4 ms·

I am a bioinformatician currently doing research. I don't really get this website. Is it a crowd funding website or a publisher? Or both? So the point is that y

by daemonk 12y ago

I am a bioinformatician currently doing research. I don't really get this website. Is it a crowd funding website or a publisher? Or both? So the point is that you publish a proposal and people back it? I think the site needs to be more explicit on its goals. The interface and design of the site also needs to step it up a bit to appeal to a wider audience.

untilHellbanned 12y ago
"Is it a crowd funding website or a publisher? Or both?" Both. Onarbor is publishing and funding in one platform. What specific about the design needs to be stepped up to appeal to a wider audience?
- daemonk 12y ago
  How does that work? So you publish a proposal, people back it, you get funding for your work, then you publish on the same site? They seem like two very different services. How are you synergizing the crowd funding aspect with the publishing aspect? In terms of the interface: - Too much white space in the main page makes it look like you just don't have enough content. - Instead of the tour, "trying onarbor", I would explicitly describe what it is and its goals. A tour of something I vaguely understand just confuses me more. - Using the iframes on the frontpage to display projects depends completely on having an appealing image which not all your projects will have. I would simplify that down to a thumbnail with text so you can display more content. Or a better format so you can provide both the image and description visibly. - When you click on the iframe in the front page to go to the projects page, the whole browser window should go to the projects page, not just inside the iframe. - Is there no link to browse projects from the front page?
  - untilHellbanned 12y ago
    Thanks for your questions. "How does that work? So you publish a proposal, people back it, you get funding for your work, then you publish on the same site? They seem like two very different services. " Onarbor is flexibly structured. It is up to the work creators to decide what/when to post. "How are you synergizing the crowd funding aspect with the publishing aspect?" The crowdfunding is that anyone can back a work and that Onarbor requires at least one person to back the work within the 1st week it is published. If nobody backs the work within one week, then the work creator has the option to self-back it to keep it live on the site. "Too much white space in the main page makes it look like you just don't have enough content." We don't have enough content yet but are looking for submissions :). We just launched last week. "A tour of something I vaguely understand just confuses me more." On the homepage, we can include a "Read more" link to reveal a longer description. That is a good suggestion. We tried to do that in the slideshow with the last slide by directing people to the help page, https://onarbor.com/help https://onarbor.com/help. "Using the iframes... appealing image". This was a toss-up for us. We wanted to show off that all the works could be embeds on any site (like a Youtube video but with payment buttons!). "Is there no link to browse projects". Another good suggestion. Onarbor is divided into sites, such as https://onarbor.com/sites/biology https://onarbor.com/sites/biology, where site-specific work is displayed. We will add a link on the homepage to browse sites.

by daemonk 12y ago

untilHellbanned 12y ago

"Is it a crowd funding website or a publisher? Or both?" Both. Onarbor is publishing and funding in one platform. What specific about the design needs to be stepped up to appeal to a wider audience?

daemonk 12y ago
How does that work? So you publish a proposal, people back it, you get funding for your work, then you publish on the same site? They seem like two very different services. How are you synergizing the crowd funding aspect with the publishing aspect? In terms of the interface: - Too much white space in the main page makes it look like you just don't have enough content. - Instead of the tour, "trying onarbor", I would explicitly describe what it is and its goals. A tour of something I vaguely understand just confuses me more. - Using the iframes on the frontpage to display projects depends completely on having an appealing image which not all your projects will have. I would simplify that down to a thumbnail with text so you can display more content. Or a better format so you can provide both the image and description visibly. - When you click on the iframe in the front page to go to the projects page, the whole browser window should go to the projects page, not just inside the iframe. - Is there no link to browse projects from the front page?
- untilHellbanned 12y ago
  Thanks for your questions. "How does that work? So you publish a proposal, people back it, you get funding for your work, then you publish on the same site? They seem like two very different services. " Onarbor is flexibly structured. It is up to the work creators to decide what/when to post. "How are you synergizing the crowd funding aspect with the publishing aspect?" The crowdfunding is that anyone can back a work and that Onarbor requires at least one person to back the work within the 1st week it is published. If nobody backs the work within one week, then the work creator has the option to self-back it to keep it live on the site. "Too much white space in the main page makes it look like you just don't have enough content." We don't have enough content yet but are looking for submissions :). We just launched last week. "A tour of something I vaguely understand just confuses me more." On the homepage, we can include a "Read more" link to reveal a longer description. That is a good suggestion. We tried to do that in the slideshow with the last slide by directing people to the help page, https://onarbor.com/help https://onarbor.com/help. "Using the iframes... appealing image". This was a toss-up for us. We wanted to show off that all the works could be embeds on any site (like a Youtube video but with payment buttons!). "Is there no link to browse projects". Another good suggestion. Onarbor is divided into sites, such as https://onarbor.com/sites/biology https://onarbor.com/sites/biology, where site-specific work is displayed. We will add a link on the homepage to browse sites.