The RPGBN Is Now A Terrible Idea

[A Terrible Idea]

I posted a statement over at http://aterribleidea.com/2009/11/01/the-rpgbn-is-now-a-terrible-idea/
that includes the text below. I have posted this excerpt here, so
that it can be discussed by the group as a whole. This excerpt
contains all the important stuff.

I’m sure you all have a number of questions. I will try to address
some of them now, and more in the coming days.

What does this mean in the short term? Short term in this case means
no less than 30 days. What’s going to happen in the coming month or
so?

1. A period of transition. We are working on an assets transfer, so
that I can get the site up and running on my own server and determine
resource needs. The desired goal is to complete the transfer with
little to no downtime, but I’d ask that you be patient during the
transition. We are working together to minimize any disruption.
2. The admission process will reopen after the transfer. Once the
assets transfer has been completed, and the site is running on my own
server, I will reopen the admission process. I do not have an ETA for
this, but know that we’re trying to get this completed as quickly as
possible.
3. No immediate drastic changes. Nothing visible is going to change
drastically right away. The first changes to be made will be to
address some resource consumption issues, and they will be transparent
to everyone else.
4. The formation of an advisory board. I will be forming a four
person advisory board. My goal is to select people who will bring
balanced viewpoints to the table. I will ask this board for advice
when making decisions about the RPGBN. @DaveTheGame is one of these
advisers. I will select two others, and one more will be selected by
the community. This will take place on the google group in the coming
days.

What does this mean in the long term? The long term in this case means
anything that’s at least 30 days out.

1. Yes, there will be changes. I do not believe the RPGBN in its
current incarnation is sustainable long term. Indeed, the current
owners wouldn’t be stepping down if the network was easily sustainable
in its current form. The current approach works great when there’s
5-20 blogs in the network, but it’s less practical as the number of
blogs increases – the signal-to-noise is just too challenging. The
changes I have in mind are designed to specifically address this
problem.
2. Site redesign. There will be a a site redesign. This will be
necessitated by the changes. It will be done by someone who is better
at visual things than I am.
3. No plans for ads, fees, or otherwise monetizing the RPGBN. I do
not have any plans at this time for ads or anything like that. I can
conceive of a scenario where network members may want to rotate ads
for their newest releases, and if there’s a useful way in which to do
this, then it will be implemented. But beyond that I can’t see much
gain from trying out ads and such. A little coin to help offset
hosting costs might be nice once in a while, but if I get needy in
that area I’ll just come out and ask.

What was in the proposal? The short version is, community driven
meritocratic noise filters, allowing for people to filter noise on
their own, possibly having the community filter new members, some
better blog-to-rpgbn site integration, and a desire to keep track of
hot topics throughout the RPGBN and other media programmatically.

Is there a reason you don’t just post the whole proposal for all of us
to read? Yes. I want to review it with the advisory board and run some
proof-of-concepts first, and change it from a proposal to a roadmap.
This way there’s not a lot of idle talk about ideas that are not fully
formed.

I have an idea. How do I communicate it? I welcome any input. Feel
free to contact me directly with your ideas. I may not use them, but I
will listen.

That should cover the basic questions. Feel free to respond if you
have pressing questions that have not been addressed.

In conclusion, The RPGBN has been good to us. It will continue to be
good to us. Many of us rely on traffic generated from the RPGBN to get
some additional exposure. The RPGBN will continue to be a valuable
tool for members, regardless of their renown, who are trying to get
their content out there.