I asked a few through PM and got no response. So my thought is a niche social network for directories of all types. Not focused on one system and not cluttered with a bunch of ads. It would give directory owners a chance to promote new sites, announcements, directory list, etc.... Imagine everything you see on DP with moderation and categorized. If you are clueless to what a social network is examples are digg, sphinn, stumbleupon, reddit, etc. Thoughts?
this is not gonna work out. trust me. directories are pretty much useless except a very few. they drive almost no traffic but those very few are good for PR.
What does this have to do with my idea? Directories are still a large interest and they grow by numbers everyday. You take into consideration new mods or new templates and you have a lot of directory content organized as neat as possible.
I was off in never never land dreaming of such a place, it was beautiful there were angles flying around, everyone was nice, we all even helped each other and said nice things, then the missus slapped me that hard, it felt like i was hit by an 18 wheeler, told me to stop dreaming and get ready for tea.
Ah so thats what you mean. if you think you can make it a success then its a great idea. Sorry i didnt reply to the PM, been a bit ill.
Social network needs millions of visitors. If you want to run a social network for directories, you shall make a investigation the number of directory owners first. Will it reach 100k?
I know it could easy, it wouldn't be only for owners, but also for submitters. However, the problem is the childish like nature you encounter in the directory industry everyday. Keeping in that train of thought, the abuse factor could go through the roof (just look at dp ). I know there is a better way and I am going to continue doing research on the thought. I really really like the idea, but so many unknowns until it is up and running.
Your idea, while it sounds good, is not new. directoryowners.com was an attempt at a kinder, friendlier more community-oriented directory-related only forum. It hung on for a while but the 2nd (or was it 3rd) owner gave up in frustration with a public rant that generated a great deal of conversation. You would think it would work in theory but it just doesn't seem doable. In the end, general directories are fairly much the same; so competitors are unlikely to really talk about what is making them money and the niche directories are so different as to often have little in common with the general ones. Plus it just seems like this is an industry plagued by folks who thrive on creating conflict and script owners (and their supporters) who seem to think the only way to promote their product is to attack everyone else.
That is what I call feedback. I know all the problems it faces, but I so want to create something that is beneficial to the industry even though we have a love hate relationship. I still want to do it, but some great points have been brought up. Man, so many thoughts in my head.
I don't get the social networking aspect of your idea. What would we be sharing exactly? I doubt anyone would want to 'share' their new listings.
YMC, Like you i am also a little lost on what FD want's to create, but then again i see and and have a lot of emails PM's from people who are also lost, in respect that in some way many quality people, new genuine people and general allrounders refrain from posting here at san quinten directory forums. With that in mind There has probably been several times I along with many other's truth be known, have thought of something better. For myself i simply will not have the time, but would consider a more grown up approach where things may be better than the supposed best place to be, and if some one has the courage to make it happen i am sure there would be support from the many in the shadows here. FD, as above it would be a stupid move by me to try and do anything as my time is already spoken for but i will throw some idea's to the list in no order, reason or rhym, maybe others could to ?. I think the first thing is where your trying to cover the masses, I would not bother but instead look at covering the quality, a bit like a general directory, where you can fill it with crap or refine the listings to quality. To do this is a tough call because who defines quality and how is it measured in a way that allows for everyone to participate and in that negating the statement above of keeping it smaller and refined ? Well if it were me ( run with the idea and develop from that ) I would develop a 4 teir forum or the like and that would run some thing like this bronze member = new silver = 1000 posts + 100 green points gold = 2000 posts + 200 green points platinum = 3000 posts = 300 points now what happens here is a bit like a common community where there are no leaders and every person is treated the same, and where people who do the right thing are voted by their peirs etc. With each level above it also has its own private level in the forum, so as you move up the forum ladder, you are introduced to a new level ( every topic in the lower level is re created in the next level ), now what happens is say in silver the, bronze or new guys wont see it so the level of chat help etc in that level is raised. also for example in silver these guys are the trainee mods for the bronze level with each one getting mod rights to that level, the gold and plantinum would also see and have mod rights to all levels below, and the gold would help the silver to mod the bronze level etc etc. Straight away what we have here is where any one can join and if they do the right things will earn the right to be promted as seen by the forums piers if not they never get to interfere with the discussion levels taking part above them. long post so part 2 soon.
OK, now thats part is sorted, where all members are voted on and are moderators as for below them, next lets look at the rules and ethics etc. Once again rather than single entity where one or 2 people dominate, again make it for the people by the people. to do this some sort of system will need to be set, so i will use my minds eye to try and get this out. Lets say some one wants a new rule added to the existing community run guidelines, what would happen is that rule would be posted as a pending addition, from that point the rule could be voted on from everybody in the group a person in bronze would have the power of 1, where a gold the power of 3 etc etc and these would be in a plus / minus option. the rule proposal would run for a set time say one month, then as a community, the guidelines are democratically amended as seen by all members. the same would apply to amendments to rules and also deletion of rules, all following the same path. In addition to this i would add and to stop the bull crap of 100 rules floating around causing confusion a limit and approval for for all changes, where say only 3 rules are ever in question at any one time and any others would be in a pending cue, this cue could also be voted on as to importance of order. ok now we have all members can join all members are accountable and all members can elect to make changes to the rules and maybe you need to be silver before you can apply for a rule change etc etc, all your call ( or the groups call in this case as above ) Now lets cover something that has been tried and tried again and again, a body that fairly rates directory ethics and standards, cant be done can it ? or can it, well what are directory ethics and standards, well again lets let the people as a group decide these options as they would also select the governing rules as above, not one persons ideas but the groups ideas. and over time what would happen is you should see things like No dropped domains ( designed to scam ) quality content etc etc. I think you all have the idea but not for me to say now if we take the the principles as above for qualifications to the levels ( and remember you can slip down for acting like a left flanker ) it could be that a second rating system be set up for your directory / s in a similar way. this is where your piers / everyone in the network could rate your directories from a value of 1 to 10 ( examples here ) and the bronze again having the power of one platinum the power of 4. a average rating would be produced giving one to 4 stars as a final outcome, the 5th star would be your forum rating rolled into one star ( silver level would show half a star ) now if set up right you would restrict any user voting on any other user for say one month to stop crapola, then from that take a widget connected to the rating shown in the users CP that widget needs to look cool, and have something like DE ( directory ethics rating ) and your stars and this widget would link back to the forum. ok what we have is a place where it really is for all people the qbc and wankers wont get past the first level and give up or learn to toe the line, those who genuinely want to help or learn would be rewarded, the ethics are voted on by all and those now who want to learn and improve will be shown up in their rating. because the widget is shown on all directories for those who want it it brings new people etc etc. anyway I'm done time for tea here FD, hope some of that helps and that others may share as i may be off with the fairy's again.
Dan, in the vilesilencer forum started a tiered type system. Entrance in the premium areas was xxx (can't remember now, think it was 500) posts. It sounded good in theory. In practice, it simply moved the useful conversations to the premium area and anyone short of the minimum posts was left to make inane posts among the announcements threads or answer the same newbie questions over and over again in some pathetic attempt to get the required post count. The premise sounded good. I was in the crowd that had been actively contributing to the forums but suddenly found themselves shut out of the good conversations. I left, as did many others. Dan and I talked about what happened and I applaud the effort but shared his disappointment at the outcome. I think directoryowners failed because the owners got caught up in the hating that was/is going on between the scripts and became frustrated by the QBC and other scammers. There was an effort to create a consortium. They were asking for people to sign up ahead of time and claimed to vet each applicant prior to acceptance. Have not heard it mentioned since; I suspect the effort was abandoned. Invitation only or even some sort of community vetting might help but the danger in that is ending up with too many folks who champion a particular script or way of doing things. That could lead to the effort becoming a closed club where the conversation primarily turns into a gossip-mongering, mud-slinging, and glad-handing place. As DownUnder mentioned, there are many people who are lurking around here who have a great deal to bring to the table and would be willing to share in the right environment.
Well I am not going to quote everyone, but I have read all the responses and I see two things that need addressing for sure. The network would mostly be made up of announcements of new directories (esp not dropped domains, those would be deleted) and directory related list or blog post. Here is a great example of an approved submission http://www.authoritydirectory.com/blog/directory-methods-for-ranking-links/ Here is a good example of a denied or deleted submission http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=930337 Anyway, people would submit their news, etc... and if X number of people voted for it, it would appear on the front page. You would also be able to bury submissions or vote down a submission. (if approved by a moderator) The idea is to give owners a chance to showcase work (templates, mods, etc etc) and for submitters an easy way to keep up with what is going on (new directories, hot promotions, etc, etc). The only limitations would be submission guidelines and of course registered user only voting. My main focus is quality control.
From what I heard, it was never abandonded - they just stopped opening the gates for those from DigitalPoint, whom generally used it to spam for their 'general quality free web directories' with submissions 'only $1'
I have a few other large projects on my plate to finish while I work this out on the side and I really do appreciate all the great feedback. I will try to keep it up to date and maybe a category list soon.