As an end user, what are you expecting when you place an order from a GB? What does make you nervous when you place an order?
The Retro DSA GB was my very first GB, and what made it a lot easier for me to get involved was making the 'kits' easy to view and understand. If this software is going to be useful, making those kits (and what's inside of each) modular is going to make it more useful for the organizer and the buyers. Wishlist: a database for each kind of keyboard out there (or all the major keyboards) so that a buyer could list enter their keyboard (i.e. Ducky 6565425SEwhatever, Poker, etc.) and the software could respond with the kits necessary to fit the entire 'board(s) -- with a warning to perform a visual check! I really scrutinized my 'boards to be sure that the keycaps would fit, and then I double- and triple-checked again! Maybe for people who are very, very familiar with the layouts this is not a serious issue, but I think this feature would get new people into groupbuys.
Suggestion: good boilerplate rules and conditions so that everyone goes into the GB with their eyes open. Such TOS items could include:
- shipping policy
- damaged goods policy
- keycaps don't fit perfectly
- agreement to pay more for shipping of replacements, etc. if necessary.
Some of this boilerplate policy is there to protect the organizer, and it should be modular or could be modified. This all goes back to managing expectations.
Another aspect is GeekHack integration. How much integrated should it be? Should a GH account be mandatory? What about other communities then? Or maybe make GH integration optional?
I'm a GHer, but I go to DT, and I'd hate to see this be something that only for any particular community. Just make it as flexible as possible; the more people who can become involved in a groupbuy, the better. There was an issue with the Retro DSA GB in which some people placed phony orders, or orders that could not be verified. Maybe add a feature to send a PM to that person's forum account for verification? Not sure how that would be programmed, but it would be a nice feature.
Also, I'd like to know your ideas regarding covering costs of such a software/service. A service like this doesn't need a super-powerful server but I have to put it somewhere and that comes to a cost. Also, we need backups, so that would be 2 servers to start from.
I don't think it should be free. If it's a feature-rich software that makes everyone's experience better, so why shouldn't the creator be rewarded? When Matt has a choice between hanging out with a bevy of Italian girlfriends fighting over which one gets to feed him grapes OR staring at PHP code for the software, there should be that niggling fear in his mind that maybe he should get off his duff and add more features to his software, because doing so will make him a bit more money. I vote for fear and profit.
As much as I'd like to give the software for free to anyone, it won't be free for me to host and develop. So I'm open to suggestions on this regards as well. We could make it free for no-profit (end-user to end-user) and ask a small fee to vendors. Or we could make it based on donations. Or I could ask a fixed small rate per order or a % on the overall GB. Or...
I think that if you (Matt) are hosting the database and the software, then you should definitely make some sort of profit, because if you don't make a profit, how would a GB organizer be able to call up and complain to Matt when the server crashes and all the orders are lost? Charity makes for bad business. (Everyone who received a free, custom GH banner friom me, shut up right now. See? No good.) I think the best software would allow for the hoster of the software (Matt) to decide how he wants to get his profit; keysets, a percentage of each sale, a flat rate, or for free if Matt is feeling altruistic that day. Just make it as flexible as possible. Consider also, that not all GBs complete, some take a very long time, etc. -- maybe some sort of flat fee in the beginning is in order to prevent non-serious organizers from getting started?
Other wishes:
CG RenderingsI know this is a longshot, but Matt, you made a software bit that allows people to make color keyboard mockups -- if that could be passed to something like what kaporkle was able to do in that one thread, that I think would make it easier for potential buyers to make the leap. If I recall, kaporkle was not ready to do that, and the renders take hours to complete. Maybe if he got a flat rate for each rendering he would be more willing? At any rate, this is a wish, and leave space in the programming for my wish!
NotificationsDon't take this the wrong way -- the Retro DSA GB is a great example of how to run a GB -- put it in the textbook under 'well done'. But -- when there was an issue with some of the larger keys (something that was discovered by Matt, because he had an early set sent to him so he could catch just such a problem) the notice of the problem (and it's swift solution) ended up buried in the thread. I think it would be beyond awesome if notices for changes, errata, etc. could automatically be sent out to GB members. All the information for the GB should be exportable into a BB-code friendly report that can be cut/pasted into the GB's initial forum post. So there's no way people don't know what's going on.
User ToolsMaybe make it so that when a buyer logs into the system, they can update their shipping information. And put lots of error-checking in the fields, to catch the dreaded umlats.
Organizer ReportsI think it would be awesome if the organizer could report (and export) some of the GB's statistics. For example: buyers by region, percentage paid up, most popular kits, etc. Report the number of a kit necessary to make the next buying level, etc. Ooh, just had a crazy idea -- allow people to set the price level that they would be willing to buy at, rather than only what they are willing to buy, right now. Example: I know that for a certain GB I will be getting Kit 1, and Kit 2, for sure. I would like to have Kit 5, but ONLY if it reaches as certain price level. If the software could record this decision (Krog will buy Kit 3 if it reaches price level x) then that could be reported! Then people could see -- okay, we need 10 more people to buy Kit 3, but 6 people have already committed to buying at that level -- so technically we only need 4 more people. See what I'm saying? That might help GBs move up pricing tiers -- by having a sort of 'tier wish price'. This would only apply to those more exotic kits, like ISO (blocks incoming rotten fruits and vegetables) -- only people who have committed to the GB already could do this. Otherwise everyone would set the base kits to 'when it reaches a certain point' and would push people to be overly cautious.
TL;DR version:- feature that allows user to select from database of known keyboards and retun what kits they MUST purchase in order to fit keyboard(s).
- modular, modifiable boilerplate policies for returns, damaged goods, payments, etc. user musts acknowledge and accept.
- pay Matt for the service in a flexible way (keyset, percentage of sales, wampum bucks, etc.) SHOULD NOT BE FREE.
- CG rendering capability, if possible some day.
- flexible notifications to GB members, export to BB-code for forum posting.
- Tier Wish Pricing for people who are already invested in the GB's main kits, to other kits reach higher tiers.
