Microcosm - 2nd Seedrs crowd-funding round

Running off to a meeting, will catch up with this later.

building communities, online

that's much better. the fact that it's on a computer is largely for convenience rather than being integral to the end goal of building a interest-based, relevant network.

relevance (lack thereof) is something that i hear facebook users moan about, so that may provide a valid contrast. where you may have facebook friends that you had common interests/experiences with at some point in the past, your microcosm networks will always be relevant to your interests, and if your interests change, make a new microcosm.

Microcosm - where online communities can make a home.

We do actually, in the pitch deck, we have a 5 year forecast of cost and revenue.

We're re-working the text of the listing in the latter part of this week, and I have to talk with Seedrs about what we can put in the listing. That old chestnut about how we phrase things, how we verify statements, etc.

The numbers in the pitch deck are realistic and achievable goals given our knowledge and experience. But they aren't givens, and nor are they an outlandish stretch... it's the "this should be possible given X, Y and Z".

We also maintain a risk log spreadsheet, but it's very dull reading, just the few big risks or anything that looks likely to become an issue.

Happy to share both, but give us the middle of this week to structure it.

all good, any chance of hosting for a look through?

and the previous page illustrates both the strength and weakness for me - it has to be high level enough for techy preferential adoption, yet low level enough so that it's seamless to the the average tweeter airhead (i'm in teh latter category)

A bit of a tangent, and apologies if this has come up elsewhere, but the main place that I come across 'forums' (apart from here) are the help forums for companies (Apple, etc etc). Would Microcosm fit this bill?

microcosm - for running foruns

... and cycling forums

I've only tried to explain it to other people who I knew where looking at Forum software for something that they wanted to do now, so haven't had the issue yet.

Microcosm - where online communities can make a home.

I really like this one, it draws on the foundation/platform idea, and suggests that it can be customised etc. The only improvement I could think of (and I'm not sure it's really better) would be:

Microcosm - Providing communities an online house and home

A small shift in emphasis, suggesting that the communities don't have to be online now, and playing more on the 'making your house a home' saying, which most people I think would understand - you offer them both the house (the hosting of the forum) and the customisation (the home).

And initially we started with the tagline "Like Tumblr, for forums"... to imply that we host lots and lots of forums that have different look and feel but a similar user experience... all on one platform.

I typed 'what is tumblr' into Google - seriously, I did!

I typed 'what is tumblr' into Google - seriously, I did!

What did you learn, as a matter of interest?

This was top of the page. My education started and finshed there.

**tumblr **

Web definitions
Tumblr is a blogging platform that allows users to post text, images, videos, links, quotes and audio to their tumblelog, a short-form...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tumblr

I did not follow the link...

Well we're probably going to stick with "Like Tumblr, for forums" for the meantime.

I do like "Providing communities an online house and home", but one of the other stumbling words is community.

As platform confuses, so does community. People have very different ideas of what a community is anyway, let alone when a community is represented online.

We want to make sure that it's understood that we think that how communities communicate is central. That is, discussions and then the more structured communication like event planning, selling stuff to each other, surveys, sharing photos, etc.

If we stick too much with the abstract community, then people project their own idea of this onto us, and again we've failed to communicate what it is we're actually making... that home for people who share an interest in something to come together and communicate.

Oh, and if you think that last line achieves it... nope, it's dull and dead and requires slowly thinking each word into place to try and imagine what it might be.

Like Tumblr, for forums.

That's pretty damn close.

OK, so I just went back and clicked on the link. This aroused my interest....

On May 20, 2013, it was announced that Yahoo! and Tumblr had reached an agreement for Yahoo! to acquire Tumblr for $1.1 billion in cash

that home for people who share an interest in something to come together and communicate.

Your new online clubhouse?

Fat camp, online

OK, so I just went back and clicked on the link. This aroused my interest....

Yup.

And if you think of how Yahoo Groups could do with an overhaul...

But also note the time it took. Tumblr started in 2006, founded in 2007, only exited in 2013... 6-7 years to get that far, and even then an exit is the investors chance to cash in, for the founder it's just another chapter in the book, leg of the journey... for now he has to take that acquisition and make it into a success for Yahoo, rather than a success on it's own.

But whoever invested early in Tumblr cashed in, right?

But whoever invested early in Tumblr cashed in, right?

Of course.

That's the up-side to the level of risk if you can accept the risk. It's a bet, and the earlier you bet the bigger you stand to win.

The more sure it becomes, the less you will win (though you would still win), so the more you'd have to bet for a similar return.

If it was a known thing then the value today would be the stock market value in X years time.

It's a big bet.

We're now at this:

Microcosm lets people
talk about their interest
on a site dedicated to their interest
and we take care of the tech.

Microcosm-
A place to enjoy your interest
While we take care of the rest

Less techspeak which is the point of micro... no?
Site = place
Tech= the rest

"Community forums, done better."

"Better communities "

Better community forums

Community forums, better