I finally got around to setting up CollectorsEdition.org. This is a site Idea I’ve had for a while. I love collectors editions of stuff, I’ve always been big on the way things are packaged and sort of reverse engineering the thought processes someone may have come to when designing the way something was wrapped up. I particularly enjoy those packages where someone took the time to think about the user experience of unveiling their shiny new product for the first time. Collectors editions games and DVDs are a good example of that. Some of them you can tell they just did the bare minimum to eek out some extra profits but in other cases you can tell that someone put a lot of time, effort, and thought into it and what the fans of that product might enjoy as a bonus.
This will be the first site I’ve started that is really unique, I’ve made dozens of pages before, with varrying levels of success. but CollectorsEdition.org the niche it fills and the kinds of things I want to do with it aren’t rivaled on the web, at least not to my knowledge.
It’s not much to look at yet, just the barebones WP install with a welcome message and the first official tid-bit of news. To be honest that news was so good it’s what prompted me to actually kick start the site. Over the next few weeks expect it to transform both visually and functionally. One of the first things I’m going to implement is a rating system, so that visitors will have the opportunity to rate the quality of the special editions cataloged on the site.
I didn’t originally want to use WordPress, I use that software so often I feel like a one trick pony when it comes to web design. The truth of the matter is I spent days researching alternatives and I keep coming back to it. WP is just flexible enough that I know I can tweak it to fit my needs. The closest alternative I could find in terms of a database/cataloging software that did what I wanted was more along the lines of e-commerce and they were all licensed packages. I basically came to the conclusion that my solution needs to be homegrown and WP is a good foundation to build off of.
If anyone has any ideas for features that they’d like to see at CE.O or if you know of a cool WP theme you think might be fitting, leave a comment here or drop me an email.