ID:101849
 
Keywords: byond, community
Can someone seriously explain to me what exactly the point of PopLava is? I've looked on the development blog, I've looked on Tsfreaks website, and quite frankly all I see is someone trying to make money off of BYOND's resource section.

Why exactly should he cash out on the resources that BYOND members create when he has nothing to do with them? How I see this, is he's standing beside the guy collecting money for charity holding a pretty sign in one hand, and sticking his hand in the bowl of donations with the other.

Now before someone like Gamemakingdude or Mr.DJ7 comes along and says that I'm just being negative and projecting onto other peoples creations because I can, I'll respond to that preemptively. I only say negative things about projects that are completely pointless to begin with. Stop trying to reinvent the wheel for profit.
Mikau wrote:
Why exactly should he cash out on the resources that BYOND members create when he has nothing to do with them?

Correct me if I am wrong, but I believe Tsfreaks is actually writing the libraries that are shown in the PopLava resource list. But from what I have seen, every library he offers can be freely downloaded from the BYOND resource section, as you have said.

I honestly, cannot see his project going far, will someone actually pay $1 for a Hello World example when you could search for an example on the forums?
I'm not sure if this is the motivation behind it but the libraries & demos section of the website is a complete mess. Currently there are 2311 entries but I'd bet that the majority of them either have broken download links, are complete garbage, or are just outdated.

The need for a single, well-organized place containing quality resources is there, but I too have my doubts about PopLava being the answer.
PopLava is a resource center that developers can make money off of by submitting their art work, projects (even unfinished ones), and libraries (there is a demo for the library to see how it works). By submitting them here, you can get gold, and you can trade in this gold once you have reached five thousand. One thousand gold equals one dollar. So, developers, or pixel artists can make money off of PopLava. Tsfreaks job is to make sure that everything submitted to the site is original content.
If quality is in question, then the answer is to fix what we have, not layer more on top. It makes no sense why he would try to create a new external solution for a problem that isn't really a problem so much as a nuisance. What's he's doing is just like me going "Oh, this pasta sauce is too spicy, maybe I can even it out with more spices."
Mikau wrote:
If quality is in question, then the answer is to fix what we have, not layer more on top. It makes no sense why he would try to create a new external solution for a problem that isn't really a problem so much as a nuisance. What's he's doing is just like me going "Oh, this pasta sauce is too spicy, maybe I can even it out with more spices."

Well, it's probably a good idea to him. He made a bit of money off it already.

Chasebot wrote:
PopLava is a resource center that developers can make money off of by submitting their art work, projects (even unfinished ones), and libraries (there is a demo for the library to see how it works). By submitting them here, you can get gold, and you can trade in this gold once you have reached five thousand. One thousand gold equals one dollar. So, developers, or pixel artists can make money off of PopLava. Tsfreaks job is to make sure that everything submitted to the site is original content.

Coming from a guy that could use this theory to make money off of PopLava from his demos, I can tell you that what he is doing is nothing but trying to take what BYOND already has and make money off of it. If that is quoted text from Tsfreaks himself and he plans to uphold that standard, his library is going to be empty because there is not too much in life that is original anymore. Anything we do here is nothing more than a new spin on an age old idea.
Chasebot wrote:
Well, it's probably a good idea to him. He made a bit of money off it already.

I hope he chokes on his own greed.
Mikau wrote:
Chasebot wrote:
PopLava is a resource center that developers can make money off of by submitting their art work, projects (even unfinished ones), and libraries (there is a demo for the library to see how it works). By submitting them here, you can get gold, and you can trade in this gold once you have reached five thousand. One thousand gold equals one dollar. So, developers, or pixel artists can make money off of PopLava. Tsfreaks job is to make sure that everything submitted to the site is original content.

Coming from a guy that could use this theory to make money off of PopLava from his demos, I can tell you that what he is doing is nothing but trying to take what BYOND already has and make money off of it. If that is quoted text from Tsfreaks himself and he plans to uphold that standard, his library is going to be empty because there is not too much in life that is original anymore. Anything we do here is nothing more than a new spin on an age old idea.

You're really over thinking it. If you think it's not a useful idea, then jsut don't use the program. It's pretty simple solution.
Chasebot wrote:
You're really over thinking it. If you think it's not a useful idea, then jsut don't use the program. It's pretty simple solution.

See, now if everyone thought like you did, nothing would ever get done, and nobody would ever make money. If you don't think pirating music is bad, then just don't do it. It's a pretty simple solution. Except now musicians everywhere aren't making any money because they're not selling anything.

If nobody ever opposed a problem because it doesn't directly effect them, or they could just look the other way, nothing would ever get done.
Mikau wrote:
Chasebot wrote:
You're really over thinking it. If you think it's not a useful idea, then jsut don't use the program. It's pretty simple solution.

See, now if everyone thought like you did, nothing would ever get done, and nobody would ever make money. If you don't think pirating music is bad, then just don't do it. It's a pretty simple solution. Except now musicians everywhere aren't making any money because they're not selling anything.

If nobody ever opposed a problem because it doesn't directly effect them, or they could just look the other way, nothing would ever get done.

I am just a kid, and I'm talking about BYOND affairs, not stuff that can get you sent to jail, or force you to pay a fine.

Chasebot wrote:
I am just a kid, and I'm talking about BYOND affairs, not stuff that can get you sent to jail, or force you to pay a fine.

So because you're a kid you have an excuse for your ignorance? I'll use your exact thought process right back towards you, you're just a kid, mind your business and go play some games.

Now onto the real message, If you think that just because it's BYOND that there is no big picture, you're quite mistaken, kid. BYOND is a company, a business. If I were to defraud the company for a hundred thousand dollars, it would be a BYOND affair, and it would get me sent to jail.
From what Chasebot says, it sounds like the BYONDdimes being re-invented.

Also, being a kid has nothing to do with anything except financial transactions. I started getting into programming when I was 11, still considered a kid mind you.

The only benefit I see of this PopLava is a more dedicated group of individuals focusing on one main thing : libraries/demos/resources. BYOND staff on the other hand have to focus on the whole cake. PopLava focuses on the slices of cake.

It sounds rather interesting, but the whole $5.00 gift for PayPal that was previously mentioned in a blog post, is a bit ridiculous.

I'll have to check out PopLava more to get a better understanding of it and the processes.
It is a Resource center where anyone who has made anything can put their work up for a price they believe its worth,
Even if it is too high and people who have money can then buy coins which they can use to buy the assets people have submitted.

If people think things to highly priced then they have a vote option which will eventually cause action to be taken upon items which are flagged as a problem for price etc and re adjusted more suitably.

It would seem a good way for devlopers who want money and have no means of getting any, by submitting something for no cost and to wait and hope they eventually accumilate some coins which they can then convert into real money.

and vice versa it would be a good way for people who cannot program or do art work and/or to lazy to do it a way of finding something they needed as a resource, and buy it since hopefully those who sell would try to sell things people cant get a hold of easily, to help them earn money.

Of course Poplava earns a profit as well but it is not to any extremity , well that pretty much covers what it is, its up to you if you like it or not :D lol.
Lol...
BUILD YOUR OWN NET DREAM

or get the fuck outa here.
lol :D
If the project does in fact add no real value to BYOND, it will quietly fail in its own right. So be it.

On the flip side, I think you will find quite the opposite and so... here we are.

Allow me to respond to a few points...

questioning the "duped" assets found in the Resource Center.

- My asset submissions are of my own creation. The 25 or so I've thrown together were done to give people an idea of what could be submitted. I also design them in a very clean and simplistic way which is different then what you will find elsewhere. There is absolutely nothing wrong with providing alternatives and variations on examples (see BYOND Resources as it is today). I encourage people to go download demos and libraries from the resource section but if they can't find what they need for free, come check out the Resource Center and see if we have what you need. If not, please submit a request for what you need and our motivated contributors might surprise you.

Why exactly should he cash out on the resources that BYOND members create when he has nothing to do with them?

- Contributors earn 90% for each unlocked asset while 10% goes to PopLava. This seems extremely reasonable given the amount of work that went into creating the Resource Center. I constantly add features, fix bugs, provide status updates, support all users and contributors, review submissions for quality, provide feedback, and so on. Not to mention my out of pocket expenses for internet, file hosting, electricity, and hardware. Honestly, your comments don't really seem fair or reasonable. PopLava has everything to do with contributors having a safe and secure way to perform transactions with other BYOND users. That's due to a lot of hard work vs standing around doing nothing as you suggest. If I want to earn any real money, I will have to contribute assets like everyone else and I very well intend to.

Stop trying to reinvent the wheel for profit.

Say that to a company that makes wheels... or how about if we all were forced to use the first wheel invented because anything else would be completely pointless!?!

Another interesting point for you to consider. Contributors can optionally specify BYOND as a benefactor when submitting an asset.

The Resource Center is specifically designed to raise the level of excitement and participation in BYOND.

I love to tinker and BYOND provides me with an outlet. The people around me think I'm nuts for my investments in BYOND. I don't know what drives me. I just want to see something succeed out of BYOND and I think the Resource Center is a stepping stone toward that dream.

I can't expect everyone to love the idea but I think most people do enjoy the possibilities.

Do you know what I would like to learn about. There were a few sites a while back that did something similar to the Resource Center. Does anyone have the story on those people and sites?

ts
Lol.
Tsfreaks wrote:
That's due to a lot of hard work vs standing around doing nothing as you suggest.

That isn't what I suggested at all, in fact it's the exact opposite of what I said. My exact words were "See, now if everyone thought like you did, nothing would ever get done" when addressing someone else suggesting to look the other way.

Tsfreaks wrote:
There is absolutely nothing wrong with providing alternatives and variations on examples (see BYOND Resources as it is today).

What you're doing isn't just providing an alternative variation of what we have, what you're doing is trying to monopolize the system to make money off of it. Sure, I'll agree with you that the resources we have aren't in the best shape, however the solution isn't to build another system beside that one. The solution to the problem is to work with what we have and make it better. Do you honestly thing people looking for resources are going to go "Well, since I'm on BYOND, I'll just use PopLava." No, what they're going to do is they are going to look and use what resources we have there because that is what BYOND is providing. Unless of course you plan on trying to get Tom to add "PopLava Resources" to the drop down menu, which I can't see happening.

You want to really know the biggest problem with those money symbols in your eyes? It's your target audience. The bulk of BYOND's community consists of teenagers that can't even convince their parents for the most part to purchase them a membership. Do you think that they're going to convince them to purchase some silver on your website?

There's only 2 choices for dealing with the resource problem as of now. The first involves someone going through the hub entries on an administrator level and clearing out all of the broken and badly designed resources that we have. Which will inevitably lead to the same problem in the long run, and the second being that we come up with a better to manage the resources, and PopLava is not the better way. PopLava is an idea to take what developers work on here and to turn it into a transaction of some kind.

You want my solution? The solution that would work? It's called BWICKI 2.0

We had BWICKI before and nobody used it, why? Simple. Because it was a nuisance to navigate. There is a ton of open source wiki software out there right now that could easily allow developers to add and edit resources. Real developers that know what they're doing(Tiberath/Garthor/Popisfizzy to name a few).

I've been around BYOND for a very long time. I've seen it go through many stages. I've seen the highs and lows of the community and the ups and downs the software has had. When I look back at BYOND, I see a great tool for learning. I see a great tool for giving kids a means to put their imagination to work and to build something on their own. I've seen an 11 year old first hand hit compile and watch their little man run around the screen, the joy in their eyes when they realized that they accomplished something.

What I don't see is someone coming along and limiting the resources for kids by trying to make a quick buck.
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