What is the org doing wrong?

General discussion of Anime Music Videos
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CodeZTM
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Re: What is the org doing wrong?

Post by CodeZTM » Fri Oct 29, 2010 11:24 am

Ditching forced star ratings and making the entire center dedicated to AMV's [as kire suggested] would be really nice. I know star ratings are a big deal for force donations [to max it out to like 10-12 instead of just 4/5], but I'm pretty sure all of us would donate 12 bucks to get rid of that major annoyance that's so criminally unworkable, it's almost painful. [That'd be some AWESOME revenue]

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Kireblue
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Re: What is the org doing wrong?

Post by Kireblue » Fri Oct 29, 2010 11:31 am

I think that it would be a nice idea to have a drop down menu in the space between the "notices" and "New / Updated Opinions" area of the members page.

here is a photo-shopped image that I made in order for you to see what it could look like.

Image

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godix
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Re: What is the org doing wrong?

Post by godix » Fri Oct 29, 2010 12:17 pm

After thinking about it, a few suggestions. Keeping in mind, I and no one else should expect anything to be done for awhile since the coders are focused on the redesign which will take awhile.

I'll admit, I've kinda been wondering why people say we need a redesign. The org has worked for the last decade as it is after all. I understand the behind the scene tech reasons for it, but the point of those who want to change the layout and interface of the org kinda escaped me. Now that I think about it, I'm starting to get it. What others have said is right, it is hard to find videos on the org. Or, more accurately, there are so many ways of finding them and they're hidden in so many different spots, that it's effectively difficult to stumble into a specific video. Think about how often we see threads of 'Help me find vid XYZ' posted and someone links to the video after a single super search. That right there should be a lesson in that current methods are too difficult for the casual viewer who isn't already used to the site.

Like I said, part of the problem is that there are too many options. If you go to the 'search for AMV' section on the front page, there are six options. One of which is 'all search options' which leads to another 5 choices. And that's actually not even all of them, quick search is listed below the menu and there's no link to the announcement forum or the recommended AMV forum. Many of these choices are duplicate links to the same thing, so we don't really have that many different types of searches, we just link to them in multiple ways. Once the redesign gets are enough along that interface is considered, I'd suggest simplifying this. Simple search being right on the front page is good, the rest of the searches should be buried in a menu labeled 'other searches' that's right under simple search.

Kill the log in requirement for previews. I don't have to sign up to akross, amvnews, or the tube to view a link someone sends me. A new user who stumbled into the site, or was linked to is, is most likely just going to go away when they have to sign up, wait for the conformation email, and log in. There have been times that I've uploaded my vids to rapidshare, even though it was already on the org, because I was sending it to someone who wouldn't become a regular member of the org. Which is a sign there is an issue. A further sign, there have been times that I thought about linking someone to a video then I did not because it'd just be a hassle for them to sign up and so on. And they'd be pestering me about what to do the entire time. Fuck it, easier to just not mention the video. To view videos really should be as simple as 'click link to org, click play button'. Making previews available to people not signed it would solve that.

The vid on the FP that doki put to give new viewers a sample is a good idea. I think it might be overly limited though. As someone in the community, I quit paying attention to it very very quickly. Which is fine, it wasn't designed for me, but why not? Currently it has a very small number of videos it'll link to, all of which I've seen before. I'd suggest expanding the number of vids it shows (in other words, lower the star rating requirement to be put in rotation on it) and also putting it on the member main page. That way even experienced members can run into stuff that they haven't seen before. Perhaps this would be simpler to implement than devoting the center FP to vids like others mentioned, although their idea is good if someone has the time/interest to do it.


However, despite these suggestions, I think a large part is simply the community. My AKROSS video is up to 5 pages of comments on the video itself, and a couple pages of comments in the forum. My Amvnews vid has four pages of comments. Neither seem unusual compared to other vids on the site. Both amvnews and AKROSS users seem inclined to provide feedback and interaction with other editors about the videos themselves. Contrast that to the org. There are 30 announcements on the first page of the announcement forum. Currently, less than half have more than one page of replies. Only two have more than two pages. We joke that opinions are dead, and QCs are dying, but it isn't a joke. It's perfectly true. We, as a community, just don't focus on videos as much. In the end, this may the largest factor. Many org users, despite being on a site devoted to AMVs, don't really give a fuck about AMVs. So this isn't all 'the site needs redesigned' or 'the admins should implement this' and shit. A lot of this is as simple as if you see a good video, then tell someone else about it for a change, ok?
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Kireblue
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Re: What is the org doing wrong?

Post by Kireblue » Fri Oct 29, 2010 12:58 pm

very well said. I agree with everything in your post completely.

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dokidoki
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Re: What is the org doing wrong?

Post by dokidoki » Fri Oct 29, 2010 1:00 pm

godix wrote:Kill the log in requirement for previews.
Then everyone will just watch videos logged out so they don't have to give them a star rating.
(For the moment I'm not saying whether mandatory stars are good or bad, just trying to illustrate a consequence of the decision)
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Zarxrax
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Re: What is the org doing wrong?

Post by Zarxrax » Fri Oct 29, 2010 1:07 pm

Points brought up in the thread are why I have decided to learn PHP, MYSQL, Javascript, etc, so I can help reprogram the site.
It's actually a lot easier to learn than I thought it would be.

/passive encouragement for others to learn as well

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Kireblue
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Re: What is the org doing wrong?

Post by Kireblue » Fri Oct 29, 2010 1:34 pm

dokidoki wrote:
godix wrote:Kill the log in requirement for previews.
Then everyone will just watch videos logged out so they don't have to give them a star rating.
(For the moment I'm not saying whether mandatory stars are good or bad, just trying to illustrate a consequence of the decision)
instead of having star ratings be mandatory, how about making it optional, and giving people incentives to give them. One incentive could be having a star rating leaderdoard similar to the "most useful" leaderboard. Right now, I can't think of any other incentives though.

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Castor Troy
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Re: What is the org doing wrong?

Post by Castor Troy » Fri Oct 29, 2010 1:48 pm

I think we should start running polls on the main page asking stuff like "Do you use mac or pc, Do you use Premiere, Vegas, etc".

It would be a lot easier to cater to everyone's needs.
"You're ignoring everything, except what you want to hear.." - jbone

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Re: What is the org doing wrong?

Post by Pwolf » Fri Oct 29, 2010 3:01 pm

The problem stems from everything we've been saying in the State of the Org thread. The org isn't a place to watch videos, it's a catalog and the design of the website is focused on that aspect more then anything else. amvnews is a distribution site for amvs, so you're most likely going to get more views.

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Kai Stromler
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Re: What is the org doing wrong?

Post by Kai Stromler » Fri Oct 29, 2010 3:04 pm

Because my customer hasn't called into the meeting yet, I was able to take an actual real look at the main-site interface. Raise your hand if you were previously aware that there are 46 separate options available under the collapsable headers in the members menu. After I get home I'll followup/edit this with a proposed rework that gets this down to 30 in case the redesign team hasn't yet looked at this in detail, plus some other suggestions. The comments relating to community dynamics are probably more important to what the .org is "doing wrong", but if you're not familiar with it already, the main site design is not helping a whole lot.

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