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What would you like to see in a scifi/fantasy web site? The time has come for a change...

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As originaltrilogy.com approaches its second anniversary, I've been reflecting a bit on the purpose of the site and how things have changed since we launched.

The petition, while still garnering new signatures at a steady--but slow--pace, doesn't have the steam it once did. I'll openly admit that I never expected the petition to convince George Lucas to do anything; he has his plans and his own ideas of what he wants.

I simply wanted to provide a place for fans to sound off and let their feelings be known. I think the petition and the forum have accomplished that goal. You guys have established a nice community here and it's great to see everyone getting along (for the most part ).

However, the site can't continue to exist indefinitely in its current incarnation.

The first issue is cost. My annual hosting fees are currently over $1000 USD, and as the database grows because of new petition signatures and new forum posts, that cost will steadily increase. Not to get too personal, but a recent evaluation of my own finances paired with a new partnership and business venture have convinced me that this site needs to actually make some money--or at least break even--if it's to remain viable.

The second issue is content. As you've undoubtedly noticed, the home page hasn't been updated since the DVD box set announcement last year. I had grand designs two years ago, having planned articles and editorials to accompany the petition. That never materialized though. To date, I've sent ZERO newsletters, despite having collected e-mail addresses since day one.

I was reviewing our web traffic last week, and was surprised to see that originaltrilogy.com receives tens of thousands of visitors every month. In recent months, we've been getting anywhere from 40,000 to 70,000 visitors a month. There are huge consumer electronics companies that would be jealous of those numbers.

Having less than 1500 forum members (most of which are inactive) tells me there's interest in the site, but not enough content to keep people around. It also tells me we have enough of a potential audience to make some money through advertising, referrals, and possibly paid subscriptions for premium content.

I'd like to reinvent originaltrilogy.com with your help. Turn it into not only a hub for Star Wars info, but for science fiction and fantasy in general. News, articles, artwork, forums...all kinds of great content related to our favorite movies, books, and TV shows.

I need your help to do this.

First, I need to know what you'd like to see here. What content would interest you? What features would you like added to the site? What would keep you coming back on a daily basis? Try to forget the forums for the purposes of this exercise and think about what content you'd like to see.

Second, I need content producers.

I need writers, editors, reporters, and artists who have a passion for this stuff and who can contribute regularly to the site's content. If you can write--I mean really put a sentence together--and you have a serious interest in having a public forum for your thoughts, opinions, and ideas, I want to hear from you. Whether you're a news hound who'd like to post the latest news to our home page, or an opinionated fan with some interesting or controversial thoughts for which you'd like an audience, I want to hear from you.

No web development experience is necessary. I will build a content management application that will allow contributors to post content as easily as they post to the forum.

You won't be paid, at least not initially. My primary goal must be to make the site solvent and keep it alive, so any money made will go to hosting costs first, followed by any development costs I incur (new software, hardware upgrades, etc.). But if we start to make a profit and originaltrilogy.com becomes a business venture, compensation becomes a possibility.

This is a great opportunity for new writers to get in on the ground floor of something that could really blow up. Or it could fall flat, who knows . But it should be fun trying. How does a built-in audience of 70,000 monthly visitors sound for you aspiring artists out there?

If you or anyone you know is interested in contributing, please contact me at jay@originaltrilogy.com. Resumes and work samples (writing, artwork, etc.) would be appreciated if you have them handy.

So what do YOU want from this site? Post your thoughts here, please.
Forum Administrator

MTFBWY…A

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Maybe I'm thinking too small scale here, but an art gallery for those creating sci fi fan art of their own. A place to display them would be great other than these garbage free pic hosting sites. Allow voting or comments much like the Fark.com photoshop contests. Heck, let's have scifi themed photoshop contests. I love those.

I think, as a premium service, if we could have a professional screenplay writer or whatnot come on to a chatroom to give tips and tricks to writing a screenplay. This, of course, would be for subscribers or those who pay a one-time fee. I dunno who we could get, but I know some people here have ties. The same sort of idea could go for people interested in indie filmmaking, comic art, editing, etc. Talk about a great way to get traffic (and money).

As for working for you, I am interested. I am a web developer, writer, graphic designer, and proofreader. When I get some good electronic copies of my artwork, I'll forward them to you. I have them all as Quark or Illustrator docs right now. I just need to decide which to send and create pdfs of them so as not to kill your inbox.

On that note, maybe a place where we can create custom advertising that can be sent out to scifi sites and fanzines. Voting can take place for each ad to see which we use at a given time or with a given theme in mind. If done as press releases with related images attached, there usually is no need to pay advertising fees. At least not initially. As we become solvent, we could take out quality ads in these pubs and sites.
"You fell victim to one of the classic blunders, the most famous of which is 'Never get involved in a land war in Asia'."
--Vizzini (Wallace Shawn), The Princess Bride
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Kevin A
Webmaster/Primary Cynic
kapgar.typepad.com
kapgar.com
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maybe its just me but a sport section would be sweet. and if you need somebody to keep the site up-to-date on sports news i can do that. i am genrally well versed in whats going on.
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Then he'd need to hire a spell-checker as well.

<span class=“Italics”>MeBeJedi: Sadly, I believe the prequels are beyond repair.
<span class=“Bold”>JediRandy: They’re certainly beyond any repair you’re capable of making.</span></span>

<span class=“Italics”>MeBeJedi: You aren’t one of us.
<span class=“Bold”>Go-Mer-Tonic: I can’t say I find that very disappointing.</span></span>

<span class=“Italics”>JediRandy: I won’t suck as much as a fan edit.</span>

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or include one in the posting windows ( hint hint nudge nudge)
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Shim, I think it would have to be up to you to make sure the spelling is on par. If you are volunteering to be a writer, you have to be a proofer as well. That's how it works in the professional writing world. Yeah, writers have editors, but those editors are paid. So unless you are willing to pay someone...

What Jay is looking for is a very professional site that will attract lots of people including sponsors. If we have a site laden with typographical and grammatical errors, why would they want to advertise on us or for us? We have to each be our own system of checks and balances. Besides, automated spell checkers only find words that are spelled incorrectly. There are other ways to make typos. You could have a properly spelled word in the wrong place or being used incorrectly. Spell checkers will not catch that.
"You fell victim to one of the classic blunders, the most famous of which is 'Never get involved in a land war in Asia'."
--Vizzini (Wallace Shawn), The Princess Bride
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Kevin A
Webmaster/Primary Cynic
kapgar.typepad.com
kapgar.com
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Jay, as I see it, the first issue here is content, and when I think of content, I first think of news stories and such. That should be "easy" to do and should not take a long time. I mean, look at AICN, what are they, if not only stories? Bring bright new content every once in a while, and you'll have readers, who'll return again and again. Of course, other sorts of media could be explored later - remember when I mentioned the "Bowling for Coruscant" documentary idea?

You are also concerned about the financial problems this website is getting to you. Wow, I didn't know it took 1000 dollars a year (almost 85 dollars a month!) to keep it running - not to mention all the time spent on it. An obvious solution for this would be banners and advertising. It would not generate much income, but it could be enough to cover your costs. You could also do something like "paypal", although I'm not sure it'd be such a good idea (by the way, I'm willing to donate if it's necessary to). And another idea would be to commercially explore the "originaltrilogy" brand, like with t-shirts and such - like PvP and Penny Arcade, who sell through thinkgeek.com.

Anyway, I'd be glad to help and participate on this. Although I'm known for my language barrier mistakes, I'm actually good writer, so I could help you with that - star wars news from the deep south, perhaps, eh? I could also work on html or web programming if you need someone to (I'm not too familiar with coldfusion, but it can't be too much different from asp, asp.net or jsp...)
“Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.” — Nazi Reich Marshal Hermann Goering
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came up with a couple ideas while reading the current posts.

1) Jay asked what content would keep 'you' coming back on a daily basis. The first thing i though of is the variety of Web based comics out there an how those are pretty much the sites i visit daily. So maybe a Star Wars, or Sci-Fi based comic. Could either be a running story or maybe a satirical comedy poking fun at various aspects of different sci-fi shows. If you've seen Penny Arcade i guess im thinking of a Sci-Fi version of that (they deal in mainly gaming). We would need an artist/writer to volunteer for that.

2) Bossk's comments triggered the idea of maybe movie review. Dayv currently has a thread in the Off-Topic section with his dvd reviews. Maybe he would be willing to write a DVD review column for the page (not trying to volunteer him, just he seems like the best suited for the job)

3) I like the idea of giving people a forum to post their work and get the opinions of others

4) I'd also contribute content wise, but id probably be able to better help with any development projects (im a programmer)

5) this kind of relates back to 1, but a lot of these web comic places sell original artwork and apparel with their characters. Maybe sell some limited original prints. this would work well if there were comic characters behind them

6) Like Bossk said, we seem to have a lot of people with various connections here, so maybe we can give some 'breaking news' type info (upcoming dvds for instance) or also have sections with 'help' guides...I realize doom9 probably does a better job. But we could very easily have people write articles (subjective or objective) about the merits of the new emerging formats (blu-ray & hd-dvd) and stuff along those lines

-Darth Simon
Why Anakin really turned to the dark side:
"Anakin, You're father I am" - Yoda
"No. No. That's not true! That's impossible!" - Anakin

0100111001101001011011100110101001100001

*touchy people disclaimer*
some or all of the above comments are partially exaggerated to convey a point, none of the comments are meant as personal attacks on anyone mentioned or reference in the above post
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A good site to look at for content ideas in an entertainment realm is Movie Poop Shoot. It's a site owned by Kevin Smith and contains all kinds of content. If we were to do something like this but with more of a focus on scifi/fantasy, I think it could be a hit.
"You fell victim to one of the classic blunders, the most famous of which is 'Never get involved in a land war in Asia'."
--Vizzini (Wallace Shawn), The Princess Bride
-------------------------
Kevin A
Webmaster/Primary Cynic
kapgar.typepad.com
kapgar.com
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What about the T-shirts you and Dayv were working on? What if this idea was expanded to more products. Like what they do over at cafepress? You provide the logo and text, they provide the rest of it.
"You fell victim to one of the classic blunders, the most famous of which is 'Never get involved in a land war in Asia'."
--Vizzini (Wallace Shawn), The Princess Bride
-------------------------
Kevin A
Webmaster/Primary Cynic
kapgar.typepad.com
kapgar.com
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Whatever you guys decide to do, please keep the forums. I love being able to come in here talk about whatever is on my mind Star Wars, other Sci-fi, TV, movies, sports, politics, others...And if I have to pay I little somthing to keep coming here, that's fine me.
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Yes, I definately would want the forums to stay. Although I don't have much time to post, I still love the good company of the good olde fellows I was honored to meet here.
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I say do what ever to trim the cost to keep the forums open, including eliminating the petition (since it won't do any good anyway, why waste the money).

Combined this sight w/ Riktors (DVD distribution) and see if that will help cut costs.

Also put a "PayPal" link for donation. I'm willing to give to keep sight going.
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I don't belive Jay even considered removing the two basic things this site is made of, the petition and the forums.

Darth Simon, that's a great idea, the webcomics one. We sure have insane star wars fans here who can contribute with material to it, we only need someone to draw it. On a weekly base. For free.

Well, whatever changes go through, they gotta happen fast. After ROTS release, Star Wars will fade out for some time...
“Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.” — Nazi Reich Marshal Hermann Goering
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Star Wars made fade out in the general public. But I will never stop being a Star Wars fan.
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I like that the goog the bad and the ugly thing on poopshoot.
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Wow. This site gets 40 to 70 thousand visitors month? How could any advertiser resist that?

As far as suggestions:

1) A place to submit fanart and Fan fiction would be nice. If you pay any attention to me, which is unlikely, you'll know I'm a writer and an artist (unprofessionally of course. Click the BttF quote in my sig). I have some idea's for SW fanfiction as well, though most of my stories are my own... Anyway I could contribute that way

2)Keep the forums exactly as they are. The forums that currently exist should be kept for those of us who post regularly allready, because all experience hath shown that widely used forums tend to go all to Kessel without heavy moderation. An additonal public forum would prevent the forums that exist from being over-run by morons.

3)News, opinions, and interviews would be great content to keep people coming back, as well as a humor section and fanfilms, like at theforce.net.

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A humor section.

Perhaps photo captions, polls, photoshop contests, etc.

That's what would keep me coming back, if I were a casual browser.

I know I’ve made some very poor decisions recently.

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I don't really have much to offer (other than the possible monetary contribution) but I would just like to reinforce what a few others have already touched on. And that is, if you look at the popular websites out there like news sites, movie sites, blogs, ect, they garner a lot of their traffic simply because they have constantly updated content. This content can vary quality-wise, but it doesn't seem to matter as long as it's new and contantly changing. I'm not saying we should strive for mediocrity, but I've seen ridiculously bland blogs get hundreds of thousands of hits just because it was updated regularly. If enough people can be enlisted to provide fresh content (editorials, cartoons, reviews, news, art, links, ect) on a fairly regular basis, I think the popularity would skyrocket.
40,000 million notches away
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I can write and edit (having done this professionally), but I feel creatively challenged at the moment in regards to thinking of any fresh content. I'm sure that could change. I also produce web sites professionally, and likewise can offer my mind towards those tasks. User-centered design is the most important mindset to get into as you lay out the navigation and content. This site is pretty good already, but one redesign without that focus can screw a site royally. TF.N is a great example of a bad new design. Everything is weighted so equally now that you can't easily find what you're looking for or know what should carry more weight. And AICN ... that site has been awful from the onset. Content used to be its saving grace, but now even that is mediocre at best.

On a completely different note, I have something to recommend AVOIDING as you try to monetize the site. Popups. Even some -- ne, most -- of the good entertainment sites have succumbed to this temptation. I strongly recommend against it. While banner blindness remains a problem that can't be ignored, pop-up blocking is on the rise because pop ups are more annoying and more intrusive than banner ads ever were. Interstitials are almost as bad. Anything that gets in the way of being able to actually read the content is detrimental to building a loyal user base.

As I've said in the past, I recommend judicious placement of ads and links to other sites who share a cut of any proceeds with the referrer. Then, it's a matter of placing appropriate ads. There is a lot of SW-related stuff (esp. on eBay and Amazon) to which you can link, which speaks to the audience here. If we users can discipline ourselves to use this site as a click-through to these other sites, then revenue can be generated for the site just from our regular online buying habits. Seriously, if a link to Amazon guarantees a cut of the proceeds from a subsequent purchase, I'd be sure to not enter the URL directly and always go through a site I cared enough about. This merits more research as I don't fully understand the terms of these deals. But I do know that many sites have placed ads to several of the major online sites with such affiliate programs in place.
I am fluent in over six million forms of procrastination.
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Originally posted by: Warbler
Star Wars made fade out in the general public. But I will never stop being a Star Wars fan.


for some reason I am not able to edit this post. I meant to say "may fade out' not "made"

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Originally posted by: ADigitalManI recommend judicious placement of ads and links to other sites who share a cut of any proceeds with the referrer. Then, it's a matter of placing appropriate ads. There is a lot of SW-related stuff (esp. on eBay and Amazon) to which you can link, which speaks to the audience here. If we users can discipline ourselves to use this site as a click-through to these other sites, then revenue can be generated for the site just from our regular online buying habits. Seriously, if a link to Amazon guarantees a cut of the proceeds from a subsequent purchase, I'd be sure to not enter the URL directly and always go through a site I cared enough about. This merits more research as I don't fully understand the terms of these deals. But I do know that many sites have placed ads to several of the major online sites with such affiliate programs in place.


I second that idea. Also the google ad syndicate would also help defray costs without being too obtrusive.

Wipe them out...all of them.

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I believe that because the google ads are unobtrusive, you only get money when someone visits a site. I'm not sure of this though... Maybe, with permission from the creators of course, you could sell fanfilms on DVD. My thought was that if there is enough interest in a torrent of a fanfilms DVD for one to be created, then there would be much more interest in one that one could buy. Many people using the internet still have dialup, don't know how to download, etc. Also, you could get people to pay to become an ordained jedi priest or something, and send them some pamphlets and stuff. I mean, if its profitable for the Subgeniuses, than it could work. Anyways, thats pretty much all I can think of.
Free photoiPods!
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Also, there should be a link the Beautiful Women thread on the home page.

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Originally posted by: ADigitalMan
I can write and edit (having done this professionally), but I feel creatively challenged at the moment in regards to thinking of any fresh content. I'm sure that could change. I also produce web sites professionally, and likewise can offer my mind towards those tasks. User-centered design is the most important mindset to get into as you lay out the navigation and content. This site is pretty good already, but one redesign without that focus can screw a site royally. TF.N is a great example of a bad new design. Everything is weighted so equally now that you can't easily find what you're looking for or know what should carry more weight. And AICN ... that site has been awful from the onset. Content used to be its saving grace, but now even that is mediocre at best.

On a completely different note, I have something to recommend AVOIDING as you try to monetize the site. Popups. Even some -- ne, most -- of the good entertainment sites have succumbed to this temptation. I strongly recommend against it. While banner blindness remains a problem that can't be ignored, pop-up blocking is on the rise because pop ups are more annoying and more intrusive than banner ads ever were. Interstitials are almost as bad. Anything that gets in the way of being able to actually read the content is detrimental to building a loyal user base.

As I've said in the past, I recommend judicious placement of ads and links to other sites who share a cut of any proceeds with the referrer. Then, it's a matter of placing appropriate ads. There is a lot of SW-related stuff (esp. on eBay and Amazon) to which you can link, which speaks to the audience here. If we users can discipline ourselves to use this site as a click-through to these other sites, then revenue can be generated for the site just from our regular online buying habits. Seriously, if a link to Amazon guarantees a cut of the proceeds from a subsequent purchase, I'd be sure to not enter the URL directly and always go through a site I cared enough about. This merits more research as I don't fully understand the terms of these deals. But I do know that many sites have placed ads to several of the major online sites with such affiliate programs in place.



I agree with DigitalMan.