Hey everyone,

@trogus and I have been working on some cool devRant features that we're going to be launching very soon. In addition, as some might remember from a recent discussion, we're trying to bring in some more revenue (so we can at least break even) to avoid having to think about advertisements in the app. To do that, we're brainstorming possible useful add-on features maybe that we can offer to devRant++ members, or possibly offer for a different plan or as a complimentary product (under the devRant umbrella, but separate in terms of where it's accessed.)

If you have a few minutes, we'd appreciate some feedback by taking this survey @trogus put together: https://surveymonkey.com/r/DT9MKVN/

Also feel free to discuss here too if you want, and thanks everyone!

3. Which of these product ideas interests you the most?

All.

That being said I picked (1) as an answer. Because with my current career choice and business, knowing the right tool is more important the rest of other options.

How about a code review service, it might be a bit labor intensive. But I wouldnt mind paying some money to have my work checked once in a while.

But this might just be me since I mainly work alone and are selftaught so I probably picked up a lot of bad habbbits along the way.

Not sure how you would/could implement something like this. Just an idea that popped into my mind when I saw the suggestions and none of them really peaked my intrest.

But something like code review, or even product review might be usefull for us freelancers working alone. Feedback from a fellow dev could be really usefull.

Exactly

Hey, btw, aside from developing new features, can you improve the quality of collabs? It became a recruiting place in my opinion, accounts with 0 scores post there such as looking for a developer or help my project in github etc

Maybe limit users over 1000 points can post there

And please divide more categories

Good looking collavs get stuck down by new collabs (and mostly bad)

Also please add an option to filter by categories

Done. I think code review could be a good option.

Hum, is the surveyMonkey bugged for anyone else?

I've had to answer the first sets of questions for 4 times, and 2 in a row, and the questions that come after are random as fuck, and not what I selected (the Yelp idea)

Done.

OK, doing it in a private tab make things work.

Aaaaaaaand done.

Interesting survey.

I got mostly personal website / freelance questions. Makes me want to take it again.

As @Condor and @Floydian said, maybe make the questions more general? I answered "<1 years" to the question of how long I've been programming professionally. I've been programming for about 8 years but I'm a sysadmin in my daily life.

And I liked all those new ideas!

How about a "job hunt" section. Devrant users can opt in to be found there and enter there data, like in what location(s) (maybe country based(?)) They would like to work, skillset, experience, expected pay, type/duration (fulltime/parttimr/project based, etc.), Status (active looking, interested, currently not looking) other stuff.

Recruters could then enter what they are looking for (with the criterias mentioned above), the tool would then tell the recruiter, there are "xy"(amount of matches) devs fitting your criteria, and a amount (either fixed or based on the amount of matches) they have to pay to contact us.

For a contact, they could enter a small text, like 200-300 characters and hit send. Then the dev could decide to respond, or not. Recruters would never get any contact detail, but are only able to send an initial message through the system (then either have a built in messaging system, or just give their email to the dev.

I'd use location, skillset and pay as required fields. For the devs I'd also show them what has been the offered pay for similar queries (so young devs don't just get fucked over). To use the feature, I'd set a limit of 2'000 or 3'000 ++ to keep recruters or other non (active) devs of the platform.

(Actually be thinking about this for a few weeks and wanted to ask you guys if you ever plan on offering some oauth or something ;). IMO it would bring value to devs looking for a job or just projects, keep of recruiters from spamming while at the same time generates some revenue)

Done

Do we have a way to buy ++ thru paypal or crypto yet? If not, there is my suggestion.

Done

Done!

premium themes to buy 😉🤘

Done

I can appreciate the work that went into the survey site...

I will keep the main strength of the app/site: community and discussion.

Maybe some feature for events to be promoted that might be of interest for developers: a new section, or "pinned" discussions.

The events will need to pay, and it will be targeting the right audience straight away (avoiding annoying ads). They can even be tailored to the programming languages from your profile. Maybe even offer some discounts or early-bird access? Or stream live event links? I think there might be something there. I will personally find it very interesting.

dfox... Just place one Screen Ad somewhere In the App for now... You can place a button somewhere, where the user will only see the Add if he wants to...

Believe me, Lots of people would keep watching Ads just to help you guys and make this site greater, while you find better ways of revenue.

Also... Add a Private messaging service... Even if just for ++ , pleaseeee... I Would love to talk more privately with some of the guys (Condor, Linuxxx, Alice, BlaBla), ask questions, reply directly to them instead of posting stuff (like replies that only interest that person and clutters the Post)...

Maby Latter on a chat sistem?

Think About it... Social Platform for Developers, Plus Chat to keep people inApp more time, Plus messages so we can talk and work together more closely, and Specialy Favorites... To Favorite a Post we want to follow.

Carbon ads ftw

Yes but still, Would be better to have a Messaging system and even chat... The server won't be all that expensive (maby even can use the same as where she site is), With the right framework won't take long to build, and would keep people a lot more time in...

I'm thinking on IRCs, Yahoo, ICQ and others of old age, any kind of messaging service keeps users more time in, more users will want to upgrade to ++ for the services and Chat could even be a plugin, like a one time pay service on top of ++ for the more hardcode DevRanters.

So, what I mean, More users, More users that want ++, more revenue, more exposition, more users, more users that want ++ (...)

It's one possibility to bring users and revenue without Ads, while increasing DevRant services to interest and bring even more users.

Done!

Something that I wanted to ask.
Can’t you make an agreement with ups for example so sending items from the shop to europe would be cheaper?
That would help.

Done. Can't wait to see the new features.

@Wack No as @AlexDeLarge said there will be annoying recruiters on this platform. I understand the need for job hunt but we have other platforms for that as well. We want to be able to rant here not get annoyed. :)

@dfox As for generating more revenue there has to be a trade off, some set of users will always disagree with another set, as far as the world is going Adverts are the best bet and users do adjust to it. Even Facebook has now started with adverts on videos. The trick is to not overdo it.

My suggestion, you could include a reward system. Rather than pushing ads onto users let them opt in, and in return they can get double any upvotes until xx amount of time. (You should discuss more scenarios like this with your internal team)

AdSense already allows this kind of behaviour and a lot of mobile games already implement this reward system. You should check that out. The final decision has to be yours obviously. Anyways Best of luck for whatever is implemented. ^_^

Done^^

@MacDev and @AlexDeLarge I kind of feel, like my idea wasn't understood, as I intended. What I suggest is the option for users to opt in to this.
You'd be able to fill out your "job profile" and set it to "searching" or "interested" and only those should be in the job pool.

Recruiters would only be able to see how many people they contact based on their filters. They would also have to specify for example tech stack and pay.

They wouldn't be able to write you a personal message but only a short description.

It then is up to the dev to either ignore it or reply. Up to this point the recruiters wouldn't get any informations about the devs. Devs can always dissable it again and/or block annoying recruiters (that could incorperate an automaticall ban system).

The recruiters pay for the initial request they send, which should limit spam even further.

Maybee I'm to blind to see what you guys fear, but IMO it could be a cool feature and help especially freelance devs find work while not being fucked over.

@Condor Same...

Especially because I'm a lot better now and I'm starting doing projects :p

Don't go to Facebook or any messaging currently... This is the only place ... and Only because I get lots of help from here and get to show my progress, and talk with smart people, and not dumb people... (Like 90% of my friends and people I know... like... not trying to say I'm better, just can't have a decent conversation, My friend only talk about football and cars and sex when I'm present) :p May not look that important you people helped me at the right time, And this was the only place I could trust to talk in my worst days...

Btw: I like turtles!

But I know @dfox and @Trogus enough... They are probably thinking about stuff like that :p Especially If it can increase revenue, which they need...

Thank you so much for the feedback everyone! We got a lot of great responses and will start going through all of them soon! We really appreciate the help with this.

@dfox Put all These ideas in paper, in a Diagram (leave space to write on), easier when you and @Trogus meet :p You can even grade them as [1..5] for Interest, Difficulty/time, Resources needed ($$$), revenue possibility, Bringing new users possibility or something like that :p That's how I'm trying to sort my life out.. Priorities ya know

Done

@dfox

What I would like to see is a platform where Developers are up/down voted by clients and community members to gain Karma like reddit.

Votes based on their skill (dev and social), discipline (delivering on time), and quality of deliverable (test coverage, code review feedback etc.)

Possibly include testimonials and up/downvote testimonials themselves. Also apply this system to the clients as well - so they get rated by the community. Their votes lose weight/gravity depending on their community standing.

This is a good way to build a community, learn and improve, also have a goal to improve and get acknowledgement by real developers, and push the limits of our skill.

Something like this would just be an extension of devRant ^^

@dfox

Can I request one more feature?

At least for ++ (but would be good for everyone), to edit the original post (make keeping even a link to the first original)...

For ex: I ask a lot of questions when I can't find my answer online, would be nice If I could edit the post and Add the best answer or tips to the original post, so that when others open it with the same question they already see the answer without having to see all the replies ...

@GyroGearloose how about a feature that only works in the category questions, like an "accepted answer". You're able to accept one reply as answer, which is then "linked" at the bottom of the question like "see accepted answer" which in turn then scolls to that answer. This way, we wouldn't loose the whole discussion (if there's one)

Done. Hope my answers help out somehow.

@Wack Yep, love you'rs better...

Even if the answers all all over the place we can just create a post with all the stuff and pin it. easier and simple

Btw. While you're at it. I'd really love an oauth api for dev rant... ;)

@dfox I want to put some ideas to generate revenue stream.

1) Paid avatar blocks:
Like the name suggests, there can be some blocks of avatar, say a badass monitor setup (this is one exam
ple. Many others might be possible to come up with) that costs say $1 to "unlock" it. Maybe you can have one more in-app purchase that can unlock all of the paid ones.

Done

This should've been an option

@dfox I thought this was to get better ideas for devrant but the questions were far too remote from that, you're planning on making another platform that is part of devrant or just another platform that finances other projects like devrant?

@lunorian I support the donation button, but also add 2€ (@dfox and @trogus will get more in bulk with a 2€ button since what most people would give), and can even use the Google API, so people that can pay with the cellphone account can do it.

I wanted to buy a sweeter to help but did such an investment lately and after that I was fired, while on sick live, that I don't have the 50$ yet. But since the help I've got from this site is already worth above that I'll buy it maby next month :D

If I had a donation button I would already clicked it a few times when I have an overflow of money (was saving for a new car, so 2€ or 5€ wasn't much)