Three Pound Universe Blog

It might look like nothing is happening here, but that’s just because it’s all happening behind the scenes. It takes a pretty complicated organization of the database (schema) to keep track of all the users and content we’re looking to provide right off the bat in our first real launch. Think of it a lot like walking down the street and seeing one of those huge COMING SOON buildings that’s just wrapped in a big plaster and plywood box. You know that there’s a whole team of people at work behind that pretty shell, initially getting the framework and all the basic services put together for the building. The difference between us and that building crew (besides all the tangible results) is that once that framework is working well, the shell is coming down and we’ll start to show the whole site as it’s being built from then on. Although it is still a construction zone, so in order to actually play around with features while they’re being built (alpha stages), you’ll have to have the proper permissions. When the time comes, I’ll post a private alpha signup form for anyone who wants to join to potentially get in. But remember, it won’t be anywhere near finished, and the whole point is to get people trying out the stuff I’m coding, trying to find bugs, so that we can fix them while the plaster is still wet. Alpha stages will be considered completed when a specific feature set (to be named in a later post) is available on the site. At that point, we will be open to a “public” beta, where more or less anyone can jump in and register to test out that feature set, again with the purpose of finding and showing us bugs, exploits, security holes, and anything that’s going to need fixing before we have a final, public release. If you’re thinking, “aw, I don’t wanna be a test case just to help out some strangers,” then maybe you’ll like our incentives. There will be a currency system on the site, which can involve real monetary value, and our brave alpha and beta testers will be rewarded handsomely for helping us in such an important task.

More information will be here when, well, I create it.