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Yea, I agree with those problems. That's why the approach we took with this idea was launch really early and get feedback from the community to see what changes

by rksprst 18y ago

Yea, I agree with those problems. That's why the approach we took with this idea was launch really early and get feedback from the community to see what changes need to be made and in which direction we should take the site. (i.e. we thought that the best way to solve these problems is to let the community guide us) So far, we've had positive feedback from users who said they would post their guides on the site and others saying they want game reviews as well. We'll have to wait and see if that feedback actually translates into action by those users to register and post guides.

SwellJoe 18y ago
Be suspicious of feedback, as well. Sometimes users don't actually know what they want. As Henry Ford said, "If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” While I'm certain that there is a business model for revenue sharing out there that'll work, so far it has not. The people who want to make money on what they write put it on their own blog or website (generally) and the people who want the little moment of fame do their work for the largest community available (or the one that serves their little niche best). It seems like the happy medium is impossible--either you're paying them a pittance or you're not, as there's no way you can pay them the $50 option as in the experiment--the solution might be to make it possible for people to make more than they could make on their own even if you're taking a cut. Proving that to them might be hard, and it might still lead to less actual contribution from users than just asking for help. But, I dunno. You'll have to experiment and find out. This is a case where measurement is going to be absolutely vital. You need to know when you're doing something that works 5% better, so that you can do more of it--and if the returns start diminishing, you need to be able to find the next biggest contributor to positive outcomes so you can keep cranking up the next best thing until you're either successful or you know you can't win.

by rksprst 18y ago

SwellJoe 18y ago

Be suspicious of feedback, as well. Sometimes users don't actually know what they want. As Henry Ford said, "If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” While I'm certain that there is a business model for revenue sharing out there that'll work, so far it has not. The people who want to make money on what they write put it on their own blog or website (generally) and the people who want the little moment of fame do their work for the largest community available (or the one that serves their little niche best). It seems like the happy medium is impossible--either you're paying them a pittance or you're not, as there's no way you can pay them the $50 option as in the experiment--the solution might be to make it possible for people to make more than they could make on their own even if you're taking a cut. Proving that to them might be hard, and it might still lead to less actual contribution from users than just asking for help. But, I dunno. You'll have to experiment and find out. This is a case where measurement is going to be absolutely vital. You need to know when you're doing something that works 5% better, so that you can do more of it--and if the returns start diminishing, you need to be able to find the next biggest contributor to positive outcomes so you can keep cranking up the next best thing until you're either successful or you know you can't win.