Sketch Fest thoughts...

[ellenmillion]

I'm catching up on Sketch Fest things, sending out notifications of sales... and poking around at ideas for improvement. I have no lack of ideas, just... a few hesitations about implementation.

Comments

[faebyl]

I was just on the site and noticed my sketch was sold, but didn't know if you already sent the email so I could send it out:) I see now you were just doing that:) I'm always so impatient heehee:)
I like all your ideas, my only say is make it easy for us folks who suck on the computer:), so far all the navigation is easy peasy on my end:).
trying to make sure I can donate as much as possible:)

[ellenmillion]

OH! I forgot to email you AGAIN. (My brain, it is pudding.) I shall send you the information about that ASAP. :)

I am thinking that having a place at the site where you can automatically see who got the piece (and where to send it) might be useful for all parties!

[faebyl]

Thanks Ellen:) I want to mail it out as soon as I can:)
And I think that would be a fantastic idea!:)

[mathhobbit]

If you're looking for suggestions for improvement, I have a usability suggestion.

I am a moron. If I click on a link and don't see exactly what I'm looking for in my browser window, I assume nothing happened and click the link again. For some reason I was having this problem trying to view the sketch fest prompts. As a result there was much flailing about and inappropriate answers to "repost last submission" popups. (The site handled the repostings perfectly; yay!)

I think the page would be more moron-proof if the link to "Prompts" changed color or there was a big banner saying "Prompts" on the page. (I just went and looked at it and can't figure out why I was having so much trouble. Maybe the problem was returning to the prompts page after submitting a sketch or prompt?)

[ellenmillion]

Oh! I have an idea for making those repost warnings go away - I shall have to work that into this next update.

[mathhobbit]

Yay!

I think it's great that you involve the community in design decisions.

[ext_272279]

Oh, I have an idea! The prompts form at the top of the page? It is like going to the bottom of the Grand Canyon a few hours in, or just a link at the top that jumps you to the bottom? :)

[wyld_dandelyon]

Hmm...you could hold the funds until the buyer confirms receipt, but that's not perfect because buyers might forget to do that. So there would have to be a deadline--a period of time after which you can distribute funds based on the assumption that a buyer who has not contacted you did get the art. You'd probably need to add a clicky box for language like "By buying art through you, the buyer agrees that if they do not contact you in the specified time, they forfeit any right to a refund that they might have."

It's not perfect, but at least it doesn't leave all the risk in your hands.

[ext_272279]

That sounds like a good idea, and make sure the form doesn't go anywhere until they agree, like highlight it in red if they try to go forward and don't click it. "Oops!You've forgotten to click da box!"

[wyld_dandelyon]

More like, "Oops, transaction cannot be completed without your agreement."

But yes, good point!

[ellenmillion]

30 days is probably reasonable in most cases. And a clicky box would be easy enough.

[kelkyag]

Micropayments are hard! There have been a lot of attempts at that, many of which are still out there in one degree of usability or another -- a bit of googling will tell you a lot about what people have tried.

You'd mentioned a while back that you were considering setting up cross-emg-site "credits" like Torn World has for subscribers -- that might be a good model to use if you want something just for that community, possibly making a credit (mini-credit?) $.10 instead of $1. Keeping small payments practical is likely to require buying and cashing out credit-equivalents in larger chunks to keep the overhead sane.

[ankewehner]

If there'll be micropayments on more than one site, I'd be all for combining the accounts.

[ellenmillion]

Yeah, I'm thinking about ways to combine things... the only stumbling block I've got is that I don't want people to be able to buy subscriptions and use those specific credits for something other than those authors/artists.

But it wouldn't be too hard to set up Torn World spending-only credits, EMG-Zine spending-only credits, general spending-only credits (which could buy sketches, too!) and credits than can be cashed out directly (OR used anywhere in the EMG network). I like the idea of better integrating everything. A lot.

[ellenmillion]

$0.10 might be a good thing, indeed - I like that option. And the cross-network credits is definitely something I want to pursue. Having a cap on withdrawals is reasonable, though I'd want some kind of caveat, so people don't feel like they won't be able to withdraw at all unless they hit some benchmark. And since it costs them, rather than me, when I'm sending them payments, it might be a non-issue.

[ellenmillion]

Thank you!