Main Area and Open Discussion > General Software Discussion

Is DonationCoder too exposed of a brand?

<< < (5/6) > >>

superboyac:
I know I keep repeating this, but I think a lot of people subconsciously overlook the fact that what keeps them coming back to these forums is the design.  The "software" of this forum is possibly the most elegant, beautiful, etc. that I have ever seen.  I really feel that plays a huge role in the community here...a lot bigger than what you would expect.

mouser:
One last thing i wanted to post which touches on what Nudone said and the other critiques.

Leaving aside all qualms about the manner and framing of complaints -- I think it's soo important that we keep discussing the ways in which the site is not as good as it should be and we need to not be too over-protective and sensitive to complaints.

One sees all the time forums (and bureaucracies) which become insular and overly protective of themselves and exude a kind of bunker mentality to criticism.  We don't ever want to get that way.

And we want to make sure we always balance the needs of our CURRENT members, with the wants and desires of potential future members.  Both are important.  And we will continue to evolve to best serve both of these groups.

Let's just try hard to make the discussions constructive (and my pet peave-- let's try to have them on threads that are appropriately titled and focused!).

timns:
Something that occurred to me last night (and apologies if this has been discussed before) is that one issue is the site's name itself.

Any of my friends who are not coders would probably never visit a site called DonationCoder simply because the name suggests that this is a place where coders who earn or expect money from donations hang out, NOT somewhere to find amazing software, reviews and how-to's.

Has DC ever considered a more 'usery' alternative name, leading to a landing page that eases them into the site?

mouser:
I think the point about the domain name being confusing is very true, and i think about it often.

It's especially confusing when you think about the fact that the forum is really a general discussion forum; and the idea of "donationcoder" doesn't really capture the idea of software reviews, etc.

I have considered the pros and cons of actually having the site divide itself into a family of related and connected sites that were more focused.  For example a general review site/forum which wasn't particularly ties to the concept of donationware or our own apps, and a site purely focused on hosting original donationware from different authors.  But the forum part troubles me -- it might be more logical organization for newcomers but i'm not sure we would enjoy it so much if our attentions were divided.

But i'm not sure a name change would help -- and it would cause some real disruption to our feelings of history.

Maybe your idea is to have an alternate additional "landing" page, which is interesting.

timns:
Yes, I would definitely not want to say goodbye to the DC brand in any way. But multiple domain names and landings would be nice perhaps. Once someone's interest is piqued, one would hope they'd look around and discover the forums etc.

All this really leads back to the re-design conversation. And app's offer of building the software page could be a huge part of that.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

[*] Previous page