StoryDevs — a site for finding VN devs

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Re: StoryDevs — a site for finding VN devs

#31 Post by Alte »

Under Accepted Compensation if the compensation is monetary will it include the currency next to the term? For example: Commission (EUR)
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Re: StoryDevs — a site for finding VN devs

#32 Post by SundownKid »

In my opinion, literary fiction is 100% an insult hurled at writers who don't happen to make literary fiction. It is essentially the same as slapping a "contains essential nutrients" label on food to get people to eat it. Whereas people might otherwise pass over the bland tasting cereal to get to the sweet ones, it's a way of convincing people that the former type of cereal should actually be eaten because it's "good for you". It doesnt actually make sense in reality though, because literary fiction has no magical quality that makes it superior for your brain than genre fiction simply because it's harder to parse. I grew up reading genre fiction and I passed my English classes with flying colors, with an understanding of philosophy, mind you.

If there is a fiction experience choice it should probably be separated into 'creative/technical' and under creative, have a choice of genres, with one of them being Experimental, a catch-all that includes things that may not fit into any genre at all.

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Re: StoryDevs — a site for finding VN devs

#33 Post by Tempus »

Alte wrote:Under Accepted Compensation if the compensation is monetary will it include the currency next to the term? For example: Commission (EUR)
I hadn't thought of that but it's a good idea. I'd like to avoid specifying prices in the search mostly because that would be pretty useless... like it wouldn't even be clear what the price is referring to. But accepted currencies could be neat. I took a quick look at lists of circulating currencies on Google but I can't see a way to easily create a list from them. Presumably some thing like this is desirable:
  • AUD - Australian Dollar
    NZD - New Zealand Dollar
    USD - US Dollar
And so on. Thing is I don't know enough about currency to—

Okay never mind I just did it anyway. You can see it live on the beta site: https://beta.storydevs.com/talent There's 156 currency options, though some of those pound options seem like they might be duplicates from my brief reading? Would be helpful if someone from the UK can provide some guidance there.
SundownKid wrote:In my opinion, literary fiction is 100% an insult hurled at writers who don't happen to make literary fiction. It is essentially the same as slapping a "contains essential nutrients" label on food to get people to eat it. Whereas people might otherwise pass over the bland tasting cereal to get to the sweet ones, it's a way of convincing people that the former type of cereal should actually be eaten because it's "good for you". It doesnt actually make sense in reality though, because literary fiction has no magical quality that makes it superior for your brain than genre fiction simply because it's harder to parse. I grew up reading genre fiction and I passed my English classes with flying colors, with an understanding of philosophy, mind you.
I mean, I think it can be (and has been) used that way but I don't think people always use it with bad intentions. I'd assume it came about when people tried to decide what was worth studying. Then over time it becomes this weird category which somehow excludes genre... even though many works that are considered literary are also genre works. I wrote a blog post about this here for anyone interested. (The conclusion is basically "'literary' will not be an option".)
SundownKid wrote:If there is a fiction experience choice it should probably be separated into 'creative/technical' and under creative, have a choice of genres, with one of them being Experimental, a catch-all that includes things that may not fit into any genre at all.
FWIW the options I went with can be seen on the beta site (the first link above) if you select 'writing' or 'editing'. The options aren't set in stone but I'll probably stick with them till registrations open. I left 'genre' there because I thought it was useful to distinguish it from technical and experimental writing but maybe 'creative' would be better. It'd side-step the genre/literature debate which would be nice.
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Re: StoryDevs — a site for finding VN devs

#34 Post by Alte »

Tempus wrote:
Alte wrote:Under Accepted Compensation if the compensation is monetary will it include the currency next to the term? For example: Commission (EUR)
I hadn't thought of that but it's a good idea. I'd like to avoid specifying prices in the search mostly because that would be pretty useless... like it wouldn't even be clear what the price is referring to. But accepted currencies could be neat. I took a quick look at lists of circulating currencies on Google but I can't see a way to easily create a list from them. Presumably some thing like this is desirable:
  • AUD - Australian Dollar
    NZD - New Zealand Dollar
    USD - US Dollar
And so on. Thing is I don't know enough about currency to—

Okay never mind I just did it anyway. You can see it live on the beta site: https://beta.storydevs.com/talent There's 156 currency options, though some of those pound options seem like they might be duplicates from my brief reading? Would be helpful if someone from the UK can provide some guidance there.
Ah, I should've clarified further with the example from Paypal accepted use of currency. Multi-currency support for PayPal payments
AUD, BRL, CAD, CZK, DKK, EUR, HKD, HUF, ILS, JPY, MYR, MXN, NOK, NZD, PHP, PLN, GBP, RUB, SGD, SEK, CHF, TWD, THB, TRY, USD

And will it be seen on the profile page? That could be a matter of preference. The currencies format you presented looks great!
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Re: StoryDevs — a site for finding VN devs

#35 Post by truefaiterman »

This looks really interesting, and if well developed it can make a LOT of stuff easier for both creators and clients. Thanks for your hard work, you're awesome!

I've reserved a name already, and I'm sure I'll make a good use of it, but I do have some questions and suggestions:

-I've read that you want to cover Voice Actors, too. Is there a chance voice actors can also be categorised in different skills and languages?
For example, I'm a voice actor that can make both "Voice Acting", "Dubbing" and "Commercials and Narration", but I can only do that in Spanish.
There's also Mr. Smith, who is awesome at "Voice Acting" and "Commercials and Narration", but can't "Dubbing" and he only knows English.
Then we have some Yuri Lowenthal guy who can do pretty much ANYTHING in five or six languages because F*** EVERYTHING.

-Will there be a section for translators? If it's the case, will they be able to show audiovisual content, or only text?

-I love the currency selection so far, but I'd also suggest, if possible, to add different methods of payment.
Paypal, bank transfer, other services... I remember seeing people here discussing alternatives to Paypal (due to it not being implemented in certain countries, and such).

EDIT: Oops! I forgot another suggestion I had >.<

-In the "adult content" section, there may be useful to add other tags regarding more social and/or political themes.
I do know about some artists who, for example, are fine with erotica, but they won't work for projects that discuss religious themes in any critical way.
I also know about voice actors who wouldn't work for any projects focused on political commentary.

Of course, these ideas come from my experiences only, so they may be just exceptions and not rules :P
Last edited by truefaiterman on Thu Jun 09, 2016 6:41 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: StoryDevs — a site for finding VN devs

#36 Post by Miss Skizzors »

Despite the skepticism of some of the other members, I'm very excited to see StoryDevs in bloom. I've reserved my handle and look forward to the site's grand opening. I'm sure it's something I'll be making good use of.

Thank you very much for doing what you can to expand our reach as creators.

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Re: StoryDevs — a site for finding VN devs

#37 Post by Alte »

How about time zones in profiles? In addition to a small banner generator coordinated profile if possible. Where creators could embed image button for their circle to see.

Text Sample:
StoryDevs | Status, Indicator
Username/ Handle, Skills | Compensation

The availability status would be like a light switch. When changed so does the banner.
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Re: StoryDevs — a site for finding VN devs

#38 Post by Suika »

I am very excited for this as well. It's an excellent idea in my opinion, and the site looks and feels very nice.

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Re: StoryDevs — a site for finding VN devs

#39 Post by Tempus »

Alte wrote:Ah, I should've clarified further with the example from Paypal accepted use of currency. Multi-currency support for PayPal payments [ . . . ] And will it be seen on the profile page? That could be a matter of preference. The currencies format you presented looks great!
No problem! And yes, a lot of the search options will have corresponding sections on the profiles. This way if you encounter a profile from an origin other than the search (e.g., you visit a profile from the home page or you're directly linked to a profile by someone) you still have all the info the search would give you.

Additionally, most sections will allow for a short comment by the profile-holder. In the case of compensation it might be something like "Half of the total cost of the commission must be paid upfront; the rest is to be paid upon delivery." I did consider adding different conditions to compensation types like commission such as "half up front, half on delivery" but honestly the half-half condition is the only sane way to do commission work when you don't know someone. Facilitating other types of searches like "everything upfront" would be asking for abuse IMO.
truefaiterman wrote:This looks really interesting, and if well developed it can make a LOT of stuff easier for both creators and clients. Thanks for your hard work, you're awesome! I've reserved a name already, and I'm sure I'll make a good use of it
Thanks! StoryDevs is a bit of a selfish project too in that I've always wanted something like this for myself, haha.
truefaiterman wrote:-I've read that you want to cover Voice Actors, too. Is there a chance voice actors can also be categorised in different skills and languages?
For example, I'm a voice actor that can make both "Voice Acting", "Dubbing" and "Commercials and Narration", but I can only do that in Spanish.
There's also Mr. Smith, who is awesome at "Voice Acting" and "Commercials and Narration", but can't "Dubbing" and he only knows English.
Then we have some Yuri Lowenthal guy who can do pretty much ANYTHING in five or six languages because F*** EVERYTHING.
I'll be talking to some voice actors and directors soonish to get their opinions and advice but the examples you've given sound sensible to me so far. My first thought with language is that we could just re-use the 'spoken language' search option but it occurs to me that it's possible some people can communicate in certain languages without necessarily being good at acting in them. That is, person A can speak French, Japanese, and English but can only act well in French. I don't know if that's a thing though.
truefaiterman wrote:-Will there be a section for translators? If it's the case, will they be able to show audiovisual content, or only text?
Yep. Translation and voice acting are actually the next two skills I plan to add, so it looks like I chose well! As with VA I'll be talking to translation folk to make sure the options are sensible.
truefaiterman wrote:-I love the currency selection so far, but I'd also suggest, if possible, to add different methods of payment.
Paypal, bank transfer, other services... I remember seeing people here discussing alternatives to Paypal (due to it not being implemented in certain countries, and such).
I've added this based on your suggestion. You can see it on the beta site here: https://beta.storydevs.com/talent
It's not very fleshed out because those are the only two options I ever use :D I don't know whether "bank deposit" is too general or not. Maybe people have suggestions?
truefaiterman wrote:-In the "adult content" section, there may be useful to add other tags regarding more social and/or political themes.
I do know about some artists who, for example, are fine with erotica, but they won't work for projects that discuss religious themes in any critical way.
I also know about voice actors who wouldn't work for any projects focused on political commentary.
Ah yes I've heard of people quitting projects over religious or political disputes... hm. Maybe "adult content" should be renamed to something like "specific content" and include "religious themes" and "political themes". That last one sort of rubs me the wrong way since I consider all art to be political..........! unfortunately most of the world doesn't seem to agree with that so maybe it would be fine as a practical choice. Maybe "controversial politics" would be better. Either way I've added that to the beta site too (same link as earlier in the post.)
Miss Skizzors wrote:Despite the skepticism of some of the other members, I'm very excited to see StoryDevs in bloom. I've reserved my handle and look forward to the site's grand opening. I'm sure it's something I'll be making good use of. Thank you very much for doing what you can to expand our reach as creators.
I already said this on IRC but hey, thanks again!
Alte wrote:How about time zones in profiles?
Yeah, actually timezones is something I might as well add to both profiles and search. I might just put it on a to-do list for now. I need to stop adding stuff to search so that the profile model can catch up. But it's a good idea.
Alte wrote:In addition to a small banner generator coordinated profile if possible. Where creators could embed image button for their circle to see. [ . . . ] The availability status would be like a light switch. When changed so does the banner.
It took me a while to understand — do you mean a banner you can embed on other sites? If so, I think that sounds like a cool idea. I'll put that on the list to-do list as well.
Suika wrote:I am very excited for this as well. It's an excellent idea in my opinion, and the site looks and feels very nice.
Thanks, I'm glad you like it so far :D
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Re: StoryDevs — a site for finding VN devs

#40 Post by Zetsubou »

Tempus wrote: I've added this based on your suggestion. You can see it on the beta site here: https://beta.storydevs.com/talent
It's not very fleshed out because those are the only two options I ever use :D I don't know whether "bank deposit" is too general or not. Maybe people have suggestions?
Bitcoin
Google Wallet
Amazon WebPay
WePay
and probably dozens of others.

It might be best to just list a few trusted methods from reputable companies and leave an "Other" payment text entry field for people to add their own lesser-known web services.
Bank deposit and Paypal probably cover 99% of the commissions likely to be conducted anyway.
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Re: StoryDevs — a site for finding VN devs

#41 Post by truefaiterman »

Tempus wrote: I'll be talking to some voice actors and directors soonish to get their opinions and advice but the examples you've given sound sensible to me so far. My first thought with language is that we could just re-use the 'spoken language' search option but it occurs to me that it's possible some people can communicate in certain languages without necessarily being good at acting in them. That is, person A can speak French, Japanese, and English but can only act well in French. I don't know if that's a thing though.
For example, I'm a voice actor that can make both "Voice Acting", "Dubbing" and "Commercials and Narration", but I can only do that in Spanish.
This is pretty much my real case xD Even though I can do "Voice Acting" in English, I can mostly act in Spanish, while at the same time I'm writing this in English :P So at least you have me as an example.

Keep up the good work!
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Re: StoryDevs — a site for finding VN devs

#42 Post by Tempus »

Zetsubou wrote:It might be best to just list a few trusted methods from reputable companies and leave an "Other" payment text entry field for people to add their own lesser-known web services.
Bank deposit and Paypal probably cover 99% of the commissions likely to be conducted anyway.
Thanks for the suggestions! And yeah I'd prefer to keep it to a few.
truefaiterman wrote:
For example, I'm a voice actor that can make both "Voice Acting", "Dubbing" and "Commercials and Narration", but I can only do that in Spanish.
This is pretty much my real case xD Even though I can do "Voice Acting" in English, I can mostly act in Spanish, while at the same time I'm writing this in English :P So at least you have me as an example. Keep up the good work!
Oh wow that's embarrassing I missed that! I shouldn't reply when I'm worn out haha.
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Re: StoryDevs — a site for finding VN devs

#43 Post by Alte »

Tempus wrote:Additionally, most sections will allow for a short comment by the profile-holder. In the case of compensation it might be something like "Half of the total cost of the commission must be paid upfront; the rest is to be paid upon delivery." I did consider adding different conditions to compensation types like commission such as "half up front, half on delivery" but honestly the half-half condition is the only sane way to do commission work when you don't know someone. Facilitating other types of searches like "everything upfront" would be asking for abuse IMO.
"Everything upfront" whether it's on the client or creator, complications could occur. Even if the creator whose services is under a company, it's time-consuming for the support staff to sort things out. Although Support are prepare to handle the situation either way. I don't think it's a good idea to include comment based searches if that's what they're after for.

Will there be an option for "pay what you want?"

Also there's an obscure method by overseas creator that may prevent spam-bot from spamming. Like replacing the "@" symbol from an email with an Unicode character. Then a note: rewrite the according Unicode character to "@"
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Re: StoryDevs — a site for finding VN devs

#44 Post by Tempus »

Alte wrote:Will there be an option for "pay what you want?"
Probably not. It's a model more suited to selling things that have already been made rather than ongoing labour in my opinion. I don't think it benefits either party to have an ambiguous amount of monetary compensation involved. And if it's unambiguous and agreed upon... well that's just a commission.

I think in practice most pay-what-you-want arrangements would end up tying money to performance and create tensions between creators and their clients. But I dunno. Maybe I'm wrong about that.
Alte wrote:Also there's an obscure method by overseas creator that may prevent spam-bot from spamming. Like replacing the "@" symbol from an email with an Unicode character. Then a note: rewrite the according Unicode character to "@"
Yeah, obfuscating email addresses is important and on my radar.
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Re: StoryDevs — a site for finding VN devs

#45 Post by Alte »

Could there be an option of Narrative point of view for writing?
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