inactivity and relevancy

so in the legendaries topic, silverfusion mentioned something baout making a poll to help decide over designs and what not... he felt it could help with a "community revival" since everyone's voice would be heard... i feel that that is an excellent point... people have been talking about group projects and what not, and i think we need to be active and try to "do something" so revive our somehwat innactive community

example: not to sound angsty and attention whore-y... but i've have like 6 sprites up for a day and only got like... 1 person in 24 hours give any feedback while the potpourri forum has been buzzing with activity... with a dex that has been incomplete for... um... years, we need to be more focussed on relevancy

we need more participation in critique threads (regardless of skill) and to refocus on relevant matters... the general progression of the dex expecially since i feel it's gone stagnant for some time

i understand that the starters and legendaries are a hot issue that we need to be high on the list, but we also aren't having much feedback going on in general spriting (where improvement happens) AND we have a huge lurking problem that kinda needs to be addressed

something that might help is getting a lot of new people involved, maybe each person invite one person from outside this community because when someone is introduced to something new (like this) they immerse themselves in it (i know i did)

so basically i just want to hear your thoughts on this

Welcome to the club.

Nobody gets crit anymore. Look at my most recent spriting thread.

And the potpourri section hasn't been buzzing with activity.

What, one active topic, and only three members have posted in it?

What you are suggesting is getting people to sprite and/or critique, and there's no way you can really do that. Motivate them?

They don't need motivation. They'll see new sprites regardless.

anyway, we can still try and personally invite people here and there, that cannot hurt.


EDIT: okay what the heck. you want motivation? you want to be involved? you want a chance at it? well this is your chance!
you see that april - may contest going on in the contest section right now? well guess what?? for the fakemon category, the one and only winner chosen by you and your fellow members will get straight into the fakedex as long as it's believable as a Pokémon, and not a legendary nor a starter. yeah you heard me.

I like that idea, but I had my own idea, if this is an idea thread.

How about Awards? I lost the award code, but theres a code where memebrs can win awards, like best Fakemon awards and what not, they can be ribbons as well that appear next to the users name and under his avatar, when he/she posts.

Its just an idea, I sure would want to get alot of awards.

Maybe even have a section for Text Role-Playing with your fakemon you make, like say one of your fakemon battle another fakemon. Make sense?

These are all just blerbs and ideas, you may ignore them if you wish.

i just found a good award system (for IPB, but seems to work perfectly on IF). i'm adding it to the board but we won't be using it if we don't get any participation on the eventual contests. it wouldn't hurt if people wanted to organize their own contests as well (remember you can make tiny little simple contests of your own), and the big ones approved by CS would get their own award to be added to the winner's profile.
anyway here's the code, only problem is that right now it takes a line by trophy and the description must be added next to it, i'd rather have it show on mouseover only for extra space, but that's godkillah's js, i'll have to ask for that special change later on:

sounds like some good ideas! a CS wide contest would be sweet

-Jake- all i'm trying to do is get ideas circulating and possibly involving other members in looking for ways to keep people interested

dude, that totally just made me wanna enter.
I already have an entry in the works, but it's not a fakemon.


and now I really do feel motivated. I think awards are a pretty good way, as long as people keep on adding awards.

and the pokedex is actually pretty active as of recently, so I can't complain.

Well, let's see.

(I take it this is the current 'HALP WE'RE INACTIVE" topic)

The reason PMF failed is everyone there was too casual, nobody sprited. I think the reason CS is inactive has something to do with the fact that you all take everything WAY too seriously.
Someone edits your sprite? HOLY SHIT (no offense Hark, I understand, just an example). Someone doesn't agree with your opinion on gay marriage? BAN (yes I know that was not the whole circumstance, but rather the straw that broke the Camerupt's back). Someone doesn't crit properly? Rather than calmly informing them of the rules, you FLIP OUT on them.

I think this is scaring people away.

I see people getting crit, really good crit, almost up to the level of Pixeljoint, but I don't see new members. I don't see casual discussion. I don't see this forum doing anything that makes it... well, a forum - a place to talk to people. All you guys care about is your little cliques and your little sprites.

I agree with casti - invite people. But to do that, you'll need to open up a bit. When I mention CS to a lot of my friends, they're like 'oh, that site?' and say you guys are elitist. Which I might agree with if I didn't know that you're all good people. (Well, maybe I still agree with it a bit.)

teal deer: have more patience with the Megazee types, be open to new members, have more casual conversation. It's not the forum that needs to change - it's the members.

that's better, you're actually making a point here, explicitly explaining your point of view in a constructive way and not just in an hurting way.

i really don't have anything else to say to that, you've got a point, the ball's in our court now. let's not play too roughly this time.

I completely agree with MM's post, and I agree with the points that she's made. She's right; we do have our little cliques, and we do angry easily.

But if I hear someone bring up Megazee one more top, I'm going to implode.

He's been gone for months, it's time to let it go.

I apologize if the whole Mega thing opened an old wound.

In any case, I'm glad you guys can see where change is needed and willing to go along with it. New members would really help at this time... have any of you thought to make an advertisement on TCoD and post more on SPPF, PC, or Pokémon.net?

wow MM... i am continually gaining respect for you... i agree completely... i feel what i meant in the first post had more to do with that, it just came out differently... but we certainly need to step it up and support each other

i was actually thinking about the term clique yesterday while thinking over why we're falling apart... i know a lot of the users here communicate outside of CS, and naturally they "hang out" together more in threads, but i think inclusion of others (or at least mutual respect) would greatly help

It's too bad too, this forum has (had?) a lot of great spriters.

I think it would also help new members get active by not having the most active forum, the Gallery or whatever forum, be inaccessible until they have a certain number of posts. They come and all they see is a basically inactive forum with a bunch of potporri.

It's hidden for a reason.

Sprite theft is fairly common.

in theory i agree with you, it would be a great way for new members to get involved and actually see where their involvement could lead, but we've been having a big problem with theft, and our great spriters get pissed as a result... what it does is it prevents people from making an account to simply gain access to the forums, and the precious jewels within, the sprites and creations of the spriters...

if people could be trusted, then it'd be nice to allow them instant access, but sadly people keep that from happening :/

It's to promote their activity amongst the boards. They will need to post crit, get involved in the community etc to be able to understand what the community's about; spriting. Once the 25 posts are done, they can see where they can head to with enough practice and absorbed knowledge

Our own inactivity (well, mine anyway) is explained due to having an education to uphold. 2 years ago, I cared little about my education (well, I did, but not so much), as I knew what my efforts would acheive. I sprited because it gave me a hobby, an artistic hobby. 2 years later, and although I've still got that hobby, I'm just not as concentrated on it. Another factor is that I'm working a lot whenever not schooling, and since its after school/weekend shifts, it leaves little time to myself to sit down and create a worthy sprite

I think this 25+ post thing is more of a negative thing than a positive thing.

To me, 25 posts are too much... I go to another forum and I almost died when I only had to make 3 posts to start getting the regular member privileges. Then when newbies try to make a topic for themselves, they double post a ton because they can't edit their posts.

It only takes so many posts to realize a person either wants to steal the dex's sprites or spam the forum. I think the goal of getting more members has changed and is more focused on security and also more directed towards, how should I say, experienced members? Do you really expect an 11 year old to have the patience to stick around waiting for minute intervals posting detailed critique on other people's sprites?

This little brace that we put on new members seems to kill most of their excitement and eagerness before they even become a regular member.

25 is barely a contribution to the site IMO.

But maybe give them the ability to edit beforehand?

Yeah, it is... what was your point ? So wouldn't it be better to have a smaller barrier until they can post regularly, so they can contribute more to the site quicker?

But the edit function should be allowed, because I don't see the need to take that away... Mods can see what they previously said anyway, right?

do you realize that brand new members double posting are not warned when it's justified and do get extra post count for that?
25 posts get done really quickly, specially with all the compulsive posting going on in welcome topics. it's a minimal contribution which prevents us from having to constantly check all lurking postless accounts.

on the other hand, i'm thinking of letting post count increase in potpourri, since it's became a lot less spammy over the past months. what do you think?

I say go for it, there's no real hurt in doing so. Is there?

What's the time interval between posts anyway?

And if you change it to count posts, then there wouldn't be a place to just put one word sentences anymore ):

But I guess the ChatBox works for that...

This post has been edited by PearledWave§ on May 11 2009, 01:57 AM