Design/Dev/Business Blog
A quick summary of what’s been going on:
There’s a lot more, but this is already a huge post, so I’m actually going to split it up into two updates and post the second half tomorrow. Before I jump into the details: the Banner Contest strikes back with another big update! Here are three of the 12 new entries:
Long time since the last update, but there’s been lots going on in the meantime. Lawyer-Time Incorporation Station is rolling along, I’m getting ready to bring on some investors, Ryan has begun full-time work, and I’m deleting files indiscriminately to make room for the massive Photoshop files I’m working on for the forum. But before that, a long-awaited banner update! Here are three cool ones, but hit the Banner Contest page for more:
My appointment got rejected by the lawyer like a 7th grader with acne, so my business machinations are on hold for the next few weeks. But that gives me time to work on designing and organizing, so that’s ok. Speaking of which, there’s an awesome puppy contest going on which will lead into an even more awesome contest — on Saturday I’m going to be launching a simple challenge/contest for any prospective developers who are interested in working on Fangamer. More on that after the jump, but first, some more excellent banners:
It’s been a busy non-Fangamer-related week, hopefully one of my last; been finishing up prior obligations and doing lots of thinking/organizing in my head. I’ve got some information about my goals/plans for this coming week, choosing between Ruby and PHP, and collaborating on a Fangamer logo, but first a preview of some of the excellent banners that have been sent in:
I’ve gotten a lot of work done over the past few days, and finally hit a milestone — my first presentable mockup for the forum! I’ve got a full-sized preview after the jump, but first, a look at some of the awesome banners you guys have sent my way for the Banner Contest:
Got to meet with Dean Axelrod today, it went really well — he’s definitely the guy I’m gonna work with for lawyerly stuff. Also got another huge batch of headers, but there’s too many to post, so I’m gonna do a queue thing kinda like the Halloween Funfest. Also some good news about the forum advertising, which has made a minor recovery from its Thanksgiving slumber. But first, three selections from our latest round of Banner Contest updates:
Announced the blog and the banner contest on Starmen.Net last night and got a pretty huge response. Also went to see a lawyer today — more after the jump, but not before I show three of the awesome banners you guys made :D
Over the past week or two I’ve been working pretty hard on a new design for the Starmen.Net Forum. (Incidentally, Ryan made a lot of progress on some new code for the forum over Thanksgiving Break… more on that later.) I’ve been uploading mockups for the staff/mods to look over, and the reception so far has definitely been lukewarm.
My first mockup (pictured) is pretty crappy and definitely unfinished, but I wanted to get people talking more than anything else, so I threw it up for the staff/mods to review. Some people liked it, but the general consensus seemed to be that it was too different and too cluttered. And there were lots of things (namely the header and footer) that I simply didn’t include in my hurry to get it posted.
I’m preparing to meet with a lawyer this coming Wednesday. Needless to say, this is terrifying. His name is very soothing, though — Dean Axelrod. Did I say soothing? I meant terrifying, like seeing a doctor named James McSwordicutty. Honestly though, I talked with Dean on the phone and he sounds like a nice guy. I’m going to be speaking with him about incorporation and investors and will report back here with my findings on Wednesday evening.
The ‘ad test’ on the forum hasn’t gone so well — the eCPM (convoluted acronym for “how much scrilla do we get per 1,000 pageviews?”) bottomed out pretty hard before Thanksgiving and hasn’t come back up since. I’m not too discouraged, though, because Google Analytics has been kind enough to inform me that only 8.7% of the forum’s pageviews are from new visitors.
