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my suggestions:
- a complete, hierarchy related site map so you can get anywhere from one place
- 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)
- dont go all flash!
- optimize, but keep the boards the same. i have made 550+ posts and dont want to go back to zero. also, it would waste a whole lot of helpful content
- listen to the other posts in this thread most of them i agree with
i also would be willing to pay for access -- but not more than $5 or $6/month -- if it meant a fast forum, less hangs, etc.
the time i sit and wait for things to happen on this site is worth that to me.
we've been enjoying free resources here for quite a while. maybe it is time we all chipped in a few dollars.
[Edited by aa on 01-31-2001 at 02:48 PM]
Flash Kit V 2.0,
I don't think that FK2 should be all in flash, that would slow the viewing time. Not everyone has a cable modem, or a DSL line. Some of us out here in the sticks (Nebraska) don't have a company that will provide a fast connection.
The second thing that FK2 should concider, is maybe adding a library section! It would contain FLA's that would be composed of many movie clips, buttons, and graphics (maybe even sounds). The viewers could download these, and place them in their libraries folder of flash, and it would be available for use at any time! These would have to be free for everyone, no one could keep rights on them! I would be more than happy to submit the first couple of them! I have some great ones! (sometimes these are sold as "Flash Packs")
Please concider these 2 ideas!
Thanks,
wow...thest changes would great!....I think that a new look for flashkit would be great! :D another change that I would suggest would be a new look (same design) for the main flashkit logo...maybe a black background?
e-mail? [email protected]?
cheers,
Graham
Hi All!
I really like FK the way it is but anything you can add to improve it is cool by me.
What I really want to comment on is the revenue issue. IHMO the best ways to generate revenue for FK would be:
[list=A][*] FK Store
This has been mentioned above but I think that it would be a goos source of on-going revenue. With the number of new visitors FK is attracting every week [and the number it will attract when it is even better] there's plenty of custom there.
T-Shirts [several styles/designs], Mouse Mats, Caps etc..etc..
As has been said before, use a third party company for this with your little bit of dosh stacked on top. This means that you'll get revenue without actually having to do anything!
[*] Donation
This, again, has been mentioned above but it would solve the short-term need for cash. With the number of professionals using this service I believe you'd get quite a few donations to keep this superb resource fast and free. You could even run pledge-a-thon's then you need more hardware etc.. :D
[*] Book Shop
Have a section of the site dedicated to the sale of books. This could be new books [including reviews etc] that would cover mainly Flash books but also other web development related subjects. Given that you guys probably don't have too much space I'd suggest going down the affiliate scheme with some of the larger online book e-tailers. Every little helps![/list=A]
Looking back at my list maybe the last one isn't too clever but I thought I'd leave it there anyhooo.
Well, that's all from me. Roll on FKv2!
Regards,
Steve
I like the design as it is, if it were all Flash than it would suck. I think that a good way to pay for stuff is to sell things online, like programs such as Flash, Director and Photoshop, i have seen some people in the message boards who are always looking for places to find good prices on these programs, also you could sell book and Flashkit stuff like T-Shirts and mouse pads, personally i would reallly like to have an FK mouse pad :). I take it that most of the revenue here is ad based right now, well you could get some better ads put up, most people arn't interested in bot2001 conferences so they wouldn't bother to click. Whatever you guys do i hope that it will be sweet.
Hey NetBreed nice bubbles on your footer there, looks better than mine :) maybe you could e-mail and tell me how you got them to be so smooth.
[Edited by Beer Baron on 01-31-2001 at 03:41 PM]
Don't forget better search engine on the web site.
Everytime I need to find something on the web site, takes me long time to find it. It has to be much easier.
Thank you for your business.
kosmix
It's good to hear that all the problems I'vwe benn having is not on my end. I'm new hear and was wondering if it was my comp. I guess not :)
PLEASE........ Add a Dreamweaver and Firworks area to Flashkit and it would be the icing on the cake. It would add a level of GREATNESS to an already Great site. Even if it's a smaller area, it would be a REAl help to all the people using all three products, as well as draw that many more people to your site.
I hope you don't go the way of a Pay Site, but if you do PLEASE add Dreamweave and Firworks. If you do, I think most people that use Flash, Dreamweaver and Fireworks would pay for the service you are bring to us.
Up till then, Thanks for a truly GREAT site, the best! I look forward to FlashKit 2.
Brian
I say no membership fee whatsoever because a good amount of people here don't even have credit cards. Besides, "free" is one of the most important words ever when it comes to the high prices within information technology overall.
Donations would be a great idea since people here at Flashkit seem to be very generous with time and presumably, small amounts of cash as well.
If you could set up a way that people's clicks on ads could be tallied and then those with the most unique clicks could get a t-shirt at the end of the month, then your sponsors would never be want of advertisement (did ANYONE understand that statement?)
Btw, I am all for deleting posts older than 6 months that haven't been reposted to within 1 month.
Also, strictly regulate those footer sizes!:D
OR!...Quote:
Originally posted by gparis
Why not try and compete with Macromedia for lessons? they offer a "lessons online + talk to the teacher" lesson on actionscripting for Flash5. Even though i'm tempted they "give" this for $265! I'm sure you could do better.
I don't know if this means a special education license, but it would be a cool feature in a resource site!
Thanks for considering:)
G.
Have a program where people can ask advanced flash questions (what they can't get outof the boards) And they pay the other users for answers, and FK gets a %of the payment!
You can also self t-shirts ;)
- I think charging a fee would turn away a lot of users
- the redesign is one thing but bringin the speed and the worklfow back to the servers would be my main concern
- a store would defenitely enrich Flashkit
- [email protected] ? Well I think we all have enough email addresses already - that would only put more work on the servers. No need for email addys @ flashkit
- Maybe have some country representative. That is for peope who are not too confident about posting on the boards as their english language is not too good. You could list those representatives on one page with contact info, for example one for china and spain and germany, and then for russia etc... some representative you can ask for help in their native language.
I don't know if that's a cool idea but I would be there for helping others out who are not too good with english. That'll also be something custom about flashkit, something community wise.
- I like Flashkit as is, if only the speed would be back to normal and the reliability of the boards comes back.
- some navigation things could be solved a little more efficient or easier, but when a new member comes to FK that's the way to explore FK also
see ya
iCEBERG
the design should be sleek, not like k10k, with its already boring squares. squares are fine if you use them technologically, not just plop 'em down. a square button, an outline, looks very stylish. flash should be laid off. the pages should be so redeisgned that instead of today's BORINGEST look on earth on the earth's most exciting subject it would be as sleek as:
http://reeltime.azstarnet.com/
http://www.designiskinky.net/index_main.html
http://www.plinko.com/
http://www.strut.co.uk/indexopen.html
http://www.ion057.com/intrada/index_ie_pc.htm
http://www.cyphen.com/
we need a straight-face look, something ambiently energetic, we need somethink fUnKy, we need energi, we need all that kool misspelling to add to our imaj. we need image that is part of design, not part of flash. we need to be abstract, like....
we need an ambient light, we need something to represent our support, like http://www.glassdog.com/
we need something extracrispymaladorkiechicaboomboomfattiebambamsupe rtightoverloaded!! we can't go around looking like a second Were Here...(i removed the apostrophe for obvious reasons) and even their image looks better. fk v.2.0 has to be strong. we need new colors!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! there's no need for that way too bright orange and all-too-used blue! we need supadupa fly colors: http://www.suffocate.org/platform/?art=resistance
we need a special message, an interest: http://capture.suffocate.org/03/main.shtml
come on!!
BRING IT ON!
I don't think that flashkit needs too much modifying. Only annoying things here are speed (or lack of it) and some navigation problems.
Great new resource would be tutorials or articles about design, cause atleast for me it's the hardest part in flash to find those ideas and then visualise them to presentation.
Maybe some users has some design education under their belts, but I bet there's lots of flashlovers like me with no significant art or design education.
Flashkit has been the single most valuble reasorce I have used in my interenet development!
I too like many have experienced some problems but on the whole it aint been too bad. I use worse less reliable reasources! I am however extremely pleased that you plan to refurbish the site and agree with the above users that you should utilise the technological reasorce Flash offers more, after all if we didn't want to see that sort of stuff we wouldn't be here would we! We are at the end of the day the people utilising this gear! We are probably more exposed to it than those who work at The nameless developers! and this site offers a unmistakable inspirtation to us all! As for paying for my subscription I pay for little on the Net and simply wouldn't! What do Macromedia think of this site? Couldn't revenue be created by you advertising each other! They also make other products that intergrate with flash very well and we would all benifit slightly by learning a little about some of those!
Keep it up and keep it free!
Martin
I agree with everyone suggesting a membership fee or subscription. This would be a good way to ensure site content is of the highest quality. Those users able and willing to pay will be the most devoted fans / developers / contributors. For every quality tutorial, offer 1 free month's membership. Include a new source section for coldfusion users. Man, the sky is the limit.
I may have missed the point of this thread... Or maybe not. I have read a lot of the responses that talk about turning this site into total FLASH and Merchandising Flash Kit... I have also read some complaints and improvement replies. All very good. But, isn't all of that missing the point?
I am new to Flash Kit, new as of a little over a week ago. I love what you have going here. The amount of information, good information I must add, is impressive! I am thankful for finding this resource. But... As a new user, I think I am most frustrated by MyFK, and anything that seems to be going through CGI. You have a delivery problem... Big time. And with all do respect to all the sugestions on how to improve this site and it's content, the delivery problem is the core issue.
I am a Cold Fusion developer. My company specializes in developing online applications to manage and deliver data. As a suggestion, I would look into using CF, or ASP, as the core delivery and management of all this information. Especially in mantaining the MyFK section and data. The response speeds of querying the information would be a lot faster than CGI. I am not knocking CGI. It has it's place. I just have noticed that where it is used on this site, is where I see the slow downs in delivery.
Don't make the site total Flash, that would be over kill. One of the points Flash Kit seems to make, it the marrage of Flash and HTML. Making this site totally Flash would be a mistake. You have a good recipe going. Don't mess with it. Just look into an improved oven.
[Edited by Dan Sarver on 02-02-2001 at 01:55 AM]
What happened to my reply on this thread? Why is it not here anymore? I posted, in my opinion, a very informative and useful reply that is full of ideas for both website ideas and ideas to make some money with flashkit to be able to afford this kind of upgrade. I hope that no one removed it.
Do you know how incredibly big FK is?Quote:
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.
It would take hours to load lol.
hi FK, firstly, great site. I have been an avid user since April 2000, but this is my first post with this logon since I'm at work, not at home.
Anyway, improvements?
1. A previous user mentioned an FAQ for each forum. This is a great idea. Some kind of knowledge bank, where queries were sorted and easy to access/search. The search option at the moment is okay, but could be a lot better.
2. Movies having a download ranking would make things more representative. Votes are okay, most people don't bother to vote, and it's highly subjective, not to mention people can vote for themselves all day long if they want. A download ranking would be great, and v.useful.
3. Don't go 100% flash, that'd send a lot of us away. Though knowing you smart FK chaps, you wouldn't do that anyway :)
4. A previous user mentioned increasing the length of tutorial pages. Good idea, it's a grad to have to look through so many pages, same for the movies pages, it's a bit user-intensive I think. Just give us long lists!
Keep up the good work though FK, you're wonderful!
Jim
had an idea, if you guys do start selling tshirts and stuff how about a contest to design the shirts and stuff, just an idea.
Jeff