This is hopefully the first of many posts in this, the Coffeesh0p.org Development Blog! I'll aim to post updates approximately once a week or so, talking about progress with this mammoth project, outline the people that've helped the most, talk about what needs doing and where everyone else can help.
So... What IS the Coffeesh0p.org project? Well, where to begin... We aim to deliver up to the minute, quality information about a massive range of drugs to the general public. "But aren't there millions of other sites that already do that?", I hear you ask. Well, yes and no - For example Erowid.org: Old, ugly, and out of date. Hard to find what you're looking for? Damn right. Another example: TalkToFrank - Rubbish! Full of propaganda and doesn't really know what it's talking about.
What makes Coffeesh0p.org different then? We're designing it from the ground up with the end user in mind. We started out asking a number of people what they like least about any other drug information sites they use, and what features they enjoyed using. We learned that the end user wants to find the information they're looking for quickly, and for that information to be clear and concise. This includes things like class/schedule, dosage and price. Other ancillary information, such as pharmacology, history or synthesis/extraction are not as important. Based on this research, we designed our pages with the relevant information at the top and anything else of interest lower down.
But these days, relevant information is simply not enough, so we've got loads of other cool features still up our sleeves. And I do mean loads. And I do mean cool!
Stay tuned each week for an in-depth report on how it's all going!
I've spent all my time recently developing this blog and ironing out any flaws, that I've completely forgotten what it was I was supposed to be developing in the first place. I know I originally coded this blog so I could talk to people about our ideas and progress so far, but progress towards what, exactly, has escaped me.
In a desperate bid to remember what the hell I'm up to, I did what any webmaster would do - Check the forums! (And no, these aren't the Drugs Discussion Forums, these are the Coffeesh0p.org Secret Forums!) I happened across a few interesting bits of information which I thought I'd share with everyone today.
Idea #1: Autocomplete Searching - When we were looking at all the other drugs information sites out there, we (and everyone else we asked) found that actually finding the information about a particular substance was a bit of a pain in the arse. TalkToFrank is a visual nightmare, not to mention takes a while to load on a slow connection, since it's flash. Erowid's front page looks quite nice and dynamic, but again, navigating from that page and sourcing out the drug you're after requires too much effort. And it's exactly the same for Lycaeum. So what's going to be different about Coffeesh0p.org? An Autocomplete search feature, that automatically suggests the drug you might be searching for. You can see an example at the top of this page, if you're using Internet Explorer 7 or FireFox - Type in "salvia" or "seeds", for example and see what happens. For Coffeesh0p.org, this will be incorporated into the massive database of drugs information we'll hopefully have accumulated. The rationale behind this is that you arrive at the front page, type in about four letters of what you want and BAM, the exact thing you're looking for is staring you in the face.
So, by next week, I hope I'll have a bit more of an idea of what's going on, and write about another one of our ideas.
Today I'm going to talk about who's involved, what we've got done so far in terms of content and discuss with you another one of many great ideas.
Who's Involved Firstly, there's me, John (AKA Synchronium). I run the .org project and anything related, like trying to actually code it all. Then, we have Random, our quality control guy from Australia. His job is to take content written by everyone else, see what's missing, standardise it, proof read it (along with my girlfriend, Mrs_Synch) and then we publish it. Next are the casual team of writers we've come across from various corners of the Internet. There are quite a lot to list, so what I'll ask is that all you writers leave a comment under here and tell everyone a little bit about what part of the project you're up to. Our team is in no way complete!That means we need YOU to help us - We always need more writers, and even if you can't write but want to help us, we have a number of things you could do, all of it very interesting. If you feel you could add something to the project, comment here, send me an Email, or post on the Forums. Now for idea #2...
Idea #2: Wordclouds & Tagging - What's a massively important feature in a community? To see what everyone else was up to! You wouldn't join MySpace or Facebook or StumbleUpon if there were no evidence of anyone else using it, so here's what we plan to do: allow people (public, or signed up members, we're not sure yet) to add their own tags to drugs. This could be based on effect, slang names, or whatever - The idea is that the most popular tags for the drug appear bolder and bigger in a word cloud, kind of like the homepage of Torrentz.com. (We don't advocate torrenting, it was merely an example of a wordcloud). We were also thinking of a wordcloud on the front page for the most commonly searched drugs too. It should not only look nice, but also give everyone an idea of what everyone else thinks. Combined with a number of other community related features which I'll be discussing at a later date, Coffeesh0p.org should end up being one massive, drugs related community!
That's all for this week, but stay tuned, because we have a lot to talk about! :)
This week I'm going to discuss a pretty cool idea that should benefit everyone: guest writers. That is, webmasters who run sites based around drugs get a bit of space where they can write an article or two for the .org project. We'll be on the lookout for anyone who runs or helps to run a drugs related website, and possibly other active members of their respective communities, "internet reputation" permitting, to sit down and write a bit about what they know best. We'll then check out what they've written, see'f it's any good and whack it online in the appropriate section.
So, what's in it for them (or you, if you happen to be one of the aforementioned people)? Qualitatively, they get some writing published on what will hopefully be "The Number One Drugs Resource" on the internet - bragging rights? Hell yes. Quantatively, and probably most importantly, the guest author will either receive a little page about him and his site or a link to his site straight from the article itself. Not only do links bring traffic, but a high quality link from an authoritative site (yes, I know we're jumping the gun a bit, but we'd get nowhere without ambition) will also increase the position of the site being linked to in the search engines. Without going into a lot of detail about how this works, Google sees links to other sites kind of like a "vote" for that site. The more votes a site has, the higher up in the search results it will appear. Kind of. If you want some more information on what I'm actually talking about, google "Search engine optimisation". If you don't care that much, all you need to know is that a link to your site from a site with a high reputation, that's also relevant to your site in some way, is very valuable indeed.
What's in it for us then? Well, this is also twofold. Firstly, we get a little bit of the work done for us by someone who's a bit more experienced in their field. Works for us, and helps improve the quality of the material for the end user. Following that logic, a better article will result in more trust from the search engines, meaning the link back to the author's site carries more weight. The topic of links neatly brings us round to point number two - webmasters that decide to write an article for us will no doubt want their community and friends to read their article too, and rightly so! So what will they do? Link to it! And as we know, linking = a higher position in the search engines. Everybody wins!
Are YOU a webmaster or knowledgable member of an online drugs-related community that's interesting in writing something? Let me know either by leaving a comment here, sending me an Email or posting on our Forums.
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