Regarding Future Website Redesign Plans

[KaientaiAMV]

A redesign will kill the org. Trust me. New looks and meagre new features ain't gonna motivate me to open up Vegas pro 8.0e (Trial Version).

[Nya-chan Production]

Things like identification of problems (with code or function), solutions, and a roadmap with milestones are necessary part of project development and management. If those things are being produced anyway, they can be posted, along with updates on progress when milestones are reached. Heck, you could even post any custom code to GitHub; the non-programmers might not understand any of it, but it will let people see progress being made and the computer scientists and information scientists who hang out here might have constructive suggestions, especially if there's a troublesome bug that needs more eyes. (This also makes it easier to have new people take over parts of the project if necessary.)

I Fight For The Users did this (with GitHub, I mean). But I couldn't write anything on it, since it was mostly Ruby or Python with like five more new frameworks on top of that (Suzy and others) and I wasn't able to learn all of that at the time (and unlike I Fight For The Users, I think almost nobody would be able to work on this scheme in the long term, but that's a personal opinion). And pmuch all of my front end opinions were shot down and I was considered a grumpy meanie trying to hamper the progress. Still, I Fight For The Users did much work on it, I think the most in the years we tried to redo the site.

Any sort of redesign at this point requires a complete refocus, as GQ stated. Personally, I'd like to see the catalog and video uploads go away. Focus the site on the forum, contests, and social events. Removing video uploads would remove the need for donations and open more options for the site, as far as where it could go without running into legal trouble (advertising at cons?).

I would hate to see this.

let me rephrase that:

Personally, I'd like to see the catalog as it is now and video uploads go away.

I think it can be simplified and would love to see integration for video streaming services in lieu of getting rid of video uploads. There are a lot of services out there and youtube is by far the most popular. We should harness that resource rather then push it away.

I disagree here. Any external service is prone to deleting, filtering, complete disappearing and other things that we can't affect from our side. Unless we want to become a completely text-based catalogue over time (as other services and videos go down), an upload should always be an option, even if secondary. For many new users it's actually the only advantage over the Youtube, Vimeo and others - that we won't delete their videos or accounts no matter what audio or video they use. Our exceptions are still way scarcer than Youtube and there are AMV creators who will rather upload to here or AMVNews instead of shifting pitch and the like.

[Cenit]

Personally, I'd like to see the catalog and video uploads go away. Focus the site on the forum, contests, and social events. Removing video uploads would remove the need for donations and open more options for the site, as far as where it could go without running into legal trouble (advertising at cons?).

I do understand that porting the catalog to a new site might be a mess and the biggest reason why the org is moving no where. However in all honesty i don't care about this community. Not at all. The catalog is by far the only reason why i keep coming back or donate. I feel proud in editing/expanding my profil and checking out those of my friends. Walking the same paths my idols did before me. But if the catalog goes i go. Removing it for me would kill the org for good. We all keep joking about how the org is dead for years and in a way it is, but the catalog is THE only good idea still remaining. If you want to trim down the site lose all of the following features:

Local Downloads overview
download queue
My Journal (fuck this shit)
Banners (everything about this is dated - lose the banner contest)
search (simplyfy the search engine - maybe use google - trim this down - it's confusing as fuck)
my favorite amvs should be included in edit profile or removed completely - nobody cares about it or keeps it updated)
opinions given (who cares nobody gives opinions)
interviews
newsletter
org alert log (lose this feature - no alerts for now)
simplify video profile editing (this is basically catalog and therefor very important)
bandwidth usage
no chatrooms link
no journal buddies (lose the journal as a whole - we got facebook now)
no store for now
just a donate button - no donation history
guides (they are outdated an can be easily implemented later - important but not first thing for the redesign)
no contest list for the start.

Basically the org should be the catalog and maybe the forum - nothing more. Develop a script to port the catalog entries in a new data base. Add more features later once you got this one point right. Everything starts with the catalog.

Now about the content of the catalog - let us embed youtube links and maybe vimeo - this is a given. New members will probably want to enter their YT links into the catalog so let em - make it front and center of every new video profile. Losing the local download would be very very sad but i'd agree with that one as long as the rest works fine.

This is all a bunch of work and will likely never be done. But if you think saving the org means turning it into a extended forum, rather just let it die as it is.

[XStylus]

Basically the org should be the catalog and maybe the forum - nothing more. Develop a script to port the catalog entries in a new data base. Add more features later once you got this one point right. Everything starts with the catalog.

Now about the content of the catalog - let us embed youtube links and maybe vimeo - this is a given. New members will probably want to enter their YT links into the catalog so let em - make it front and center of every new video profile. Losing the local download would be very very sad but i'd agree with that one as long as the rest works fine.

More or less this.

To me though, the forum is more important (or at least as equally important) as the catalog. If the forum were to ever die, a mess of conventions would be screwed insofar as getting the word out about their AMV contests and such. An overwhelming majority of of submissions to various contests come from people who learned about them through the forums here.

[Radical_Yue]

Since any of the original questions that were being posed are going to be ignored and the discussion seems to have shifted into what the Org should be, I figured it would finally be ok for me to throw in my two cents.


I believe the Org should basically focus on three areas. Like Cenit said, there is a lot there are a lot of features that were fun back in the day but they're totally useless now.

1) Keep the forum as it is. I disagree with Bashar considering I talk to dozens of new and/or younger editors almost daily who all agree that they would have been on the forum a lot earlier if they even knew it was an option. The main page is such a mess of buttons and clickables that it's easy for someone who isn't used to seeing it to get lost in. I can just about promise you that more people would use it, discuss videos, and announce their own if they could even figure out basic functions like how to upload videos.

2) A constantly updating main page like AMVNews. Video highlights of new uploads for those that like the "BestAMVsofAllTime" style of viewing and updates on the site, advertised contests, etc. I would aim for making it almost exactly like the current version of AMVNews, focused on news and how to find the top videos.
This would need to be manned by at least a couple moderators to guarantee constant content. Having one or two people, is not sufficient. I can easily attest that if one person goes down for whatever reason that the area they were in charge of will quickly die since for the most part, no one else will step in.

3) Video uploads/catalogs. I actually disagree with Scott about removing the ability to upload. When you think about it, there is literally no where else on the internet that is safe for AMVs at this time. AMVNews doesn't get them all (not even all of the gems) and Youtube is constantly seeing video take down, account deletions, and videos even dealing with pitched audio or fucked up visuals in order to attempt to hide under the radar from takedown sweeps.
With this portion of it, it would really be best for it to be modeled after Youtube. Simplified uploads, basic profiles with information and links to other videos, and a search ability based off of keywords with the option for filtration. I would go a bit more in depth on the filters with the ability to not only filter by time, relevance, ratings, etc. but also by category of video. The ability to search with anime and audio were nice but keeping the database updated with all of the anime currently in existence is impossible and would require a dedicated team if that was a capability we wanted to keep.
The actual video pages themselves I would model more after AMVNews with focus on streaming but also the ability to download and a comments sections with optional ratings. In the event of Youtube only like CrazyDreamer mentioned, let them embed and leave (which would obviously mean no download link).
The moderators and admins would need additional control to alter and remove video information as needed. As any of the current mods will tell you (transparency!) the system we have right now isn't the best. Unless someone submits for their information to be altered such as title, source, date, etc. there is really no power over entries beyond just flat out deleting them. Unless you bug someone such as dokidoki with real power, there isn't a ton of control over entries submit.


I agree that the community is no doubt one of the biggest draws that we have going on but without something to offer to new members it will eventually die. It's a matter of time now. The Org should aim to be a mix of Youtube and AMVNews (if not evident from the rest of my post) with a larger moderation/admin base that is kept fresh with new faces on a regular basis so if someone is feeling rundown they don't feel like they have to stick around since there is no one else to fill their place.

The administration needs to be more transparent and active in the community. Too often do I have people ask me who owns the website or who is in charge. Yes, there are links at the bottom of the forum but a list of names doesn't really tell you shit about what people actually do.

[Dr. Derpface, J.D.]

The administration needs to be more transparent and active in the community. Too often do I have people ask me who owns the website or who is in charge. Yes, there are links at the bottom of the forum but a list of names doesn't really tell you shit about what people actually do.

But I thought forum signatures were all we needed to know who the HEAD Admins are?

[Dr. Derpface, J.D.]

But to bring this back around to the original issue, do we have ANY answers whatsoever, or just more vague handwaving before the discussion gets turned back into another "lets talk about what we like about the org instead of the issues being brought up"?

[JaddziaDax]

If the catalog (as it is) does go...

If I do have to recatalog all my videos I guess an email notification to all the members would be nice... give them a grace period to catch up on it.

I would hate to see all that history lost though...

[Cenit]

The org redesign is a big issue and has been for years. I agree that it's state needs to be answered. This site is dying but has big potential. Just say "we can not fix the org within the next two years, it's not possible". In a second step how about "we want to fix it but don't know how because...". Now there are two options. Leave the org as it is, do minor updates and try to keep it on life support for another 2-3 years until you have to shut down local uploads due to unsufficient funds. Or create a new org, a separate site to ultimately relieve the org once it's up and running. Maybe give it a new aim - amateur video editing, so pwolf and others can also enter their none anime Videos. You know - A deviant Art for Video Art, based on what made the org great. People would have to reenter their old entries to new this site - everything - but we would know if people like it before shutting down the org. And we could still keep the forum. If we can't fix the org, we should relaunch it. Imho there is still a place for anime video art.

[Mol]

Mhm, only thing in php i ever touched was php-fusion and phpbb in old times, guess its laziest way to make site running tho there is a lot of open source cms out there now, wonder if any of those were taken into consideration. That would be some base, and rest would be have to be still modded tho D:.
I wouldn't mind the site even with its current set-up if it was simplified with aim for ease of use and access,but guess its not possible with old ass code.

++Local downloads , i think to help org a little one could try something like org@home to host some stuff for uploads. I wouldnt mind some torrents/simplified p2m/smthg too.
+ Catalog
+/-Tops10% etc- imo this could use some work or archival.


Think rest of my thoughts has been said by others o;.