Need ideas for a website

November 10, 2007 5:18 PM

I magically ended up with a website (registered until 2012) and hosting (for a year). I don't know what to do with it. I've blogged in the past and I'd always lose interest after a while. Anyone got any cool ideas for a website?
posted by Autarky to Computers & Internet (32 answers total)

You probably need to give us a bit more to go on -- things you're interested in, that sort of thing.

Random idea that came up in an IRC channel a few minutes ago: imaginary social network. You add whoever you want to be friends with, whether or not you actually are.
posted by danb at 5:20 PM on November 10, 2007

Response by poster: Hm. Interests. Sports. Technology. Politics. Most everything, really.
posted by Autarky at 5:25 PM on November 10, 2007

What's up with your community? Surely there's something nearby that you care about. Make a local calendar of events that is kept up-to-date.

And, there's always redirecting to Zombo.com, where you'll always get a warm welcome.
posted by thebrokedown at 5:31 PM on November 10, 2007

Post porn.

(Seriously, how in hell do you expect us to have an answer for you?)
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 5:32 PM on November 10, 2007 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: (Seriously, how in hell do you expect us to have an answer for you?)

If you had what I had, what would you do with it?

other than porn
posted by Autarky at 5:36 PM on November 10, 2007

You should start a community weblog featuring the best of the web.
posted by trip and a half at 5:37 PM on November 10, 2007 [1 favorite]

I've toyed for a long time with a blog where I posted exactly one entry a day, with the entry being the coolest website I saw that day.

Granted, it's no good unless you spend a lot of time surfing the web, but I'm far from the only one who does that...
posted by fogster at 5:37 PM on November 10, 2007

Response by poster: I feel like there are a lot of people who essentially do exactly that.
posted by Autarky at 5:38 PM on November 10, 2007

If I had a Web site, I would post what it says on the sign for the church on my block. It is often funny (Come, pitch your tent among us.") and sometimes hints that the rapture is nigh (9/11! Katrina! What's next?). But that probably only gets you one entry a week.
posted by Airhen at 6:12 PM on November 10, 2007

-Do a genealogy site for your family, with pictures and the family stories that fade from everyones' memory as they grow old. Have your family submit content.
-Put up a tribute page for whoever you are most in awe of.
-Post your favorite recipes for pie.
-Make a linklog/blogroll of all your favorite sites, a del.icio.us just for you.
-Post all your favorite weird pictures from the web.
-Post a fake tribute page to whoever you loathe the most, loaded with false info, and try to get it to the top of Google.
-Post all incriminating pictures of friends and family in your possession, and encourage your friends/family to submit theirs. Then don't post any of yourself.
-Create a collage with all your favorite pictures, so you are never far from a boost to your ego.
-Post crazy quotes and flash animations.
-Use it to track local concerts or events that you went to, with pictures and sound clips.

The possibilities are endless. Or just redirect it to your favorite site, and be done with it. Just because you have it doesn't mean you have to use it.
posted by gemmy at 6:17 PM on November 10, 2007

I feel like there are a lot of people who essentially do exactly that.

All right, in the absence of any useful additional information I'll read into this a bit. :)

Your problem is that you want to be too unique. You don't want a blog, which is to say you don't want to start a regularly updated post-driven website. That's an awfully broad category to write off, but for the sake of argument, fine. What else you got? Photo gallery? Some MP3s of your songs? A page about your pets?

If you're going to think so broadly, then yeah, it's all been done before. Do it better! You don't need to reinvent the wheel.
posted by danb at 6:21 PM on November 10, 2007

Response by poster: If you're going to think so broadly, then yeah, it's all been done before. Do it better! You don't need to reinvent the wheel.

Fair enough. My problem is that most stuff I can think of is already being done at an unreachably good level. Sports? Deadspin. Politics? Instapundit. Daily Kos. Etc. Community blog? MeFi. Internet/Tech? Lifehacker. Gizmodo. Etc.

I'm trying to think of something that would be at least marginally original. A blog? maybe. But not another sports/political blog. Something a bit more original. A forum? Why not. But something that doesn't already exist with 150k members.
posted by Autarky at 6:28 PM on November 10, 2007

What is the value of this website, or, what could it handle?
posted by Brian B. at 6:57 PM on November 10, 2007

Your autobiography. Show us how your parents raised you, and how it's working out.

OR

Design your own ties.
posted by amtho at 6:57 PM on November 10, 2007

Something along the lines of Zombo.com would be nice.
posted by Area Control at 7:01 PM on November 10, 2007

I posted this comment in this thread with an idea for a website:

I just had a great idea for a website. It would be like karaoke, but it wouldn't be individual performances. It would be everyone who was visiting the site singing together. Anyone could request a song title, and the site would cycle through all of the requested songs, putting up the lyrics and playing the music in the background, and if you knew it and felt like singing, you would just sing into your computer microphone from home, and over your speakers you would hear the sound of thousands of people singing along with you. If you had a webcam then you could sing into it, and your computer screen would show like tiled pictures of everyone who was singing. It would be great! Imagine if everyone in this thread could sing all the songs that we were listing together. It would be like that old commercial where they wanted to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony. It could bring about world peace. Former enemies would be friends, because how can you hate someone that you just sang 'Band of Gold' with? I think that this is the idea that is really going to catapult me to the top. I will call it like www.singalong.com, but something not that lame. It will be the most popular website of all time. It will change the world. Nobody steal this idea.

You can steal that idea.
posted by ND¢ at 7:02 PM on November 10, 2007

If you had what I had, what would you do with it?

If I had an off-site server (with enough storage), I'd keep all my backups there. Probably using ssh, truecrypt and tar.

If I was going to make an actual website, then I'd start off with one about me. It'd be the place that I'd point to when family/friends asked me, "So what are you doing nowadays?". What do you do in your professional life? If you are an artist (paint, photo, web design, etc.), then put up a sample of your portfolio. Lots of people have a section dedicated to their CV and/or resume.

You could also just provide a mirror for a software project you particularly enjoy. It could include just downloads, or actual mirrored content also.
posted by philomathoholic at 7:10 PM on November 10, 2007

I think something like google maps, but with collaborative filtering and annotation of routes and traffic patterns would be cool.
posted by Coventry at 7:22 PM on November 10, 2007

I think you should find a picture of that squirrel with the big nuts and make it into a recursion. Possibly with every ten thousandth repeat inserting a Hasselhoff or a Goatse.

Beyond that, I've got plenty of good ideas for websites, only I aim to use them myself because they reflect my passions, not yours.
posted by fenriq at 8:36 PM on November 10, 2007

A fan site for Prince?
posted by st looney up the cream bun and jam at 8:42 PM on November 10, 2007

Think about something you're most passionate about. Something you'd do if you never had to worry about money or time again.

Then make a website about it, because you won't make any money off it at first and it'll take a heap of time, but your passion for the subject will carry you past the "I get bored with blogs after a while" stage.
posted by mathowie at 10:36 PM on November 10, 2007 [2 favorites]

My problem is that most stuff I can think of is already being done at an unreachably good level. Sports? Deadspin. Politics? Instapundit. Daily Kos. Etc. Community blog? MeFi. Internet/Tech? Lifehacker. Gizmodo. Etc.

Just give it up. With that attitude (those sites are perfect, there is no room for another angle) you're doomed. Let it expire.
posted by justgary at 10:38 PM on November 10, 2007

Oh, and if I was going to do my second idea, I'd put the address on my business/personal cards.
posted by philomathoholic at 11:24 PM on November 10, 2007

I like the idea of doing something interesting like zombocom, timecube, the original tmnd, etc. The internet needs more random shit.
posted by !Jim at 11:48 PM on November 10, 2007

I have some blank paper but I don't know what to do with it. I've tried writing before, but I always lose interest after a while. Anyone got any cool ideas for a book?


This is the dumbest question ever posted on ask metafilter.
posted by ook at 1:30 AM on November 11, 2007 [4 favorites]

get in touch with this guy!
posted by quarsan at 2:33 AM on November 11, 2007

Specialization. If you want to start a site/blog, pick one little thing that entertains you and go after that. Not sports, but mustaches of major league baseball players (been done, actually). Not weird news, but news about lawn gnomes (also been done). Not apartment life, but the the rotating contents of the communal laundry room table (done it personally, even).
posted by cortex at 8:53 AM on November 11, 2007

Volunteer to share the traffic-load of some site that you think is worthwhile?
posted by tmcw at 9:02 AM on November 11, 2007

What interest you? You won't maintain it if it's not interesting to you.

That said, you could do a music blog, with a link to the best free music you find, or a context where the prize is the site itself.
posted by theora55 at 9:06 AM on November 11, 2007

Best answer: I'm going to try to atone for my snarkiness above.

I went on a little nostalgia kick recently and was rereading Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, and this passage seems to fit your situation pretty closely:

He'd been having trouble with students who had nothing to say.... One of them, a girl with strong-lensed glasses, wanted to write a five-hundred-word essay about the United States. He was used to the sinking feeling that comes from statements like this, and suggested without disparagement that she narrow it down to just Bozeman.

When the paper came due she didn't have it and was quite upset. She had tried and tried but she just couldn't think of anything to say... it just stumped him. Now he couldn't think of anything to say. A silence occurred, and then a peculiar answer: "Narrow it down to the main street of Bozeman." It was a stroke of insight.

She nodded dutifully and went out. But just before her next class she came back in real distress, tears this time, distress that had obviously been there for a long time. She still couldn't think of anything to say, and couldn't understand why, if she couldn't think of anything about all of Bozeman, she should be able to think of something about just one street.

He was furious. "You're not looking!" he said... "Narrow it down to the front of one building on the main street of Bozeman. The Opera House. Start with the upper left-hand brick."

Her eyes, behind the thick-lensed glasses, opened wide.

She came in the next class with a puzzled look and a five-thousand-word essay on the front of the Opera House on the main street of Bozeman, Montana.

Right now your ideas are so vague and generalized that of course you can't think of anything to do with them -- and if you compare those vague impulses to established websites that have had years to evolve into what they are, of course you're going to come up short. Saying your interests are "Sports. Technology. Politics. Most everything, really" is just about the same as saying you're not particularly interested in anything, really.

I would bet that you actually are interested in something; I don't think anyone's that boring. The problem is that you're looking at it all at such a high level that you're preventing yourself from actually seeing any of the details that you could contribute; all you've got is this big blur of what everyone else has said. Narrow it down. (The point of that story above is not that you should write a blog about one brick, it's just to illustrate that one way of getting yourself past that what-everyone-else-is-doing blur is by limiting yourself to a topic so narrow that you're forced to come up with something original.)

This isn't the kind of question anyone can answer for you but you. Find something you would enjoy writing about, and write about it. If you're enjoying it, because you're interested in it for its own sake, you'll keep doing it. If you're not genuinely interested in it, if it's just somebody else's idea or some generalized blur of whatever, then of course you're going to get bored with it pretty quickly.

Forget about the fact that other people may or may not be looking at the website; make a website for yourself. The odd thing is, if you do it that way, you're more likely to find an audience than if you go hunting for one, because that genuine interest will show through.
posted by ook at 10:09 AM on November 11, 2007 [4 favorites]

Specialization again--not politics, but some particular angle on your local politics. Not sports in general, but some particular angle on a local sports scene that doesn't get as much coverage (local minor league team, sports covered less often like triathlon, running, whatever).

How about a local club that needs a web site? So now you're covering the local badminton scene, or chess scene, or astronomy scene, or whatever, besides the particulars of whatever that local club is up to.

Random thought: analysis/critique of local media coverage.
posted by flug at 10:11 AM on November 11, 2007

Start a fan forum for your favorite blog. The consumerist has a fan forum, there's metachat for here, and so on.

You could also make a family calendar to help coordinate vacations and such and to have a central place to put all family photos.

You could also host websites for local charities and such.
posted by Mr. Gunn at 5:30 PM on November 11, 2007