"Artica" is the (temporary?) name I've picked for the art-site project I mentioned
over here. I'd suggest anyone that hasn't should at least skim that thread for the parts where I describe my idea(s) before continuing here. For the lazy though, here's a VERY brief recap.
I want to make a community art site, similar to things like Deviant Art, Yerf, Elfwood, Artvark, etc. I want it to be a community site, run by the members, rather than a profit-oriented corporation. To this end, I've several ideas for how things would work that would set this site apart from the others. Membership (for artists) would be by invitation only. There would be a system of "karmic currency" in place (Whuffie?) that basically indicates how respected someone is in the community. People with more respect would have great administrative ability... that is, they'd have more power to do things such as moderate posts, invite more people, punish and ban troublemakers, petition for new ideas, etc. The system is actually quite complicated, but on the front (user) side of things is very simple. People would see "scores" and have the ability to give people a thumbs up/down.
In addition to the karmic system, there are a few technical features that I've yet to see in other art archives that would be new as well. For example, an option to have multiple revisions of a work. I often see a rough sketch, an ink drawing, and a full color version of the same image, yet they're always posted as new "works" and end up seperate in the archives. Similar things would be done for "set" images... things like a series of ABC pictures and such. Also, themeable home pages so each artist can customize their own areas, yet still keep a consistent feel throughout.
Anyway, the ideas and the full feature set are still in a quite malleable state. Lots of things are subject to change. I do know that this is something I want to do, and I think needs to be done. I, of course, already have the server resources to host and run such a thing, but it is a massive undertaking to actually code and design such a place. I'm going for something quite the opposite from xepher.net. There I started with nothing and slowly built it up to what it is today. I've also (intentionally) kept a less-than-professional air about the place. I never wanted this to be a "major" project. Artica will be different though. I don't want to slap something together and try and get people interested a few at a time. My intention is to, quite frankly, surprise everyone from out of left field. I want to have a fully functional, professional looking, easy-to-use site up and running before accepting the first artist. I want someplace where people will be clammoring to get into, and where they'll work hard to keep it a great place. I want a community everyone can be proud to be part of.
Now, to that end, I realize I can't do it alone. Yes, I could probably code the site and get things going, but as soon as it starts getting "interesting" I don't think I'd be able to keep up by myself. I need help. Primarily I need a few other people that can code well in PHP. (Honestly, I'm not that great at actual coding. I turn everything into an if/then/else statement and I've never even used an "object.") Also, some artists would be needed, both for their connections in various other art communities for promotion, and for design and graphics for the site and engine. It's gonna be an art site, and a nearly graphic-less page like on xepher.net would be rather stupid. Additionally, we'll probably need a good deal of beta testers to go through and try and break things. These can (and probably should) be ordinary joe and jane user. No special skills required. Just a willingness to click on everything until it breaks. :-)
While I would defintely like people to have skill in their areas, I think it's more important to find people who are motivated and actually interested in such a project. This is gonna be a long-term thing. I'm not in a rush, but I would like to see steady work being done. Until I/we get more into it, it's hard to estimate a timeframe, but 6 months to a year of work is quite possible. This wouldn't be nearly full time on anyone's part, and I don't intend to have weekly deadlines or anything, but I'm just mentioning this possibility up front because I don't want people that get bored in a few weeks and wander off. Ideally I'd like to see a functional site up for testing well this side of 6 months, but the time frame is heavily under flux until we finalize features and see how many people we can get on the team.
I think that about sums up my piece for now. If you're seriously interested in working on this, don't be scared off by my admonitions about long/hard work. Most of you know me, and I'm not a slave driver or anything. Things come up and people can't always stick to commitments. I know this, and it's expected. I just want to make sure of peoples intentions more than anything.
So, who's interested? I'm not looking for commitments yet, just an idea of who might consider it.
