For those of you that have joined from SP we welcome you! As you must know by now we are still in final testing. Things will start happening soon enough!

BTW, don't be afraid to post and say hi!

Thanks

Good Luck with the contest for the logo and with this site! Everything looks great so far

Regards,
Sammy

Hi!

James from SP reporting in.

Glad you could join us. We will be working hard to bring this forum to life.

Welcome to the site, everyone! Really hope you stick around, as we hope to be hosting contests here very soon!

It could be slow to start, but stick with us... business will pick up!

need any help?

We may be posting more contests here in the coming months for things like new buttons etc. We still haven't decided. We also plan on posting contests for other projects we are working on in coming months to help create some activity here.

ahh..thats nice.

Quick question:
like in SP, do they (contest holders) have to pay a fee?
just curious.

WGradl says HI to everyone, and good luck with the launch!

WGradl wrote:

WGradl says HI to everyone, and good luck with the launch!

Howdy!
<10 char>

james wrote:

ahh..thats nice.

Quick question:
like in SP, do they (contest holders) have to pay a fee?
just curious.

In the short run posting contests will be free as we need to build ourselves up. By summer (exact timeframe not yet defined), we will shift to a periodic subscription model. This way instead of having to pay for each contest members will only have a monthly, quarterly or semi-annual fee to post contests. Entering contests will remain free of charge (at least this is the current plan). We also hope to offer premium options for members who pay a subscription fee and we are currently working out the details for this.

We are also looking at other revenue generation methods. We figure it might take a year or two to really start to earn a return on the effort we have to put into getting this project off the ground and managing it.

There's something to be said for being the only chick in the place.

Unfortunately it's usually 'Hey, got any sandwiches?!'

Hi y'all. Glad to be here and looking forward to the evolution.

hi all. just an idea: what about creating a specific currency for gfxcontests like in namepros?

Please explain the purpose of a GFXcontests.com specific currency.

you can check, it on namepros.com i mean like the np$.

www.namepros.com . . .

this may help skipping paypal etc. and you can get little comissions for exchanges.

We could potentially implement something like that down the line especially if it reduced PayPal fees for everyone. In the short run we've got to get this site up and running with more than idle chatter. We need to start getting contests for people to enter.

Glenn, I've been a member of NamePros for a couple of years now, but I'm not sure I ever fully got the concept of the NP$. Can you explain exactly how it works a bit more?

I know that you accrue NP$ via post count, but I also know they sell actual goods (namely domain registrations) for NP$... how do they not lose money on the deal?

Also, since post count is not really a goal with this forum, how do you envision that it might work here?

i'm new on namepros and liked the np$ idea there. i understand this is not a "first to do" for gfxcontests though.

Also, since post count is not really a goal with this forum, how do you envision that it might work here?

sure, i was not referring to a post count.

Maybe the inhouse money could be earned by entries to contests. This would encourage designers to enter more... now how that inhouse money would be spent I have no freaking idea!

An even bigger question would be how would we track entries?

contest holders may pick top three (if they like to) and entrants get little prizes from GFXContests. the money should not be spent at all, unless you offer any spendable service. there may be ways to exchange it with real currency. dont know this is easy to implement though.

glenngould wrote:

contest holders may pick top three (if they like to) and entrants get little prizes from GFXContests. the money should not be spent at all, unless you offer any spendable service. there may be ways to exchange it with real currency. dont know this is easy to implement though.

That's an interesting idea. I wonder if contest holders would take the time? Some of them would, I am sure... but we don't want to cause trouble if a new member holding a contest (and doesn't know about the site currency) doesn't give out any prizes.

But we'll definitely look into it and talk about it further.

My .02 in a nutshell because I only have a moment before I have to pick up my youngest: if you're going to offer internal currency, at least make it optional. I would honestly be far less inclined to enter if PayPal (or some other type of real-time cash) were not an option.

I can only state my own opinion (duh, Lee) but I feel that there is a stigma attached to in-house currency. It somehow lessens the validity of the site on which it is used. (Anyone remember Beanz?)

~Lee

I don't think we would ever use it to replace something like Paypal. After all, the primary purpose designers would come here is the opportunity to earn real money.

Yeah, I'm thinking if we did have an internal currency it would only be given as a bonus, secondary prize. I can't imagine we would let people run entire contests in an internal currency, as I don't think that would be fair to designers (then again, I doubt many contest holders would want to hold a contest in a forum currency anyway, since as you alluded to, MissLee, it would probably not get as many entries).