#if money is what you need make your userbase Happy and you should be fine | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

transienturl · 1 year

Text

(going to try not to spend too much time perfecting this and just say whatever comes to mind)

so like I legitimately do want to try out Tumblr Live for real but:

all of the missing integrations with the rest of the site aside (some will be addressed, I'm sure, who knows to what degree in the end), the actual reason I can't figure out how to use the damn thing and why I think it feels so foreign to much of the Tumblr userbase is that

there are no real descriptions of what the streams are about? the UI is clearly focused on profile pictures, and those profile pictures are mostly faces. the culture the Livebox software is seemingly optimized to facilitate making connections in—and I'm basically direct-quoting Meet Group's public mission statement stuff on their website to try to see it from their side—has an obvious focus on what you look like that Tumblr's established culture for the most part doesn't. this is fine(ish) in and of itself as an addition to the other things the Tumblr community focuses on. if I had to try and summarize in literally five seconds, I would say Tumblr is about sharing the things you like, the things you care about, and sometimes the things you do and make. go look at the current Tumblr Live (Livebox) UI and zoom all the way out: where is there space for those things? currently, there isn't any, though there is a big focus on tips:

now, listen: I'm (kind of) a developer. I get it. you build the user experience you want out of the tools you have, and you can't wait to ship until what you've built is a flawless expression of your vision for your product. I don't think the decision makers at the top of Tumblr think that an unmodified out-of-the-box Livebox integration is exactly what they think Tumblr needs (both to be a better product and to stop losing money). I have more faith in them than that, and you should too if you want to think about these things in any even vaguely productive way. (let's ignore the possibility that the "stop losing money" side of things heavily outweighs the "make a good product" side due to financials; as a) if that's true, we're screwed regardless, and b) I hope Matt has enough cash to be able to burn a whole bunch for a while to try to save the only good large social media site on the web; if so, thanks Matt, I owe ya one.)

but if we're actually engaging with this line of thinking, that of course means that as a decision maker, you only partner with meet group if they have something you want and couldn't more efficiently make yourself. that happens all the time! there's going to be a trade-off there. that's fine! you paid the price of "this white-label UI isn't well-suited to my website at all*" and you got something valuable in exchange.

*I have no qualms about stating this as an objective, undisputed truth; it's possible some would disagree and that's fair.

now, what I'm thus forced to speculate about is... what did Tumblr get out of the exchange? if I had to guess, the things Tumblr would not have if Matt was just like "guys please implement the same feature set as Livebox" would be like a) a bunch of livestreaming code because that stuff is a pain in the ass, b) a bunch of hosting services (Live is on another domain so I assume Livebox hosts it?), c) some amount of expertise in—I guess—monetizing parasocial relationships via microtransactions? and d) some cash up front probably. (edit: also, moderation tools/services; those are big.)

now, if I'm right about all of that, and admittedly it's not all that well-educated of a guess... then, you know, sure. I just hope everyone's on the same page re: which of those things are the benefits and which are the costs. I'm happy for "the social network that I like but which costs more to run than it makes even with what I feel from the outside is not much development staff at all" to have some more money, and I'm happy for said development staff not to have to spend their time setting up RTMP servers or whatever; that's boring as hell and a waste of everyone's time, I'd imagine.

but in the bigger picture—again we are ignoring the "oh god cash" possibility—you pull the trigger on a bet like this because you think the resources will help you build something that's, well, uniquely Tumblr. you already paid someone to try and elucidate what that means:

You'll make friends. You'll fall in love. You'll make enemies. You'll become unrecognizable to your friends and family. They'll worry about you. You'll be okay. You're on Tumblr.

Every video you find, every quote you reblog, every tag you curate, every waterfall GIF you secretly gaze at in wonder—that's all you. You're the explorer. We're just a map you all keep on making. Welcome home. Welcome to weird. Make it yours.

if I were a product manager, my giant whiteboard would have "click the square with the person's face and see ways to tip them" on the left, and "you'll make friends / you'll fall in love / you'll make enemies / you'll become unrecognizable to your friends and family" on the right, and a whole bunch of arrows and question marks in the middle.

and yeah, I guess from my perspective, the thing that makes Tumblr Live interesting is that, presuming that some of that middle part of the whiteboard starts to get filled in, I am fascinated to watch how it does. and I think you have to acknowledge that a) they will actually try it and b) they have a nonzero chance of success, if you want to say actually meaningful things about Live as a feature.

(I was primarily excited for the feature to come to desktop web because that had the potential to add a lot to step one of this, on my imagined version of the whiteboard. yes, the vast majority of tumblr users use the apps, us desktop web traditionalists have to acknowledge that... but I would also imagine that a significant amount of the content creators who drive all of this engagement are on desktop, and in my mind "you can share what you are doing in your computer" is the path to a lot more compelling, Tumblr-y live content than "point your phone camera at something"—essentially, in the grand scheme of things I imagine desktop web Live as the source of the content you view on iOS/Android Live, and I would love to know if the Live team has that thought as well.)

#*roleplays as an executive*#is this anything #long post #this took me like. an hour.

1 note · View note

mkzmerryfriend · 4 years

Text

This is a Sims 4 rant, beware

I have. So many feelings.

First of all, anger. Second, sadness. Third, hope???

So, with Eco Lifestyle being announced, it’s sort of drudged up some feelings I have about the state of the game right now... Mostly about how fundamentally broken it is. The Sims Team’s focus seems to be on popular real-life trends (not saying living sustainably is bad in real life). I think that this focus on “popular” trends (tiny homes, sustainable living, a focus on “cleaning up the town/island”) is what leads to people calling ts4 a millennial simulator. That’s always bothered me, because it isn’t supposed to be. The Sims 4 comes from a long line of games that often focused on family first, then wacky fun things to do with those families, and stories to tell with them. Sims 4 feels more like a real life barbie doll house than a life simulator, where you actually have to pretend things are happening and that their stories exist at all. Why the Sims has gone away from the game impacting your sims, I don’t know, but it makes me sad to realize this.

Okay, I’m going to try to make some specific points since I’m being very general rn.

Kids

I think we can all agree, playing as kids is unappealing because there’s nothing to do as them. The wording there is important, too, because there are technically things to do WITH them, but not AS them. Parenthood is a great pack, one of the best, but it’s focus is not on the family. The focus is explicitly on the parents. At no point is this more apparent than when your well-behaved, responsible child randomly begins to make a mess. This happens so that the parent can do two main things: raise the child’s responsibility value, and raise their own parenting skill. It happens autonomously, and often, which makes no sense if my child is well-behaved and responsible. Plus, “Ask For Advice” happens at random, and will continue to queue up if you cancel it. This happens for the same two reasons for the parent: raise a child’s value, gain parenting skill. I’d be fine with this if I could, playing as a child, CHOOSE to ask for advice and be able to do it actively.

Along with that, there’s something that’s bothered me more than anything else lately, and that’s a comment from a Sim Guru a while ago (I don’t remember which Sim Guru, pls tell me if you remember) where they basically said “there’s nothing to do as children because no one plays as children.” Which, first of all, is not true, and second of all, doesn’t matter. If the majority of players don’t play as children, that is an excuse to be lazy and not allow for gameplay as children. Same for teens and elders. This is a life simulator, which means I want to be able to play as one sim throughout their entire life (toddler to elder), and experience everything each life state should be able to! This includes things like middle school dances and scout trips, high school prom and homecoming and teen drama, and hobby groups and unique interactions as elders with family. None of this is in the game right now, which makes me think they just never got around to it. And if that’s true, that’s extremely disappointing.

Play Styles

When I think about all this, I get angry. Because, if you’re right and no one plays as children, teens, and elders, then just take them out of the fucking game. Take them out and see how much of your userbase is lost, see how many people play with families. See how much money you lose. In fact, take out ever life state except for young adult if you want it to be a millennial simulator that bad. See how long that lasts. Because it’s not about “well a small amount of people play as them,” you should be catering to everyone’s play style! These things should’ve been in the game on launch! We didn’t even have pools on launch! The Sims 4 got off to a bad start instantly, and I don’t think it’s ever gotten better.

That’s not to say that, if you like to just play as young adults and feel plenty happy just playing with each new pack as a young adult and you never play with families, that you’re not a valid player. You are. You’re who they’re paying most of their attention to, honestly. Long-time Sims players (of which I am not) are feeling ignored and like their concerns aren’t being addressed. I’ve only been playing the Sims since ts4, and I used to be totally fine with the game as it was. But then I played the Sims 3 for about a week straight, and realized what the Sims 4 was missing; all the little things, the way caring for babies and toddlers feels, the ways children can interact with one another, the tiny gestures certain sims make when they have specific traits- the damn amount of traits in the Sims 3 makes the Sims 4 feel like a laughable attempt. There are so many small animations that aren’t there anymore, so many ways to play that are gone, so many options we just don’t have anymore. Ts3 had so many ways to create someone’s personality on launch. There were five trait slots, zodiac signs, favorite colors, favorite foods, and favorite music. Ts4 has three trait slots. That’s it. That’s unacceptable.

Not only that, but the Sims 3 had all kinds of little things in the base game, like firefighters and police. I’m not sure if it came with Generations (I have Generations, University, and Seasons) but teens who broke curfew would be escorted home in a police car! In the Sims 4 (with parenthood, not even base game), CHILDREN can stay out ALL NIGHT and all they get is a call from their parents as a warning. There’s just no realism anywhere, and it kind of hurts to realize after loving this game for so long.

I don’t know. I think this post is mostly to share that there are still so many things wrong, fundamentally, with the Sims 4 base game. Plumbella said once that it’s like a house with a broken foundation. Anything piled on top is unstable, and will eventually collapse without addressing the root of the issue.

But I have hope for it all! I said it earlier that I felt hopeful (somehow) about the game getting better. I’m not sure if it’ll happen this year, but I think the Sims Team is starting to come to terms with the fact that the base game needs refurbishing. The last two surveys put out by SG Frost made me hopeful for the possibilities of the base game getting better. I’m sure whatever changes come from them won’t be exactly what I want to happen, but any improvement on the base game is an improvement nonetheless. I hope and hope and hope that these things, this lack of personality, lack of relationship depth, lack of diverse play styles- I hope it gets addressed directly someday.

Also, kind of hoping this Eco Lifestyle pack will end up being at least something I would buy on sale... Because... I have very low interest right now, and I know a lot of people feel the same.

Eek this was long and hardly well put together, but I just finished all but one of my finals so that means it’s sims time. Let me know your thoughts, sims fam, I’m curious to know if people agree with me or if I’m getting too upset about this.

-MKZ

#ts4 #ts3 #the sims 4 #rant #long post #the sims 3 #current state of the sims???#shit kinda sucks right now ngl #I hope the game gets better because things are not good rn

4 notes · View notes

anywhereconsulting · 3 years

Text

Distributed Series - 3 Ways You Can Hire Someone Remotely + How to Write a Great Job Post

This article is part of the Distributed series.

Every business comes to this point eventually – when they hire their first employee who is not a founder or owner of the company. Hiring is often the most neglected issue when it comes to running your business. However, I would argue that it is by far one of the most critical parts of your business. Many companies just straight-up outsource the hiring process, which I can relate to if they have large teams, the retention level is low, or it is harder to find people with necessary skills. However, for small- and medium-sized businesses or startups, hiring shouldn’t be outsourced, and it always has to be done at the managerial level. Your people are vital to your success.

Now when it comes to remote hiring, it’s not that much of a difference compared to hiring someone locally and in-person. There are some subtle and minor tweaks you should do though. When you decide to hire remotely, you need to consider three factors:

How much time you can spare on the hiring process?

How much time you need from the new employee to work for you?

How urgent is to fill the position?

First, you need to check your calendar. How much time can you dedicate to the hiring process? You need to make a decision, on average, a daily 1 hour is required to find the best candidate, and you need that hour for a couple of weeks. Second, do you need someone to jump on a project and then leave or do you need someone for a long-term? Do you need him to do only one thing, a couple of hours of work per day and that’s it or do you need someone full-time? Last, how urgently do you need someone? These are the questions you need to ask yourself before jumping right into the hiring process.

Option 0: Bet on locals first

The first move you should consider is to hire locally. I know it sounds weird, as I’m advocating remote business here, but trust me, hire locally first. Hire in the usual way but this time offer the work from home option. Who knows, you might find someone not far away from you who wants to work with your company but doesn’t want to relocate or go to your office. Work from home option is a good call here. Run through your peers, friends, co-workers, their friends, local networks. Anyone who comes with a strong personal recommendation is better than anyone straight out from the internet. Go to local meetups and hire from there. If you already have a userbase, hire from there. They are a comfortable cultural fit as they know your business in and out, and if not the best applicant, they can recommend someone. If you couldn’t find anyone locally because of the scarcity of talent, then you can go online and hire remotely.

Option 1: Remote freelance sites

Most of the entrepreneurs would argue that they need someone right now and they don’t have too much time for the hiring process. So let’s see that option first. If you don’t have time to hire someone, but you need someone pretty much now, you have two options: remote freelance sites and remote recruitment companies. If you need this person for a short-term to solve one specific problem, go to remote freelance sites. If you need this person for a long-term to work with you on several projects, contact a remote recruitment company.

Remote freelance sites are sites like UpWork, PeoplePerHour, Fiverr, Freelancer, and their countless copycats. Most of them have the same features: they list freelancers and their services, pretty much their skills based on a public profile. Everyone who hires them can leave a public review. All payments and paperwork are done through the freelance site from which they chunk out a small percentage. Most of these sites are charging employees with these fees, but some, like UpWork, are charging employers also.

What’s great about these sites is that you can get someone onboard in a matter of hours, plus you have all their references listed publicly on their profile.

The bad news though is most of those who are featured on these sites are cheap low billed soldiers of fortunes, with mediocre skills. If you need someone for a not so complicated work, that is fine, but if you are looking for a senior level type work with high added value, you should look elsewhere.

Of course, there are some gems in here too, there are some talented people on these sites, but you have to fight your way through hundreds of mediocre applicants to get to those few shiny ones.

Option 2: Remote recruitment services

Remote recruitment services might be your best bet for long-term employees with high-end skills. Companies like Toptal, FlexJobs, StackOverflow, Coworks and many others offer sort-of-like traditional recruitment services. They pre-screen applicants for you and deliver only the best for your job post. Some of them work like an outsource agency where you can “borrow” contractors for short- or mid-term projects. Not all of them but they tend to manage the paperwork for you as well during the employment so no worries on contracts and payments, you pay only the recruiter as an umbrella company for freelancers. These solutions are great because you can have instant access to pre-screened high-end workforce, but I wouldn’t recommend them to those who are planning for long-term. First, these companies are a bit pricey, which is understandable, considering they do much legwork for you. Second, most of them “borrow” or “transfer” employees for you, but the employee will stay within their umbrella. To me, that only works, if the project needs immediate attention, but it’s not for a long-term. Loyalty is crucial when it comes to employment, anyone who’s “lent” through a network cannot be loyal to a business. If you need someone for a short period, but do a tremendous high-value job, fine though.

Option 3: Remote job boards

As you can see, these solutions are closely related to the term outsourcing. You need someone for one task, you need it fast, and you look for external, offshore sources. However, if you want to build a genuinely successful distributed business, you need someone not just to do one task or job, but also to bring new insights and culture to the table. You need someone full-time, and you need to make sure they are a good fit for your free current team and your future dreams. For that, you don’t just need someone “borrowed” or “jumped-in” – you need someone with dedication, loyalty, excitement and with plans to work with you. Well, that needs to be worked on by you too. You have to dedicate time to hire someone online. You have to put up a job specification to your site and some of the most relevant remote job boards and wait for a catch. Job boards like JobEspresso, Dribble, AuthenticJobs, RemoteOK.io, WeWorkRemotely, Remotive or startup sites’ job sections like Angel.co/jobs are an excellent way to start. However, in the end, you need to market your post to get the best candidates.

The first act you need to do is to write an excellent job post and use it as your outreach platform.

How to write a great job post

You have to write a fantastic job post, no matter if you are looking for someone for a short-term or a long-term. If you need someone urgently or you can dedicate time to go through a longer hiring process – none of this matter, you still have to write a fantastic job post.

What is the goal of a job post?

First, of course, you need the job post to attract the best of talent. However, you also want to minimize clutter: you don’t want to waste your time on highly speculative applicants. You need someone who fits your ideal candidate description.

The hiring process can be intensely long, and even if you are looking for a short-term jump-in candidate, you need to make sure you save time from the very beginning: your job post. Your job post is also a marketing platform for your business, and here you can openly share anything relevant to your company, your long-term goals, your values and basically anything that helps others to understand your business.

What makes a job post impressive? In a nutshell: transparency, details, and vision. In short: being transparent on what needs to be done, whom you are looking for and what you can provide for the ideal candidate.

In your job post, be as transparent as you can. It’s the internet, and candidates don’t have the option to walk into your office and check your way of work – so you have to be upfront and overshare. Provide enough details about your business, the job requirements, your expectations, and the compensation – in this order.

Being transparent about your business is crucial. The more you share, the more likely you will find someone who’s a cultural fit for your business. If you don’t provide enough information, you will raise the number of speculative applicants, and they will suck away your time. Tell them about your current team and where is the gap you are looking to fill now.

Be prompt and provide details on the required skills and capabilities on your side. Be detailed on what your expectations are, let these out so candidates who read your job spec will feel like they were called out from the crowd. Be very transparent on the compensation as well, and I’m not just talking about salary and money. Please make it clear that there’s a long-term plan here and they have the option to work with you and make an impact on your business.

If you can, be transparent about how the hiring process will look like: the number of rounds, possible test work, and pre-screening. Also, please skip the jargon and the bullshit, be humble and straightforward. There are no growth gurus, marketing ninjas, code-junkies and dev wizards. Some terms might be justified like “happiness engineers” for customer service people, but these are rarely acceptable.

Your job posts shouldn’t be too long though and make sure you stick the how to hire part only at the end with a bonus “what to write in the email subject” can help too – that makes sure they’ve read the article till the end. You have committed your time to write this post, don’t shy away to ask commitment in return from applicants.

This article is part of the Distributed series.

My name is Peter Benei, founder of Anywhere Consulting. We solve problems for growing businesses with specialized marketing solutions. To read our case studies & learn more about our work, click here. Connect with me on LinkedIn or book an appointment here.

Liked this post? Share it:

#Team Management #Remote

0 notes