Where is our world going?

[jasper-isis]

I know how to remove the filter, and I've actually been considering that policy change for a while. I'm asking more along the lines of the bigger picture. What are some things that we can focus on, keeping in mind that further site development probably won't happen?

[CodeZTM]

I know how to remove the filter, and I've actually been considering that policy change for a while. I'm asking more along the lines of the bigger picture. What are some things that we can focus on, keeping in mind that further site development probably won't happen?

For the long run, I think focus on donators/donations need to be taken care of. [/dodges casually thrown beer bottle]

But to be honest, the local uploading services, site hosting and everything else is paid for by donations, amirite?

So give people more of an incentive to donate, and increase the lowest donation level. I've always thought 12 dollars was odd. But because it's the smallest amount needed to access donator's forum, it's all I donate.

I'd easily donate $20 for donator's forum, and for other "perks". When I say "perks", I'm talking about removing the max number of downloads without QC/Star Rating, custom forum titles [and being able to edit them ourselves], maybe adding extra journal features [smilies?] and other things of the sort.

Because as somebody has already pointed out, donations are flatlining, and this issue needs to be fixed.

[Enigma]

STUFF,maybe adding extra journal features [smilies?],STUFF

Smilies make me happy

[Ikore]

I want to bring VIEWERS back to this site to, not just editors

I am a Viewer, love me

Im one who start with YT, while swallow Naruto on the Tube (literally), then thanks to links of koopiskeva, more accuaretely skittles was the first video I ever downloaded (now im thinking I was such a tard), then I used the site to take referal to really cool videos as VCA's etc, yet what i do was look the name of the org, see the video on "that site" and then download it, if it was good.

now my only reference is Announcements forum and preview options is a great plus, it's thousands time better this forum or amvnew.ru, than the tube, what I can say is "if you want to watch a GREAT amv on tube it will always have org link or akross logo" :p, so when you get used to it, it works

but, everything needs to be improve "the sea have always exist because it always flows, yet it is the same", constant renovation is always needed, You can always make the site more accesible, being able to watch a preview, without being member, unless you want THAT SITE THAT SHOULD NOT BE NAMED, to keep doing that job, and being considered the heart of the hobbie, at least until account get "suspended"

and I found weird there is a Donator forum, but not a Collaborator Forum, and then complain of few volunteers to help, and even more ironic than a so artistic hobbie as this, have a site, that looks like a hospital data base form(even if is just a catalog, it should be attractive), yet good, but always it can be better, what can kill the org is getting stuck.

Do you believe that the mods and admins should play a big role in this, or that it's mostly up to the members? Or is everything inevitable due to external forces? Do you think that admin involvement should increase or decrease, or stay the same?

POWER TO THE PEOPLE!

It is up to the members to empower org, it's like complain for goverment and do nothing.

*Administration work should always be efficient, it should be as much as needed.

[Ikore]

double quoted fail Dx

[Mastamind]

1. What do you think is the administration's role in sustaining this site...

I think the administrators play an important role in guiding this site, but ultimately it'll be up to the general community to actually lead it and grow in the future. What's concerning to some members is that they're receiving the impression that the community is shrinking, or at least leaving the org in favor of other sites, namely YT. The actual involvement of the mods admins and is fine though. And,

2. There will be no more major code development on this site in the foreseeable future... In other words, how do we work around this issue?

In my opinion there really isn't much of an issue here. Yes, some improvements would be nice but they aren't really necessary. If there were to be some updates, I'd go with some suggestions others have mentioned- I haven't uploaded anything here so there's not much I can relate to on the FTP issue, though I'd be more than willing to learn when it comes down to it.
Now I'm pretty new here, so as for my background:
I not only discovered this site because of YT, but I actually discovered AMVs as a whole there. I stumbled upon an AMV in 2007 when I was looking for a music video of a song, and a Naruto music video happened to pop up. Eventually, after months of pursuing my interest in amvs, I came across someone who'd uploaded Whisper of the Beast to YT for about the twentieth time, and in the description there was a link to its video info on this site. After that, I watched all my videos here- HERE was a place where I could find many great AMVs. HERE was a place where people really were serious about editing, not the crap you find on every YT search.
As for the talk of the org dying... I think it's completely absurd. I don't see how every member could just sit there and accept the disappearance of AMVs. I'd happily donate as much as realistically possible if it means keeping this site alive. And if you're worried that members are being elitists and driving all new members away, criticism is something you'll have to get used to and accept in every community, if you want to advance. Apparently, this bashing of newbies can't have reached such a bad level some of you are making it out to be, since new active members are joining and growing every year It's come this far already, and it won't just stop.
By the way, to bring up another point, I don't like to think of "our world" as just the org. Other sites dedicated to AMVs like Akross, even down to the AMV community in youtube itself, should be recognized as part of the whole. Just saying.


And damn, every time I preview a new post comes up

[godix]

I know how to remove the filter, and I've actually been considering that policy change for a while. I'm asking more along the lines of the bigger picture. What are some things that we can focus on, keeping in mind that further site development probably won't happen?

Make preview not require being logged in. Let viewers watch without needing an account. Would probably end up with more viewers. If you assume the number of viewers who then become editors or active in the community is stable, more viewers = more active users. Keep uploading, commenting, etc. requiring registration. I doubt that'd require much change on the coding, perhaps just disabling QCs on preview so people not logged in can't spam QCs or something. On this one the tube has the right idea.

There's a ton of noob guides out there, anything from Read <a href=http://www.a-m-v.org/guides/avtech31/>ErMaC & AbsoluteDestiny's Friendly AMV Guides</a> to how to use FTP to how to be an org asshole. Problem is they're spread all over god knows where; some aren't even hosted on the org. New users have no chance of seeing them until they do something wrong/ask a noob question and someone points them to it. Some putz should gather those up, write a noob faq linking to all of them, and make the faq a link on the new user registration page. Just use your female wiles on Otohiko to do it or something. Perhaps a better idea would be to have the system automatically PM the noob faq to users on joining. That way they get an email pointing to PM system, which indirectly brings them onto the fourm and once they're there then they might stick around.

The youtube filter is just stupid. It's not effective, it causes confusion and questions, and it's easily bypassed by anyone who really wants to say youtube or knows about tinyurl so it doesn't even work for what it is supposed to. It's not an issue affecting the future of the org, but still, just kill the stupid thing.

Raise the minimum donation amount for privileges. AFAIK it's been $12 since the org started, it's certainly been that way since I started in 2002. It's long past time it was raised just because of inflation if nothing else. By setting $12 as an entry level donation you're setting expectations. Users assume it's all the org really needs or they'd ask for more. Kinda of like what Kionon was saying but without the engraved hand signed invitation he's asking for. Users donate, mostly, to help the org and the minimum amount required tells users what the org needs. So raise it if the org needs more. The price difference between say $25 and $12 isn't enough that it'd scare people off. I doubt many would think twice about a website with such large bandwidth requirements asking for $25, it is still a fairly small and reasonable amount. Hell, something-awful requires $9.95 just to join the forums and at just a couple bucks less than the org they don't even host vids. The reality of org finances can be point to if justification was needed. It's not like people will go 'OMG! TWENTY FIVE BUCKS? WTF, ARE THEY BUYING CAVIAR FOR THE MODS OR SOMETHING?' The org would probably end up with roughly the same number of donations they have now, but would slightly more than double the actual amount it gets donated to them.

[nevada11]

I 'originally' started viewing amvs from the tube. I was watching amvs there 3 years ago when the site was only starting to get popular. Most of the amvs there were FROM the org with a link to download so I had no problem finding this site with ease. But yeah, there's two different communities growing apart though. Though, the (at least), decent editors find their way here by themselves.



Plus! There is a user named 'HerdULiekAMVs' on the tube that uploads a lot of amvs from this site.

In case your going to bother to check that user's YT account, the group of people running the site happens to have over 1,000 subscribers now and is only growing more and more popular. If you look at their videos, they provide the .org link to download and they also provide a link to the forums to comment on the AMV.

The account gives great exposure to the forums and brings new members! I bet you in 6 months that account will be very, VERY, popular on YT and only helps the org grow further and attract new members to find out where it all really started.

OR...YT can just delete that account. ):

[ragre]

Plus! There is a user named 'HerdULiekAMVs' on the tube that uploads a lot of amvs from this site.

In case your going to bother to check that user's YT account, the group of people running the site happens to have over 1,000 subscribers now and is only growing more and more popular. If you look at their videos, they provide the .org link to download and they also provide a link to the forums to comment on the AMV.

The account gives great exposure to the forums and brings new members! I bet you in 6 months that account will be very, VERY, popular on YT and only helps the org grow further and attract new members to find out where it all really started.

OR...YT can just delete that account. ):

Same with a user called Credibility66, and they have another account that begins with Credibility too. The accounts are crazily popular, and they've uploaded AMVs like W.U.N. and I think Empty Motion, and got loads of subscribers and fans off them. They also provide the name of the user who made the AMV and the Org link, so yeah, I agree. YT does help the AMV community quite a bit, but it's also destroying it.

[Kionon]

Make preview not require being logged in. Let viewers watch without needing an account. Would probably end up with more viewers. If you assume the number of viewers who then become editors or active in the community is stable, more viewers = more active users. Keep uploading, commenting, etc. requiring registration. I doubt that'd require much change on the coding, perhaps just disabling QCs on preview so people not logged in can't spam QCs or something. On this one the tube has the right idea.

I guess I'd be okay with that.

There's a ton of noob guides out there, anything from Read <a href="http://www.a-m-v.org/guides/avtech3/">ErMaC & AbsoluteDestiny's Friendly AMV Guides</a> to how to use FTP to how to be an org asshole. Problem is they're spread all over god knows where; some aren't even hosted on the org. New users have no chance of seeing them until they do something wrong/ask a noob question and someone points them to it. Some putz should gather those up, write a noob faq linking to all of them, and make the faq a link on the new user registration page.

Didn't we do this? As for your newb PM idea. I like it.

The <a href="http://www.animemusicvideos.org/forum/v ... ochsack</a> filter is just stupid. It's not effective, it causes confusion and questions, and it's easily bypassed by anyone who really wants to say youtube or knows about tinyurl so it doesn't even work for what it is supposed to. It's not an issue affecting the future of the org, but still, just kill the stupid thing.

The funny thing is, a lot of us just self-filter. I know the tricks to write it, but I prefer to call it hosatchel.

Kinda of like what Kionon was saying but without the engraved hand signed invitation he's asking for. Users donate, mostly, to help the org and the minimum amount required tells users what the org needs. So raise it if the org needs more.

Not kinda, this is exactly the point I was making. If there was some public statement that said, "We the org need, at our current levels, for all org donators to pitch in X this year, or we die," I would. So would a lot of people. But the org has to ASK for the amount they want, or we will just keep offering $12 because that's what the org tells us it needs. If it were $100, I'd do it. If it were $200, I probably would do it, but maybe not in one sitting. Clearly, I don't think we need each regular donator put in more than that.