Let me first off state that I am obsessed with my website Skyefairy.net. If I have spare time, I am most likely using it towards improving, growing, and expanding the site. It may seem weird but I am always trying to find ways to make it better. Ask any of my IM buddies. At least once a month they hear “what can I do to make SF better” or “what don’t you like about the site.”

For a few months now my mind has been leading up to adding some sort of interactivity into it. I first started thinking of it around the time that Amanda interviewed me for Obsidian Rhapsody but she doesn’t have them up anymore so I’m not quite sure when that was. *checks her gmail* October 2006.

Where, in web terms, do you envision yourself in ten years time?
I have no clue, to be honest. Currently I’m working on revamping my site, bringing the coding up to date and changing the style. I’m in the process of adding tutorials to the site because, along with creative arts, I want to have a “web design” section though not in the typical “web design site” interpretation. I want to learn PHP and MySQL. So, possibly after I learn those I will add a feature where I can set keywords to submissions so that visitors can search. Perhaps add accounts so that people can login and gain access to added features: submit through there, commenting on pieces, discussion on tutorials for helping new designers learn, etc. When it comes to the site, I am a control freak so even if people could submit through the site, it would have to be approved. Though I hope for the site to grow and become more interactive, I don’t want it to become like DeviantART. I like being a part of it and I never see myself stopping and not continuing to improve upon it and keep it growing.

I want web design to become my career, so I also plan on starting a site for that, though I believe that SF will always be my main focus. So, I guess all I can say for now is that I do plan on still being in the web designing world in 10 years, continuing to learn and grow.

As I said there, I want to expand and make it more interactive. I want to make it where visitors can sign up for accounts (must be approved first; I’m an anti-spam paranoid freak) and then be able to comment on submissions. I want each tutorial to be able to have a mini-forum so that people learning can get specialized help. Also, so that each tutorial will also be able to have other visitors (with accounts) that can help explain it furthur if the author of the tutorial wasn’t detailed enough.

There would be four levels of accounts:

  1. Me. Owner / Person who controls everything. Recieves anything sent to moderation, pending accounts, adds submissions, etc.
  2. Language Staff. They would control their own submissions and any questions that come in in their language. If it works out and we expand, they could/would moderate the comments on pieces in their language as well as accounts in that language, etc.
  3. Artists. They would be able to submit work, respond to comments on their pieces, edit their profiles, edit their works, etc. Again, though, everything would have to be moderated before being added and, if edited, would have to be approved.
  4. Members. They could comment and interact in forum discussions.

Everything (submissions, comments, forum) would be visible to the public so people wouldn’t need an account to view things but anything interactive would require an account. Update comments would remain open to the public as well.

As a side not, I DO NOT want to make it into a mini-DeviantArt. I want it to stay personalized and to remain a large part of it. Some people have told me before that SF is like a personal version of DA, which is how I want it to stay. Personal.

This would be a huge project for me so, before I start, I want to get people’s opinions on if they think it would work and be successful. If you have any comments, suggestions, thoughts, changes, expansions, whatever, PLEASE comment. I’m gonna need feedback.

And, people on my buddy list, beware. XP