So I'd like to share this project I'm working on, but I don't wanna spam.

[surviva316]

Any suggestions?

Edit: http://www.flopturnriver.com/pokerfo...ml#post2073446

[givememyleg]

pm me it and i'll play red light/green light.

[a500lbgorilla]

Link to it before going to sleep and see if you're banned in the morning.

[a500lbgorilla]

Also, unless it's you taste-testing freshly ignited 12 guage shells, I'm not interested.

[a500lbgorilla]

Seriously though? What project are you working on that you didn't think it would be cool? The FUFTR project?

[surviva316]

Seriously though? What project are you working on that you didn't think it would be cool? The FUFTR project?

Just thought I'd be polite before I partook in self-endorsing.

procrastinaters.com

Also, I started my blog yesterday: surviva's Blog

[DrivingDog]

I was going to join, but then I thought might as well leave it till later.

[surviva316]

I've been hearing that one a lot. I suppose if I changed my domain name to peoplewhovisitthesitefrequentlyandalwaysclickonall theads.com, then I'd be a millionaire by now.

[supa]

Release my reply to your quote query from marked as spam dammit!

[givememyleg]

so you're self endorsing but doing a horrible job at it. what is it? what can i expect from joining? what's the purpose? and your blog link brings me to a not found page.

[surviva316]

Release my reply to your quote query from marked as spam dammit!

The auto-spam feature has been truly shitty, so I've turned it off. You're post apparently got auto-eaten by the internet goblins to never return again because it isn't under pending comments, deleted comments, spam comments, etc.

Sorry, but at least it's helped lead to resolving a massive headache of a problem?

[surviva316]

so you're self endorsing but doing a horrible job at it.

apparently. I guess my modest, coy approach to it is causing more annoyance than anything else

what is it? what can i expect from joining? what's the purpose?

It's an internet forum (part of why I was extra cautious about spamming, but it's not exactly a place you'd go for poker-related things, so I don't see it at all as a "competitor") with the concept of converting mindless time wasting into civic acts of kindness. It takes people with menial tasks they need to have done but they don't have the time or skillset to do it (or they just don't feel like doing it) and tries to hook them up with people who feel like doing them (either because they're helpful people part of a community that they know will scratch their back later on and/or they'd like to qualify for our VIP rewards and/or they find searching google/playing with photoshop/searching youtube/proofreading/searching EbscoHost to be a fine way to spend a few minutes and/or they have nothing better to do and would at least like to do something nice for someone with their time wasting).

Cliffnotes: It's like YahooAnswers! except A) it's a community-style site, it's not riddled with 12-year-olds and it tries to have fun side features like blogs and a gaming club and B) it's more task-based than Q&A based.

and your blog link brings me to a not found page.

Hopefully I've resolved that.

[eugmac]

what happens to community members who are no good for anything? they just end up being leeches of people who are awesome at everything like me.

[kiwiMark]

And I thought we were close friends.

[Galapogos]

Have a landing page that isn't the forum.

Don't make people log in to learn about what the hell your site does.

Spend a few bucks to buy a template online so your site doesn't look so plain.

[surviva316]

what happens to community members who are no good for anything? they just end up being leeches of people who are awesome at everything like me.

Even people who just go on there to post silly one-liners and such contribute in their own way. Even people who just go on there just to post queries that are engaging to leach free help contribute in their own way and [speculation based on previous experiences with internet froums] are likely to start to start to help others as well once they start to feel part of a community they care about [/speculation].

Think of it like the Beginner's Circle. Very few posters do nothing but post hands without feeling compelled to respond to others' HHs. And even if they did, their threads are still offering content and giving the community something to engage with.

[surviva316]

Have a landing page that isn't the forum.

I'm going to look more into how to do this effectively and strongly consider doing this. For now, I'm working with what I've got.

Don't make people log in to learn about what the hell your site does.

You don't need to log in to do anything. You don't even need to necessarily log in to post. But if the site makes you think that you have to, then I suppose that's the exact same as them having to (perception is everything, etc). I'll definitely keep that in consideration.

Spend a few bucks to buy a template online so your site doesn't look so plain.

Okay, so I might lose you here, but I'm trying to make the site as community-run as possible. If I'm going to change the template, I'd like to throw it out to the community in the form of a contest so that the community itself decides the look and feel and so that the community itself reaps the profits, the credit, the thing to put on their resume, etc. I posted a contest to build a template for the site, but then deleted it because I thought it was too optimistic for the site in its current state.

Anyway, thanks a ton for the feedback, even if it seems all I did was defend myself. I'll definitely discuss all of this stuff with all of my cohorts and see if I can't implement, if not the ideas themselves, alternative solutions to the problems addressed.

[givememyleg]

color scheme is incredibly hard on my eyes, please please please update it. bright yellow links are super duper icky. light grey on darker grey isn't easy to read. never really a good idea to use light text on a dark bg, should be using dark text on a light bg. honestly i read a few things in the forum but i had to highlight the text because it was too hard to read.

[surviva316]

color scheme is incredibly hard on my eyes, please please please update it. bright yellow links are super duper icky. light grey on darker grey isn't easy to read. never really a good idea to use light text on a dark bg, should be using dark text on a light bg. honestly i read a few things in the forum but i had to highlight the text because it was too hard to read.

Theme changed. It's pretty much just a negative of the old theme using steel blue in place of charcoal.

[!Luck]

I know this is weird comment but all I can think of when i see queries and request is that this forum is 100% sql help.

[Galapogos]

You don't need to log in to do anything. You don't even need to necessarily log in to post. But if the site makes you think that you have to, then I suppose that's the exact same as them having to (perception is everything, etc). I'll definitely keep that in consideration.

Very true. Your goal is to make the experience as simple as possible for the user they may be smart, but they don't come to a site expecting to be challenged by it's UI. For instance, went to your site, couldn't figure out what it was, clicked on How It Works, and was told I had to log in. At that point I said fuck it and left. I went there with the intention of finding out what your site was all about. Imagine how much less patience someone who stumbled across your site would have.

Also, you said you don't need to log in, but I have no idea how someone gets to these pages that pop up the login alerts.

Okay, so I might lose you here, but I'm trying to make the site as community-run as possible. If I'm going to change the template, I'd like to throw it out to the community in the form of a contest so that the community itself decides the look and feel and so that the community itself reaps the profits, the credit, the thing to put on their resume, etc. I posted a contest to build a template for the site, but then deleted it because I thought it was too optimistic for the site in its current state.

Imo anyone who is half decent at this kind of thing is going to want to get paid. A worthwhile design is more than a couple hours in Photoshop like a lot of people think. Even those bargain bin template sites will be much better than something a volunteer will come up with. Hopefully one of your users will be able to pull it off though.

[eugmac]

For instance, went to your site, couldn't figure out what it was, clicked on How It Works, and was told I had to log in. At that point I said fuck it and left.

Agree, this is exactly what I did too the first time I visited your site. Every website has about 10 seconds to make clear to a new visitor what the site is about, otherwise he will lose interest and leave.

[givememyleg]

loooks waaaaaaaaaaaay better now and i can actually read things without squinting.

[BennyLaRue]

There should be more about meat.

[BennyLaRue]

Also, you spelled "procrastinators" incorrectly in your domain name.

If it's supposed to be funny, I don't get it and most visiters will just judge your intelligence.

See what I did there? I are stupid.

[surviva316]

Also, you said you don't need to log in, but I have no idea how someone gets to these pages that pop up the though.

Just tested it out and what in the bloody fuck? You can get to those threads from ANYwhere else without needing to log in; why the hell is it set up that you need to log in to click the menu bar links?

I'll for sure get on changing that if at all possible.

[surviva316]

Just tested it out and what in the bloody fuck? You can get to those threads from ANYwhere else without needing to log in; why the hell is it set up that you need to log in to click the menu bar links?

I'll for sure get on changing that if at all possible.

Issue resolved. Feedback very very very much appreciated. I may literally have spent 10xs as much time and effort on the how it works, etc up until this point (writing them, figuring out which links and where and all). Obviously that menu bar was to get people to feel comfortable not to tell them they're not welcome until they give us their email, etc

[surviva316]

Imo anyone who is half decent at this kind of thing is going to want to get paid. A worthwhile design is more than a couple hours in Photoshop like a lot of people think. Even those bargain bin template sites will be much better than something a volunteer will come up with. Hopefully one of your users will be able to pull it off though.

it wouldn't be volunteered at all, which is one of the snags that made me delete the Contest thread. As an example the Make Us a Logo contest has a reward of $100 because I talked to someone who employs a professional graphic designer and he said he paid him 75 $/hr, then I talked to a graphic designer and he said a simple logo should take no more than an hour to design, so I rounded up 33% and settled on the prize. I also have a query that offers royalties for coming up with a small (relatively in the grand scheme of novel-writing) idea.

Anyway, yeah I treat that type of stuff seriously and would offer a legit prize to someone who designed a template for the entire website. It's just that for now, that seems a bit ambitious/expensive.

[surviva316]

With a lot of help from a lot of people's suggestions, I've completely revamped the site to make it make more sense: procrastinaters

I'm still heavily considering the homepage idea, since the blog is the biggest draw right now, but that's a big project that I'm gonna sleep on for a while.

Thanks all for the tough love.

[BennyLaRue]

With a lot of help from a lot of people's suggestions, I've completely revamped the site to make it make more sense: procrastinaters

So, you've skipped over my most important suggestion. I see.

[surviva316]

It's a tough one to solve.

Also, other people I talked to about it didn't seem to share the same sentiment. I realize that most of these "other people" are friends and family, so I take what they say with a grain of salt, but it didn't seem like the most important suggestion.

If I hear more people thinking it's really a terrible name for the site, I'll reconsider.

[givememyleg]

it's pretty terrible for word of mouth marketing on top of what benjamin said.

surviva - "hey check out my website, procrastinaters.com!"
friend - "cool, i will!"
surviva - "just make sure you spell it wrong, er instead of or!"

there are sites that "play on words" or have misspellings in their urls and do just fine because it's intentional and relates to something. is the only reason you misspelled the word because procrastinators.com was already taken?

you could be more creative like procrastinatorscentral.com or heywhatsupimaprocrastinator.com.

[eugmac]

Ya imo the reaction of most people when they notice the misspelling is more like

rather than ha hahahah how witty. So that's a no-go imo.

[surviva316]

see, now if i suddenly got three consecutive posters saying that they straight up hate it, that's pretty convincing.

[supa]

I'm not a huge fan of how it's formatted now. Seems harder to find stuff.

[Galapogos]

Don't make drop down menus something you need to click on, should be a hover state. Don't make links to parts within your site link into new window/tabs. If you're going to have people land on a forum page, don't make the two choices the forum and your blog. I would suggest having them land within the forum link, and have your blog as a link in your top nav the way the site's currently designed.