BitShares Forum

Main => Stakeholder Proposals => Topic started by: Xypher on March 08, 2015, 05:37:49 am

Title: Freebieservers.com is here
Post by: Xypher on March 08, 2015, 05:37:49 am
Hey there guys,


I've been talking with Max for a while about promoting Bitshares through our gaming platform.
Bitshares and BitUSD looked very appealing to us as a potential add to our system and due to the same I figured it would be smart to put in a proposal.

I am a Marketer / Biz dev person by passion (and profession) and I believe I can contribute positively to the BitUSD ecosystem over the coming months. The following is my proposal to the community regarding integration of one of my start-ups and BitUSD for further promotion of BitUSD as a currency amongst gamers from across the globe. I believe gaming is a field that is yet to be disrupted in terms of payment methods and millions of players across the globe stand to benefit heavily through the penetration of a crypto-currency establishing itself as a choice within the community.
 
What have I done in the recent past ?

 
 
1. assisted in bringing over  10,000 server clients. A total reach of 150,000 users.
2. User Base has grown 7x since I joined the company in April 2014.
3. Rapid expansion across America. Our servers are Pan American now and we guarantee the lowest pings
4. Took the company’s revenue up by 40 times, within a brief period of 6 months.
5. Worked along with other co-founders in re-establishing new ad deals for larger profit margins.
6. Ran a  major campaign for Nxt with the teams assitance.
7. Brought in 10,000 wallet sign ups for Nxt  along with my team. 10% of all Nxt wallets in existence are a result of the team at freebieservers.com actively promoting it amongst its user base. We achieved what organic growth took close to 11 months, within a single month’s time frame. 
8. Assisted my co-founders in developing an all new game-panel that beats industry standards by far. Beta launches are due soon. Working on a behind the scenes deal on 100% acquisition of IP rights to the same (offers are welcome in 5 figure digit amounts :) )
 
 
 
What is freebieservers.com ?

Freebieservers.com is a leading player in the game server market , growing exponentially on a monthly basis with a user base  from across the globe. Our free-mium model of advertising brings in users 12-36 years in age group, from across the globe. Over the last 8 months our prime markets of penetration were America and Russia . We are looking to penetrate further via a string of servers set up across the globe. The last few months of our operations were spent in generating a proper panel that can cope up with global demand and deliver cutting edge user experiences to our end users. In our pursuit to do the same we’ve developed an all new game server management panel from scratch, due to be launched in the near future.
 
With a total user base of over 150,000 users , we are the biggest name when it comes to start-ups in crypto, dealing with gaming and advertisers. We intend to create partnerships with coin communities to help promote their tech, and sustain our user base.
 
 
Why BItUSD matters to Freebieservers.com

Our demographic primarily consists of 16-35 year olds that constantly engage in micro-transactions for transfer of value across the globe. The traffic is heavily concentrated around America/ European nations. Due to the same, it is safe to believe they constantly use conventional forms of remittance like Paypal to conduct payments and pay each other out. In such a scenario, it makes sense to bring in a crypto-currency to help users understand how blockchain based economies are the future, by showing them its ease of use and lower transaction costs. We believe a stronger integration of BItUSD into our platform can be the tipping point for gamers to be adapting crypto’s by the masses.

What do we bring to the table ?

 
We intend to further facilitate the use of BitUSD in our system. This can be done in a number of ways
 
1. BitUSD video ads
We have a monthly inventory of over 500,000 views. We can utilize this to educate our user base about BitUSD

2. BitUSD wallet integration

 
We’d be happy to integrate BitSD into the panel and begin taking payments in BitUSD. The community can also come forth and commit give aways to further bring in users to BitUSD. Our previous give aways brought in over 10,000 wallet sign ups for mynxt.
 
3. BitUSD Sponsored Servers
 
We are willing to  have BitUSD commercials running on our servers, provided the infrastructure is backed by BitUSD. This should put your coin in front of thousands of users ever day, with ease.
 
4. BitUSD Gaming Tournaments
 
We are willing to host esports competitions between gamers across the globe, with gamer apparels and BitUSD as the price amount. This will further help the coin garner attention from external sources, like social media.
 
5. BitUSD E-Sports Teams
 
 
We have access to a number of globally ranked team members that game at international avenues. We are well beyond capable of bringing them on board as partners and have them promote BitUSD as a corporate partner
 
6. BitUSD Awards system
 
Since I’ve been told it is of prime importance that we find a closed ecosystem for the use of BitUSD, we are looking at ways to award our gamers on basis of their performance during gaming sessions on our servers and reward them with BitUSD. This BitUSD could then be used with us to redeem gaming accessories and other services.
 
 
We are looking for a total of 5 Delegate spots to help develop the mentioned systems and market BitUSD further with the gaming community. This will ensure we can pay for the servers and other infrastructure without external advertising partners ad give us the required space to develop better products for the community.


I haven't set up a delegate account yet as I've been told to enquire if there's demand first and then go ahead with the same.
The largest name in crypto and gaming looks forward to working with you guys.

P.s - In the event of   a vote, I'd be glad to verify my identity with the mods here.

Regards
FS
Title: Re: Freebieservers.com is here
Post by: cass on March 08, 2015, 10:41:42 am
Welcome on board!
So you don't  use SSL for login to server panels?
Title: Re: Freebieservers.com is here
Post by: xeroc on March 08, 2015, 01:29:13 pm
welcome on board ... this sounds awesome ..

Do you offe minecraft servers for which custom made plugins can be run?

@fuzzy !!!!!!
Title: Re: Freebieservers.com is here
Post by: fav on March 08, 2015, 01:43:10 pm
sounds amazing... You'd have my vote!

To verify:

could you send a tweet to @btsfav with a link to this thread and send an e-mail to askfav@gmail.com ?

Edit: btw, the social buttons at the bottom of you site are blanks
Title: Re: Freebieservers.com is here
Post by: Xypher on March 08, 2015, 02:36:48 pm
Welcome on board!
So you don't  use SSL for login to server panels?

We haven't integrated it yet, but we intend to have it added as we make a final transition to our fully custom made panel.

sounds amazing... You'd have my vote!

To verify:

could you send a tweet to @btsfav with a link to this thread and send an e-mail to askfav@gmail.com ?

Edit: btw, the social buttons at the bottom of you site are blanks

Sent the e-mail, our social media pages have been updated
https://www.facebook.com/freebieserversofficial?ref=hl

When you look at our marketing - you'll find that most of our traffic is organic, and not via social media , due to the same we haven't focused heavily on the social media outlets but you will soon be seeing changes on those outlets soon :)

welcome on board ... this sounds awesome ..

Do you offe minecraft servers for which custom made plugins can be run?

@fuzzy !!!!!!


Yes. MC is one of our key markets. In order to further strengthen our interests in the industry, we're branching out to a whole new subsidiary, with a team of close to 20 personnel. You can check them at mcserverbank.com

My staff would love to run you through any requirements.


Appreciate the warm welcome guys. Do keep the questions coming in.
Title: Re: Freebieservers.com is here
Post by: fav on March 08, 2015, 02:43:17 pm
I can confirm that Freebieservers sent me an email from their domain and tweeted a link to this topic https://twitter.com/FreebieServers/status/574576958132076545
Title: Re: Freebieservers.com is here
Post by: matt608 on March 08, 2015, 03:33:50 pm
Thank you freebieservers for your interesting delegate proposal. 

I read through the freebieservers Nxt forum thread:
https://nxtforum.org/asset-exchange-general/freebieservers-com-75-000-users-and-growing!/

A few quotes:
"The idea is to build a nxt-economy among our users as we grow." - Oct 25th 2014.

"We have collected around 20,000 NXT from donors, which has been mostly been used to pay our developer to create our custom platform." - Nov 21st 2014.

"This represents great progress towards our goal of creating a platform that is closely integrated with NXT, enabling and incentivising new users in our ideal demographic to explore NXT and cryptocurrency in more depth." - Nov 21st 2014.

"We plan on a number of additional revenue streams to maximize our growth potential, including licensing of our new panel software for others to use, creating a commodity-based virtual goods betting system, and the introduction of the first-ever gamer related cryptocurrency - backed by NXTCoin." - Jan 13th 2015.

"We're in the talks with a few coins- announcements will be made as soon as the deal is set.  We are also working behind the scenes with a number of big Nxt projects" - March 7th 2015.

Questions:
- Which other coin communities are you looking to partner with?
- Is an Nxt advertising campaign is still running?
- Isn't multiple coin options confusing for users? 
- Can BitUSD be the exclusive coin advertised?
- I saw you did an ICO, how does BitUSD + BitShares fit into this?
- Is the cost of BitUSD video ad creation included?
- Are you going to ask for any donations on top of these 5 delegate spots? You say in point 2  "The community can also come forth and commit give aways"  Does this mean you expect us to fund giveaways not covered by the delegate pay?
- Could people login using BitShares login?
- What was the average cost of each new Nxt user?
- How does the BitUSD sponsorship/integration differ from what that of NXT?  Is it the same thing?
- How long do you expect to require the delegate positions?
- How long will the BitUSD ads run for? 
- What is the growth rate of your user base for the past 3 months?
- Have you thought about which BitShares wallet to recommend to users?  The Light Wallet or the Mobile wallet (limewallet) are probably the best fit.

In the Nxt thread you mentioned developing a betting system which, "would cost anywhere between 20-25k USD". Are you still wanting to do this?  This could be an excellent use for BitUSD and you may be able to acquire funding for it here providing it only uses BitUSD.

Thanks again, looking forward to hearing more about this.

:)
-matt608

Title: Re: Freebieservers.com is here
Post by: Xypher on March 08, 2015, 04:47:38 pm
- Which other coin communities are you looking to partner with?
Currently we work with Nxt.I Wouldn't want to shut doors to emerging opportunities in the months to come, which is why I leave the choice open. As a business, we are always on the look-out for larger deals and better tech. If things align with our best interests we choose to work with communities. Currently, SuperNet, Nxt and Bitshares is all we're looking at.


- Is an Nxt advertising campaign is still running?

Not at the moment.


- Isn't multiple coin options confusing for users?

Yes it is. This is part of the reason why we intend to go into a coin-economy that runs completely with FS' name on it. Having that said with the right kind of api and wallet integrations, we should be able to pull it off. Indeed it is confusing to keep replacing coins every month, but then again it boils down to giving end users the ability to make their choices.


- Can BitUSD be the exclusive coin advertised?
Yes, for a large enough budget.


- I saw you did an ICO, how does BitUSD + BitShares fit into this?

It wasn't an ICO. It was an asset exchange deal - where in we received funding to develop our new proprietary panel and advertising systems. It gave us a tremendous boost as a business and we're eternally grateful to the community for the same. I'll need to look into how BIt-usd and Bit-shares will fit in the system, but honestly we aren't looking to selling any more stakes in the business (unless its 6 digit offerings for 2 digit equity).


- Is the cost of BitUSD video ad creation included?

No, this will need to be provided by the community

- Are you going to ask for any donations on top of these 5 delegate spots? You say in point 2  "The community can also come forth and commit give aways"  Does this mean you expect us to fund giveaways not covered by the delegate pay?
Depends. If we are expected to give away 50 percent of the delegate pay - we won't be able to do that. We will be able to commit to give aways of small order. When we worked with Nxt, the give away amount was sponsored by mynxt.info.

- Could people login using BitShares login?

This should be possible. I'll need to run this with my co-founder to give a final specific on his.

- What was the average cost of each new Nxt user?

75-100 nxt

- How does the BitUSD sponsorship/integration differ from what that of NXT?  Is it the same thing?

We intend to keep our nxt integration as it is. The community has been tremendously supportive in our endeavours and we believe what they offer has helped us grow. Having that said, we  do not have any active advertising deal with them. This is part of the reason why we are in a position to accommodate other coins.


- How long do you expect to require the delegate positions?

For as long as we can be the leaders in promoting crypto amongst gamers ?


- What is the growth rate of your user base for the past 3 months?  It looks like you had rapid growth last year and things may have slowed down

In a really good month we see anywhere upto 1-1.5k sign ups coming in completely organically. This is subject to tremendous changes as we haven't been actively marketing ourselves and growth is largely organic.

- Have you thought about which BitShares wallet to recommend to users?  The Light Wallet or the Mobile wallet (limewallet) are probably the best fit.


I'll need to delve into the specifics.

In the Nxt thread you mentioned developing a betting system which, "would cost anywhere between 20-25k USD". Are you still wanting to do this?  This could be an excellent use for BitUSD and you may be able to acquire funding for it here providing it only uses BitUSD.


I would love to talk about this with the biz devs on board in detail. Yes, we're still looking to do this and have our doors open to the highest bidder for this.
Title: Re: Freebieservers.com is here
Post by: fluxer555 on March 08, 2015, 05:03:17 pm
I do not think it makes sense for FreebieServers to get paid for developing a betting interface which they will own and make money with. If the BitShares community pays for such a platform, then the BitShares community should be the owners of the platform, and should share the profits.

Sure, the BItShares community gets exposure out of the deal, but the cost of this exposure should not be confused with the cost of development. I just want it to be clear that the 'highest bidder' for this betting platform is not paying for development, they are paying for exclusive exposure, and the pricing should be expected to be appropriate for this.
Title: Re: Freebieservers.com is here
Post by: matt608 on March 08, 2015, 05:35:19 pm
Thanks for the prompt and useful answers Freebieservers.  You may want to consider holding a http://beyondbitcoinshow.com mumble hangout to talk through your proposal to the BitShares community live.  This often helps the idea become established among BTS holders and should help with getting elected.  Also having this thread translated into Chinese and posted in the Chinese subforum is another useful action.

So far to me it looks like it could work very well.  5 delegates is a lot though and it will be especially hard to get elected due to concerns of centralising the network too much.  Perhaps you could have fewer delegates but be partially funded by BitShares by other means, such as via BitSharesBreakout or another fund.

For the betting platform, as @fluxer555 says,  "If the BitShares community pays for such a platform, then the BitShares community should be the owners of the platform, and should share the profits."  One option would be doing a crowdfund by creating a UIA and having it listed on metaexchange.

This is an excellent use case for BitUSD and with viral potential, glad to have you here :)

So it cost around a buck per new account for Nxt.  So we are looking at around 5000 users a month with 5 delegates each worth just over $1k at current market cap.

What is the upper limit to the amount you would require?  When the marketcap increases to 50 million, 100 million or more, what will you do?  E.g.  You could burn the extra funds or ask us to vote out one or more of your delegates.
Title: Re: Freebieservers.com is here
Post by: lil_jay890 on March 08, 2015, 05:46:48 pm
You have my vote... You may want to begin doing work before your delegates get voted in.  It may take weeks before you accumulate enough votes and showing your commitment early will expedite the process.
Title: Re: Freebieservers.com is here
Post by: zerosum on March 08, 2015, 06:19:34 pm
If I were you Freebieservers, I would go ahead and ask Riverhead (and Rune) for advise. Riverhead is not only very smart but also has been here with BTS for a damn long time.... so he has insight that few other have. You will not regret listening or following what he has to say.

Ask him why did they chose to go the UIA (user issued asset) path and did not ask for delegate pay for their highly valuable (just like yours potentially  Freebieservers) project.
Title: Re: Freebieservers.com is here
Post by: mitao on March 08, 2015, 07:04:49 pm
Alibaba.com here, we are preparing to integrate Bitshares into Alipay. We will bring 2 billion new users. So I am looking for 65 delegate spots.  Vote us!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Title: Re: Freebieservers.com is here
Post by: Troglodactyl on March 08, 2015, 08:21:17 pm
I think there are several distinct aspects here that are getting muddled:

Freebieservers.com has a network and an audience that can be leveraged to advertise our products.  It may very well make sense for us to use delegates to pay them to do this.

Apart from this, Freebieservers.com has business needs for which the use of our products (or a competitors) could be very beneficial.  I think if they look into it further, they'll find that working with us is in their best interest because our product is superior.  Deciding to integrate and use BitShares based on direct delegate sponsored subsidies I think would be shortsighted; they should use the most efficient system available to them with long term sustainability in mind.  This relationship should be mutually beneficial without any delegate positions, because BitShares offers both uniquely useful products and more efficient scaling than its competitors.
Title: Re: Freebieservers.com is here
Post by: Xypher on March 08, 2015, 09:19:54 pm
I do not think it makes sense for FreebieServers to get paid for developing a betting interface which they will own and make money with. If the BitShares community pays for such a platform, then the BitShares community should be the owners of the platform, and should share the profits.

Sure, the BItShares community gets exposure out of the deal, but the cost of this exposure should not be confused with the cost of development. I just want it to be clear that the 'highest bidder' for this betting platform is not paying for development, they are paying for exclusive exposure, and the pricing should be expected to be appropriate for this.


The betting platform offering isn't in the proposal and due to the same I wouldn't be commenting on the statement.

Thanks for the prompt and useful answers Freebieservers.  You may want to consider holding a http://beyondbitcoinshow.com mumble hangout to talk through your proposal to the BitShares community live.  This often helps the idea become established among BTS holders and should help with getting elected.  Also having this thread translated into Chinese and posted in the Chinese subforum is another useful action.

So far to me it looks like it could work very well.  5 delegates is a lot though and it will be especially hard to get elected due to concerns of centralising the network too much.  Perhaps you could have fewer delegates but be partially funded by BitShares by other means, such as via BitSharesBreakout or another fund.

For the betting platform, as @fluxer555 says,  "If the BitShares community pays for such a platform, then the BitShares community should be the owners of the platform, and should share the profits."  One option would be doing a crowdfund by creating a UIA and having it listed on metaexchange.

This is an excellent use case for BitUSD and with viral potential, glad to have you here :)

So it cost around a buck per new account for Nxt.  So we are looking at around 5000 users a month with 5 delegates each worth just over $1k at current market cap.

What is the upper limit to the amount you would require?  When the marketcap increases to 50 million, 100 million or more, what will you do?  E.g.  You could burn the extra funds or ask us to vote out one or more of your delegates.


I am open to looking at other avenues to get things rolling. I understand 5 delegates is a lot, but within the current market scenario ,its a very reasonable amount for a start-up of our size and stature. Our reach beats most other names within crypto / gaming by far and I believe the funds help us retain running space to push the coin. 

As the market cap grows, we'll be running larger campaigns. That said, yes -we'll be willing to step down with one of our delegates if things grow out of hand in terms of market cap.

If I were you Freebieservers, I would go ahead and ask Riverhead (and Rune) for advise. Riverhead is not only very smart but also has been here with BTS for a damn long time.... so he has insight that few other have. You will not regret listening or following what he has to say.

Ask him why did they chose to go the UIA (user issued asset) path and did not ask for delegate pay for their highly valuable (just like yours potentially  Freebieservers) project.

Appreciate the suggestion. I'll PM the said user later tonight.

I think there are several distinct aspects here that are getting muddled:

Freebieservers.com has a network and an audience that can be leveraged to advertise our products.  It may very well make sense for us to use delegates to pay them to do this.

Apart from this, Freebieservers.com has business needs for which the use of our products (or a competitors) could be very beneficial.  I think if they look into it further, they'll find that working with us is in their best interest because our product is superior.  Deciding to integrate and use BitShares based on direct delegate sponsored subsidies I think would be shortsighted; they should use the most efficient system available to them with long term sustainability in mind.  This relationship should be mutually beneficial without any delegate positions, because BitShares offers both uniquely useful products and more efficient scaling than its competitors.

Like mentioned in the proposal, the delegate pay is an open door for the community to leverage our user reach and promote themselves.  The integration will not be a result of subsidies. Any product related decisions are made over time post due analysis of what the tech brings to the table and how it affects our end users.
Title: Re: Freebieservers.com is here
Post by: sumantso on March 08, 2015, 09:30:01 pm
With go through it later thoroughly (or not), but on first glance seems like another yunbi case. As in since there is the option to get delegate pay, why not make some extra profit?

If BitUSD is beneficial to you alone as a product, then you don't need delegate pay. If you are doing developing work for integration, then part of it can be subsidized by delegate pay provide you make the code open source. If you use funds to make up any conversion shortfall that is also a valid case for asking a delegate.

Regarding payment for ad, our marketing delegates/members can judge better.
Title: Re: Freebieservers.com is here
Post by: Xypher on March 08, 2015, 09:34:06 pm
With go through it later thoroughly (or not), but on first glance seems like another yunbi case. As in since there is the option to get delegate pay, why not make some extra profit?

If BitUSD is beneficial to you alone as a product, then you don't need delegate pay. If you are doing developing work for integration, then part of it can be subsidized by delegate pay provide you make the code open source. If you use funds to make up any conversion shortfall that is also a valid case for asking a delegate.

Regarding payment for ad, our marketing delegates/members can judge better.



Looking forward to that.
Title: Re: Freebieservers.com is here
Post by: Troglodactyl on March 09, 2015, 01:55:36 am
...
I think there are several distinct aspects here that are getting muddled:

Freebieservers.com has a network and an audience that can be leveraged to advertise our products.  It may very well make sense for us to use delegates to pay them to do this.

Apart from this, Freebieservers.com has business needs for which the use of our products (or a competitors) could be very beneficial.  I think if they look into it further, they'll find that working with us is in their best interest because our product is superior.  Deciding to integrate and use BitShares based on direct delegate sponsored subsidies I think would be shortsighted; they should use the most efficient system available to them with long term sustainability in mind.  This relationship should be mutually beneficial without any delegate positions, because BitShares offers both uniquely useful products and more efficient scaling than its competitors.

Like mentioned in the proposal, the delegate pay is an open door for the community to leverage our user reach and promote themselves.  The integration will not be a result of subsidies. Any product related decisions are made over time post due analysis of what the tech brings to the table and how it affects our end users.

Excellent, thanks for making it clear that these aren't being conflated.
Title: Re: Freebieservers.com is here
Post by: Shentist on March 09, 2015, 03:15:26 am
the idea is good!

if 5 delegates are needed, we should discuss.

maybe it is not possible to get that many in time, so other directions should be considered as well. We have just to think about other solutions.

some questions:

1. when does your new frontend goes live?
2. i am not familar with the term IP. what does this mean and what do you looking into to sell it?
3. in April you are paying your first dividends on the Nxt asset. could you tell something about your expected revenue?
4. i saw you sell stuff on your site for Nxt via PayPal. Great! How much Nxt do you transfer every month and is this increasing?

Thanks
Title: Re: Freebieservers.com is here
Post by: ebit on March 09, 2015, 08:31:34 am
1 delegate is receivability.
Don't hire new employees,unless bts is  $0.04.
And you can get the raise in dacx.com .
http://dacx.com/users/signup?r=457258
Title: Re: Freebieservers.com is here
Post by: BTSdac on March 09, 2015, 09:03:07 am
welcome to our community.  +5%
but total 5 100% pay rate delegates maybe is a lot, there are only about 30 100% pay rate delegate ,5 delegates is about 17%, and also it take 5% of 101 delegates . yes you are right 5 delegates is`t a big value with now market cap. but compare with other crypto currency , BITUSD have many advantage, it is stable value, fast confirm.  active community. I think support bitusd payment would bring you real low payment cost.  we can partner.
So you I suggest that you run one or two delegate first step. we would vote you more delegates up after we got a achievement.
Title: Re: Freebieservers.com is here
Post by: Xypher on March 09, 2015, 04:15:21 pm
the idea is good!

if 5 delegates are needed, we should discuss.

maybe it is not possible to get that many in time, so other directions should be considered as well. We have just to think about other solutions.

some questions:

1. when does your new frontend goes live?
2. i am not familar with the term IP. what does this mean and what do you looking into to sell it?
3. in April you are paying your first dividends on the Nxt asset. could you tell something about your expected revenue?
4. i saw you sell stuff on your site for Nxt via PayPal. Great! How much Nxt do you transfer every month and is this increasing?

Thanks

Since there is growing concern for 5, we'll be pushing for a vote for 3 delegates, proving ourselves and scaling up from there.
I'd like to point out that we've had a very succesful relationship with other communities and have the kind of inventory required to push something like Bitshares to the masses.

IP would refer to intellectual property. By that, I mean the code-base to our new back-end server panel. It has been fully developed in-house from scratch. We have the choice of either pushing it retail on a license model or selling it to an external entity  in a complete acquisition of the IP. We are open to offers for the same.

We see a few 100 usd's worth nxt being brought in. Not much, but its still something. Due to the fraudulent risks associated with paypal , we don't go heavily into that aspect. But we're always open to working with exchanges with the right kind of api's


welcome to our community.  +5%
but total 5 100% pay rate delegates maybe is a lot, there are only about 30 100% pay rate delegate ,5 delegates is about 17%, and also it take 5% of 101 delegates . yes you are right 5 delegates is`t a big value with now market cap. but compare with other crypto currency , BITUSD have many advantage, it is stable value, fast confirm.  active community. I think support bitusd payment would bring you real low payment cost.  we can partner.
So you I suggest that you run one or two delegate first step. we would vote you more delegates up after we got a achievement.


I acknowledge the growing concern :) .
Title: Re: Freebieservers.com is here
Post by: sschechter on March 09, 2015, 06:54:16 pm
Very nice proposal - I would vote.  As others mentioned, 5 delegates may be of concern, and I would recommend a tiered proposal system in one of two ways:

1.  Cumulatively commit to deliverables for each delegate that gets voted in for you.

2.  Tie delegates to features.  That way the community could vote specifically on what they want to see developed.

Personally I would go with the first suggestion. As the community sees  that you are committed to providing value and delivering what you've promised, they will be more willing to vote in additional delegates.
Title: Re: Freebieservers.com is here
Post by: ssjpts on March 10, 2015, 03:36:25 am
兄弟,5个受托人太多了。而且最好先有成果再来,3%受托人作为试用期是更好的选择。
Title: Re: Freebieservers.com is here
Post by: donkeypong on March 10, 2015, 03:45:00 am

Since there is growing concern for 5, we'll be pushing for a vote for 3 delegates, proving ourselves and scaling up from there.
I'd like to point out that we've had a very succesful relationship with other communities and have the kind of inventory required to push something like Bitshares to the masses.


Excellent. I will support you folks at 3 delegates.
Title: Re: Freebieservers.com is here
Post by: Xypher on March 11, 2015, 10:24:45 am
Hey guys ,

Appreciate the interest in us going for 3 spots.
Some questions from my side


1. How much time will it take for a delegate spot to be paid ? If I understand right, it takes over a month for the $$ to be credited in an account ?
2. I tried to register an account but the faucet doesn't work. Is there some other way I could register the account ?

I am setting up the delegates to vote. Once its set up, i'll be glad to post the details here.
Would be amazing if someone could help us translate things to  Mandarin / other languages so we could accommodate foreign interest.

Title: Re: Freebieservers.com is here
Post by: fav on March 11, 2015, 11:15:11 am

2. I tried to register an account but the faucet doesn't work. Is there some other way I could register the account ?


are you sure? the faucet registers your account, so the only change you will see in the client is a "registered" attached to your ID.

If it's not working, post your ID and Public Key, I'll send you BTS for register.
Title: Re: Freebieservers.com is here
Post by: Xypher on March 11, 2015, 06:38:09 pm
fbs-delegate1
BTS52fyfVBsT3JDCBMx1NpoHZHzAf2DFhsZbFXzpp2Tt1L5mjUDVF

fbs-delegate2
"BTS5t8jK9PeAaSoLpHsENfsnBiPE21pK315U4L6XeSFF9g8ZfrvAv

 fbs-delegate3
BTS8RGR2S53YatY6P3h6MeWoRViNE7gGyZakHE4jUqek5vXLiRuLB

Thanks in advance
Title: Re: Freebieservers.com is here
Post by: fav on March 11, 2015, 06:41:04 pm
fbs-delegate1
BTS52fyfVBsT3JDCBMx1NpoHZHzAf2DFhsZbFXzpp2Tt1L5mjUDVF

fbs-delegate2
"BTS5t8jK9PeAaSoLpHsENfsnBiPE21pK315U4L6XeSFF9g8ZfrvAv

 fbs-delegate3
BTS8RGR2S53YatY6P3h6MeWoRViNE7gGyZakHE4jUqek5vXLiRuLB

Thanks in advance

Account name is already registered under a different key! Provided: BTS52fyfVBsT3JDCBMx1NpoHZHzAf2DFhsZbFXzpp2Tt1L5mjUDVF, registered: BTS8DWc4U27yg7nKfWmDugF6ZTiU7KA6aaUkHpyWuawReUKw4WeiP
Title: Re: Freebieservers.com is here
Post by: matt608 on March 11, 2015, 08:06:29 pm
I've thought more about this and talked to several BTS stakeholders.  Many have the view that integration of BitUSD should be free, because it's beneficial for your business, as a stable crypto that's useful for gamers.  BitShares should not have to pay to add a feature to your service, unless its open sourced (as a marketer I can't evaluate the value of that).  This is by no means an official view as there is no such thing as 'official' in BitShares, just a view that I have encountered from a number of people. 

The advertising on the other hand, that is a separate proposition.  Ideally BitShares would have an advertising budget ready and it could then be discussed among the marketers whether we want to attack the gaming industry with BitUSD and build a BitUSD brand among gamers.  A decision would then be able to be decisively made and we could start a test campaign, or not, depending on the decision.

What we've got though, is a far less elegant system.  If you do get those delegates up and running, by the time they get voted in and accumulate funds months will have passed, and there never would have been a co-ordinated decision by BitShares to attack the gaming industry, just this one random foray, which if it did have a successful immediate return, is likely to fizzle out and require lots more in expenses to maintain the BitUSD brand among gamers (my initial opinion as a marketer).  I'm not convinced that stable crypto is of high enough utility among gamers to go viral from one insertion point.  I would be glad to test that though with a small campaign after integration.

If you did the integration for free and came back, I would fight for one of the other funds (we do have a couple) to do a test ad campaign on freebieservers, perhaps $500.  If it went well I would fight for more, and more if that went well.  Generally I don't think advertising budget should go directly to the company BitShares is paying to advertise with, it should come from a fund held by a marketing delegate.

Could you please break down costs of everything in your proposal into dollar amounts so we can evaluate more accurately?

And consider the following question:

Would you integrate BitUSD regardless of getting voted in because it's usefulness brings value to freebieservers?

One thing to keep in mind (I'm talking to everyone here) is that BitShares doesn't have the budget to build a strong brand around it's BitAssets.  They have to have enough utility in the given niche to go viral by themselves after insertion.  For gaming, I'd imagine integration with popular gaming chat like xfire (do people still use that?) combined with this kind of sponsorship is the way to go.  A one-pronged attack isn't enough.

Are those 3 100% delegates already registered?

Title: Re: Freebieservers.com is here
Post by: BunkerChainLabs-DataSecurityNode on March 11, 2015, 08:30:13 pm
I've thought more about this and talked to several BTS stakeholders.  Many have the view that integration of BitUSD should be free, because it's beneficial for your business, as a stable crypto that's useful for gamers.  BitShares should not have to pay to add a feature to your service, unless its open sourced (as a marketer I can't evaluate the value of that).  This is by no means an official view as there is no such thing as 'official' in BitShares, just a view that I have encountered from a number of people. 

The advertising on the other hand, that is a separate proposition.  Ideally BitShares would have an advertising budget ready and it could then be discussed among the marketers whether we want to attack the gaming industry with BitUSD and build a BitUSD brand among gamers.  A decision would then be able to be decisively made and we could start a test campaign, or not, depending on the decision.

What we've got though, is a far less elegant system.  If you do get those delegates up and running, by the time they get voted in and accumulate funds months will have passed, and there never would have been a co-ordinated decision by BitShares to attack the gaming industry, just this one random foray, which if it did have a successful immediate return, is likely to fizzle out and require lots more in expenses to maintain the BitUSD brand among gamers (my initial opinion as a marketer).  I'm not convinced that stable crypto is of high enough utility among gamers to go viral from one insertion point.  I would be glad to test that though with a small campaign after integration.

If you did the integration for free and came back, I would fight for one of the other funds (we do have a couple) to do a test ad campaign on freebieservers, perhaps $500.  If it went well I would fight for more, and more if that went well.  Generally I don't think advertising budget should go directly to the company BitShares is paying to advertise with, it should come from a fund held by a marketing delegate.

Could you please break down costs of everything in your proposal into dollar amounts so we can evaluate more accurately?

And consider the following question:

Would you integrate BitUSD regardless of getting voted in because it's usefulness brings value to freebieservers?

One thing to keep in mind (I'm talking to everyone here) is that BitShares doesn't have the budget to build a strong brand around it's BitAssets.  They have to have enough utility in the given niche to go viral by themselves after insertion.  For gaming, I'd imagine integration with popular gaming chat like xfire (do people still use that?) combined with this kind of sponsorship is the way to go.  A one-pronged attack isn't enough.

Are those 3 100% delegates already registered?

Well thought out and said matt608  +5%

Personally I think it makes more sense for Freebieservers to consider creating it's own bitasset token which it can then sell to its users as a type of currency within their gamersphere. They would take the upfront cost in getting it all setup.. but the money they can make on the transaction charges alone would be awesome. Not to mention complete control over their own asset.

The delegate position doesn't make much sense.. and the reason for open source is make sure everything being done is above board and can be audited by others vs. just a company saying 'trust us'. It also allows for peer review that can help find potential security issues. Just a few benefits of open source vs. closed.

Love the whole idea of Freebieservers joining in the cryto revolution taking place through Bitshares so they can offer next generation payment option to their users.. just think the execution strategy needs refining.

They are welcome to PM if they like to do a case analysis together to better determine a more optimal approach.
Title: Re: Freebieservers.com is here
Post by: Ander on March 11, 2015, 08:31:01 pm
This looks amazing, and you have my support!


One interesting feature which I would love to see is betting on pro e-sport matches, using bitUSD (or whatever).  This could be a big market for you and a great way to grow Bitshares.
Title: Re: Freebieservers.com is here
Post by: Xypher on March 12, 2015, 02:24:01 am
I've thought more about this and talked to several BTS stakeholders.  Many have the view that integration of BitUSD should be free, because it's beneficial for your business, as a stable crypto that's useful for gamers.  BitShares should not have to pay to add a feature to your service, unless its open sourced (as a marketer I can't evaluate the value of that).  This is by no means an official view as there is no such thing as 'official' in BitShares, just a view that I have encountered from a number of people. 

The advertising on the other hand, that is a separate proposition.  Ideally BitShares would have an advertising budget ready and it could then be discussed among the marketers whether we want to attack the gaming industry with BitUSD and build a BitUSD brand among gamers.  A decision would then be able to be decisively made and we could start a test campaign, or not, depending on the decision.

What we've got though, is a far less elegant system.  If you do get those delegates up and running, by the time they get voted in and accumulate funds months will have passed, and there never would have been a co-ordinated decision by BitShares to attack the gaming industry, just this one random foray, which if it did have a successful immediate return, is likely to fizzle out and require lots more in expenses to maintain the BitUSD brand among gamers (my initial opinion as a marketer).  I'm not convinced that stable crypto is of high enough utility among gamers to go viral from one insertion point.  I would be glad to test that though with a small campaign after integration.

If you did the integration for free and came back, I would fight for one of the other funds (we do have a couple) to do a test ad campaign on freebieservers, perhaps $500.  If it went well I would fight for more, and more if that went well.  Generally I don't think advertising budget should go directly to the company BitShares is paying to advertise with, it should come from a fund held by a marketing delegate.

Could you please break down costs of everything in your proposal into dollar amounts so we can evaluate more accurately?

And consider the following question:

Would you integrate BitUSD regardless of getting voted in because it's usefulness brings value to freebieservers?

One thing to keep in mind (I'm talking to everyone here) is that BitShares doesn't have the budget to build a strong brand around it's BitAssets.  They have to have enough utility in the given niche to go viral by themselves after insertion.  For gaming, I'd imagine integration with popular gaming chat like xfire (do people still use that?) combined with this kind of sponsorship is the way to go.  A one-pronged attack isn't enough.

Are those 3 100% delegates already registered?


Hey there,

I've been thinking a lot about what you'd mentioned.
One of the primary issues with advertising campaigns, especially for emerging tech like crypto is - you have a very limited budget to set things up. Even at a budget of 10,000 USD - once I set up the platform, put in effort into my marketing channels and putting word out there, unless I have more money flowing in to keep things going in for a pro-longed period of time, I will not be able to bring in major change. What one needs to understand is, we're aiming for a cultural shift here and that doesn't  exactly occur over night. I could propose a set budget of 30-50k and avoid the delegate route all together, but even those campaigns will be split across months (and am very open to a proposal along those lines). Currently whatever money that will be raised will be going directly into infrastructure set-ups and events that promote Bitshares (or any advertiser that comes on board).

We are looking to sell off the Intellectual property rights of our back-end panel to a community , investors or dev that would love to enter the industry and play with things. We're very open to offers for the same. In the case of a sale, we'll be utilizing the funds to develop our e-sports betting platform and evolve into the next level. If the community would like to buy it out -  we can clearly work on those lines.

Am looking into what's up with our delegate accounts as they still show up to be un-registered.

Title: Re: Freebieservers.com is here
Post by: Xypher on March 13, 2015, 06:13:43 am
fbs-delegate2
BTS6hrrcGSJzF2uGAPY9ajmnSBAkezF93pemsyohKuvyf4Nam7CZQ

fbs-delegate3
BTS7oMcggTfktMeHTRwG9KMwXo3vsunbte1AFA8kvbfLobLBTfiWE

The other account has been registered - could someone help us out with these?

Regards
Title: Re: Freebieservers.com is here
Post by: santaclause102 on March 13, 2015, 11:00:58 am
When would you start the promotion? I am thinking about the right time in so far a light wallet and probably a fiat gateway has be fully functional to attract this audience.
Title: Re: Freebieservers.com is here
Post by: Xypher on March 13, 2015, 11:25:50 am
When would you start the promotion? I am thinking about the right time in so far a light wallet and probably a fiat gateway has be fully functional to attract this audience.

We will really need a light wallet to help us do this in the right manner.
A fiat gateway that can take paypal / debit card will be helpful, yes.
We'll lay the ground works for the promotions over the period of a month since being voted in and can go full in 15-20 days since being voted in.
Title: Re: Freebieservers.com is here
Post by: santaclause102 on March 13, 2015, 11:53:01 am
When would you start the promotion? I am thinking about the right time in so far a light wallet and probably a fiat gateway has be fully functional to attract this audience.

We will really need a light wallet to help us do this in the right manner.
A fiat gateway that can take paypal / debit card will be helpful, yes.
We'll lay the ground works for the promotions over the period of a month since being voted in and can go full in 15-20 days since being voted in.
Thanks for the quick answer!
So this means that atm you estimate that BitUSD / Bitasset integrations would not be valuable enough for your business to compensate for the integration?
Or would your delegates more pay for the promotion than the integration of BitAssets as a payment option?
Title: Re: Freebieservers.com is here
Post by: Xypher on March 13, 2015, 12:10:21 pm
When would you start the promotion? I am thinking about the right time in so far a light wallet and probably a fiat gateway has be fully functional to attract this audience.

We will really need a light wallet to help us do this in the right manner.
A fiat gateway that can take paypal / debit card will be helpful, yes.
We'll lay the ground works for the promotions over the period of a month since being voted in and can go full in 15-20 days since being voted in.
Thanks for the quick answer!
So this means that atm you estimate that BitUSD / Bitasset integrations would not be valuable enough for your business to compensate for the integration?
Or would your delegates more pay for the promotion than the integration of BitAssets as a payment option?

One needs to understand that our proposal primarily focused around promoting BItshares and largely limits our role to that of an advertiser and not of a developer. I see increased interest in turning our project open source and a series of other requests. Understandably, this emerges from the fact that a number of delegates ARE actually devs and the rest are exchanges. However, a private enterprise like FS that has a year of work gone into its growth and sustenance won't be able to function the same way. We are primarily a gaming company, secondly an advertising network. Our product comes first, sales and marketing second.  Having that said,  - I will need to thoroughly discuss a potential integration, its implications on our user base and how our user base can benefit from some thing like that with my team before I can commit to it.  Any integration will largely emphasis on the user experience and advantages the coin provides over the pay (as in, we will not be doing an integration solely on basis of monetary gains, although it does have it role since there will be dev expenses incurred in doing the same)

I understand there's been a lot of air around what FS CAN do for a community and what we WILL be doing.
From a pure capitalistic pov, I'll have to admit- what we do will be directly proportional to the support (both financial and interest) from the community.   

I am working on figuring a proper way for the community to be working closer with FS.
we also have a series of bigger projects in our pipeline and we do intend to work closely with crypto on them.
Those don't require delegate spots and I would love to talk to any biz-devs on behalf of the community regarding it.

FS has one of the largest user reach when it comes gaming and crypto - and our team has worked behind the scenes in a number of hot projects over the last year. We look forward to collaborating with teams and communities in delivering better experiences to our users.

P.s - Admittedly 3 delegate spots are less when we're addressing a  number of concerns and due to the same am focusing on the absolute basics (promotions), building trust and going up (or down) from there.
Title: Re: Freebieservers.com is here
Post by: santaclause102 on March 13, 2015, 01:02:32 pm
I read your OP again. It really sounds good! Thanks!
The few obstacles I see:
No one has 3 delegates (except btsnow but that is core dev dan notenstein who has a handful of full time devs he pays in poland).
It might be a good idea to scale things up. Starting with the promotion / campaigning of 1 delegate which is dedicated to what you would perceive gives the most bang for the buck (most promotional effect per effort for you) and then adding more delegates if that is successful I think is more realistic.
Then the delegate campaign could also be made more specific so that shareholders can know exactly what will happen when they vote you in in terms of action from your side and have a rough estimate what the effect will be. In contrast: 3 Delegates and a lot of possible promotional possibilities are hard to evaluate.

Related: With the video adds and the sponsored serves you would be a bitshares employee (promotional delegate) and at the same time the employee / owner of where the ad space is bought. This would be a conflict of interest since you are the buyer and the seller of the ads. The lack of a free market gives no indication of a fair price. This though could be easily circumvented if there were standard rates (price and ad volume / size) or if you would make quotes before being elected as a delegate.

Just a few random thoughts :)

I also like the level headed approach (to communication) you take here! 
Title: Re: Freebieservers.com is here
Post by: Xypher on March 17, 2015, 09:55:20 am
I read your OP again. It really sounds good! Thanks!
The few obstacles I see:
No one has 3 delegates (except btsnow but that is core dev dan notenstein who has a handful of full time devs he pays in poland).
It might be a good idea to scale things up. Starting with the promotion / campaigning of 1 delegate which is dedicated to what you would perceive gives the most bang for the buck (most promotional effect per effort for you) and then adding more delegates if that is successful I think is more realistic.
Then the delegate campaign could also be made more specific so that shareholders can know exactly what will happen when they vote you in in terms of action from your side and have a rough estimate what the effect will be. In contrast: 3 Delegates and a lot of possible promotional possibilities are hard to evaluate.

Related: With the video adds and the sponsored serves you would be a bitshares employee (promotional delegate) and at the same time the employee / owner of where the ad space is bought. This would be a conflict of interest since you are the buyer and the seller of the ads. The lack of a free market gives no indication of a fair price. This though could be easily circumvented if there were standard rates (price and ad volume / size) or if you would make quotes before being elected as a delegate.

Just a few random thoughts :)

I also like the level headed approach (to communication) you take here!

Appreciate the kind words and encouragement.
We're actively looking for stronger integrations and partnerships with crypto-communities.
We'll soon have the accounts registered and then push for the votes.

For any queries - add me on skype at freebie.servers
Title: Re: Freebieservers.com is here
Post by: Xypher on March 18, 2015, 09:07:14 am
Hey guys,

Our delegate posts are up.
Kindly vote us in

fbs-delegate1
fbs-delegate2
fbs-delegate3
Title: Re: Freebieservers.com is here
Post by: onceuponatime on March 18, 2015, 05:19:00 pm
Hey guys,

Our delegate posts are up.
Kindly vote us in

fbs-delegate1
fbs-delegate2
fbs-delegate3

Are you sure they are up? I can't find them in the delegae voting list.
Title: Re: Freebieservers.com is here
Post by: Xypher on May 24, 2015, 08:52:07 am
No they aren't.
I didn't want to push this further until the time was right.
I will be updating the thread with info regarding the company's operations (and how Bitshares plugs into the system) later today and be on a Hangout session with Fuzzy to talk about our operations so far and future plans soon enough. Once that's in, I'll have it set up.

The time in between was spent in understanding the ecosystem here and networking with  people. Its been a warm welcome so far and I appreciate everyone that has chimed in via skype, PM


We have a few product lines in beta already catering to a gamer / bitshares demographic. I'll release info as the product goes live.
Appreciate the love and interest shown so far. 

Tl:Dr : We've been working behind the scenes, something good is coming.

P.s  - I've been trying to get in touch with Bitshares Play, the forum..almost seemed dead.
Title: Re: Freebieservers.com is here
Post by: Xypher on May 25, 2015, 01:35:45 am
I have finished work on the B-plan, in case any of you  would like to have access, feel free to get in touch.
Am keeping it out from public access for the moment.

Sharing numbers from our B-plan

(http://i.gyazo.com/a9c311107915f65e3973baa8148892cf.png)
(and yes, we're taking investors :) )
Title: Re: Freebieservers.com is here
Post by: Xypher on May 25, 2015, 10:52:46 am
https://docs.google.com/document/d/15buSmol7Fx1nVbI7wgK3UauX281DtSI_9GwWGfldxzY/edit

Sharing the business plan in light of public interest.
Title: Re: Freebieservers.com is here
Post by: fav on May 25, 2015, 10:59:01 am
https://docs.google.com/document/d/15buSmol7Fx1nVbI7wgK3UauX281DtSI_9GwWGfldxzY/edit

Sharing the business plan in light of public interest.

thanks for sharing!  +5%
Title: Re: Freebieservers.com is here
Post by: Xypher on May 25, 2015, 11:02:19 am
 ::) Need to squeeze out more awesome sauce :/
Title: Re: Freebieservers.com is here
Post by: Permie on May 25, 2015, 12:57:51 pm
This seems like a great idea!
I've skimmed through it and from what I can tell:
You host free game servers in exchange for users viewing a 2 minute add before playing the game and you incorporate lots of unobtrusive adverts to fund it.
You also host occasional in game votes. The users participate in A/B testing, and advertisers can see how their products are perceived in an anonymous way that is of benefit to the end user.

Quote
Nxt - Case Study

One of our first partner programs was an integration we did with the nxt community  in 2014. A total of 6000 dollars was granted in order to attain users for the wallets at mynxt.info . In order to attain this goal, modals educating users about the uses of Nxt were set up on the platform. In addition, the site moved towards using tokens in order to further integrate the system into the user experience on the site. 

Campaign lasted 3 weeks time frame
10,000+ wallet sign ups
25 percent of the users used the wallets for transactions
Observable hike in number of transactions
Single most effective Ad Campaign by the Nxt Team
Per sign up charge, as low as .60 cents, in comparison with industry average of 12 USD

If a similar campaign was conducted for BitShares you would collect referral fees for those 10k users you signed up, and additional active-user fees for the 25% who continued to use bts. This means that there is no reason for the bts 'campaign' on your platform to be limited to 3 weeks as you are financially rewarded for bringing us more customers!
The full details of the referral program aren't public until sometime in June. But I'd guess you'd have earned a few thousand bts for the 10k sign-ups, and perhaps another few thousand for every transaction the 25% active users make.

If there is a specific product that BitShares can offer to target Freebieservers' users, then the financial reward could be quite substantial for all involved.
The BitShares voting functionality may also be useful for providing advertisers with product polling.

Issuing a UIA would also allow you to retain control over your digital assets whilst at the same time gaining access to the BitShares ecosystem and the potential customers that use it.

NOTE: I'm not sure how much Freebieserver's knows about BitShares but I think it is useful to have this kind of information on public display for other potential business partners to see.
Title: Re: Freebieservers.com is here
Post by: Xypher on May 26, 2015, 09:06:29 am
This seems like a great idea!
I've skimmed through it and from what I can tell:
You host free game servers in exchange for users viewing a 2 minute add before playing the game and you incorporate lots of unobtrusive adverts to fund it.
You also host occasional in game votes. The users participate in A/B testing, and advertisers can see how their products are perceived in an anonymous way that is of benefit to the end user.

Quote
Nxt - Case Study

One of our first partner programs was an integration we did with the nxt community  in 2014. A total of 6000 dollars was granted in order to attain users for the wallets at mynxt.info . In order to attain this goal, modals educating users about the uses of Nxt were set up on the platform. In addition, the site moved towards using tokens in order to further integrate the system into the user experience on the site. 

Campaign lasted 3 weeks time frame
10,000+ wallet sign ups
25 percent of the users used the wallets for transactions
Observable hike in number of transactions
Single most effective Ad Campaign by the Nxt Team
Per sign up charge, as low as .60 cents, in comparison with industry average of 12 USD

If a similar campaign was conducted for BitShares you would collect referral fees for those 10k users you signed up, and additional active-user fees for the 25% who continued to use bts. This means that there is no reason for the bts 'campaign' on your platform to be limited to 3 weeks as you are financially rewarded for bringing us more customers!
The full details of the referral program aren't public until sometime in June. But I'd guess you'd have earned a few thousand bts for the 10k sign-ups, and perhaps another few thousand for every transaction the 25% active users make.

If there is a specific product that BitShares can offer to target Freebieservers' users, then the financial reward could be quite substantial for all involved.
The BitShares voting functionality may also be useful for providing advertisers with product polling.

Issuing a UIA would also allow you to retain control over your digital assets whilst at the same time gaining access to the BitShares ecosystem and the potential customers that use it.

NOTE: I'm not sure how much Freebieserver's knows about BitShares but I think it is useful to have this kind of information on public display for other potential business partners to see.

Thanks for taking time out and going through it in detail
Yes, your understanding of the product seems right and that is the direction we are headed at.
We have a suite of side-projects coming up that could use Bitshares in detail (gambling, exchange)  and am researching further on that end.
Bitshares Vote could be utilized for the polling system, but I am not sure on how we benefit from it. That said, yes VOTE could have an amazing user case by which the polling could take place. I'll talk with Adam in regards to it later.

We might list ourselves at GemSpace in the future (for fund raising).