I posted the following as a note on Facebook. It’s about a website I wish to make in the future. And no, it’s not called Vooba. That’s just an inside joke.
A week ago or so an idea for a website came to mind. At first I thought it would be the coolest thing ever, but the more I thought about it this past week, the more stupid and unoriginal it seemed, which was one of the main reasons why I delayed typing this (yes, this is the news I was talking about a few days ago). Nevertheless, I will still propose my idea and potentially work on the actual website in the future.
What it is:
I’m going to be blunt and say it’s essentially a better version of deviantART. It would be a lot easier to navigate and manage your content; plus, I’d like to add some features that I don’t believe deviantART has (along with some I know they don’t have).
Pros and cons of the competition:
When you go to deviantART.com right now, it’s extremely messy. You really don’t know where anything is because of the crappy layout. In my opinion, it just looks like one huge clusterfuck of what-the-hell-am-I-doing. Your profile looks like shit and could be a little more concise. The color scheme reminds me of vomit, too, which is more of a personal gripe than a universal one. The way they make money apart from ads is having a “premium membership”, and I find those really annoying and stupid. All users should be treated equally, in my opinion.
Despite these things, there are some features deviantART has that I think are good but just implemented poorly, such as Watchers, which are essentially followers. You get “notified” when someone you are Watching publishes something, but I don’t know how you are notified. I believe it’s through an email notification (can anyone confirm this? I’m lazy and don’t want to Watch someone and wait for them to publish something), and if it is, then you can expect a bunch of annoying spam on the email you use to sign up with.
My main issue with deviantART is that there’s hardly any connection between its users. You don’t really get that “community” feeling when going there. The site has so much more potential than what it is now, so I’m going to take the initiative to create something better. I hope.
How Project Vooba will be better:
This would be a lot easier to explain if I had concept art, but I don’t at this time, unfortunately. You can expect some in the next week or two.
The main issue with becoming an artist is getting your name and work out there, obviously. In fact, this is such an obstacle that I feel as if it makes a lot of people that want to be one shy away from even trying.
I would like to implement something similar to reddit.com’s ranking feature with people’s work. I’ll go into more detail later about it. I believe something like this would help a lot of unknown artists have a chance to get their work out there and seen by the world a lot easier. If you’re a little confused about it, just head over to reddit, and the ranking thing is pretty obvious. This is definitely something that deviantART does not have. In fact, I have no idea how people’s work is ranked on their site. I think it’s based on views, but I’m not certain.
I’d also like to add a (very, very) simplified Facebook profile to the site. You will have two different lists: friends and followers. I’m fairly certain Twitter does something like this already. Friends will be able to interact with you a lot more, such as commenting on your wall/work. Yes, I’d like to add a simplified wall to the profile. Followers will just be able to see the work you’ve posted and rank it. I will make an option, though, to have it so followers can comment on your work but not your wall. Only friends can do that. Along with the wall, you will be able to make short status updates. I’m still debating how long it can be. I know a lot of people like to update both Twitter and Facebook at the same time, and sometimes it’s a little frustrating when your Facebook status is too long for Twitter.
As far as a chat feature goes, I’m still thinking about it. It’s neat and all, but a part of me feels that a chat feature doesn’t belong on a site like it.
I like the idea of being able to comment with pictures, so I’d work with that. Commenters would have a tiny thumbnail by their comment, and people would be able to click it to expand the picture.
And I also want to expand on the types of art featured. deviantART is strictly pictures and writing and some other odd things, like rainmeter skins, but what about singers and musicians and dancers, etc.? They’re completely left out of the site and have to resort to Youtube (which is a cesspool, by the way), so uploading videos and mp3’s is a must.
I also really want to add something for companies that are looking for talented artists to employ. I don’t have much detail on that, though. I’m still thinking about how to do it.
The site will probably have to run on advertisements and probably some datamining down the road. However, I don’t know how it’ll work. I’m not going to make a retarded “premium membership” like deviantART has, though. That’s for certain.
This is definitely going to take me awhile (years!) to make, considering I’m starting from scratch, and I have to teach myself a lot of web languages, programs, etc.
Tips and comments are definitely appreciated. Also, any ideas for a cool name for it?
What do you guys think? Should I go forward with this?
And I apologize if I disappointed you with this as my news I hyped about.
