Hello everyone, So me and some teammates are starting to work on our own network. We're determined to get it going, and we have websites ready to put into it. However, we're still undediced on a few things, so I'm wondering what the wise words of the DigitalPoint community could have to say Firstly, a mascot. Would it be worthwhile having a brandable mascot from the beginning. He would be sitting around the websites, for example holding the menu up, sitting on the copyright, etcetera. We may also get T-Shirts, cups, and other merchandise using this. If we do get a worthwhile mascot, we'd also try to outsource it to a small series of flash games, and even frequent animations (similiar to Chrome Shorts). But would it be worthwhile doing this, could you give some ideas for mascots, and what are some popular, successful mascots? Moving on, secondly we're wondering about how to manage it. We're thinking of using one single member database for all websites. This would obviously increase all members on all websites, and increase content and be less hastle for the users. But this would cost quite a bit to get implemented into the script we're using, how effective would it be overall? Keeping with similarities, the design! We're also thinking about making one design to start off with, which will be the overall, plain, network design. However, then for our Shooter Gaming Site, we may have a khaki, brown and green version, with gunfire and some soldiers in the background. Then for our webbing website, we may have some more web-oriented designs put on it, but the same overall design. I'm sure this would keep it simple for the user, but also give every website their own superbly unique look and feel. Again, would this be effective and overall? That's it for now, but what else to start a network of websites? Should we include each team members portfolios there, send out overall, or per-site newsletters, there are so many things to consider...