If TeamPS was completely overhauled tomorrow...

Wow, this kind of went in a direction that I didn't really see coming, but I really like the idea.

Anyway, I think that Mihai kind of hit the nail on the head with this:
[QUOTE=mihai]All joke aside, maybe useful "lessons" might really bring in people. Like retouching yes, or preparing stuff for print... or making icons (I need to make a lot of those and I hate the little buggers. I like BIG stuff lol) ..and why not gaudy, shiny buttons and stuff for pr0n sites. Or Powerpoint templates. Those actually sell for good money.. and most are crappy.
Or outlook templates... dunno - stuff everyday people use and don't know enough image manipulation to make their own...[/QUOTE]There are enough cheap tutorial sites, and not enough really organic teaching sites. I say organic, because most tutorial sites list a couple tutorials that someone sat down and made in one shot, posted, and then were never seen again.

Any kind of teaching material on a new website should grow and change with the interests of the group.

One site that comes to mind as far as the whole "bringing something new to the table" is http://www.eatpoo.com/. It's a website primarily for illustration, which in that sense is not terribly uncommon, but there's something about the site, namely the kind of humor there, and the way in which very blunt and honest critiques are given that make it a really interesting place, with tons of users, all of whom post regularly.

I think that there are lots of things that we can do to bring something new to the table, and I think that is to offer lessons, rather than tutorials, and offer the kinds of critiques that newbies really need to hear.

As far as starting a new site, I would certainly support it, and offer any help I can, but unfortunately I'm ridiculously broke at this time. Of course, anything else, including writing content, and making graphics, I'd be happy to do.

I know that many of you are on MSN. I don't think my MSN name is listed in my teamps profile, but here are my accounts:

MSN - [email]paulganguly@hotmail.com[/email]
AIM - PaulGanguly
YAHOO - [email]paulganguly@yahoo.com[/email]

I'm on like, all the damn time.

I'd love to be involved in whatever everyone decides on, and I'd definitely help in any way I can.

[QUOTE=Fig]That's an intriguing idea...a production oriented site, with real world techniques...not the newest Photoshop CS 27 features and how to do super glossy beveled text, but the stuff you actually use everyday at a real job...photo retouching, prepping files for print, efficient ways to slice up a web site, organization of Flash movies...

chris[/QUOTE]What he said

Dek: if we're going to sell the idea to Rich--how did Scriv make money on ForeverGeek? Did he get the ADsense from the front page and banners, and contributing writers got Adsense from their article pages only? Do you know what the split was?

Right about now, if Rich read this thread THIS far without deleting it, I bet he's thinking, "OH S4IT". I agree the best path would be to help Rich resurrect this site. I'll support you guys, my friends... but why throw the baby out with the bathwater? We had talked at one point about building the front end in Expression Engine, with contributing and managing editors--I believe Rich will be open to ideas. I believe EE has a templating system--if not, CMS's like Mambo DO. We could let TPS designers develop templates for the front end and showcase their talent. Mambo has a solid template switching system, so users could change templates at will... Plus we have my boyish good looks!!!! :D

This guy is one of the leading Mambo Templateers http://www.jamboworks.com/blogcategory/Template_Club/

Man, there are tons of ideas starting to flow. I think maybe making this thing different would be to pull away just a tad from Photoshop itself and get more into Illustrator or other Adobe products. So maybe we could mingle print with web design.

We should also look ahead to the future and think more about how web design will be in the next few years. So we may want to go towards CSS and XHTML along with other programming methods and get somewhat techy.

Also getting into the business aspect of design and putting up sections dedicated solely to this purpose.

Basically what Chris talked about earlier: Real world application, such as image editing and slicing along with file preparations for print and so on.

Maybe we can consult with guys who already know the business end of things, in terms of starting up a new site. If someone here, like Deker, could talk to Scrivs or maybe do something like what SitePoint does and eventually get people to publish books from our own members would be awesome.

I mean what would keep us from getting invited to conferences or seminars to discuss things, or putting one together? What if eventually we go so big that we started holding gatherings and putting events together to offer information for other designers.

I'm with Deker in that there are so many other sites out there that are similar and what it would take to make us unique. Maybe the difference is just taking this to a higher level, where we are all leaders in this and make something really happen for the design community.

And I still like the idea of moving on, and we don't have to have just one site with one forum. We can have a mother site and then have smaller satellite sites. For instance creating a community and then actually having a site that designs templates and has them for sale, such as skins for the boards, or starting a printing side to the forum. How about buying machines and making a gang-run printing business on the side.

Then maybe start a blog where we discuss all the legal jargon about what goes into the design aspect of working with clients. Yes, I know they're out there, but what if we can take it to another level. Sure you've got Whitespace and Businesslogs by Scrivs, but what if we go beyond that.

So instead of having an "all in one" we break it up and make a network so to speak. And if costs have to be covered, we can do that as well...in time. It would take about a year to see if something like this can work or we start seeing some revenue, but there would have to be a committee to monitor the money coming in so that not one person gets greedy.

There would have to be accountability and responsibility. And this takes much time to make it happen, and I think we have the man power already, but we would need dedication.

I'm just throwing stuff out here and kinda rambling, but my thoughts are just everywhere this afternoon. But these are my two cents.

Cheers!

On forevergeek paul got all the google ads for the front page and any articles that he wrote, and the authors got the ads on the pages of the articles that they wrote.

the more people that drove traffic to their own articles, drove traffic to the front page indirectly, which made more for the owner of the site.

Apparently Rich doesn't even read the forum anymore, or I'm sure he would have spoken up by now.

Should I or someone try to track him down, or is it not even worth it?

Already done. This evening.

And that's why I love you Dan. <3

Hey Guys,

First of all, aplogies for not being around as much as I would have liked. As most of you probably know I also run a large games network which has taken the majority of my time at the moment for one reason or another.

More importantly, it has also taken much of my programmer's time as we are developing a couple of new sites and the summer is the busy season for games sites, so we wanted to get them up and running first.

The plans I have for TPS still stand, and will be actioned when I can find an available time slot for my programmer to step in. This will probably be towards the mid/end of September. First of all we will be adding a photo gallery to the board so you can store/display your work. We'll then be converting the site to a database driven site and changing the submission system to make it easier for people to submit their tutorials.

EDIT:
Forgot to mention the incentive will be a monthly competition - which would be easier for me to work that adsense sharing, although I can look into this.


Reading through this thread, you have some very good ideas for your own site. If you decide to go down that route, I wish you the best of luck, and it will be a shame to see many of the core members of this forum go. But I understand your reasons.

For anyone wishing to stay, please bear with me, I have only taken control about 2 months ago, in the life of TPS, that is still a very short period.

Best,

Richard

p.s. Thanks Malibu for the nudge!

Rich, I'm pretty sure that most of the core members will never really dissapear... Don't worry about that.

Fact is though, that something has to change, and fast. Mid/end september is maybe two months from here, I don't think people will be satisfied with that. There is a need for a few short term solutions right now.

A few coding additions so there will be more tutorials won't just do it, in my opinion.
Maybe the whole target group you're aiming for has been satisfied by other tutorial websites.