User:Fuzzy
Hello fellow Source modders!
My real name is Robert Crouch and I'm one of the managers of the Dystopia project. I'm also the PR Lead and general glory hog of the team. The other Team Dystopia guys (with actual talent) work their butts off to produce the high standard of output you'll see on our web site, I'm just the guy who gets to pimp it to the world.
Rather than just having info about me here, I thought I'd use this space to give 3 pieces of advice to anyone else who's doing PR work for a mod:
1) Post about something when it's complete and ready to be shown. Never promise that something is going to be released soon.
Infact, don't even mention anything until it's ready to show off. The positive of "building hype" is utterly out weighed by the simple fact that we're all doing this in our free time and therefore things _will_ slip unexpectedly. It's far better to have your fan base pleasently surprised when that new web design / player model render / screen shot / etc is suddenly released, rather than having them hassling you about where the hell is the new web design / player model render / screen shot / etc that you promised a week ago.
2) Get right to the point with your news posts. Never start a post with "it's been a while since our last update".
Your fans are smart and will realise that it's been a month since your last update, because like most humans they understand dates and chronology. People who are checking out your site for the very first time or seeing a news post on another site aren't aware that you've been lazy and haven't updated lately. Why on earth you'd want the first thing they see to basically say "I'm a slack PR guy"?
3) Only release media on your web site's front page which is a good example of the level of polish you're aiming at for the full release of your mod.
This means; no unskinned renders, no work in progress shots, no dodgy hand drawn concept art on graph paper, etc. By all means post these types of things up in your forums so that your hardcore fans can see them, but you have to understand that the people who view your front page are "potential fans". Once you've hooked someone in enough that they reg on your forum, you know that they're eager enough about your mod that they'll understand what WIP / early concept means. These guys will drool over unskinned renders, first time visitors to your site will not.