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DonationCoder 10th Anniversary plans, ideas, changes, fundraiser?

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tomos:
I've had mixed feelings about the discounts/giveaways in recent years, for two reasons:  First, without a consistent, sustained effort that lasts indefinitely, it doesn't gain traction or attention.  The second has more to do with an existential struggle with the nature of the site, and what we should be focusing on, and what we do well, and the (non-financial) costs associated with trying to do too many different things..  While at the same time it pains me that this is yet another example of folks volunteering to do something for the benefit of the site and me being less than enthusiastic.  This gets at part of what i think we need to find a solution to.
-mouser (March 03, 2015, 09:35 AM)
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You mention a few things there that jump out at me:

         # the nature of the site
         # what we should be focusing on
         # and what we do well

could you expand on these a bit?

FWIW, like many people, I'm often better at developing existing ideas, than at coming up with new ones - that's (also) part of why I'm interested in how you see things here.

wraith808:
I've had mixed feelings about the discounts/giveaways in recent years, for two reasons:  First, without a consistent, sustained effort that lasts indefinitely, it doesn't gain traction or attention.  The second has more to do with an existential struggle with the nature of the site, and what we should be focusing on, and what we do well, and the (non-financial) costs associated with trying to do too many different things..  While at the same time it pains me that this is yet another example of folks volunteering to do something for the benefit of the site and me being less than enthusiastic.  This gets at part of what i think we need to find a solution to.
-mouser (March 03, 2015, 09:35 AM)
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Even with a consistent, sustained effort, it's not going to happen, unless that's a real focus of the site, and it's not.  I thought just the effort would be enough- but in the end, I've found that it's not.  The companies have to view their contribution as an integral part of the site, i.e. BDJ, Two Dollar Tuesday, etc.  That's why I was thinking special occasions like the anniversary, or NANY, or to go along with some other event on the site.  For such events, you can get a critical mass, and have a real event around it.  The mass of companies surrounding helps also.  When I was able to tell the companies about an event and other sponsors- they became more engaged and excited about it.  Just a discount?  In general, not so much, though I was able to push against that at times.

And I think that your second part gets to a conflict of DC.  Is it a community site?  Or is it mouser's site that we contribute to?  I don't think that either is a wrong answer, but I think not having an answer to the question sort of drives the confusion.  And that can be one of the things that is firmly decided in this 10th anniversary.

Thoughts?

mouser:
I am going to try to write up a tough critique of what i see as the problems with DC as it stands.. and then try to come up with some possible directions..
It's always possible that we should essentially let DC be DC, and not try to mess with it -- despite it's flaws.  But I think it will be healthy at this time to try to lay them all out on the table.
So.. stay tuned..

mouser:
Wraith, excellent points.

And I think that your second part gets to a conflict of DC.  Is it a community site?  Or is it mouser's site that we contribute to?  I don't think that either is a wrong answer, but I think not having an answer to the question sort of drives the confusion.  And that can be one of the things that is firmly decided in this 10th anniversary.
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I think the answer to that is part of the problem that needs to be solved.  I want this to be more of a true community website (not just a community forum).. but the site infrastructure makes it much harder than it should be for others to participate as first class participants in some areas.  While we are all pretty much on equal footing on the forum -- the software area of the site is not easily opened up to other coders without lots of manual effort (and vetting, which is a separate problem), and the infrastructure of the site makes it difficult for us to have content that gets much visibility other than in the forum, etc.

Right now we have a slightly schizophrenic situation where we have a true community forum that is fairly diverse in its interests, and an old school static website (that is much harder to update) with more narrowly focused software.
In many ways these two aspects of the site complement one another -- but in some ways they don't and create friction and confusion.

cyberdiva:
Test if the format needs to be more adapted to smart-phones.
-Curt (March 02, 2015, 06:12 PM)
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There is a mobile version of the site.  It's all text, however- not sure if SMF has mobile forum themes.
-wraith808 (March 02, 2015, 06:49 PM)
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Where can I find the mobile version?  I'd like to compare it with the "normal" version of the site that I see on my Android tablet and my Android phone using the Pale Moon for Android browser.  It shows me the site just as I would see it on my desktop computer, but smaller.  I see the same layout, the same graphics, etc.

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