[gLitterbug]

I thought about it the last day and I�m not sure if I really would like sijun to become an art school forum.

I like the idea about it, but I would like that forum to be an art school one ONLY and I think it would be better to found such forum from the ground up and not change sijun to such one.

This place should just be somewhat re-organized. More moderators, no lets say it like Akolyte said it, we need Sijun Cops. Some of them kind of parking sheriffs and reinforcements kind of 0.5 desert eagle.
The first to warn the other to *blam*!

One of the big downsides of this forum is it�s sheer size, but I thought about it and came to the conclusion that I think thats great. If only 10% of those people would give me a simple comment on one of my concept drawings I plan to do in the future, I would have enough comments to know if the mass likes the character I drew or not.
If this forum would only have 60 members I would not be able to get a good impression if my character has mass apeal.

I think the sections should be renamed at least into somewhat like:

digital art discussion -> threads o� knowledge:

where everything useful belongs that somebody wants to share, for example there shouldn�t be posted 100 different threads about composition but rather one and if somebody creates a new one with the same topic, he should be made aware of the other one and the new one should be deleted. Also if somebody asks "what music..." in there, that should be deleted.

work in progress - gimme all your critique or die!

here would belong everything that is in work and somebody wants to improve and likes to get useful critique about. No "my god I like it soo much"-only replies, just useful critiques, how to improve it,...

gallery/finished art - gimme all your praise or die!

here would belong everything thats finished and the creator wants to know wether people like it or not, critique for improvement "could" be posted here but it is not necessary.

the random musings could stay the same but a new sick name would be good.


That all sounds like nothing new, sure it isn�t, I think that�s how it should be, but it isn�t at the moment. Moderators, excuse me, Cops could surely make this place clean without being inhuman or intolerant. This should remain a place with free speech, but in a civilized way. If somebody busts out his flamethrower and starts to spread heat, he�ll get to know the artistic 0.5 desert eagle. First in the knees and if that�s doesn�t stop him, he�ll get a metallic reinforcement in his brain.

I think 2d - 3d should not be separated forums, the artist could decide if he likes to "warn" people before entering himself, by adding the 2 letters to the subject.

Hm, what do you think about that matter?
I don�t want to hear only comments from the "important" artists, as there aren�t any that are more important than others.
Hopefully this thread gets plenty replies with thoughts from many of our members.

[Lunatique]

Yeah, when I thought of the art school idea, it was just an idea. I didn't know if it really had practical merit. I just typed it as I thought of it.

I think more moderators that are less merciful is the answer.

[-Gux-]

AND: this

What do you think?

[gLitterbug]

who wants one?

[Isric]

This place has made it through before, I have no doubt we can do it again. I want a badge too, even if I'm not a moderator

[gLitterbug]

here it is:



Carry it with honour and pride!

[exo13]

Gee, more organization for the forum. Sounds intelligent enough. Enough at least to get me to reply while on my indefinite hiatus from sijun. But, Bigger changes have to be made.

I don't think that's been made clear that this forum is for artists (regardless of skill level). We have too many preachers, trouble makers, boasters, flamethrowers and people advertising their "mad skillz" at video games. Such people have no respect for what we do here and certainly don't give a damn whether or not real artists are actually trying to benefit from this place. They should not be considered welcome. Especially people like "Happyman" who has even admitted to considering artists to be "worthless". Unfortunately, these people are the ones who get the most attention. They succeed in distracting your opinions away from the art. where they belong.

Flame wars should not be tolerated at all either. Pointless inflammatory posts should not only be locked, but deleted so future, similar posts will be discouraged. Insults, crits of a malicious nature and especially entire threads with the expressed purpose of attacking someone, should not take up valuable space on the message board. And to a lesser extent, the debate posts not concerning art.

Debates on politics, religion and whether or not someone's an "Asswipe", are irrelevant and belong elsewhere. They also result in someone possibly being offended, even if nothing meant as offensive is said. In any case, I don�t think we want to repel anyone just because views may be different. Even though people's opinions may be considered insightful. In the end, you spend time reading and replying to a thread that has nothing to do with art. And it becomes easier for your opinion of someone to be altered just because of their views on a certain issue are different than yours. Fortunately, this does not apply to most of you. But it still leaves the door open for trouble makers to waltz right in and make themselves at home. Really, such views belong on someone's personal website or at the appropriate message board. My point is though, that no one persons� opinion is ever considered more valid than the next so really, nothing is accomplished. They just provide a platform for hostility.

Another thing I have a problem with (yes there�s more) is that people seem to be posting just for the sake of getting crits. The purpose of this board is to help people improve. There are too many people expecting insightful crits for mediocre work that is obviously not showcasing true abilities. I�m not discriminating against skill levels, just saying that it�s not good public exposure for an artist when a they rush their work just for the sake of displaying it. Only post a piece when you feel you�ve done the best work you could passably do without help. It�s not like this is too much to ask.

To put it straight, we need to cut the fat and flush the crap. Until actions are taken, I for one will not be posting again (good news for some of you I�m sure). I�m going to spend my time productively, making artwork and helping other artist at TeamGT, Fgfx�s forum (which rocks by the way, thanks for the invite Faustgfx!). I just feel that the art that I work hard on, despite my amateur skill level, deserves better than what sijun, as a forum, can currently offer to me. I�m not saying I�m too good because I am far from that. I�m just sick of artwork being considered secondary on an art forum. If you want to see my art (heh, no takers there) you�ll have to go somewhere else.

Btw, my farewell post was deleted so encase you didn�t read it, I�ll shorten and censor it.

See ya later
Peace out.

[aquamire]

I had a relatively good idea some time ago, that I've never actually seen implemented anywheres before. A simple way to stop, or at least slow down trolls. An Idiot-Filter, if you will. In no means should this limit 'newbies', as I believe a lot of new people who come to this forum are eager to learn, have knowledge to share, and many of them are well behaved.

Heres the idea. It would require writing a small perl script or something. New users would come to the forum, and before being able to register as new, would have to read a list of rules. After the user has read the forum policies, they would be taken to a cgi script that would actually be a quiz on what they had just read as the rules. The purpose of the quiz is not only to make sure people know what the rules are, it's also a natural filtration device against ignorant people who cant be bothered with rules. The idea being, an arrogant user might not take the time to read the rules, and will just not give a damn enough to actually fill out a quiz. Of course, it wouldn't be 100% asshole proof, but I think it would slow that kind of activity down.

A hurdle with this kind of device is the implementation of it with UBB. UBB isn't scalable itself, unless you feel like hacking its code. What could be done is making the forum require a password as if it were private. Of course it wouldn't really be private, the user would retrieve the password after having passed the test.

Sound like a good idea? Of course if it is a good idea, Dhab would need a person with knowledge of Perl or some other CGI backend, but I imagine there's a few people here who could do something like that.

Just an idea i've had for awhile, curious to see what people think.