oh man!
forum 5000 is about one week’s worth of work away from being not only the best piece of software i’ve ever written, but probably pretty close to the best forum system out there. it’s got a really flexible text-processing system [aside: like the code that does this], a pretty remarkable preference system (allowing any item in the system to have any # of preferences affixed to it), it’s the only discussion board with revision control, it’s the only one that lets you save working drafts of your entries. go steve and scott!
my birthday is coming up in a few weeks!!
(april 2nd! i’m going to be twenty five :( )
but i’m happy with my life..the last few months have opened some pretty remarkable doors. my work with f5k, getting caught up in some of the very well-paying freelance work (which i haven’t been doing enough of, but hopefully with F5K nearing completion that’ll change), certainly my musicianship. it’s been a good 25 years! here’s to at least 25 more!
I'm a 30-year-old 
Cool!
I don’t know if its just this new green kmorg skin but looking at the source it looks much much cleaner than before. I’ve told Scott on a few occasions how amazed I am by FCS and now F5K. I look around and I see more and more attention being paid to bloggers and more and more big name people and sites using some other form of forum software. Personally, I think you guys are sitting on a gold mine but as the internet has shown countless others, finding the right business plan can be costly and deadly. It might be no better than:
1. Write F5K
2. ????
3. Money!!
but seriously, I think you guys could go far with this. I’m no business man, but that’s my feeling.
March 15th, 2003 at 8:47 pm
clean code
You’re absolutely right about the code, both in terms of the PHP running the site, and the HTML on the front end. Both Steve and I have learned a few new tricks since we pulled together FCS, and that was Steve’s primary reason for wanting to start from scratch, and do things they way they should have been done. FCS in its original incarnation was a pretty good program, but over the years it had become largely a series of coding kludges. With F5K, every time we approach a problem, we ask ourselves, are we doing this the right way? Or is this something we’ll want to rewrite in 4 years. And we choose the path that is best, regardless of which one takes longer.
I think the results speak for themselves. :)
March 16th, 2003 at 12:02 pm
haha!
“You’re sittin’ on a goldmine Trebek!”
March 16th, 2003 at 8:59 pm
thank you very much!
i wish i knew how to get out there and pimp the hell out of it, too. forum5000 is the first software package i’ve written that i really think is saleably good.
any ideas?
March 17th, 2003 at 4:39 pm
The problem is that no one has really been able to make money on the web to a great extent. Except the Pr0n industry that is. The thing is is that you can’t offer something that is (arguably) a better product to someone who already has a blog or forum system if it costs money. However, there are many many websites out there now who are using some form of a forum system (tons of sites under gamespy.com, dave barry, the unofficial fable website) that you could coax over to F5K if it is easier to use, they don’t have to use their current systems banner ads, etc.
However, the problem then becomes how to make money or a business out of a widely used piece of software. As has been shown, just because you have all the market share in the world by itself doesn’t mean you’re automatically going to make money (AOL anyone?). The only way I see of making F5K alone a money maker is by charging for ad placement or for added features. Both of which will probably only work to a limited extent.
So, what I see is using F5K as a way to hook people into the greater realm of Fojar. Use it as a good example of what the Fojar Design Team can do and then go from there. Use F5K to get the recognition then offer custom site designs, game development, other web software, etc.
Like I said, I’m no business guy but I like to think that I have a grasp on where the internet is now and (possibly) where its going. F5K is good and I can see it replacing the software of community groups out there and maybe get some notable or influential people to buy in to the switch (switch ad-campaign?) like Dave Barry or Lawrence Lessig (a long shot maybe) but I just don’t see it as a stand-alone product. There are already free alternatives out there and unless F5K washes the car and picks up the kids from daycare its not going to replace whats already out there.
March 17th, 2003 at 7:18 pm