Thank goodness. >< I suggested it in the easter thread, too. I guess someone saw it and picked up on it, lol.
Posted: Fri Oct 17, 2014 9:56 pm
Da Firenze
Keepsake Key
For the love of god make a year-round thread in the forums and close it when there's an event and make a new one in the event forum until that closes. I have all this stuff I wanna giveaway. QQ
coincidentally, pre-planning for a year round thread has started. stay tuned. biggrin
Hi, everyone! I'm new to this business, but I just wanted to add my two cents. (I love what this Guild is doing, by the way - I think it's a fabulous idea and I'm happy to be a part of it) I think having one all year-round thread is an excellent idea - it'd give people a chance to become familiar with us and also give us a chance to make them aware of when we'll be setting up Event-based threads (we could even have a space on the front page, "Coming Up" to tell people what we're planning to do next). If they could see us discussing what we're planning to do/receive some giveaways in the meantime, it'd remind them who we are and get people looking forward to seeing our stuff/giveaways/art/contests. They'd become more familiar with our artists, and it'd probably snowball into a nice hangout for anyone interested in sharing/receiving art. There are some really popular threads like Intelli-Castle that do year around freebies and chatting that are really successful, so the formula does work. It'd be like a year-long advertisement and giveaway/chat thread in one.
Speaking of advertising, I was thinking it might be a nice idea if we could create a long term collaboration with another well-known guild/thread/user or two. I've already planned and coded a nice, pretty post to make to the Newbie Support and Training Guild (it's within their rules, of course - I made sure to check!). It basically invites them along, says what we do and says they're welcome to join in. Since their Guild is so active, I have seen before that these types of posts generally attract at least several participants. After that, I was thinking perhaps that after we set up our year-round thread that we could send Ebania a PM and ask to become Affiliates. We could ask her if she would be kind enough to display our banner on their front page and then in exchange, we could always have their banner on the front page of our Guild/in our Affiliates post each time we set up shop, or even give some art freebies to her staff to say thanks.
I think it also might be a good idea if we were to also mention art recipients (as well as artists) in each Recruitment Thread, just reword things a little - we are posting in the Art Freebies section, after all, and if we say we're planning to give out free art in our header, it might help get people revved up about what we're planning. For example, if the Recruitment thread had a Title saying "Setting up Huge Halloween Art Giveaway Thread! Stay tuned! [Recruiting Artists // 52 so far]", it might encourage people who aren't artists, but interested in receiving art to bookmark the thread/lurk and keep an eye out in the forum for when we do actually set up. For example, instead of just saying ARTISTS NEEDED, we could say that we’re creating a giveaway thread and for those interested in receiving art, stay tuned for the event thread (and of course for those interested in giving art, we’ll have that information) – I think if we were to explicitly say in the title “setting up giant art freebie thread”, that’d attract people to our thread like crazy. XD People LOVE art freebies, and having about 50-100 artists? If people know about us, we’ll be huge. We just need to advertise.
Regarding advertising, I'm going to be asking around - I’ll personally advertise our Halloween Thread in my own Booty Grab Thread, and I’d like to sign us up to be Affiliates with the Newbie Training and Support Guild as mentioned above, as it’s one of the best and most well-known and active Guilds out there. If anyone’s involved in an active Guild, they could try contacting them about becoming affiliates, too - maybe after our year 'round thread is set up, so we have something consistent to link to. I'm also going to be messaging anyone I know who is an artist to ask if they'd like to join in (as well as any artist I see who likes giving away freebies!), and let the friends I have who like art know what we're doing.
I also think that having our regular artists have specific numbers is a really great idea. I think it's only right that our Founder always be #1, our Crew Members their original/early numbers (#2, #3, etc), and then after a certain point for us to be able to request to reserve a number. For example, every time we manage to recruit over 106 artists, I'm personally interested in being #106, for sentimental reasons, and if not, I’m probably going to want to be #46 again. XD (Plus, this idea is fun, because if we keep the same number year after year, people can refer to us "I really like #6's lineart/I hope #33 is around this year!" - we can have our own FAFE Codenames. If we change our usernames, it'll also make us easier to recognize - that said, I guess since we have a different set of artists each time, this would only really work for the year round thread, or for people who are here every event)
Finally, I'm just going to drop a link and let you all know that we're planning out some contests in this thread. I'd love it if more people were to join in! We're all creative, generous people here and I think we could come up with some pretty awesome ideas if we put our heads together. I posted it there because I was kind of hesitant to bring up too many long winded discussions about Giveaways and Contests in our recruitment thread in case we missed an artist posting and actually hoping to sign up.
I really like those ideas. We will for sure incorporate them once we set up shop. I've always thought it was a neat idea for us to be in the freebie forum all year round drawing freebies in between events, and letting people know more about us and what we do.
I wouldn't mind doing a collaboration with another guild. We've done it in the past for almost the same reasons and it did get us more artists. Thanks! It would be really awesome to have a partnership and also to be affiliated with them. I agree about the exchange so that they can display our banner.
The recruitment thread(s) are in need of some rewording. I really like this idea. It really has never occurred to me to do this. Thanks from bringing this up.
I agree that we should be advertising ourselves more. I'll quote the artists and ask them about this. Maybe someone is part of an active guild or know people who would be interested in joining us.
I ask the artists two have participated in 2 events until they are considered a "veteran". I'm not sure how well the idea of people looking forward to seeing a certain artist/number would work as we don't always have the same artists year after year. This would work for the veterans who are with us most of the time. I really do like the codenames idea because this will allow the idea to work (instead of numbers).
Posted: Mon Nov 03, 2014 4:01 am
Da Firenze
Hi, D!
I'm happy you like them. ^_^ I think FAFE's whole concept is a really good one, so I want to add to it however I can.
After observing our Halloween Thread in action (it was so great, by the way!) I have a tonne of ideas for the next one to make things run smoother. Is it okay if I make a sort of major big post suggesting some things for the next one? I'd hate to just drop a novel on you without warning. XD
I'm happy you like them. ^_^ I think FAFE's whole concept is a really good one, so I want to add to it however I can.
After observing our Halloween Thread in action (it was so great, by the way!) I have a tonne of ideas for the next one to make things run smoother. Is it okay if I make a sort of major big post suggesting some things for the next one? I'd hate to just drop a novel on you without warning. XD
Yeah that's fine. biggrin
Posted: Thu Nov 06, 2014 7:57 pm
Da Firenze
Yeah that's fine. biggrin
Excellent! Thank you! Hokay, novel ahead. I’ve been thinking it over, and I’ve come up with some ideas that I’m hopeful will get things running more smoothly and make our Guild more appealing. I'll break it up into parts.
Ideas for the Guild Layout
I have some suggestions for our front page - they're all included in the Guild layout coding I'll be sending you! Basically, they are: having a banner for our header and an image linked top bar, featuring a link to our Tumblr (and other important links) high up, having our signature font used more, including a description of what "FAFE" stands for (I think a couple of people thought that FAFE was the name of our thread for some reason...), having an Affiliates section (some guilds like to see where their banner is displayed before deciding where to display ours) and including a link to a Trade with the FAFE Mule so people can (hopefully) send us prizes to put towards future event threads. I’ll send you some code to try out, then I'll rework anything that needs changing and hopefully people like it and our Guild looks gorgeous. We've recently gained quite a few members, so I think a Guild front page revamp would be fabulous.
Ideas for the Guild Forums
(I know that these aren't as high a priority, since the focus is generally on our Event Threads, but I'll put these here anyway in just in case)
Another idea I have that I think might make things a bit clearer is to rename a couple of our forums. I think that "Ask the Artists" sounds a bit like an "Ask the Staff" event, and that was what I was expecting when I clicked on it. I think if we renamed the "Ask the Artists" section "Art Discussion" (or something more descriptive like "Art Discussion and Critique") and re-named the "Art Forum" something specific like "Art Drops and Giveaways", that would make the purpose of each forum a bit clearer, since the Art Forum sounds like a general area for Art Discussion (when it's actually for art freebies and a place for people to drop their art) and Ask the Artists sounds like it might be geared towards questions to the Mods or FAFE Artists. Since we have two separate art request threads in our Art Forum (and they only take up one or two posts each), if we're going to allow requests in the forums, perhaps we should also think about having a single thread for all in-Guild art requests and merging or deleting those threads, but that's up to you!
Ideas for Future Threads Next, I’ve been thinking about our recent Halloween thread and based on that, I have some ideas for the next thread:
I have made this:
I think that we need one! XD I was thinking throughout the Halloween Event that it might be useful to have a banner like this, and Kage Hikoshi had the same thing to say, so now, if we need one, we have one! I think that instead of having to type out the same thing repeatedly, that I can just make banners for people to use if they wish and we can put them in our posts every now and then to redirect people to the request thread, so many people see them - hopefully the banner will also attract people's attention more than just text, which can get lost in the thread. On that note...
I think that in the first post of all of our next threads, it would be useful if the first thing that people should see when they visit are the name of the thread followed by two links that read: “Click here to submit your art request!” and “FAFE artists, click here to submit your art requests!”. I think too many people were missing the art request threads, and the biggest waste of space were all the misplaced requests and quotes with people directing people to the request thread. I think having them immediately up top will help people know that’s where to go first, instead of typing a reply. I also think the most essential rules that are most commonly broken should be bolded in the top post, since most people didn’t seem to scroll down to read the list of rules. If we have it laid out more like this:
Maybe it’ll help people to know immediately what to do, especially since the majority of our visitors seem to only skim the first page, or just see the word “artists” and immediately go to posting a request. XD (Naturally because I'll know the layout is meant to look like that, the next version will be prettier...) Of course, occasionally, we’ll get people just going to the most recent page without looking at the first page at all and typing out a request, so I have the banner as a back up to prevent us from having to type out the same thing over and over again. XD I thought that might save us some time.
What if next time, instead of having our introduction post, then all our links and announcements, and then a long list of rules, we type out the rules that apply to requesting art in the art request thread? At the top of the art request page, we can have “Before you post a request:” then the rules that apply to art requests in particular - after all, the people who we want to see those rules aren't people who are just chatting in the thread, but the people who are requesting art. What I mean is that in the art request thread, we’ll have the top banner, followed by “Please read this before you submit your request!” and then the rules that apply to art requests, in plain sight before they can submit a request.
In short, I think that the process will be quite a bit smoother if the first thing people see are the links to the art request threads, and then when they click on them, the first thing they see is a notice where they're asked to read the rules that apply to making art requests. While I know this won't prevent everyone from breaking the rules, I think that this layout makes sense and might be a bit easier/more organic to follow.
Another rule that I think might be necessary to add (based on the fact that I noticed several complaints about it) is that we’re doing this out of the kindness of our hearts and that we can’t always draw everyone, and please don’t complain if we don’t give you art. I’ve heard complaints from users who were expecting they would get art (as well as complaints from our artists about receiving complaints and being accused of ignoring people) when naturally, it’s impossible for us to draw every request, especially when our thread is busy – and it’s not like we automatically know who everyone else is drawing.
Ideas that might help FAFE Artists In regards to our on FAFE artists, I think we should agree on a Christmas tag beforehand, and have it go in the first group quotes you send everyone: We had a grand total of seven Halloween tags, all leading to different pages, and most of our submissions had to be re-tagged if they were tagged at all. If we say clearly “Please tag your work Christmas2k14 without a space, in that order, followed by a comma then your username if you wish” or something similar (depending on the tag you choose) it might prevent people from tagging things 2k14Christmas, Christmas 2k14, Christmas2k14, 2k14 Christmas, and Xmas2k14.
Just in case people have trouble viewing or don't read the tutorial you've linked in your post, I think also it might be useful to have a Tumblr tutorial written out under a spoiler tag in your quote when you say WE ARE USING A TUMBLR ACCOUNT. CLICK HERE FOR INFORMATION, so the post would look something like this:
Quotes for the artists go here.
Hi everyone!
Since we are so close to the Event, I want to go ahead and give you all some information so that it doesn't get hectic and confusing if I were to post this the day of the actual event like in the past.
First of all, I want to make a notice that I will more than likely be at school when the event starts. I will make the thread immediately when I get home and quote you all just like in the past.
PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING (THIS INFORMATION ONLY APPLIES TO THE ACTUAL EVENT FREEBIE THREAD)
1. Please follow the guidelines of Gaia and the Rules that I will be putting on the freebie thread.
2. "Hit and runs" are not allowed this time. No, you do not have to keep track of who's posting or not.
This is just so that the people can chat for a little while and keep the thread active. You all just draw whoever you want as if this rule didn't exist.
DO NOT draw people who post their requests in the main thread - draw people who have posted a request in the request thread. If you see people posting requests in the main thread, redirect them towards the front page where the link is. We have a banner for this purpose:
3. Please do not ask for art directly. The whole point of making this freebie thread is to give freebies, but don't worry, like last time, there will be a request thread just for you all.
4. Please try to draw as many people as possible.
5. Be aware that there are rude people. If you encounter one, please tell me.
Our Christmas tag is: __________ (in that order, with/out a space - remember to separate it from your next tag with a comma!) Please tag all of your work done for this event with this tag.
To help guide you through the process of uploading an image to our Tumblr, here is a step-by-step:
STEP 1:Log into our Tumblr. The details are here. Remember that you can copy-paste the email, but never the password, or it will not work.
STEP 2:Now that you're logged in, go to our blog. You can use the drop down menu in the top right-hand corner that says "Freebie Artists for Events", or (once you're logged in) simply visit http://www.tumblr.com/blog/freebieartistsforevents
STEP 3:Now, upload your work!
Click the "Photo" icon, and then locate your artwork on your own computer. Drag it into the box shown, and wait until it uploads. If the upload fails, the image may be too large, or Tumblr simply may be glitching. Don't be worried about trying again later if this happens.
STEP 4:Now that your image is uploaded, it's time to write a little bit about your work! Scroll down a little until you see the caption and tag boxes.
STEP 5:You can type your username and who your work is of in the Caption box.
Below in the tags box (which is smaller and just below the Caption box), tag your work by typing in our Christmas tag. You can also tag your work with your username if you wish. Make sure to spell your tags correctly and put them in the right order (Christmas 2k14 will be a different tag to Christmas2k14!). Don't forget to separate your tags by commas, so they don't register as all one tag!
STEP 5:Now click "post"... and you're done!
Your work should now appear at freebieartistsforevents.tumblr.com! Don't forget to double-check whether your tag worked by looking at http://freebieartistsforevents.com/_______ (Christmas tag here) and seeing if your image is there. If it isn't, you may have misspelled the tag.
If you are still having trouble uploading your work to our Tumblr or would like for me to upload it for you, just send me a quote with your art and ask if I can upload it to the Tumblr:
[quote=" Da Firenze"][/quote]
I think that a lot of people are having trouble with the Tumblr; having trouble viewing it, using it or not realizing that there are people willing to upload it for them if they just quote with the image. If we put this in your post, I think that’d save that problem from happening so much, since a fair number of our art submissions were never uploaded to the Tumblr.
Finally, this is more of a recommendation than anything since it's up to the individual poster, but I noticed that in our art quoting contest it's more effective to state clearly in contest posts that "the first person to quote this will get free art!". Retro-tan did this, and she'd get anywhere between 3 to 10 quotes and I noticed that several people posted their icons alone, only to receive no quotes at all. I think that the icons are too similar to post formats, emotes and regular bumps to the point that people would mix them up, and that text would make the contest clearer. I'd be more than happy to create a pre-made format for people to copy-paste if that's more convenient than typing the same thing repeatedly.
I apologize, I understand that this post is very long, so don't feel the need to reply straight away. These were just the things that came to mind after looking back over our Halloween Thread that I hope might come in handy!
I have some suggestions for our front page - they're all included in the Guild layout coding I'll be sending you! Basically, they are: having a banner for our header and an image linked top bar, featuring a link to our Tumblr (and other important links), having our signature font used more, including a description of what "FAFE" stands for (I think a couple of people thought that FAFE was the name of our thread for some reason...), having an Affiliates section (some guilds like to see where their banner is displayed before deciding where to display ours) and including a link to a Trade with the FAFE Mule so people can (hopefully) send us prizes to put towards future event threads. I’ll send you some code to try out, then I'll rework anything that needs changing and hopefully people like it and our Guild looks gorgeous. We've recently gained quite a few members, so I think a Guild front page revamp would be fabulous.
● Once again,I really like the front page revamp. I'm going to see if I have enough time to work on an "ABOUT US" this upcoming week. I might need some help refining it if you're up for that.
Quote:
Ideas for the Guild Forums
(I know that these aren't as high a priority, since the focus is generally on our Event Threads, but I'll put these here anyway in just in case)
Another idea I have that I think might make things a bit clearer is to rename a couple of our forums. I think that "Ask the Artists" sounds a bit like an "Ask the Staff" event, and that was what I was expecting when I clicked on it. I think if we renamed the "Ask the Artists" section "Art Discussion" and re-named the "Art Forum" something specific like "Art Drops and Giveaways", that would make the purpose of each forum a bit clearer, since the Art Forum sounds like a general area for Art Discussion (when it's actually for art freebies and a place for people to drop their art) and Ask the Artists sounds like it might be geared towards questions to the Mods or FAFE Artists. Since we have two separate art request threads in our Art Forum (and they only take up one or two posts each), if we're going to allow requests in the forums, perhaps we should also think about having a single thread for all in-Guild art requests and merging or deleting those threads, but that's up to you!
●Hmm, that's a really good point. I'll ask I Art Monster I what he thinks about this and we'll see what we can do. Thank you for bringing this up. I want to avoid as much confusion with our members as possible. We made the threads separate to keep things more organized, but I do believe that the explanations can be more clear.
Quote:
Ideas for Future Threads Next, I’ve been thinking about our recent Halloween thread and based on that, I have some ideas for the next thread:
I have made this:
I think that we need one! XD I was thinking throughout the Halloween Event that it might be useful to have a banner like this, and Kage Hikoshi had the same thing to say, so now, if we need one, we have one! I think that instead of having to type out the same thing repeatedly, that I can just make banners for people to use if they wish and we can put them in our posts every now and then to redirect people to the request thread, so many people see them - hopefully the banner will also attract people's attention more than just text, which can get lost in the thread. On that note...
I think that in the first post of all of our next threads, it would be useful if the first thing that people should see when they visit are the name of the thread followed by two links that read: “Click here to submit your art request!” and “FAFE artists, click here to submit your art requests!”. I think too many people were missing the art request threads, and the biggest waste of space were all the misplaced requests and quotes with people directing people to the request thread. I think having them immediately up top will help people know that’s where to go first, instead of typing a reply. I also think the most essential rules that are most commonly broken should be bolded in the top post, since most people didn’t seem to scroll down to read the list of rules. If we have it laid out more like this:
Maybe it’ll help people to know immediately what to do, especially since the majority of our visitors seem to only skim the first page, or just see the word “artists” and immediately go to posting a request. XD (Naturally because I'll know the layout is meant to look like that, the next version will be prettier...) Of course, occasionally, we’ll get people just going to the most recent page without looking at the first page at all and typing out a request, so I have the banner as a back up to prevent us from having to type out the same thing over and over again. XD I thought that might save us some time.
What if next time, instead of having our introduction post, then all our links and announcements, and then a long list of rules, we type out the rules that apply to requesting art in the art request thread? At the top of the art request page, we can have “Before you post a request:” then the rules that apply to art requests in particular - after all, the people who we want to see those rules aren't people who are just chatting in the thread, but the people who are requesting art. What I mean is that in the art request thread, we’ll have the top banner, followed by “Please read this before you submit your request!” and then the rules that apply to art requests, in plain sight before they can submit a request.
In short, I think that the process will be quite a bit smoother if the first thing people see are the links to the art request threads, and then when they click on them, the first thing they see is a notice where they're asked to read the rules that apply to making art requests. While I know this won't prevent everyone from breaking the rules, I think that this layout makes sense and might be a bit easier/more organic to follow.
Another rule that I think might be necessary to add (based on the fact that I noticed several complaints about it) is that we’re doing this out of the kindness of our hearts and that we can’t always draw everyone, and please don’t complain if we don’t give you art. I’ve heard complaints from users who were expecting they would get art (as well as complaints from our artists about receiving complaints and being accused of ignoring people) when naturally, it’s impossible for us to draw every request, especially when our thread is busy – and it’s not like we automatically know who everyone else is drawing.
●I really like the banner idea. It will definitely make things a lot more easier for the people asking for art, and the artists themselves.
Hmm, I'm a bit hesitant about this idea because the reason that I put the request thread links on the same post as the rules was so that the people would take the time to read the rules first before finding out that the request thread links were at the very bottom. I also put it there to give a little more stress to the rules. It's a really good idea so I'll have to get I Art Monster I's input on this.
That rule is definitely necessary. I don't know why I've never put it. Thanks for bringing it up.
Quote:
Ideas that might help FAFE Artists In regards to our on FAFE artists, I think we should agree on a Christmas tag beforehand, and have it go in the first group quotes you send everyone: We had a grand total of seven Halloween tags, all leading to different pages, and most of our submissions had to be re-tagged if they were tagged at all. If we say clearly “Please tag your work Christmas2k14 without a space, in that order, followed by a comma then your username if you wish” or something similar (depending on the tag you choose) it might prevent people from tagging things 2k14Christmas, Christmas 2k14, Christmas2k14, 2k14 Christmas, and Xmas2k14.
Just in case people have trouble viewing or don't read the tutorial you've linked in your post, I think also it might be useful to have a Tumblr tutorial written out under a spoiler tag in your quote when you say WE ARE USING A TUMBLR ACCOUNT. CLICK HERE FOR INFORMATION, so the post would look something like this:
Quotes for the artists go here.
Hi everyone!
Since we are so close to the Event, I want to go ahead and give you all some information so that it doesn't get hectic and confusing if I were to post this the day of the actual event like in the past.
First of all, I want to make a notice that I will more than likely be at school when the event starts. I will make the thread immediately when I get home and quote you all just like in the past.
PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING (THIS INFORMATION ONLY APPLIES TO THE ACTUAL EVENT FREEBIE THREAD)
1. Please follow the guidelines of Gaia and the Rules that I will be putting on the freebie thread.
2. "Hit and runs" are not allowed this time. No, you do not have to keep track of who's posting or not.
This is just so that the people can chat for a little while and keep the thread active. You all just draw whoever you want as if this rule didn't exist.
DO NOT draw people who post their requests in the main thread - draw people who have posted a request in the request thread. If you see people posting requests in the main thread, redirect them towards the front page where the link is. We have a banner for this purpose:
3. Please do not ask for art directly. The whole point of making this freebie thread is to give freebies, but don't worry, like last time, there will be a request thread just for you all.
4. Please try to draw as many people as possible.
5. Be aware that there are rude people. If you encounter one, please tell me.
Our Christmas tag is: __________ (in that order, with/out a space - remember to separate it from your next tag with a comma!) Please tag all of your work done for this event with this tag.
To help guide you through the process of uploading an image to our Tumblr, here is a step-by-step:
STEP 1:Log into our Tumblr. The details are here. Remember that you can copy-paste the email, but never the password, or it will not work.
STEP 2:Now that you're logged in, go to our blog. You can use the drop down menu in the top right-hand corner that says "Freebie Artists for Events", or (once you're logged in) simply visit http://www.tumblr.com/blog/freebieartistsforevents
STEP 3:Now, upload your work!
Click the "Photo" icon, and then locate your artwork on your own computer. Drag it into the box shown, and wait until it uploads. If the upload fails, the image may be too large, or Tumblr simply may be glitching. Don't be worried about trying again later if this happens.
STEP 4:Now that your image is uploaded, it's time to write a little bit about your work! You can type your username and who your work is of in the Caption box.
STEP 5:In the tags box, tag your work by typing in our Christmas tag. You can also tag your work with your username if you wish. Make sure to separate your tags by commas, so they don't register as all one tag!
STEP 5:Now click "post"... and you're done!
Your work should now appear at freebieartistsforevents.tumblr.com! Don't forget to double-check whether your tag worked by looking at http://freebieartistsforevents.com/_______ (Christmas tag here) and seeing if your image is there. If it isn't, you may have misspelled the tag.
If you are still having trouble uploading your work to our Tumblr or would like for me to upload it for you, just send me a quote with your art and ask if I can upload it to the Tumblr:
[quote=" Da Firenze"][/quote]
I think that a lot of people are having trouble with the Tumblr; having trouble viewing it, using it or not realizing that there are people willing to upload it for them if they just quote with the image. If we put this in your post, I think that’d save that problem from happening so much, since a fair number of our art submissions were never uploaded to the Tumblr.
Finally, this is more of a recommendation than anything since it's up to the individual poster, but I noticed that in our art quoting contest it's more effective to state clearly in contest posts that "the first person to quote this will get free art!". Retro-tan did this, and she'd get anywhere between 3 to 10 quotes and I noticed that several people posted their icons alone, only to receive no quotes at all. I think that the icons are too similar to post formats, emotes and regular bumps to the point that people would mix them up, and that text would make the contest clearer. I'd be more than happy to create a pre-made format for people to copy-paste if that's more convenient than typing the same thing repeatedly.
I apologize, I understand that this post is very long, so don't feel the need to reply straight away. These were just the things that came to mind after looking back over our Halloween Thread that I hope might come in handy!
●I'll make sure to let everyone early on about the tag that we will be using.
Thanks so much! That tutorial will be really handy to all the artists.
I really like this idea. I agree about the confusion that could occur when just posting the icon by itself.
Posted: Fri Nov 14, 2014 8:22 pm
Alright, we're setting up the Christmas Thread! emotion_yatta
I'm really excited about this one.
Anyway...
Hi, Da Firenze! I've broken this up, per your reply.
Da Firenze
● Once again,I really like the front page revamp. I'm going to see if I have enough time to work on an "ABOUT US" this upcoming week. I might need some help refining it if you're up for that.
I got your message, I'm so happy you liked it! heart And absolutely. I'm always game for prettying things up, just send me a message whenever you're not busy! I think our event threads take priority, anyway!
Quote:
● Hmm, that's a really good point. I'll ask I Art Monster I what he thinks about this and we'll see what we can do. Thank you for bringing this up. I want to avoid as much confusion with our members as possible. We made the threads separate to keep things more organized, but I do believe that the explanations can be more clear.
Thanks, I'm sure it'll turn out wonderfully. As I said, these are only ideas and I understand completely if you need to talk them out with your Vice-Captains or need a second/third opinion (that or if it's just more manageable to keep things as they are) - this is your Guild, after all. Plus, they're just suggestions, given from someone who just recently attempted to navigate FAFE's Forums. I think that having the purpose of the forums clearer would help, though, since they don't really match the forums you had described on the original front page (which is why I didn't put a forum section), and "Ask the Artists" really does sound like a Q&A and Gaia's already well known "Ask the Staff" Event - people might think that it's a forum directed to asking our FAFE artists questions (or asking us questions about what we do) instead of sharing ideas with each other. If there's one thing that I know, people look at Titles and keywords first before reading the rules that apply to the things that interest them (Okay, if they end up reading the rules at all...). It's like the Roleplays that I make layouts for, they look at the Title, the genre, the layout and then if they're interested enough they investigate further.
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●I really like the banner idea. It will definitely make things a lot more easier for the people asking for art, and the artists themselves.
Hahahaha, there was definitely a need for that one, I could see our artists getting tired of repeating it. At least we know they'll come in handy, since we practically needed a flashing sign telling everyone where the Art Request Thread was. (Actually, I jokingly mused at putting a blinking light on it at one point, but that would have been too obnoxious for my tastes, albeit kind of hilarious considering how much trouble we have getting people to put their requests in the right place) In any event, I think that we'll get good use out of the banners, since I know that people don't like to repeat themselves.
I'll also say, this was one of the main reasons that I thought of having the Art Request Threads in the first post, or at least buttons leading toward them built into the layout - This was by far the most common complaint and waste of space, people redirecting people to/missing the Art Request Threads. We did put the links at the bottom of the Rules post (quite a fair amount of reading down from the top) last time, and I don't think that it necessarily encouraged people to read through the rules any more than they would have if they were in immediate view in the first post of the Art Request thread and defined as a must-read if you're to apply to receive any art from us in the first place - if anything, I think that people mostly skimmed the rules (or just the top post) and missed the Art Request Threads, and we needed to end up telling them where both of those things were.
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●Hmm, I'm a bit hesitant about this idea because the reason that I put the request thread links on the same post as the rules was so that the people would take the time to read the rules first before finding out that the request thread links were at the very bottom. I also put it there to give a little more stress to the rules. It's a really good idea so I'll have to get I Art Monster I's input on this.
Thank you so much! I hope that you guys will at least give it some consideration! I know it’s a change, but I still think that it's the best idea I've presented - I think this will really save us some hassle, and reduce the number of people we’re redirecting to the Request Threads (not completely, of course, I'm not that optimistic!) - which means cutting down on both unnecessary replies and quotes. I understand your point, but I think that the people who would put off asking for art or posting to take the time to read the rules through thoroughly first are proving rare to non-existent - last time, I read through the main thread and the majority of the requests in our request thread got there not by reading through the rules and happening upon our request thread links, but asking for art in the main thread, and then being redirected (which means there was probably no rule reading in the process, and none of them were aware the threads even existed until they were pointed out). If anything, I think this will make these rules more likely to be seen, because even people who are redirected to the Request Threads directly (After being told the links are on the front page and skimming for them or via direct link, for example) will end up seeing them. I'm hoping if you see it all together, something will click. I just think people immediately think to ask for art first (and quickly, so more people see their request) when they see we're a group of artists offering art. We're really the only group large enough in any event thread to have a separate Request Thread, so all of the other art freebie threads double as request threads - which means people probably aren't expecting there to be a separate request thread to start with.
Naturally, I'm not saying that we remove the Rules post altogether, I think they're necessary (and if the rules are clear from the get-go, we're fully justified in Blacklisting someone for breaking them). We'd still have a rules post in this layout, it would just be more streamlined because the rules applying to posting would be in the main thread and the rules relevant to making art requests (our main issue) would be in the first post of the Art Request Thread.
Alright, how about this? Since we’re already planning the Christmas Thread (I've been looking forward to this one. Christmas and Halloween are definitely my favorite events!), I’ll send you guys a message about this with a mock up of the layout to approve. If you guys like how it works, looks and so on, then great, and if you read my message and still aren't convinced, I’ll be more than happy to change it back to the original format.
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●That rule is definitely necessary. I don't know why I've never put it. Thanks for bringing it up.
Thanks! ^__^ You're so welcome. I know from experience we need it - hopefully it’ll help people know what to expect and people will be happier with the whole thing. In our last thread, people were accusing us of collectively ignoring them or being prejudiced against their avatars (because they were animal/male/whatever). The reality is that we can't always draw everyone, and hopefully stating that clearly will prevent these types of disputes.
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●I'll make sure to let everyone early on about the tag that we will be using.
Thanks so much! That tutorial will be really handy to all the artists.
I really like this idea. I agree about the confusion that could occur when just posting the icon by itself.
It's my pleasure. It was just was occurred to me as being organic and straightforward for future use. I think no matter what, a few people will break our rules or act without thinking, but if we lay things out so things are clearer and people know where to look first or asked for help (I... am ashamed to say that I know more about marketing than I care to admit...), that it might save us some clutter and trouble.
Also, thank you so, SO much for the feature in FAFE's recent announcement! I can't tell you how excited I was to see my graphics featured in.. well, anything. It totally made my day. Thank you!
Would a FB group be of use to us? It might be a quicker way to get news out, I know I don't always get guild notifications and with the crashing fiascoes that have been going on the past few days it made it impossible to check or reply to anything. The only way I was still getting updates and communication is because of a Girl's Guild Facebook group I'm part of.
On the Tumblr page, it isn't linked back to gaia so I thought maybe we should include a link for those who find us though Tumblr first. (Unless that is against tumblr rules or something, I don't use it much to know much about it) Though it may be better to start doing that once the permanent freebie thread is running, otherwise the link would have to change for every event. I mention this partly because my sister decided to search my username on Tumblr, an odd thing to happen cuz she knows I don't care for the site xD She came to me almost worried asking if I knew that my art was being posted there.
Also, this isn't an idea but are there any banners? Cute fancy ones to be specific emotion_kirakira
Posted: Sat Nov 29, 2014 3:57 pm
allmostanyone
Would a FB group be of use to us? It might be a quicker way to get news out, I know I don't always get guild notifications and with the crashing fiascoes that have been going on the past few days it made it impossible to check or reply to anything. The only way I was still getting updates and communication is because of a Girl's Guild Facebook group I'm part of.
On the Tumblr page, it isn't linked back to gaia so I thought maybe we should include a link for those who find us though Tumblr first. (Unless that is against tumblr rules or something, I don't use it much to know much about it) Though it may be better to start doing that once the permanent freebie thread is running, otherwise the link would have to change for every event. I mention this partly because my sister decided to search my username on Tumblr, an odd thing to happen cuz she knows I don't care for the site xD She came to me almost worried asking if I knew that my art was being posted there.
Also, this isn't an idea but are there any banners? Cute fancy ones to be specific emotion_kirakira
I apologize for replying so late. I never got a notice. sweatdrop
Those are really great ideas. I Art Monster I has considered your idea and brought it to my attention. We are discussing the possibility of having a facebook page and possibly using other medias to make communication between us all much easier.
I'll definitely add a link on the tumblr page. I don't know why I never thought of this. Thank you for bringing this up.
At the moment the only banner we have is this one: -Although we could make more "cute fancy" ones if you want. biggrin
I apologize for replying so late. I never got a notice. sweatdrop
My point exactly xD Glad to help c: I couldn't think of other medias that would be as useful and simply to use as facebook. I imagine most people have one, I only keep mine to follow news and to stay connected with groups.
Thanks for the banner biggrin I'm still away from home and my art pregames so I can't make more, I'll use it this for now.
Posted: Mon Dec 01, 2014 3:26 pm
allmostanyone
Da Firenze
I apologize for replying so late. I never got a notice. sweatdrop
My point exactly xD Glad to help c: I couldn't think of other medias that would be as useful and simply to use as facebook. I imagine most people have one, I only keep mine to follow news and to stay connected with groups.
Thanks for the banner biggrin I'm still away from home and my art pregames so I can't make more, I'll use it this for now.
For future events could you ask the artist not to give people their art in the request thread >.< I don't like the way it looks with requests spread out. I think it should be in the main thread to keep it active and moving and the request thread 'clean'.
Posted: Sun Jan 11, 2015 12:33 pm
allmostanyone
For future events could you ask the artist not to give people their art in the request thread >.< I don't like the way it looks with requests spread out. I think it should be in the main thread to keep it active and moving and the request thread 'clean'.
I completely agree. It kept throwing me off seeing people posting the art of the requests in the requests thread @_o
Kage Hikoshi
Demonic Partner
Offline
Kage Hikoshi
Demonic Partner
Offline
Posted: Sun Jan 11, 2015 12:37 pm
I was talking to a fellow FAFE member about kind of a Valetnine's Week or "Month" Art but also like a can food bank kind of concept. Donate an item/gold get art single or couples art (couples encouraged) kind of concept. That way we can get donations and gold ready for the next big event.
It occurred to me when I saw a lot of people requesting 'couples' for their free art. I mean I know it's free art for events so I didn't know if the donation idea would fly or not.
*coughs* Just a passing thought. I don't know how many artists are comfortable drawing couples. I know I'm REALLY bad at it, but I do try...
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