Door #1: MusePad

What's Behind Door #1?
    I think I'll start off with an idea for a website that I once thought would be amazing, but quickly gave up on: MusePad. The idea was to create a website that was like DeviantArt, but with a focus on literary art rather than visual. Here are some of the features I had planned for it:

• Categories like DeviantArt, only with a linguistic focus. 
• Poetry
• Novels
• Short Stories
• Choose-Your-Owns
• Screenplays
• Stage Plays
• Etc.
• The editor would include multiple organizational tools specific to the type of literature you're producing.
• All would include bookmarks and notes.
• Novels, novellas, etc. would include chapter tabs by default, which you can name and use to switch between chapters quickly. You can also allow readers to use them as bookmarks or not.
• A character page would be included in all editors, but it would only be visible by default in script-related genres. This would let you define your characters, their bios, their descriptions, etc.
• You can link new works to old ones chronologically--for example, you can define a work as a sequel or a prequel to another work. This would show navigation links to readers when they reach the beginning or end of your work, so they can follow the universe as you expand it.
• Works can be open to adaptations/fanfiction or not, depending on the author's preference. If they're open to adaptations, another user can specify their work as an adaptation of yours, either in their work's settings or by clicking the "New Adaptation" button on your work's page.
• Adaptations would include an automatic byline indicating the work they were adapted from
• It also cross-links adaptations to their originals and suggest adaptations next to/under the original works.
• In addition to reading work directly on the site, users can download works in multiple formats, including PDF, Word, HTML, and EPUB. These would all be generated/converted by the server with no user input, except perhaps letting the author choose which formats to make available.
• Authors may also upload works in any of these formats and have them auto-converted (and displayable).
• Works can get feedback by views, ratings, and comments
• Views, however, don't count equally. If a person views a work for two pages, then leaves and never returns, they clearly didn't enjoy the work. Should their view count as much as someone who read the entire 500-page novel? Not at all.
• Also, if someone skips to page 500 and reads the end, then leaves, should his view count as much? Nope.
• So views should be weighted by a few things:
• The percentage of pages viewed. So someone who viewed 10 out of 500 pages gets a lower weight than someone who viewed all 500.
• The time spent per page. Let's face it: people will try and scam every system. If they know that views are weighted by pages read, they'll just quickly skim through all the pages to boost ratings. But a page with 200 words can't be read in 2 seconds by any human. So only after a page is viewed for a certain amount of time (threshold TBD by experimentation) does that page count toward the view weight.

    I never did work out the best business model for the site. There are several possibilities to be explored, including these and a mixture of any of them:

• Ad revenue. Just classic AdSense-type ads around the site that generate the cash flow.
• Commercial works. Reputable users can choose to sell their works rather than distribute them freely. The site can then take a percentage of these profits. This is win-win for the authors and the site, because it encourages more users to write and sell, which in turn makes you all more money. It of course has the potential drawback of turning away readers, which is why only people who have built up a reputation--VIPs, MVAs, whatever--can sell. Then people who enjo those authors' stories will have more incentive to buy, and they'll have more time to get hooked on all the free stories around the site.
• As a potential extension of this idea, a partnership with a digital or physical publisher could add more incentive for budding authors, and more revenue for the site.
• Subscriptions. Rather than pay by commission, people can pay to subscribe to authors they like, and those authors and the site take a cut of the profits.
• Or, users could even subscribe to Groups (like on Facebook, only for groups of similar authors), and the profits could be distributed among the group's members, weighted by views and ratings.
• Donations. You can ask and/or beg for donations. Hey, it works for some people.

    So, yeah. That's MusePad in a nutshell. Standard license applies: it's free for you to bend to your whims, as long as you either credit me and/or contact me about it :) .