Become the best site for chess content creators

[arex1337]

One of the best features of major chess sites, is the instructive chess content they produce. Lichess should offer a platform for chess content publishing and consumption that work well for content creators as well as consumers. If content creators who produce quality content posts their stuff on Lichess, I would consider it a success.

• Content creators must be paid for their efforts. Lichess can't/shouldn't pay them directly, but users can show their appreciation for quality content by donating/tipping. Flattr could be used for simple optional donations per piece of content.
• Content creators must be able to publish a variety of content (news, educational, entertainment) and use a variety of formats (text-only, audio (we should make chess podcasts a thing) video, games/positions with annotations).
• To prevent spam, abuse and content stealing, content creators must be approved by mods before they can post content. Titled players should be auto-approved to reduce red tape.
• The front page of the content system should show "most liked content" (could be based on votes/rating/donations) but it should also be easy to discover new content that has not been voted on

LATER:

• Lichess mods can create and publish a periodical, published every X months, that will feature content from the content system. We can showcase some of the best content, and also feature deserving "hidden gems". We can have content creation contents. Some users might prefer a digest like this every X months instead of browsing the content system.
• Users should be able to follow their favorite content creators (and get notified when there is new content)
• Comment system (DISQUS?) on every piece of content

[federicoballacci]

The video sections could use a complete change, it's kind of dead at the moment. Making it easy for people to add videos would be cool, and making it efficient to use for customers even better.

An option is content producers could give lichess a symbolic monthly donation to have a spot there, and make videos free or pay-per-view (the profit goes to them) as they wish, but that has it's "philosophical" downsides we should discuss further. That would make a unique platform where content producers can avoid giving tons of money to the site that is hosting their videos. We believe in making a platform where all the features are free, but professionals who spend their time making content should be paid, and making videos where payment is not just optional would be really attractive I'd guess.

[arex1337]

1) I would suggest scrapping the entire video library and replacing it with a system of blog posts which can contain anything, including embedded YouTube videos. (as I have tried to describe in the issue)

2) Requiring content creators to donate anything, even if symbolic, is a nail in the coffin for this idea IMO. Users will donate when they get quality content. I think Lichess should stay 100% free, so I also think no one should be required to pay for this content. Hopefully we can show that quality chess content doesn't have to be pay-walled.

[Unihedro]

TLDR; Blogging, Podcasting and prerequisites by applying, +1

[federicoballacci]

In this case, deciding to have everything free will just result in having less content to offer unfortunately

[TonyRotella]

I dig arex's concept very much, and think it's one of the big gaps between LiChess and competitors. Not in love with requiring contributors to pay. I very much envision something like what we do with Prismic, but with a home-base that organizes the content in a nice and elegant way.

[ddugovic]

As a non-titled member who followed the official procedure for video submission months ago and still hasn't heard anything back, I suggest keeping the amount of red tape to a bare minimum.

Content submission must be open to be fair, even if lichess elects not to advertise most content beyond the submitter's profile page.

[Unihedro]

Regarding the gaps in features, user avatars are another of them, and the colors and identifying image is what makes following blog posts a easy commitment.