Site Update #1

Starting in December I set off to just get a site up and running with some sort of content or idea. Nothing revolutionary but to get a few fundamental things started to experiment with a site, social media and some content ideas. The amount of data that I have collected over the past couple of months has just been amazing. Not because there’s been some major hit with the site. On the contrary. Promotion of it has been fairly minimal and experimental. But what I’ve learned to take to the next level is a lot.

I have a Confession

Shortly after I began spinning something up for The Game Curators, another opportunity presented itself that made me say “ok, let me find a place with The Game Curators to just put this thing into a routine of just a few hours of week while I dedicate all other resources to this other thing”. That “other thing” is game industry related but is driven by more immediate revenue. So the reasons for prioritization is self-explanatory. If you’ve noticed nothing but a Dominion poll every week that is because it’s an attempt to bring some level of continuity not necessarily to the site as much as the social media platforms mostly for experimentation and measure with posts, their metrics and ultimately a feedback loop.

Discoveries

• By a long shot Instagram has been the most responsive of social media platforms based on what has been presented. Some platforms I removed because they were embarrassingly dead. Nothing has been done much yet with Twitch and Youtube other than reserving the space. So they don’t count… yet.
• Despite its popularity on WordPress, the poll plugin I currently use mostly sucks. In particular, stay away from “picture voting”, though even with the most recent polls this is difficult.
• While scrolling up and down is great for SEO it is horrific as a user experience at least when referencing an image for poll questions. Obviously.
• Don’t assume the play level of voters. That mistake was made early in poll #1.
• People love pictures and illustrations more than words. So I’ll be sure to put another image right after this below 🙂

So What Now?

Despite the other project that’s been taking priority I’ve been asking that question for weeks as I’ve been analyzing data. Here’s a list of goals:

• Get off of WordPress. It made for a great quick turnaround to get a site up but certainly not the long term solution. I’ll still likely use WordPress for a CMS but the site needs a flexible framework. For those that must know, Laravel is my framework of choice.
• AI is coming. Shocker. But no, seriously, it’s becoming a necessity in so many ways to weigh and scale both input and output. I have an idea based on my journey and new relationships I have made within social media that I plan to add some features that are going to be super cool for curators and a win-win for so many I have found that are producing really good content. The end goal is to provide a really meaningful and useful experience here at the site. Some trained AI models are going to help assist with that and you’re gonna love it. We’ll start small but at the core.
• Polls won’t be the primary focus. Polls were simply a good way to put something interactive on the site. It gave me an idea of response and interacting by the user. Oh, they’ll probably still be around and something that is way better than the plugin I’m using now. But expect the polls to kinda take a back seat for awhile. I have a much cooler thing coming. Something that will be yours that you will want to revisit regularly. Those are the metrics I’m seeking to measure in the next cycle.

There’s many many other things I would love to share that could turn this page into a small novel. But I’m not going to. You’re welcome. A few may be wondering when to expect these changes? The forecast is starting around May. There’s simply a few months needed before ramping it up to the “next level” and my hope is more permanence of the planned features. There will still be experiments. If you don’t like experiments and new stuff this isn’t a good place to be. I’ll always be trying new stuff, making a few messes along the way but hopefully something better every time.

Do expect a lull, a silence to begin in March only because focus is about to start on the next cool thing.

Lastly, a HUGE thank you to everyone that has supported this thus far. You know who you are out there. My wife, numerous people at my local game store, my gaming group, several friends at To the Table Cafe. Also to family friend, Colt. The past couple of months have been really fun and I’m very much looking forward to the next steps soon to come.

CJ