Flash Kit v2.0 - Your ideas here!

I'll try to be concise:

Don't start charging membership--besides destroying the spirit and purpose of Flashkit, I'm certain you'd see 'true membership' plummet.

Sell T-shirts. I would buy a Flashkit T-shirt if: it was a really cool design (not some dumb thing saying Flashkit in small letters over your left breast, but something that made people actually look at your shirt, and like it).

For the actual design, just hold a contest--with all these design-types out there, I'm sure someone could come up with something cool; perhaps there should be more than one design for the potential consumer to choose from.

You would have to make a deal with a distributor in the US or Canada (the latter would probably be cheaper, since our dollar is almost as low as the Aussie dollar) if you wanted to sell shirts here--I'm not about to try ordering something from halfway around the planet (imagine the postage costs).

Is there any hope of scoring a deal with Macromedia? If it turns out that more Flashers come to Flashkit for info than to Macromedia, then aren't you saving them money vis-a-vis customer support?


Whatever the outcome, I sincerely wish Flashkit the best. It has been of immense service to me.

the ability to filter/ order forum searches based on their popularity (reads/replies)

this would need to be weighted over time so that new posts could qualify equily (10 replies in a week) along side a long standing debate (150 replies over 3 months)


also the idea of some sort of complete flashkit cd release would generate revenue... I like that. (or maybe thats just because the site runs slowly currently) it could operate like a subscription....


dont offer more than is available on the site!
Dont have standdown time untill the info is made available,


ha ha heres a goodie....
Maybe the search could find information locally if the cd is inserted....


cool
[Edited by teanau on 03-26-2001 at 12:13 AM]

<i enjoy the site right now, improvement?
not total flash>

Maybe it could help the flashers on FK if they could get in contact with any other flasher by some sort of messenger system. Because every member has it's own i.d., they could chat directly and help each other out with his/her problem.

b.t.w not 100% flash

I'm looking forward to the new FlashKit v.2

I was really grateful for the current version, think of the state of mind i'll be in with the new version.

Nowhere on the net can you get this kind of information; I even enrolled to macromedias online courses (300 $, I feel like a sucker)... What a waste of time when you can get it here and more...

Somebody mentioned the idea of selling stuff over your site, to keep costs down. I'd f.... buy a T-shirt (or whatever) anytime if this meant you guys could keep this site up & running.

Just wanted to say thanks
Keep up the good work.

Panix

Quote:

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Originally posted by sploenk
Maybe it could help the flashers on FK if they could get in contact with any other flasher by some sort of messenger system. Because every member has it's own i.d., they could chat directly and help each other out with his/her problem.

b.t.w not 100% flash

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ICQ? Most of FK members have ICQ numbers and most, if not all moderators as well.
I don't see anything anything wrong with ICQ, it's the best messenger there is.

sorry if this has been posted before, but....

the only problem i have with FK is the lack of advanced search features in the movies section. you can only search with keywords. how about adding search functions that allow you to narrow your search into, say flash5 or flash4 movies and/or the date and/or the ratigs, etc etc.

:oz

My idea was to say some words about flashkit chat room. Wouldn't it to be good idea to put up flashkit irc channel. So that I dont need to use this super slow web based interface. And to add for this irc channel java applet. So that users can connect to it by web browser. I think that chat room is great thing in flashkit but there are just some details which are making this thing there useless. It is too slow!!! Maybe there is somewhere an official flashkit irc channel and I havent seen it but anyway...

The future internet revenue model is "service-based" sites. Even Microsoft is moving all its applications online as services.

Based on that assumption, I believe FlashKit should take the 1,000's oh flash files and start offering some advance designs to "members" who pay a small monthly fee. Keep the free stuff alive, but create an area where members can freely exchange their more advanced design work. You may even be able to build in a referral model. Another option is giving members so many points to download files, all based on membership fees or uploads to the member community.

Just my two bits.

All i can say is

1: SPEED (or the lack of it)
2: Fix the tuts put them on 1 or 2 pages not 10 or 11 also sometimes i cannot see html code on a tut it is just a blank space so i have to root in the source to find it!!
3: Keep the design i like it
4: better help sometimes i cant find help i am looking for
5: Dont make it a fee site


Other than that FK team Are doin a great job
on the speed front i have noticed a major speed up on some pages


Good work FK keep it up!!

just make it simple for faster site viewing. you can use linux box for cascading computer for better performance and save hardware cost.:)

A few quick suggestions:

1. Try out a donation system first before going to a membership-based site. I think the Flash Kit community would donate enough on their own to support this site without memberships.

2. Many people have suggested a Flash Kit store. This would be an excellent idea. We all have to buy Flash materials anyway; and there is no reason why Flash Kit couldn't get a cut of that.

3. In addition to a "Best of Flash Kit" CD, why not create a system like FilePlanet's FilePlanet CD (http://www.fileplanet.com/index.asp?page=cdrom)? This would be a great alternative for those who are on a narrowband connection and are limited to downloading the smaller files. It could be integreated with a bulk download system, so you could either download the files in bulk or have them put on CD and mailed to you (snailmail). FlashKit could charge whatever their production/shipping costs are per CD plus a little extra to help fund the site.

4. A realtime chatroom type of system could be quite useful for getting questions answered fast, as long as it is not abused by flamers and those who refuse to read the tutorials/FAQ's first.

5. Don't go all Flash. It would be a pain for both the Flash Kit creators and visitors.

6. I think the idea of having some type of collaborative projects or contests on Flash Kit would be neat. For instance, everyone could band together and create a mock-up Flash site, documenting the steps along the way. When the site was finished, all the files would be made available for download and the documentation would serve as a tutorial to show future visitors how to create such a project. The site could even be submitted to FlashForward and other contests. It would help build community and give people a change to flex their Flash muscles.

Sorry, guess that wasn't so quick after all. I look forward to Flash Kit v2.0, keep up the good work!

Well, I finally got through the entire thread, and here's my piece, for what it's worth.

The Flashkit store, both with FK related merchandise and reselling books/software/etc. is a great idea, both as a new feature and as a way to raise some $$$. I would certainly buy through this site, as it has been there for me many times.

I also think the idea of FK developing and presenting some kind of online learning and cert program for Flash is a great idea. I would pay for this, if it was well done, and if the certification actually meant something. This could be very lucrative, but costly to develop.

I agree that this site flourishes because it is a community, and that charging membership could be a detriment. However, there are ways to enact a tiered membership model without excluding people from the tutorials and other free resources. Someone several pages back mentioned that a better job placement/freelance project assembler would be great, in addition to resources for the freelancer (rate sheets, national avgs, etc) perhaps this could be a "value added" service and require a small monthly fee. Hey, I make money from Flash programming, and it's worth it to me to invest a little to get more work.

You could also set up some kind of "partnership" deal with those of us that have services to offer Flashers so we could put content/product up on your site for a fee. Better than a banner ad, and useful for the community.

I hope you won't go to a 100% Flash site, because I think upkeep on a site this huge would be nightmarish, and probably result in slower updates. I'll be along for the ride whatever happens. Keep up the good work!

How about being able to loop flash made files, I find it a dissapointment that I can't loop the animation. Also It would be easyer if you could upload extra animation from your computer and add it too the flash file you are already creating.

Great site, I can't wait for the new one. :)

Quote:

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Originally posted by kptoth
Why don't you make FlashKit v2.0 100% Flash? Use the product that you are featuring.

UltraShock.com will probably be 100% Flash and it'll be tough for FK to stay competitive when UltraShock.com goes live.

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no, that's right in this way. HTML pages and flash content when it's needed.
Too much flash is like too much sugar...
[Edited by kaosmos on 04-04-2001 at 09:30 PM]

i think a rating system should be for each category in the movies section it is really hard to find the best flas to learn from at the moment

also a chatroom will be really good

COOL!
http://members.home.net/nicholashalligan">

The fee idea is good to make some money, but i wonder how many companies will pay the fee for each one of their flashers. Let's be real, if they have to pay for 5 or 10 flashers this become a big budget . And in the other side, there will be always the problem of users giving their account to friends etc. and how about the sharing of tutorials, examples and alike, it cut be harder to make someone upload something helpful to the rest of us if the site is earning money with this.

Maybe you can do it charging for online help, something like " i need help right now with my specific flash problem, not one or two days later in the board" type. I think a plenty of us are willing to pay for that kind of help.

And how about selling Flash lessons books made in Flash itself as tutorials apps for Mac and pc.

And for the speed you can try to make the home site for all and others sites for each level of flash, in this way not everybody will be fighting for the same bandwidth.

And please don´t go all flash!!!

information should be free for all to access and share. was'nt this the original purpose of the internet.

Quote:

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Originally posted by banglafreak
my suggestions:

[list]
[*] a small membership fee, maybe $5 a year. its not too much but with 100,000 members it will help a lot! ($500,000 a year)

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One thing: If FK was to go fee-based, that 100,000 member count would drop substantially. I can't imagine more than 10,000 members would 'stick around' if there were a fee to use FK (even as small as that).

I've gotta think that FK needs to expand their advertiser base and set up a donation section. If smaller sites that are far less informative can survive using Paypal or the like, I'm sure FK would make more than enough.