suggested before and I know a lot of people hate ads but to websites they are absolutely necessary. We have tons of open space on the sides that can be used for ads. There aren't a lot of users on the site that log in, but there are a lot of guests. Every view helps. I'd be willing to unblock Tris ads from my ad blocker JUST to help out since I myself am too poor to donate. Right now that seems to be the only option Trisphee has since it needs artists.

Edit In: If you don't like ads, think of other ways of bringing the site money with out it having to rely on it's users.

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Staff needs to start posting more and being more interactive. Artists, Admins, Mods, Writers, they all need to post some amount. It also needs to be balanced out. There are too many admins and not enough other staff.

Inactive staff really needs to be taken care of. Logging in isn't being active. I as a user now, feel like I've been abandoned. As and ex-staff I see either really lazy people, or people who no longer have time to be staff on this site. If you no longer have time for this site, step down. This inactivity of staff really makes the users think you no longer care.

Galla get your whip out and start getting them back into shape!

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When it comes to the artists. I know you guys need more pixelists, but you also need someone to concentrate on Character and Site Art. I'm sorry but the shops need their NPCs. And the games Coda has been working on to bring the site back also needs art. So find an artist that can dedicate themselves to the character art, and don't have them learn to pixel. I remember a few artists were brought on to do Site Art/Character Art but ended up doing pixels and item designs instead. Also! Some of the buttons for the BBCode in the advanced section are STILL BROKEN. I've told coda about it, but he needs images for them.

Coders, I know you guys get really busy but, areas of the site need overhauled. The Social Groups especially. In the social groups, some of the newer BBCode that coda had brought to the site, doesn't work in the groups. The groups are capped at 1000 characters per post which makes it hard to do much of anything in there. Also the layout in there needs the biggest overhaul. Images put into the groups as the groups banner don't show up half the time as well, and avatars don't show up either. This area is the biggest eyesore out of the whole site. People might actually use them if they were fixed up.

There are some things that were suggested ages ago that don't require art to them. Like Anon. Gifting. A section where we can preview old retired items would be nice as well. Not a dream avatar type thing but one where you can preview what the item looked like, kind of similar on how it is in the shops. The Item Guide thread is too far out of date for me to update it, and I just don't have the time. Also, threads like that will always become out of date so it's better to have a page where you can preview past items. Put it in the shop section and call it a museum! Have all the old retired items placed in that shop, maybe add a few buttons where you can search from Event, Special, and Donation.

Maybe work on the things that were promised to users WAY Back at the start of 2010, (optional layouts), after you fix up the social groups and what else that needs fixed on the original layout, work on those optional layouts you promised us. I'm probably the only person who even remembers them.This gives you guys something to do while waiting for the ad's to really start bringing money to the site.

The forums need cleaned and reorganized in my opinion. Threads like the Suggestion and Feedback, and Item Suggestions really need to be either updated or Re-made. Maybe make separate threads in the helping hand forum and keep them together. So many old monthly item, Anka egg, and event announcements in the Announcement Forum things get lost. And Important threads like Coda's BBCode thread was archived, though it would be best to make a BBCode guide for new users.

Events need to come back. Spread them out some and don't have so many like you use to. But we need more then the Nox event. Have an event dedicated to the NPC's who rarely get any show time. I'm sorry but a lot of the old Taskal War NPC's that are still alive, we barely see anymore. And then there were NPC's introduced in the other war that we never really see. Have small events to bring out some of their story.

Once things are fixed up, ads are introduced and you managed to put a new feature on the site, start sending out news letters every so often. Once a month, or ever few months, remind the old users that Trisphee is still here. Tell them of things that were fixed, the things that were added, and other important things that my crop up from time to time like staff changes. Bringing back old members will help the site flourish again, but you can't do that until you have something new to offer them.

The First Step is to get the money to hire artists and possibly a third coder to help out right? Start with putting ads on the site. Surviving off of the users alone is not helping.

Once you have some cash flow, hire 2 new artists maybe? One to Pixel Commons and Event Items so Fen and Taiki can concentrate on DI's and the other to work on Character/Site/Game Art.

[Coda]

Ads aren't going to be worth it for us. We're not a big enough site to make enough money off of ads to be worth the annoyance factor. We'd rather attract more users with the adlessness than make a couple dollars a month on ads -- ONE person who donates for the DI every month would probably be worth more than the ads!

Maybe work on the things that were promised to users WAY Back at the start of 2010, (optional layouts), after you fix up the social groups and what else that needs fixed on the original layout, work on those optional layouts you promised us. I'm probably the only person who even remembers them.This gives you guys something to do while waiting for the ad's to really start bringing money to the site.

Oh yeah, this... um... the truth is we cancelled that. ^^() It turned out to be too much work for not enough benefit and it would have multiplied the effort necessary to make changes to the layouts in the future. And in fact, working on the social groups makes the multiple layouts that much more work -- if I work on the social groups, the other layouts will fall out of sync.

We'll reconsider it if we do a site redesign, since modern web technologies will make the task easier, but it's not a priority.

Have an event dedicated to the NPC's who rarely get any show time. I'm sorry but a lot of the old Taskal War NPC's that are still alive, we barely see anymore. And then there were NPC's introduced in the other war that we never really see.

Also intentional -- our NPC count was getting too high to do meaningful things with and we chose to let some of them fade into the background in order to focus on a smaller set.

The First Step is to get the money to hire artists and possibly a third coder to help out right?

Another coder isn't going to help -- or at least, not another coder we could afford on Trisphee's budget. We've got two competent coders already that are working for ridiculously cheap.

[Madame-Aiko]

I'd like to contribute art wise, but I am not eighteen yet nor do I feel that I am experienced enough yet, or ever can be for this site.

[Lucid:]

So I was going through some old files of mine just today, trying to find my resume. I instead came across Trisphee character art files and shop background pages that Fen had sent me as a reference. Now, these are very old pieces of art and some of the characters are no longer shopkeepers. I don't know who the artist is, but I imagine they would have been made on commission to Trisphee and we would have the rights to them?

Would it be better than nothing to be able to put some of these in where available, and find someone who can copy the style for newer characters? Or is it better to take longer and re-do them from scratch? Coda, I know you've said you have ideas on how to restructure the shop pages, so I don't know if these will work. But I have them, if we need them.

[Coda]

Originally Posted by Lucid:

Would it be better than nothing to be able to put some of these in where available, and find someone who can copy the style for newer characters? Or is it better to take longer and re-do them from scratch? Coda, I know you've said you have ideas on how to restructure the shop pages, so I don't know if these will work. But I have them, if we need them.

Toss me the stuff you're thinking about via e-mail or something so I can take a look.

[Poggio]

1. What artist? There isn't a person I know that will go probono for this site anymore. A decent artist cost funds, of which you admitting the site not having in a round about way. There is not enough love to find a person like that anymore. I personally don't blame them.

I am not trying to be mean, but as a former mod yourself you know how hard it is to balance personal life with trisphee. while posting is fine and dandy again I ask what artist or money? I feel like trisphee will get fixed in its own time. When people can. I have seen a dime a dozen of these threads and nothing changes. let the new people discover what is here with out pointing out the flaws. I think perhaps the site will find someone dedicated again like it did once before. Until then you are perhaps negating the hard work those few core people who remain are doing to keep it alive by playing another this shit thread

[Demonskid]

Like I said Poggio

The site needs to find another way of getting income other than it's users because apparently the users aren't many. Ads are the only thing I could think of but I'm sure there are other ways. AND THEN you hire the artist. Read the stuff in order. It's not get artist then get money, it's get funds from somewhere OTHER than users and then get the artist/s.

While I was a mod, things where a lot better than what it is now. At least Staff Posted with the users and inactive staff were taken off staff. I quit staff because I didn't have the time to dedicate to posting and being staff. To see you say that I should know, yes I do know, why do you think I'm not staff any more. And last time I was a mod, it was a REQUIREMENT to be active. So if they're too busy to be active on here, then they're not fulfilling that requirement and should step down like I did or be taken off staff list.

And as a user, I see why those threads were made, It was to motivate staff to get active. It worked before and judging by Lucid and Coda's Post it's working now. They've found something to fix up and do to make the site a little better. It also gets the users involved in seeing if there is anyway for them to help.

So these threads aren't just 'Shit Threads'


@Coda - Thank you for explaining why you don't want ads. I hope you guys can find another alternative other then relying on the users though. Especially since there aren't many users left.

[Awen Moonshine]

If my financial situation wasn't as bad as it currently is (no income other than child benefit, that only pays for about half the things my little one needs) Then I'd be donating... I already have a lot of love for this site and would love for it to become the thriving community it could be... I am just as much to blame for inactivity recently as I've been trying in vein to get my Etsy store up and running this last week... I shall endevour to also keep making appearances here when I can to keep this place going... <3

[Poggio]

@DK: First this solution has been brought up before. There is a reason the staff has held up on the idea of ads. With what little user base there is if you think ads will solve all of this sites problems the I must disagree with you. I have always felt that with ads come viruses. With clutter comes a harder to use. I am sure that while trisphee needs revenue, ads are not the only way. When I think ads and the simple space, I think of how cluttered and unusable gaia has become. I think our staff is clever and a lot of things are not made public for a reason. To many hands in the pot will spoil the food.

.Also legit question, but how much do you know about businesses, marketing and investing?

[Dallas]

Originally Posted by Madame-Aiko

I'd like to contribute art wise, but I am not eighteen yet nor do I feel that I am experienced enough yet, or ever can be for this site.

You don't have to be 18, to work for the site. You just need to be old enough to sign a NDA, or have a parent/guardian co-sign it. I could be mistake though, the rules for artists/moderators are different.

[Dallas]

I tend to have to agree with DK, I started to find it harder to come on to the site more and more, as time went on. Wasn't really interested in the for the story, and was here for the user-base and avatars. After time people left, and I didn't see a reason to come back. I think the real way is to get people who were on Trisphee a reward for say, come back. Have like post 100 times in a month, and help bring the site back to activeness. I couldn't tell you how many times I would log in, and log off simply because I was the only one who was "online". It isn't all that fun to sit there and reply to threads that you already replied to, without someone right then and there to talk back. There isn't socialization between everyone, it's just feel empty.

[Kaguya]

I have to agree with you Dalas, it's not how it use to be here. I remember a time where you could be on at any time in the day and there was always a lot of chatter; now, I can be on all day and the max people I will see on at once is perhaps eight. Much of the time I am on the site I am by myself and without chatter it's like a ghost town and even then I think a ghost town has more life in it.

Some sort of reward system might work but again you would need to promote it, send out news letters to those signed letting them know what's going on, but even before that happens you would have to think what the rewards would be without giving to much work to the existing staff as they work on fixing thing to make it more appealing to draw old and new users alike.

I would suggest perhaps sending out an email to those who are signed up questionnaire on what did they think was wrong, why did they leave, what would they like to see, what would draw them back. I realize that is what the feedback section is for but that only works for those who are still here.

[Illusion]

Originally Posted by Coda

Ads aren't going to be worth it for us. We're not a big enough site to make enough money off of ads to be worth the annoyance factor. We'd rather attract more users with the adlessness than make a couple dollars a month on ads -- ONE person who donates for the DI every month would probably be worth more than the ads!

$1 is better then no dollars.

Originally Posted by Coda

Oh yeah, this... um... the truth is we cancelled that. ^^() It turned out to be too much work for not enough benefit and it would have multiplied the effort necessary to make changes to the layouts in the future. And in fact, working on the social groups makes the multiple layouts that much more work -- if I work on the social groups, the other layouts will fall out of sync.

We'll reconsider it if we do a site redesign, since modern web technologies will make the task easier, but it's not a priority.

You know... I brought up of how much work was required to begin with on that project and how that time could had been spent elsewhere. I'm glad it got canned, I just hope not a lot of work was put into it (if any at all.)

Originally Posted by Coda

Also intentional -- our NPC count was getting too high to do meaningful things with and we chose to let some of them fade into the background in order to focus on a smaller set.

True, and I'm glad you did. I feel like this is partially my fault, but it is true. The count was way to high. I could no longer keep track, you guys kept making so many characters that a NPC didn't mean anything anymore. But now you aren't doing anything with the NPC's at all. Seriously use them, get a RP'er to spend all days in the forum as that character. Make it work up to a small event that was created with user input via roleplay or talking in general. There's so many easypeasy things to do with these guys :/ I'm surprised no one just decided to take it upon themselves and stole a NPC account to do this stuff themselves.

Originally Posted by Coda

Another coder isn't going to help -- or at least, not another coder we could afford on Trisphee's budget. We've got two competent coders already that are working for ridiculously cheap.

You know... I have friends that would offer you free labor willingly with no pay in return, they just want something to work on. Now one of them is of age, and a bunch of them in College bored out of their mind. Quote me an email for them to submit an application and I'll go around advertising. :/

Oh and pixeling in general. I'm still eager to apply, but I've been more interested in tuning my skills first instead of just handing out junk. (Unless people want pixels of any kind, then I'll churn out my meh level pixels and slowly improve from there..)

One last thing. Just give me an NPC account, a pool of rewards, and the ability to make a new forum. I can churn out meaningful events like nothing.

[Madame-Aiko]

Originally Posted by Dallas

You don't have to be 18, to work for the site. You just need to be old enough to sign a NDA, or have a parent/guardian co-sign it. I could be mistake though, the rules for artists/moderators are different.

When I was pixeling an item or two, I asked if I could be made a pixelist. Gallagher told me that Coda and the site owner needed to look into the laws requiring it, but for now that I cannot be since I am underage.

[Ginger]

I'm all for advertising. Maybe it'll help people put more trust into Trisphee, since every other avatar site that I know of has ads and it's what they're used to seeing. Just no sound or video ads please... those irritate the hell out of me n__n'

And if I host more join.me sessions and stream the site, people get curious and they want to check it out. Most people I know have gotten tired of Gaia and the economy over there. If I could show them this site exists and earn Trisphee a few views by promoting the site, why not? :)

[Tohopekaliga]

Advertising is something I have thought about implementing, but I have seen the income sheets from ad revenue for other sites. Sites with 10x Trisphee's traffic will make, oh, $10/mo on adds if they're not the super-obnoxious in-your-face variety. (And I absolutely do *not* want to do the super-obnoxious in-your-face variety.) As it stands, people do buy runes, new and old people, and Coda is right--I'd rather have one person donate a dollar than make a dollar on ad revenue, because ads can turn people away (and ad block is a thing, anyway).

That said, whenever I finally get somebody to work with on a new site design (appearances), ad spots will be involved. But right now, adding ads is just tacking it into existing space, and so is ugly and unnecessary.

An advertising thing that I do intend on doing sooner or later is advertising Trisphee elsewhere, as well. I want to have a couple things done before then, though.



Admittedly, I have been a rather negligent site owner of late, and for that I profusely apologize. I've been...less than happy about various things in life, which made me not want to do anything productive.

But! Time to move on, and so Trisphee is getting my full attention. Specifics of what I want to do, and how to do it, I'd prefer to not say at this time, but I definitely want to address many of the issues people have with Trisphee's current state.