Yes, it is true. I have written a something. An important something. If you read only a single thing this day, you should read it, not this.

That post is an actually sane grouping of information, coupled with an impassioned plea for feedback. This post is more of a braindump. A dump of a brain which is far, far too ill for such things.

I'm still mad that Drupal 6 is coming out even though we have yet to upgrade to Drupal 5. Not that I want development to cease on the platform which has brought me so much joy blended with sadness... It's just that I want it to slow down to match my own internal, overwhelmed pace.

It doesn't look like I'm the only Drupal module developer who feels that way. The "chatbox" module we're using now for basic web chat capabilities is out of date, doesn't work with the new Drupal, and it doesn't look like it's going to be updated any time soon. So I designed a completely new Chat Room module with every single feature I ever thought a web chat should have.

It rocks. And it's basically done, so I may now officially move on to other things.

Now, I posted about the nitty gritties of what I plan to change, and I asked for input about what you think needs changed. (If you don't remember that, it's because you didn't read that post.)

However, I did not discuss my overall vision for the direction I'm planning on taking this organization blah blah bla- Oh, did I slip into nonsense again? Silly me.

The Malex Media Network™ is two things:

A) A community of artists and the audience that enjoys their art.

B) A company which provides commercial media distribution services to clients who need it.

Number A is what you care about. Number B pays the rent and keeps me warm and clothed. Now don't get me wrong. I think Number A has the potential to make a decent amount of money, but I really don't know how much, and I don't know how quickly.

From now until the foreseeable future, I need to balance my efforts between Numbers A & B. (With a special emphasis on Number B.) However, just because they should be balanced does not mean they should be mixed.

Having sermons show up all over the Audio channel and recent posts page was a necessary evil before. (And it still is, until I release my new system...) Necessary evil or no, having sermons pop up all over the site isn't just bad organization, I'm convinced that it's actively driving community away from the site. And that's not compatible with the idea of profit.

Once the site (along with related sister sites) are online, easy to use, and not embarrassingly ugly, we can start advertising around the 'net!

Now, you may remember the massive traffic spike we got when we advertised about the Malex Minute. We had thousands of hits in the space of only a few weeks. This new advertising campaign will be like that, only it won't ever stop! As soon as we have enough income to cover it, I'll set up an advertising budget so we can advertise at regular intervals all over the place.

The beauty of this is that we'll build up a larger and larger audience, which will steadily increase the traffic to our pages, which will increase the value of our own advertising spaces. Which, in turn, should make us a good target for sponsors of various types. Thus, we won't even have to charge the audience (you) money to make a decent living. (Although I suspect we'll always have merchandise, such as CDs and DVDs, available to purchase.)

Most of this probably seems to be little more than wild speculation, but some of my theories are based on future developments which are still largely secret.

So there.

Anyway, there you have it. My overall vision. If I and my cohorts can successfully market the Malex Media Network™ as a destination for a large number of users, we have a fighting chance at making some money. Which means that we'll actually be able to continue producing your favorite productions.

ttyl!

--Alex Markley