The Future of Flipsider.com - PLEASE READ!!!

blitz · Post by **blitz** » 21 Feb 2007 00:57

First of all, any decision to end flipsider.com would be a carefully chosen action, never a rash decision, and there would be plenty notice. Let's hope it doesn't come to that. Asking this question is really a cry for help: to encourage some people to get involved and contribute to what could be much more valuable than it already is. If my call to arms fails... and fails the next time, and the time after that... then I will likely pull the plug. But I'm not yet ready to give up.

The website only costs me about $120/year, so it's not a big financial sacrifice, and it's nice to have a killer footbag website to send people to, BUT I will likely never return to footbag as an active player, and I don't intend to sell products ever again, less the promised DVDs, so I stand to gain nothing by keeping it in its current state. This brings me to my next point.

I would love to continue making the occasional report/post, mainly when I have something newsworthy of my own to contribute, but I am tired of being the only one (big thanks to those who have! you are not overlooked). It's possible that I didn't make it clear enough before that I really want to open the door to everyone, so much that I prefer to look at it as a "community-owned and operated website"- if ever others take up the slack.

"What can I do," you ask? For starters, there should be at least a few regular contributors, such as a monthly interview, a weekly opinion, an ask the expert exchange (I'm astounded by the amount of bad info/advice on the forums), a vlog, etc... basically anything you'd find in a typical online magazine. Then just an Editor or two to manage incoming submissions, making sure articles are well-formatted, which is pretty simple once you learn the software. I realize the site may need to be re-organized to some degree, and I'm open to ideas (i.e. using embedded flash-video in content pages instead of download-links in the gallery).

The choice is yours. Let me know what you think.

Many thanks,
eli

smokefree · Post by **smokefree** » 21 Feb 2007 08:06

Personally I really liked flipsider. I loved the vid section, my only dissapointment was the for sale section, as there was only 1 type of footbag for sale. Its a site with a lot of potential but not enough people use it, I hope this changes for you.

beenjammin · Post by **beenjammin** » 21 Feb 2007 10:40

I Love flipseider it helped me out alot along my way im sure it coulde help lots of others people, plus I was hoping to make it to the massive tricks session one day

Zeb Jackson · Post by **Zeb Jackson** » 21 Feb 2007 10:53

i would gladly help with keeping flipsider up, i love flipsider

jay7 · Post by **jay7** » 21 Feb 2007 12:05

I'm all for keeping Flipsider up, hell, I'd even do a weekly blog, trouble is, I'm not good enough yet for others to learn from. I've loaded a few things here or there in my players account section, but I always think *and see by the number of views it gets* that no one ever goes to it. I uploaded that Matt Cross YTV segment, and I was really proud of myself that I finally got to give 'back' to one of the fundamental reasons/sites I started footbagging.

Another weird thing I'd like to mention is now that I check back, 2 or 3 of the things in my member area have been deleted mysteriously..?

I'd be willing to do anything to help, trouble is I don't think I can...

Jorden · Post by **Jorden** » 21 Feb 2007 12:07

I've been meaning to write a couple articles for the site. Coming soon...

Flipsider basically taught me how to play footbag. I don't think any other site can ever match what it has done for the sport.

Jorden

HG · Post by HG » 21 Feb 2007 13:39

Same here. I think it would be sweet to bring a forum back to flipsider! that was the best forum

Splint · Post by **Splint** » 21 Feb 2007 14:03

HG wrote:Same here. I think it would be sweet to bring a forum back to flipsider! that was the best forum

FLAME ON!!!

dyalander · Post by **dyalander** » 21 Feb 2007 15:19

There has been talk amongst some people here about creating a footbag mag, personally I really feel that energy would be better spent if invested into flipsider, why you would start from scratch on a completely new project that greatly overlaps with it is beyond me.
Personally I don't have the time to make any contribution at least until this time next year.

Spawn · Post by **Spawn** » 21 Feb 2007 15:20

I love flipsider; its was the first footbag website that ever went into my cookies. Now that you brought this to my attention I'll try and contribute more to the site.

blitz · Post by **blitz** » 21 Feb 2007 15:45

Thanks to every one of you who replied (and voted). I'm glad to know so many people value flipsider and its potential. More soon when I have time...

Pyroman924 · Post by **Pyroman924** » 21 Feb 2007 15:49

Hmm, you'd have to talk it over with Roscoe but maybe the Online Magazine could be hosted at Flipsider even? Not necessarily turn Flipsider into an Online Magazine, but rather an addition. Just like you have the Gallery, the players and such. I would absolutely love to contribute to this. Just a suggestion.

Jeremy · Post by **Jeremy** » 21 Feb 2007 16:48

It's definitely a great website, and I voted, with everybody else, that more people should contribute. I felt a little hypocritical making that vote, considering how little time I have at the moment, and how hard it is for me to contribute. I also remember filming some tutorial videos a while ago, and then having so many problems uploading them that I gave up - which I guess was also a symptom of having very little time.

To be honest Ellis, I gave up relying on the footbag community for anything, and I will be surprised if you're not back in the exact same position as you are in now in 6 months time. Sure you may get an influx of support for a brief period of time, but footbaggers are just kids and they're not really able to commit to anything long term. I really hope that me saying this will motivate people to prove me wrong, but history shows that it's very unlikely that will happen. I think you need to make the decision, if support for the website is as it was before you posted this message, would you keep spending money on it? I think it really comes down to how you'd feel about that, because can you really expect a sustained greater amount of support?

slapdash21 · Post by **slapdash21** » 21 Feb 2007 17:23

i learned how to footbag pretty much solely because of flipsider.

hakkpakk · Post by **hakkpakk** » 21 Feb 2007 18:16

Flipsider was the first website I learned tricks from, I would contribute to keep the site up. Have a little fundraiser and let people send in paypal money to keep it up

shreddaily · Post by **shreddaily** » 22 Feb 2007 08:16

ok EP I've been thinking how to make this replie as non abrasive as possible while at work all night and heres my best shot.

Fist off I am a fan of your skills as a producer and visual artist. I was highly looking forward to the release of the "new" flipsider, and I must say I was a bit disappointed that the new flipsider was now "yousider" so to speak. Don't get me wrong I understand you probably put in tons of work on the sight, but I knew that leaving most of the input up to the comunity was going to untimatly fail.

you say yourself "I'm astounded by the amount of bad info/advice on the forums" well what makes you think flipsider posts will be any different?

"Then just an Editor or two to manage incoming submissions," people can do that here too but after one or two times explaining why pickup doesn't get paradox you jut let it slide, yah know?

It would be great to see you continue to display your skills on flipsider but if you are truely "tired of being the only one " to make the sight dope, then maybe it is time to call it quites. I mean- say everyone did start "contributing", what would you expect besides a modified with some cool graphics? And how many times have you read "I hate modified now" in the last few months... ALOT! And we all know how well the moderation is recieved around here.

In conclusion, I am a footbagger whom browses the internet. I like checking out professional sights as well as informal ones. Flipsider will only regain its once prestigious pedistal if it remains a professional site, managed by professionals... YOU!

I still think keeping it, even if updated less than once a year, is worthy if only to show non shredders a professional site with some killer graphics and vids.

sidekick · Post by **sidekick** » 22 Feb 2007 08:19

The aboved mentoined fundraiser is a good idea IMO, you could auction off flipsider stuff or something. Most footbag players are poor, but that doesn't mean we can't help in some way.

I learned a bunch of footbag terms and phrases from flipsider, and felt my jaw drop in amazement from those massive tricks. It was the first real footbag site after footbag.org and it was my motivation for a long time to get onto that website's different sections. I also love the video trick reference, where it has the "basic" "advanced" "pro" and "super pro" tricks, that gave me a lot better way to see where I was at in my game.

morsecode · Post by **morsecode** » 22 Feb 2007 12:08

I am with Nate on this one. I think the members area can stay, so anybody can upload their own videos and leave responses and stuff, but that stuff should stay isolated to the members area. the vast majority of content should come from pros like yourself. Perhaps you could recruit a handful of pros (like you already somewhat have with Jorden) to write articles and put together tutorials or something on at least a monthly basis. I'm much more likely to visit to read stuff I know is coming from top players.

It would be cool, too, to be able to submit reports on major tournaments. Nothing fancy, just a few paragraphs and some photos, kinda like they do over at footbag.cz, and you look it over and post it if it meets your standards. But then again, I'm sure that the only reason we don't see things like this is that people don't submit them.

Oh and what's this about you "never returning as an active player?" You're a badass, and I'm sure you can still bust with the best.

dp · Post by dp » 22 Feb 2007 14:33

I also really loved the video reference with quicktime with the basic, advanced, etc. labels.

That was my favorite feature of flipsider.

james_dean · Post by **james_dean** » 23 Feb 2007 19:02

Yeah, you're right Dyalan. We should take the online magazine idea and transpose it over flipsider, sorry for not seeing the obvious el

I disagree Nate. If there were a number of main contributors and 1 or 2 people dedicated to screening/editing entries before posting, all the crap could be easily sorted out.

I'm in.

The Future of Flipsider.com - PLEASE READ!!!

Should I shut down flipsider?

The Future of Flipsider.com - PLEASE READ!!!