Suggestions for Forum Structure (Full Version)

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Eukara Vox -> Suggestions for Forum Structure (12/1/2013 19:46:12)

The preliminary move has been made.

I would like suggestions as to how to arrange Legends of Art to make it more usable and inviting.

One of the changes that will be made is that all Showcase threads will also include commentary, so no more separation. That was done because I remember how much this move was not favoured originally. Though it works well for the writers and continuity of storytelling... not so much for visual artists. So, that experiment, admittedly, just didn't do it. So, I will be working on merging existing showcase and commentary threads.

SO, what type of structuring do you think would be best?




Solar Boy -> RE: Suggestions for Forum Structure (12/1/2013 21:23:31)

This is very encouraging. I'm pleased that you're looking to us for input on these matters. :D

I've got a bunch of ideas on this matter, and I'm pretty rubbish at organizing them, so bear with me!


I. Visual Aid:

Quite a while back, I made a mock-up composite screenshot.. thing of what I thought would be an awesome gallery layout from screenshots of the gallery through the ages. It's not entirely relevant anymore, but I think it's got a lot of good elements, and the majority of what I'm looking to suggest here follows the same layout. So here's that. (bear with me, it's a bit small >_>)


II. Main area:

I agree that having commentary and artwork in the same thread is the way to go. These threads should be front and center, in the main area. I think a problem with the last layout was that Commentary Corner wasn't centrally located despite being where the majority of the action was at. No means to navigate directly from Commentary Corner to the battle area, for instance, meant hardly any sig battles, which were previously a staple of The Gallery. In addition to all the main important stickies, this is a good place for Artist of the Month. A thread meant to draw attention to a rising star amongst the art community, or a long-time veteran who deserves more recognition shouldn't be buried, by any means. Notification stickies for official special events might be useful, too.


III. Proposed sub-forums:

  • Art Request Shops

  • The Cafe (this would be The Lounge; a place for community/artsy discussions)

  • Gallery Events

  • Art Academy


    IV. Something else:

    Could Legends of Art come before Writers of Lore here? The Gallery's always been above L&L on the boards list, and it's currently "Lore" before "Legends" despite the area being called "Legends and Lore". This hurts my psuedo-real internet OCD. :p


    Finally, thanks again for considering my/our input!



    • Arthur -> RE: Suggestions for Forum Structure (12/2/2013 10:50:33)

    I believe what we can have is a complete section in place of the thread we call "Chopping Block" for artists who are extensively looking to improve upon their art.

    There you can also ask experienced artists to volunteer for the various artforms where they can guide the learners through various exercises and such.

    This, I believe bears some resemblance to what Eukara did for the L&L some months back.

    Furthermore, while we have sections for various types of arts, I believe a section specifically for Photography and Music should exist too, to encourage budding photographers and musicians who would do nothing more than these.



    DaiTigris -> RE: Suggestions for Forum Structure (12/2/2013 22:03:26)

    So Eukara to be a little clearer the commentary would be included as part of the Gallery thread. So In this case will the commentary corner eventually be removed from the system entirely? Just trying to clear my head on this detail to make sure I'm getting things right.

    Otherwise I think it might be a bit nice if the the Art Academy section got moved up to the Legends of Art board. Mostly because The Art Academy is more about teaching artists who are relatively new their respective art and providing tutorials for those interested in improving. By putting that in front I think it would allow ease of access and make it the first thing that stands out to those who may be interested in art.



    Eukara Vox -> RE: Suggestions for Forum Structure (12/7/2013 14:27:08)

    Right now, the Commentary area is read only. We don't want anyone to lose comments they may want or need, but we do want commentary in their showcase threads. If someone wishes for their commentary thread and showcase to be merged we will do that on request.

    In the writing section, we have the conversations, discussions and critique requests up front, for the same reason. Encourage community discussion and interaction in regards to improving and assisting.

    Writing section is like this:
    Worktable, which is where you ask for help, discuss writing related issues. It's also where we post contests, writing projects and their discussion threads.
    Archive, which is where the actually writing is
    Commentary, which is where the feedback for work is given.

    I will be looking at suggestions for structure this week, once I finish writing my heart unit for my elementary PE class. Once I start looking over your suggestions, we can start playing around with what could potentially work best for you.



    aNyThInG -> RE: Suggestions for Forum Structure (12/8/2013 6:57:21)

    I love how the commentary and the gallery was separated. I am not sure what more can be done unless you are keen to poke the coders to code the forum to be in favour of the gallery. Perhaps the commentaries could have the collapse function, that way, commentaries are hidden by default, making the gallery thread a little cleaner. Otherwise.. Not an issue. I definitely suggest keep the commentary section alive, in case you need to revert to the old system back.

    Question: But it would not be against the rules IF visual artist redirect people to comment elsewhere? Facebook, Twitter or DeviantArt? Though I have no idea how many people have their gallery on those mentioned sites.



    ShadowWhisperer -> RE: Suggestions for Forum Structure (12/22/2013 15:42:27)

    I don't know if this is what you're looking for but: Maybe making it easier to find Art Request Shop. Some people have trouble finding them so I feel that they should be a little easier to access and find.

    Again, if this isn't what you guys are asking for, please disregard this message.



    Frostburn -> RE: Suggestions for Forum Structure (1/20/2014 21:54:21)

    Merging the artworks and commentary again is a good move, it displays/promotes activity. Seeing the current structure, and the activeness of the art community, several sub-forums only echoes a close to dead community.

    'The Gallery' can be the main area, everything digital art goes here. I feel that there is no need to separate animations, still art, and especially anime/video game works (very similar to still art). Plus, anime/video game works are under still art/animation, it can either be one of those.

    A simple sticky about collaboration requests in 'The Gallery' is sufficient instead of a dedicated collaboration forums. Again, displays better activity. Or the sticky can be inside The Cafe since that's where we relax with others. After finding a partner, we'll just post in our respective threads in The Gallery. 'Competitions' needs its own sub-forum (as it is), maybe under the 'Gallery', but not a forum itself. Special events can just be merged with 'Competitions', since they are closely related.

    The Cafe can be the lounge. No need for a 'The Lounge' sub-forum. Art Requests Shops can stay under 'The Cafe' or under 'The Gallery', or better yet a forum of itself. Art Academy sits just fine under The Cafe.

    So, my thoughts:

    - -[The Gallery]
    - - -Subs: Competitions

    - -[Art Requests Shops]

    - -[The Cafe/Lounge]
    - - -Subs: Art Academy

    Thanks for asking our input. I'm sure that whatever you guys will decide will be for the better. Godspeed.

    Edit: So the gallery is really dead. Months of no activity. I understand why galleries of respective games were dispersed. More reason to cut down on sub-forums.

    Edit edit: Re-read Solar Boy's suggestions and making the Legends of Art the main gallery area is actually quite nice. With Art Requests Shops and Cafe as subs. I would change Gallery Events to Competitions though. Events can be easily mixed with the Cafe/Lounge, and as there's not always an event.



    Eukara Vox -> RE: Suggestions for Forum Structure (6/6/2014 18:13:59)

    The one problem I am facing is this:

    If I make the showcase all the main gallery, with all threads showing up and the subforums listed alone, we have no way to differentiate the medium types, which was a request the last time we revamped. People wanted an easier way to tell mediums apart than simply having to read through every thread title.

    If we go back to that format, then I will have people not happy with the more complicated thread titles, and having to sift through them that way. I would love to implement Solar Boy's system, but that hang up is what is keeping me back.



    Solar Boy -> RE: Suggestions for Forum Structure (6/7/2014 19:18:55)

    Given the level of activity in the gallery in recent years, I don't feel it's necessary to separate threads by medium. There are usually only enough active threads to occupy the front page at any given time. This is especially true now that AE-related artwork is no longer in the gallery.

    If it's critical that it's known what sort of art a gallery contains, we could go back to putting a tag in front of our thread title (DA for digital art, HD for hand-drawn, etc.), though I don't really think it's necessary; a little exposure to an art style you're not familiar with never hurt anyone.

    I'd be interested to hear what others have to say about this.



    Arthur -> RE: Suggestions for Forum Structure (6/7/2014 23:38:51)

    You could try separating sections into basic art categories and in their descriptions, writing what all sub-categories they include. For example,

    Hand-Drawn Art This section contains everything from pencil-work to calligraphy. Please use the relevant tags with your threads.

    Then you can assign tags for that art sub-section like [Sketch], [C.Graphy], [Pen-work] etc.

    Similarly, Digital Art contains everything from GIMP to Adobe Photoshop. The tags for this section could be [GIMP], [Fl], [Ps] etc.

    The only thing is, for every art category sub-section, some emphasis needs to be put on these thread tags to make things less confusing.

    Other than that, I agree with Solar Boy's opinion that it can't hurt to get exposed to some new form of art. For all you know, they might get inspired and start following it.



    Solar Boy -> RE: Suggestions for Forum Structure (6/8/2014 4:58:01)

    Having sections dedicated to hand drawn and digital art was successful in the past because the gallery was insanely active and there were enough active artists within each medium for sub-communities to develop around them; a single section wouldn't have been able to accommodate everyone.

    With so few active artists in the current gallery, I can only see breaking us into smaller groups being detrimental. If, for instance, there are only 2 active artists posting digital art and the only people seeing their work are those two artists, nobody's going to be motivated to post more.

    If by some chance activity in the gallery takes off and a single section layout can't accommodate everyone comfortably, I feel that would be the time to consider breaking us into separate sections.



    Arthur -> RE: Suggestions for Forum Structure (6/8/2014 5:44:40)

    So activity is the main problem here. I have an idea to get that up.

    We can do something like the Book of the Rift event BUT for the Legends of Art section.

    An event where artists come together and create teams of 3 in order to either draw a comic/manga or a masterpiece. The story part can be agreed upon by the Contest Hosts or the teams can work themselves to it. Each member must be good at some art field. You guys can decide the fields as per contest requirements like Penciller, Graphic Colorist and Typesetter if it's a Team Manga.

    Forming teams won't be a problem as one requires just 3 members and word spreads like wildfire. There, you have 9 participants already.

    I'll try and spread word on Twitter.

    Team Contests usually raise activity and the section popularity should go up.

    Tl;dr version: Book of the Rift but modified to an art version with teams.

    What do you think...?



    Eukara Vox -> RE: Suggestions for Forum Structure (6/8/2014 16:05:59)

    I do understand that smaller amounts of activity does lend itself to an easier transition into one huge gallery forum. As long as I don't have people waving fire and pitchforks at me for making it harder, I have no issue with it. Let me talk to Pyro.



    Edit:
    Talked it over with Pyro. We're willing to try this out, so bear with us as we move things around. The subforums will be put on ice for now, in case we have to go back to the old system.

    Edit Part 2:
    Gallery rearranged.



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