State of the Site: December 2014

Scott Hardie | December 13, 2014
I've been meaning to start a series of semi-quarterly announcements about Funeratic's overall health. I mention bits and pieces of my plans for the future here and there, but it would be better to have it spelled it out in one big-picture announcement.

The site itself is operating more or less smoothly, albeit with a few hiccups that I'll get into. By far the biggest problem right now is external: Our ongoing inability to attract new members has become critical, as we have so few members still sticking around and playing. This is affecting the site already (no winter RB tournament), and it's eventually going to force the site's demise if it's not resolved.

I have a pact with Kelly not to spend any money until after the holidays, but come January, I've already found a service that will help. Advertising can be costly, and frankly I don't have a lot of interest or expertise to get hands-on with promoting the site. That's why I'm delighted to have found an affordable service that will promote the website on an ongoing basis, bringing their own creative talent and marketing skill into it so that I can continue to focus on running the site. I'm confident that this service will help us, though it will take some patience. I may also look into similar services to run concurrently.

There's also the matter of Funeratic being blocked on some office networks, particularly government networks. I have a workaround planned that I will implement in January, which can help some lapsed players rejoin our games. If you have been affected by this kind of filter, or you know someone who has, please contact me privately for details about this plan.

Want to help the site? Please keep telling friends and family about us. It helps directly by bringing in people who are already interested in playing games with you, but it also helps indirectly to have links to Funeratic sprinkled around the web (not just on Facebook), which makes search engines consider us more important and serve us more traffic. Everything that you do to promote us is appreciated.

Celebrity Goo Game: The Japanese format is working well and will continue. Beju, the "finicky" lucky cat, has become a problem, as I have too often failed to keep the queue stocked with enough upcoming goos for her "power" to function. I will probably reprogram her so that instead of choosing from goos already in the queue, she will let you pick any category and difficulty you want, and I'll make a new goo matching those parameters just for you, to appear within the next 24-48 hours. A new inductee for the Hall of Fame will be announced in February.

Rock Block: I had planned to start the first quarterly tournament this month (theme: "Happy Together" by the Turtles), but it's just not feasible until we have more people playing semi-daily. There's also a recurring problem with the challenge-accept form that makes it fail on Aaron's phone and Joanna's tablet and who knows where else, that will require me to reprogram the whole form shortly. Otherwise, the new game is running very well, and just needs more players to take it from good to great. I'm considering allowing multiple simultaneous automatic concerts per player; would that be welcome?

Tragic Comedy: I wish that I personally could start discussions daily and contribute comments daily, but it's just not possible. We've been talking a little more lately than we have in ages, so let's keep it up. Please keep asking and answering questions and sharing your opinions.

Thorough Movie Reviews: Voting for the Best Movies of 2014 is open now; the outcome will be announced on New Years Day. The annual Predict the Oscars contest will begin on January 15.

Pirate Paradise: I heard no comments for or against scrapping this game when I floated the idea back in August. I remain on the fence: It's an ok game that runs smoothly already and it can be used to promote the site, but it's last on my list of things to work on and gets very little action from players. I don't know whether it will see further development or not. (I can be persuaded.)

Gothic Earth: Nothing to see here. I was considering just hiding GE from all but myself and active players, since I thought it served no purpose to anyone else. But then a Civilization modder found it and (with permission) used it to develop a mod, and there are several links to it around the web that help with our search engine traffic, so perhaps it will stay visible for the roughly 2-3 more years left in the game.

I have considered a big change that could result in more activity: Allowing members to elect a "mayor" (exact term tbd) for six-month or twelve-month terms, to oversee each section of the site by taking care of the basic maintenance, freeing me up for bigger work. The GOO mayor might make goos and approve guesses and approve player creations, while the RB mayor might add artists and themes, and so on with mayors for the other sections. They might also be responsible for promoting that section of the site online, fielding questions from players (answering messages takes time every day), and other tasks, but they would also get influence and have a real say in the section's future (I'd probably agree to program a new feature of their design). However, I have no idea if anyone would want to take this on, and I fear that it would lead to petty squabbles between players if a bad call is perceived to have been made or a decision is disliked. Kelly belongs to a much bigger hobby group that is dragged down by politics and vanity and power trips by the people put in charge for six months at a time, and we can't afford to lose anyone else to something like that. Would "mayors" be a good idea or a bad idea? So far, it's only an idea, not something that I plan to implement.

Do you think that I have the right priorities and right solutions in mind? Do you have other suggestions for what I should do with the site? Your feedback is always appreciated!

Steve West | December 14, 2014
I enthusiastically participate in most sections of the site. Rock Block is a particular favorite of mine but as you stated, there are relatively few participants. That has led to frequent challenges being made to a select few and I apologize if those players feel inundated with concert challenges but what else can I do? I truly hope others will join the melee. I've been working on a few people who are not generally game players but have shown mild interest. Hope the plans for web site promotion go well.

Scott Hardie | December 15, 2014
As one of the select few, I'd like to say that I welcome the frequent challenges. :-)

Erik Bates | December 16, 2014
[hidden by request]

Scott Hardie | December 31, 2014
Me too! :-)

As a follow-up to the above comments about the goo game: Beju has been temporarily deactivated so that no one else winds up getting stuck with her after today. When I reprogram her, I'll reactivate her. She remains visible on the Lucky Cats page.

Scott Hardie | February 14, 2015
For folks not following the RB announcements: You can now have as many automatic concerts at a time as you want, although it's still limited to one per opponent. Go to your label and click on the Options tab, then set the "simultaneous automatic concerts" number to whatever amount you want. One auto-concert at a time is still the default, so if you change nothing, the site will continue assigning you to one auto-concert at a time like it always has.