Flipshake

We’re very happy to present our first Featured Flip Maker – alexds1!

alexds1 has been a great part of our new Flipshake community and has made some awesome Flips! Be sure to check out her gallery and her profile page. Leave her a nice “congrats” while you’re there :) Here are just a few of her great Flips:

So a big “Congrats” from all of us at Flipshake to our first ever Featured Flip Maker. Thanks!

We’ve recently received a lot of feedback regarding the points system, so we have made a slight modification. Our point system will always be something we tweak and adjust as we roll out new functionality and as our community grows.

Our mindset about points, is that points are supposed to be a measure of a persons participation on the site. The issue seems to be that one particular action (first to collect a flip) is earning too many points and therefore, points are not an accurate measure of participation across the whole site, but instead of just that one aspect. Basically, we are seeing a quantity approach to collecting, instead of a quality approach to collecting. As one of our users so eloquently put it, “point-grubbing munchkins” are missing the point of the site which is to create great Flips that others can collect and enjoy.

In light of this issue, we have decided to make the following change:

When you are first to collect a Flip, you will no longer receive 50pts. No points will be awarded here. This is something that may come back into play once the site has more people and it becomes more of a challenge to be first, but as of now it seems to be skewing the point system too heavily.

On another note, we are also changing the level system. Instead of going up one level every 100 points, you will only go up a level every one thousand points. So, 1000 points = level 1, 2000 points = level 2, and so on. All users across the site will see their level change uniformly. Take a look at our previous post about other ways to earn points.

We can only determine if this method is successful with your help. So please, let us know your thoughts and also if you have any ideas on how to better run the point system, let us know. We’re all ears!

Thanks so much for making Flipshake as successful as it’s been. We hope to continue meeting your expectations.

Many of you have asked us to explain more clearly how to get points on Flipshake, what those points are used for, and what your level indicates. While we’re still working on fine-tuning the point and level system during beta, I thought I’d share with you were we are with it right now.

Basically, points serve to increase your level. For every 1000* points you earn, you go up 1 level. As your level increases, new things open up for you on the site. One of the things you get by leveling-up is a larger Flip Stack, thereby allowing you to collect more Flips. We have lots more benefits that get added as you level-up, but we’re not quite ready to reveal those yet. Another important thing to remember is that you cannot “spend” points. Points are not used to purchase anything or gain new abilities or benefits. Points will only go up and you automatically get new benefits as they do.

So how do you get points? Well again, this list is not final, nor fully revealed, and may change during beta but here are some of the ways you can currently get points:

- 5 points : Each time someone collects a Flip you created.

- 250 points : The first time each of the Flips you’ve created sells-out.

- 50 points : Filling out your entire profile (you can still leave whichever items you want hidden from public view)

- 0 points* : Be the first person to collect a Flip

- 200 points : Have someone accept your invitation to Flipshake (if you use the “Invite Your Firends” link under the “People” tab)

- 500, 250, or 100 points : For placing first, second, or third in a contest, respectively.

So there you go, a quick guide to Points and Levels. We have lots of other ways for you to get points in the works too!

As always, questions, ideas, and comments are always welcome.

*Updated October 30, 2008.

As you may remember from our invite email, we are hosting weekly Flip Creation contests on Flipshake. These contests provide you with a chance to win some great prizes such as Apple Ipod Nanos and Prismacolor Premier Pencil Sets. All you have to do is create an awesome Flip in the spirit of the contest’s theme. Better yet, create 10 awesome Flips and increase your chances of winning!

Entries will be judged on the creative integration of both sides of a Flip, the Flip’s collection percentage, the creative interpretation of the theme, technical skill, and originality. There will be giveaways for first, second, and third place so you’ll have plenty of chances to win throughout all of our contests.

The submission deadline for “Weekly Contest#1: Speed”, is coming up on November 2 so you still have time to submit entries into the first Flipshake contest ever. But in case you miss it, don’t worry. We’ve already begun our second Weekly Contest! So what are you waiting for? Artists, photographers, illustrators, designers, 3D modelers –  go create a Flip that’ll win you some prizes. Get Flippin’!

We’d really like to thank everyone who has joined the site so far. Your Flips have been awesome! We are extremely happy with how things are going so far and your great response to Flipshake has really been amazing. To those of you who have gone ahead and posted about Flipshake in your blogs or journals – thanks a ton! We really appreciate it. Keep on spreading the word :)

We’d also like to thank you for all the great feedback you’ve given. We’ve been working hard to improve the site, and a lot of little things you guys have brought to our attention have been fixed, and some of the bigger issues – like the message center – are being worked on right now.

Your ideas, comments, and suggestions will really help us make Flipshake a site you love to hang at. So keep them coming and thanks again!

Well here it is, our first post on our new blog. We’ve been working really hard at getting Flipshake ready for its beta release, and now that we’ve got it launched and we’ve got a great bunch of people on the site, we wanted to get our blog up so we can share what’s going on!

For those who are just finding out about Flipshake, Flipshake is a new community site for the creation and collection of digital trading cards called Flips! Flips are double-sided and square. Other than that, they can pretty much be anything you want them to be. Just submit an image for the front and an image for the back and you’ve made a Flip! And once you create a Flip, it becomes available for others to collect.

So be sure to check back with this blog often. Or better yet, subscribe to our RSS feed so you won’t miss out on anything. We’ll use this blog to let you know about things we’re working on, new features, tips, new contests, featured Flip Makers and Collectors, and just general Flipshake news.

Stay tuned!