Blender forum for professional users

[rcas]

another important point that has not been discussed is the integrations with the current websites. I especially think of the bugtracker and wiki documentation. Users tend to report bug in the forums and the developpers won't read it, so we should maybe make a bugreport section pointing to gforge.

Should the "reference" page link to the blender.org wiki or should we host our own system ?

You can have integration between the two as long as you have access to the database from the outside, else a php script can be added in a specific location in the Bug Tracker Server and issue all entries there at the same they are added to a own Bug Tracker. I feel that we need to have everything of our own, but build an integration base that automatically replicates and gets data from other areas of Blender.org.

I can code several php services that would integrate with Blender.org database and do this sort of thing, having security implemented and such it would be a good thing.

another interesting system that i've seen on the ubuntu forums is a malinglist section where the users can read and reply to mailing lists without leaving the forum
http://www.ubuntuforums.org/forumdisplay.php?f=6
you can of course make those mailing list readonly.

It can be done using a similar thing as said above.

and for the bounties/ job requests i think that a forum section is enough.

Don't underestimate job postings and such.

Companies would like to do seach on job offers and also some statistic on the Job posting and such.
There is more to it then it looks at a first glance.
I Strongly believe that this should be a specific area with a specific way of working.

We should aim for integration and ease of use, so making job offers as a new Forum thread also kills this goal.


I don't mind doing most of the coding in it, as long as we define things before starting a single line of code, else things will get messy and will end up in more hours of work unnecessarely.



-- Rui --

[-efbie-]

if you want to code all that then no problem, but be carefull to not see things too big, It will be a lot of work to integrate a forum + blogs + cms + wiki + job system, especially as you seem to be the only true php coder here.

We have a 30 july deadline, and that means that the website must be fully working in june so that we can polish and test it for at least a month.

[rcas]

It must be phased, meaning services are added as soon as they are ready.
Things available should be stable and extendable.

And don't worry about coding, there are several others that can help out ....


-- Rui --

[ilac]

Any progress on this project?

Thanks

[rcas]

Any progress on this project?

Thanks

I'm a bit busy lately, but have not forgot about it, 2 weeks vacations are coming soon and the Open Graphics Meeting, so I will be over it by then.


-- Rui --

[hoxolotl]

Just my little idea, for the forum guigelines, to make it clear for everybody what is and isn't likely to be valued on the professional forums:

Warning, I haven't taken up my diplomacy 1-o-1 book in a while so my wording might be a lot harsher than I actually would like it to be, also input and comments are, of course, welcome:

Forum guidelines:

-Swooning over what somebody else did, while he asks for a solution for a problem will result in deletion of the post (swooning _and_ helping will be toleratable within limits)

-Posts made in the wrong place will be placed in the right forum thread with messages to the poster(s) informing them of the moving of their post

-people who have not left theyr credentials cannot post on the forums.

-inapropriate behaviour will result in 3 warnings, e-mailed, and private messaged to the user. A permanent lifelong ban will be made on the fourth warning. The moderators have to decide unanimously on the third warning and final ban.

-should a company misbehave (spam, phishing, FUD, or other inapropriate behaviour by one of it's representatives) it will be subject to the same rules of misbehaviour as the individuals representing it.

-information posted in the public area is public, therefore warranting view by visitors, search engines (deep linking) and so forth, blenderprofessionals.org/net/com cannot be held responsible for the leaking of "sensitive"information, but we will remove posts if they include diffamation, using our sound judgement or at a company's request.

-information and access in the NDA forum warrants that you have read, signed and faxed to us the NDA agreement on an individual basis (as opposed to company basis). Information in the NDA forum is less moderated than on the public forums, but is subjected to the same basic rules of behaviour.

-any and all prosecution shall proceed on the basis of international laws and be arbitrated at (put court name here, preferably somewhere in europe, other suggestions are welcome).

....

That's all I have for now, but a nice international legal NDA would help professional people feel less squirmish about asking for help in a forum...
Problem is, it would cost and arm and a leg to have drawn up by a legally competent organisation or individual, unless somebody would be willing to do that pro-bono. Or for sponsoring purposes.

Also, a sponsor area on the site would be nice and a "user database" where companies can choose to be represented for contact purposes (option at registration).

When registering for the forums/site the following information should be mandatory:

Company name
Individual name
Company site and/or adress
Phone number and/or fax number
E-mail adress
(this might not be public) NDA signed and faxed (filled in by the site's organisation) yes/no

And a small optional form for details like:
area of expertise,
job openings,
current project(s)
current bounty(s)
available for hire (yes/no)
iCHat/Hotmail/Aim/IRQ/Jabber contact data
IRC data (if they keep somebody online).
Next showing (stand, or attendance) at "conference xyz, booth 56"

Have a nice day.

[rcas]

hoxolotl, thanks for this post, it really is a key thing and I haven't yet got to it, but will surely take this into account.

Also, domain has been purchased, but there is nothing in it for now: www.blenderprofessionals.com

Work is still being done to have the first alpha version ready for testing, perhaps in 3 months, I am switching jobs right now...


-- Rui --

[hoxolotl]

No worries Rui, if you need any help I'm sure you've got it already...fingers crossed for the new job.

I'm going to check for prices on the international legal stuff, and hook up with a PHP guru (mostly to talk about server security for the NDA forum) to see if they want to do anything for me... but I'd rather have the site made with Zope (python) that way you get the bonus from all that python experienced blender scripting.

Or...if I judge this right, there's already a team out there and they'll have the site up and running by July 30th

[rcas]

... but I'd rather have the site made with Zope (python) that way you get the bonus from all that python experienced blender scripting.

Well, your wishes come true.

Installed Zope 2.8 + Plone 2.1, so, to all Python afficionados, the Portal will be Python based .

Or...if I judge this right, there's already a team out there and they'll have the site up and running by July 30th

Right now it is only me, but will try to get more people involved, since Python devs flow around here ...


Cheerz,

-- Rui --

[hoxolotl]

Rui (and others) , I'm currently thinking about the money side of this system (the webpage and support for professional users), as a site for professionals would there be fees or sponsoring options available for professionals?
I'm saying this because to start the NDA area, and possible legal office costs (say, a fax machine, or a renderfarm), there would be some money required to start all this...
Also it would be nice to have a legal representative for the website, a foundation or an enterprise type of representative. There has been some demand for professional support noted in the forums but there isn't some hard data about how much professionals would be willing to contribute (in money) for good support.

For the biz side of things I was musing on the following forms of income:
a - get a percentage on the bounties
b - a paying phone line, or a "fee/month" unlimited phone support
c - mandatory yearly fee for posting on the forums (like the CG-forums)
d - pr or sponsor fees for the banners
e - percentage on the renderfarm fees, maybe even offering a direct (small) render farm through the website.
f - offer blender certification courses
g - make an official blender quality seal, evaluating the work of an enterprise to meet certain standards, and adding this seal to the company profile pages. Evaluation would require time, and thus money, and would obey a firm and clear line of evaluation for both the enterprises _and_ their clients.

Now back to being lil'ol'me instead of "Mister Crabs: where's me money?"
Rcas: how'd the job switch go, and will you be at the games and education festival in Portugal? http://www.games2006.aproje.org/

[rcas]

For the biz side of things I was musing on the following forms of income:
a - get a percentage on the bounties

I was thinking of charging a percentage out of Bounties and E-Learning. But I must first setup a company to handle that, so, it hasn't been done yet.

b - a paying phone line, or a "fee/month" unlimited phone support

I doubt it will have this sort of support at the beginning, maybe in the 6 months that follow the start of it. Or maybe get companies offering support. Still have to think of it thoroughly to avoid complications.

c - mandatory yearly fee for posting on the forums (like the CG-forums)

I want to charge a small yearly fee for people to use some additional services, something like 2 to 5 euros a year to have portfolio and access to some of the services and such, and have a yearly fee for companies, ranging from 10 to 25 Euros.

This fee will also leverage the level of access to the forums, some areas will only be available if the user paid the fee. But there will be lots of free areas. Nevertheless, it is a small fee per user for this kind of service.

d - pr or sponsor fees for the banners

Yes, definitly, there will be banners for anyone who wants to sponsor.
There will be 3 types of sponsoring, GOLD, SILVER and BRONZE.

GOLD will have a nice big banner showing in the first page and a small banner around the site.

SILVER will have a small banner on the first page and a small banner all around the site.

BRONZE will just have a small banner showing around the site.

e - percentage on the renderfarm fees, maybe even offering a direct (small) render farm through the website.

I might get a partnership with someone that already offers a renderfarm to use trough the website.

But this isn't planned right now, so I won't expect it anytime soon. Maybe it is added at start, maybe not.

f - offer blender certification courses

This is a complicated area, I have to talk to Ton about this.
Although I have already thought of it.

g - make an official blender quality seal, evaluating the work of an enterprise to meet certain standards, and adding this seal to the company profile pages. Evaluation would require time, and thus money, and would obey a firm and clear line of evaluation for both the enterprises _and_ their clients.

Glad you mentioned it, I will leave the platform able to do this. But, it won't be available from start.

Perhaps on version 2, 6 months after it starts.

Now back to being lil'ol'me instead of "Mister Crabs: where's me money?"
Rcas: how'd the job switch go, and will you be at the games and education festival in Portugal? http://www.games2006.aproje.org/

Hehe, ended up not switching, my former company paid me more and gave me another position, so I staid .

On the festival, no I won't be there, for two reasons.
One is that I want to go to the Blender Conference and that means I have to save my money.
Two, my honeymoon ends on the 3rd of September and the festival location is 200km away from my home, meaning I can't ask my boss for another week and also bearing in mind that I will ask him for a week to go to the Blender Conference ...