Post your web site ideas here!

TerranRich · Mon 20/07/2009 18:54:56

It started out as a request for ideas for an addition to my web site portfolio, but now (I hope) this thread has evolved...

Have you ever had an idea for a great web site that would (in your opinion) be popular/useful and do well, but just haven't had the know-how to do it yourself, nor the money to pay someone else to do it? Do you think your idea would be wasted if it weren't made by somebody?

Then post it here! Perhaps I'll make your web site a reality. Hell, if it made any profit, I would share it equally with the original person who provided the concept!

Hey all. I'm making a web site, mostly for portfolio and demonstrative purposes, but I'm having a little trouble.

You see, I have an entire list of ideas of things to ADD to a site... but no ideas for an actual web site on which to combine them. I have a list of features such as: instant US ZIP code/city-state lookup, custom RSS feed (where the user can add an RSS feed of their own choosing, much like iGoogle does), a URL shortner (like TinyURL), file storage (for small files), document creator/editor (much like Google Docs), domain who-is lookup, etc.

I'd rather not make a plain page and stick all these tools on it... I wanted to make a functional, useful site. Something like a social networking site with more tools than the soc-net sites out there (Facebook, etc.).

If anybody has some ideas, it would be greatly appreciated. I once had an idea for a Facebook clone, complete with Twitter-like updates, etc., but with additional features such as personal blogs, file upload space, etc. But I wanted to make a site that was more original than Facebook-on-steroids. Any ideas?

Joseph DiPerla · Mon 20/07/2009 19:52:06

Here, register for this site and tell me if thats what you mean? http://adventurestockpile.com/

If yes, you can use Joomla.

TerranRich · Mon 20/07/2009 21:51:25

Joseph: Is that a social networking site for adventure game creators? If so, that's an amazing idea... too bad it's already been done. I was actually considering something like that.

But what I was asking for was an idea for a site, not for the framework used in making such a site. I don't want to use a pre-made framework like Joomla... I'd rather do it all from scratch. But that site is pretty neat.

rharpe · Mon 20/07/2009 23:00:16

How about a site that REQUIRES the users to participate in whatever challenge that is on the site. What am I talking about? Let me explain:

1.) You get a few people to sign up to your "social" site.
2.) They have a quota of credits/points to maintain to stay active members
3.) If they don't participate or get behind on credits/points that they get for participation, their account get's deactivated. (Maybe you can flash a screen that says "Game Over!")
4.) Each challenge, discussion, or activity counts toward their participation
5.) This site would keep people trying to stay on the site (Sink or swim!)

What do you think about that?

TerranRich · Tue 21/07/2009 03:00:24

It seems like a good idea, but I'm a little unclear on what exactly the site would be. What would the points be used for?

monkey0506 · Tue 21/07/2009 05:02:04

That points system is an interesting idea...I was actually thinking along the lines of Terran's question and I came up with an idea that I think would be kinda cool for a forum setting.

Posting in the forum would cost you points (maybe like 20 points for a new thread and 5 for a reply). Members could then rate your post (perhaps a 1-5 scale) and based on their review you would gain or lose further points (1: -2 points, 2: -1 point, 3: 0 points, 4: +1 point, 5: +2 points). Also every reply to your thread, or every time someone quotes a portion of your post you gain a point.

If you run out of points you could take out a "loan" which would have to be paid back. Run out of points again (before paying back the loan) or fail to pay back the loan within 6 weeks and you get banned!

It would definitely help keep spam down (assuming of course that you fools don't go feeding the trolls!

) and make people think about the quality of what they're posting instead of just the quantity. In practice some of that might require some tweaking, but I think it could definitely work like that.

TerranRich · Tue 21/07/2009 06:16:01

That is a pretty neat idea for a forum.

I'd like to expand the nature of this thread... I'm sure people have had ideas for web sites that they either haven't had the expertise to do it, the funds to pay someone to do it, or both. Post your ideas here, and perhaps I could use it as part of my web design portfolio, with your permission. How does that sound?

GuyAwesome · Tue 21/07/2009 12:05:04

How about a 'Help Wanted' type of thing: putting writers, artists, developers, musicians, whatever together? Like the 'Recruit A Team' and 'Offer Your Services' threads but on a larger scale, and maybe not restricted to AGS projects only. You could also give them a place to collaborate after they've met up - host 'meetings' via private discussion boards, share concept art, etc. I'm not sure how do-able that'd be, or how you'd build the reputation needed to get people joining, but it's the only suggestion I can think of...

Atelier · Tue 21/07/2009 14:01:42

I had an idea before reading this thread that might bring in some cash - but it's either a success or a flop. Set up a website, foleyforfree.com, offering a wide range of different sound effects free for download. Then they could be categorised, e.g: People, Machine, Nature, etc. Alternatively, you could download the whole database in one big chunk for a price of, say, Â£10. (Or limit sound effects available for free, and chuck in a whole bunch of others with the bundle?)

Anybody could contribute to the site, meaning it has an opportunity to grow, and also to raise awareness. The hopeful foley artists send in an example of their sound effects, and if they're up to scratch they get added to the database, and get rewarded with a free bundle/a small sum of money.

It might have been done before, and I might have completely missed the point of this thread, but that was my idea anyway.

SpacePaw · Tue 21/07/2009 14:09:08

Quote from: AtelierGames on Tue 21/07/2009 14:01:42
I had an idea before reading this thread that might bring in some cash - but it's either a success or a flop. Set up a website, foleyforfree.com, offering a wide range of different sound effects free for download. Then they could be categorised, e.g: People, Machine, Nature, etc. Alternatively, you could download the whole database in one big chunk for a price of, say, Â£10. (Or limit sound effects available for free, and chuck in a whole bunch of others with the bundle?)

Hmmm now where I saw that already...
www.soundsnap.com ?
Anyways this is great idea to do a site like that. As far as sounds are free for commercial use

rharpe · Tue 21/07/2009 14:19:24

Quote from: TerranRich on Tue 21/07/2009 03:00:24
It seems like a good idea, but I'm a little unclear on what exactly the site would be. What would the points be used for?

The site content is entirely up to you... so long as there is participation. Like a video game you play, points are like health, the further you go down the closer you get to "Game Over!"

If people want to stay connected to your site, they HAVE to participate!

TerranRich · Tue 21/07/2009 17:42:37

GuyAwesome: I had that idea earlier, and I'm still thinking about it. I'm glad you brought it up... it means there would be some demand for it. It would fill a niche (talented people looking for work). Craigslist comes to mind as something similar, but this site could be something more direct and more specific. I'll toy with this idea some more.

AtelierGames: That is another great idea! There are plenty of sound effects sites that offer them for free, but (1) not all of them allow commercial use, and (2) not many of them allow user submission. I'll play with this idea on paper a bit. If I were to register a domain, a ton of them are available: foleyforfree.com, foley4free.com, freefoley.com, myfreefoley.com, etc. I've never had so many choices available for a domain name before!

rharpe: I see what you mean... so like a browser game that uses forum participation as a points system for the game itself. This is a really good idea. I had been thinking of making a simplistic browser game (not as complex as an RPG would be), and this is a great system to implement.

Your ideas are awesome, guys. If anybody else has ever had a web site idea that they couldn't implement themselves for one reason or another, post it here, and maybe someday I'll create it.

I think the Foley-for-Free idea is the idea that would be the easiest to implement... I think I'll start working on that one on paper, fleshing out the details, like navigation, back-end, database structure, etc.

Atelier · Tue 21/07/2009 18:33:08

Cool, I was told my fff idea wasn't very good by somebody else (*cough*Cabbage*cough*), but I'm glad you at least appreciate the potential.

I hope it goes well for you!

EDIT: Instead of double posting I'm going to put another one of my money-making schemes in here. The cousin site of foleyforfree.com could be www.poundapop.com, which hosts computer games which, as the title implies, sell for one pound each. Instead of making money from the sales themselves, Indie developers would give you a sum of money to add their game to the database in the hopes that they'll make some profit from it.

This would of course rely heavily on the advertising of the site, and there would also be many other problems too. But you could put it into your portfolio as filler.