[This post is not related to discussion above!]
I'm stepping down from my role in the Darkcoin team, which means I'll be passing on this marketing/branding effort to the community & the devs. I wish you the best of luck with it!
I'd planned that next steps would involve selecting a colour palette, then writing a branding guide, then getting a new wordpress template crowdsourced. You may wish to take a different approach.
I volunteered myself for this role not because the work interested me, but because there was an obvious & dire gap to be filled, and the devs either didn't seem aware of this, or had other priorities. Now the gap is there again, and somebody else will need to fill this role. My suggestion to the devs is that Darkcoin needs a marketing team headed by someone with training & experience (i.e. someone with a professional portfolio). I hope they take the marketing side of things seriously and find someone with qualifications. Again, I must stress the importance of not watering down this criteria to something like, "well, I hired a marketer once", or "I can write HTML and operate Wordpress".
Taking on a branding / marketing role was a learning experience for me, and I took some wrong steps. In retrospect, polling the community for every decision was the wrong approach. Lacking a marketing professional on the team, I felt obliged to pass decisions on to the community, but I'd do it differently next time. Far better if the marketing team be given a degree of autonomy so they can progress with work unhindered. Community input IS important. It should be used judiciously, when feedback or focus groups are required -- the community should not be dictating the design / branding / marketing direction.
Choosing a marketing team is somewhat analogous to choosing a psychologist: If you take your time and find someone who "gets" you (and perhaps only then), you'll see progress & improvement that was simply not possible before. And there will always bee a large percent of doubters who think the whole idea is bogus and you can do just as good a job yourself. But at the end of the day, these are not skills you can learn on the fly; they require years of training, experience, and (perhaps most importantly), talent.
Put the initial effort into recruiting the right people, and things will fall into place from there.
I'm stepping down from my role in the Darkcoin team, which means I'll be passing on this marketing/branding effort to the community & the devs. I wish you the best of luck with it!
I'd planned that next steps would involve selecting a colour palette, then writing a branding guide, then getting a new wordpress template crowdsourced. You may wish to take a different approach.
I volunteered myself for this role not because the work interested me, but because there was an obvious & dire gap to be filled, and the devs either didn't seem aware of this, or had other priorities. Now the gap is there again, and somebody else will need to fill this role. My suggestion to the devs is that Darkcoin needs a marketing team headed by someone with training & experience (i.e. someone with a professional portfolio). I hope they take the marketing side of things seriously and find someone with qualifications. Again, I must stress the importance of not watering down this criteria to something like, "well, I hired a marketer once", or "I can write HTML and operate Wordpress".
Taking on a branding / marketing role was a learning experience for me, and I took some wrong steps. In retrospect, polling the community for every decision was the wrong approach. Lacking a marketing professional on the team, I felt obliged to pass decisions on to the community, but I'd do it differently next time. Far better if the marketing team be given a degree of autonomy so they can progress with work unhindered. Community input IS important. It should be used judiciously, when feedback or focus groups are required -- the community should not be dictating the design / branding / marketing direction.
Choosing a marketing team is somewhat analogous to choosing a psychologist: If you take your time and find someone who "gets" you (and perhaps only then), you'll see progress & improvement that was simply not possible before. And there will always bee a large percent of doubters who think the whole idea is bogus and you can do just as good a job yourself. But at the end of the day, these are not skills you can learn on the fly; they require years of training, experience, and (perhaps most importantly), talent.
Put the initial effort into recruiting the right people, and things will fall into place from there.
You really did us all a great service, and I for one am so glad you stepped up. I'd try to help out with this, except I get too emotionally involved. I'm too "I want it my way" LOL. If I'm not in charge, I can not go read stuff and stay calm, LOL. So I know it must be a hard job. I too hope someone will step up to take over your very large shoes. They'll be hard to fill!
Thanks again!
