Website Ideas

I've been thinking about some website ideas for tabletop gaming recently (I'm kind of an idea guy ) and have one that I wanted to run by you guys. This is just a rough idea right now, just to gauge interest.

There's coolminiornot.com for people to show off some of their work, but what about a website that let you create an account and have your own personal album/tabletop space? You would be able to upload photos of your stuff and organize them based on tons of criteria including the game they are for, the army, terrain, work in progress versus finished stuff, etc. You could also add comments/captions as well. You would then have one place to put up ALL of your minis/terrain photos in an organized album to show off to people. You could link to individual photos or albums that you set. You would also be able to put in a few details about yourself and your gaming for a mini-profile attached to it all.

The idea is that you would have a (free) place to not only put all of your tabletop related photos and keep them organized but also with a sort of mini gaming profile. I know most people use the forums for showing this stuff off, but it would be great for hosting your stuff and you could just link to your profile/album/photo that you want to show off.

There could also be a directory so you can browse through and find other people's works easily. It would hopefully be easy to navigate as you could browse by game types, armies, terrain type, or tons of other criteria. It might be a good way to get ideas for creating stuff yourself, or just checking out what other people are doing when you're bored.

Thoughts? Likes/Dislikes? Suggestions?

Also, here's another thought. What if in addition to photos you could also post up scenarios or other things of your creation as well? Then there would also be a directory of uploaded user created content in addition to photos.

So, your profile would have a little bit about you and your gaming, a whole portfolio with individual albums for your photos, and a repository of any of your supplements or house rules and things. There would be a directory for you to search and view other people's stuff also.

There could also be an option to make certain things private so they don't show up in the directory.

I really like the idea Svenn.

Personally I spend a lot of time searching for various pictures of different armies and such and it can be hell.

When I read your last post I almost thought to myself ''Oh my GAWD this will be myfigurespace, myspace for table top hobby''...

It has its potential true... though (mind you I'm the kind of guy that critiques ideas for a living, so I may be a bit harsh...) These are just the points I see right now, which are not fully convincing me of this Idea.

I do however like the fact that you are coming up with Ideas! that should never be countered... critiquing them is just my job... so I can't really stop myself from doing it right now as well...

There are already tons of sites out there to host pictures, and a lot of them feature profiles/subfolders etc. what would make yours so much better that all gamers would use it?

Also, if you would post the pictures there, along with their captions, the way I read your post, you want people to come to that specific site to view them, leaving their precious fora, websites, or whatever it is they're viewing at the moment... which can seriously hamper the usability (I for one really dislike linkage in a WIP thread, as I'm reading and want that picture right there, without having to go elswhere in order to understand the context of the post)

If you have a succesfull site up and running, do you want to limit it to only gamers pictures? or is it open to any other photos? - a lot of people dislike using multiple hosts/passwords/accounts, instead preferring to have everything on one location for easy acces

The private thing sounds ok, though, if I want it private, i'll keep it local, and not upload it... perhaps a means of usergroups? where you could share certain folders with a select group of members, and not everyone? (usefull when developping new games/miniatures/obscene stuff - who... never mind that last thing )

Problem with most of the current hosters is the lack of speed and therefore waiting time... (4 seconds is the maximum most people like to wait before clicking away again) If your site would become a succes, how do you intent to host all the happy gamerpictures that will flow to your site/storage? is there a limit to the available space users have? do you host yourself or at a third party? will you have sponsored banners (seriously slowing down the site, and crapping up the interface) do you charge for use?


Like I said initially... don't take this personal... but as you wanted to run it by us, I gave you my opinion. Keep on brainstorming!!

Sounds like an advanced version of http://www.displacedminiatures.com.

Dunno.. I really like the blogging thing. I think that is a good way of socialising with others, following other blogs and stuff. To get the most out of that you do sometimes need additional webspace, but I don't know about a whole new "thing".

Thanks for all the feedback Ezekiel!

I thought about the other picture hosting sites, and honestly I don't like any of them. That aside, yeah it would have a lot of the same picture features. What my site has is the tabletop specific sorting, the directory of photos, the ability to host other game related files of the user's creation, and the directory of those other files. It would be a full repository for all your tabletop gaming related files that you would get to show off and you would also be able to search for other user's images and gaming related files.

As far as how the hosting will happen, I would be paying for hosting. Because of that I'd have to rely on donations or ad space to fund it. The idea would be to keep the ads to a very minimum (both in number and size/space) though to keep load times up and avoid all the clutter. Making sure it runs smoothly would be a top priority.

With that said, I would obviously need people to actually visit the site to generate revenue in order to pay for the whole thing. I'm not sure on the specifics here, but it might be possible to sustain that just through ads from users browsing the directory and stuff so you could link directly to images on the forums.

I'm not sure we'd specifically limit it to just game photos, but that would definitely be the main focus.

cianty, I was wondering if there was anything like this out there. That is a similar idea. The main differences with ours would be more organized (sorting everything by specific games, armies, etc) and the ability to do more than just photos.

As far as the blogging thing... what if the site let you blog also? I thought that might be something unnecessary, but it could be there in case people want it. A website that gives you a free gaming blog of your own with the ability to upload photos and documents, with essentially free advertising through the directory. People could find you through your photos or files or something and also check out your blog? I realize that you already have your own personal site, but a lot of people rely on the free stuff. Do you think that'd be useful?

Okay, after lots of looking into php, mysql, and other web stuff I think I can do this. It will definitely take some time though. I need to get a full list of features... which is where I need you guys.

What features would you like to see in something like this? How would you like it organized?

Okay, which do you guys like better between these two?

The minimalist approach. This way everyone's pages would look the same for the most part (maybe a few bits of customization with colors and a logo/avatar). There would be a simple page for uploading and updating your page. You wouldn't be able to do any fancy formatting or anything for your page though.

The full featured approach. You're tossed into an editor with full control over just about everything. You can completely customize your page if you want to spend the time. You're presented with a control panel with tons of options and the ability to change whatever... given you spend the time and effort to do it. This way leads to everyone's stuff being unique and customized, but you have to figure out how to navigate each person's layout.

So I managed to find a way to get somewhere between those two approaches above... plenty of control over your stuff without TOO much control. This is a work in progress now, and it's coming along nicely.

The lack of responses here concerns me though, lol. Is that just for a lack of ideas on how it should work or are people not interested in actually using it?

Current feature list that I'm working towards:
*About Me page with some details about yourself
*Creating your own photo galleries and uploading photos (including auto-thumbnail creation and display page)
*Uploading custom rules/scenarios/etc
*Some blog functionality for you to post up whatever you want
*Main directory listing with all galleries for a specific game/army from all users (and the ability to set your stuff private so it doesn't show up here)
*Main directory listing with all rules/scenario files by game (and the ability for yours to be private as well)
*Directory listing of all user pages
*Ability to choose from multiple themes
*FREE

Oh, I forgot an important feature!
*The ability to store and display your rosters from the Roster Builder: http://www.tabletopgeeks.com/mordheim-roster-builder/

*crickets chirping* Hello? Anyone there? >_<

A little sign that I'm not doing this all for nothing and I should continue putting it together? SOMEONE is willing to sign up for FREE and easy to use photo and file hosting in a tabletop community, right?

wow svenn!

That looks awesome!

Do you have a preview page?

Coz im interested

Paluke wrote:

wow svenn!

That looks awesome!

Do you have a preview page?

Coz im interested

I'm mostly working on functionality now so it looks like crap and doesn't even fully work yet, but when I get it a little further along I'll ask for volunteers to beta test it. I'll let you in on that as soon as it's up.

cheers

can't wait

Okay, so I'm past the basic prototyping phase and I've got someone working on a layout template for me. Once that's done I'm going to begin putting in the actual code and the site. Most of it is ready to go, but there will be some editing and testing to be done. Once I get to that point I'll let a few people test it out so I can work out any issues and get in any features that I might have missed.

I know Paluke wants to test it, anyone else?