SOTW + Reopening GFX

[Takari]

Damn, this section dead .

[Black Eyed Peas]

Damn, this section dead .

Takari, you're alive?!

[Kuro Tenshi]

"This section is dead" <-- *looks at replies at thread*

[[MPGH]Ethereal]

If this section is going to go anywhere, the first thing that needs to happen is that the more prominent artists here (Doc, Ethereal, Kero, myself, and so on, I haven't been around much to point out anyone else...) and the admins need to come to some sort of consensus.

To begin, what the admins need to realize is that we DO know what we're talking about. We've spent a lot of our own personal time getting better at something we enjoy on a deeper level than signatures with COD renders. Some of us have taken classes. Lots of us spend hours, if not days on pieces. For me, it's right in the middle of a passion and a hobby. I don't do it enough to call it a passion, but when I do, I do nothing else, and I take it seriously. I think I can speak for a lot of the people I previously mentioned when I say that.
We stepped out of the norm. A few of us, who by chance landed on a hacking site and stayed, had a desire for more. Metaphorically, we were sitting in the cramped little space called the "MPGH GFX Section" with no room to move. So we broke out, and we didn't come back. That's where the conflict erupted. We wanted to take the rest of the section with us, and the admins didn't want that. I've explained it as a demographic transition before, but I cbf to go find that post.

However, what we as the prominent artists need to realize is that we can't have high expectations of this section, and we can't have this sense of entitlement because of how we've spent our time progressing and improving. We all (except maybe Shayne) turned into massive assholes in our own ways. I feel like this wouldn't be the case this time, but I can't speak for everyone.
Admins don't want members scared away, and we effectively did just that, whether we meant to 100% of the time or not.
Simple.

Before any of these changes start to take effect, there needs to be a level of mutual respect to build on. Otherwise this whole thing will just implode like it has on several occasions for the past 3 years.
But that requires participation from both parties.



I like this idea a lot. It's structured, maybe needs to be modified a bit, but it makes sense.
The only thing is that if you're going to have an effective system like that, you have to have people at the top who know what's what. The artists here as a whole can probably all agree on who those people would be, and maybe the admins have input as well, but this just calls back to my previous point: admins have to trust artists, and artists have to respect admins.

That's my opinion on this whole thing.

Bottom line, artists need room to operate. Admins need to give some room. Admins need results. Artists need to respect the boundaries and standards given by admins.
You could almost call it a separation of powers with checks and balances.

@Ethereal @Doc @Dave84311 @Keroaplt @Scrcrw @BSG.Flash @Kuro Tenshi
And whoever else.

Extremely well put and I agree 100% with pretty much all of this.
I think as far as the newer people getting scared away,
it really just had a lot to do with our approach.
I will be the first to admit, that when I first joined the gfx section here I was a jerk off.
I would pretty much just flame people, but after getting on the gfx team twice I rarely just flamed anyone for no reason.
It was more of a defensive thing to knock people down a notch that were either being condescending or just straight assholes.
Either way, I think some us went about dealing with those kinds of people wrong,
and we probably should have done it in a more passive manner like Shayne did.
That being said, I personally don't treat people here the way I did 2 years ago unless we're talking about Chuck. (That's just our thing)
Either way, if needed I will be a part of this team again. If whoever chooses the team doesn't see that as a possibility,
I'll still help out from the outside either way. Hopefully things can get rolling for summer break, I'd like to see this section returned to it's former glory.

[[MPGH]Dave84311]

So basically graphics artists here that are interested would start out at Level 1 designer.
If they want to progress to the next level, they have to take on a project given to them by a gfx team member.
This would be cool for both parties, it would give the Gfx team member an actual JOB..rather than just doing jack shit,
And the gfx designer will have a chance to progress to the next level.
The projects from the gfx team member can vary from moderate to difficult,
it all depends on how high/low the designer is. For instance, a level 1 designer might be given the task to take on 3 requests from an MPGH user in the gfx requests section, in order to progress to level 2. There can even be a ladder thread that shows the name of the designer, what level they are etc.
The gfx team can either make badges for the graphics designer level, or maybe it can be implemented as a user tag?
I don't know..it's just an idea and something interesting to maybe give people more purpose to frequent the section.

That actually isn't a bad idea.

I'd love to see the section up and running again, not just in the summer rise but all year round.

As do I.

[Ali G]

Lol, nah. I mean, that's a nice idea what Ethereal and Ryan listed above. If that system will work then the gfx section will officially reincarnate.

Though, the old dudes should be on the new gfx team. Not some newfucks, ( IDK if Kero is new or not, i dont really care, but he could be an exception, he should be on the team too)

Good luck with that!

[Keroaplt]

About Ethereal's plan on doing things apart from SOTW I think that's just great and a good idea. Ryan is completely correct on the way that some of the people here are supposed to be because a large part of the downfall of this section was actually the new people being driven away if there's no one coming in and people going away then basically there's no way this section was going to grow, and obviously there were other things. So i agree completely on how the situation is supposed to be among us.

[Black Eyed Peas]

@Dave84311 What happened to the GFX Project you were running during summer '11? That one with showing off our work and stuff, and you and Liz were supposed to choose the GFX Team members. Is that off to the water or what?

PS Unban my main I need it now that you're restructuring GFX.

[Ryan]

Either way, if needed I will be a part of this team again. If whoever chooses the team doesn't see that as a possibility,
I'll still help out from the outside either way. Hopefully things can get rolling for summer break, I'd like to see this section returned to it's former glory.

Same goes for me. When summer comes around, I'll actually have a bit of graphics work I'm doing for money (hopefully) for a guy at my dad's office, so I'll be working in that area anyways.
A part of me misses this place.

@Dave84311 What happened to the GFX Project you were running during summer '11? That one with showing off our work and stuff, and you and Liz were supposed to choose the GFX Team members. Is that off to the water or what?

PS Unban my main I need it now that you're restructuring GFX.

I think after nearly a year, it's safe to say that project is not going to happen.

[.REZ]

I would love to be a part of this in any way that I can, I gfx on the side and I'm going to go to college for graphic design after I graduate next year. I really want to see this section up and running, it doesnt get enough activity for as interesting of a section that it is. Say the word and I'll help as much as I can.

[[MPGH]Doc]

Any ideas on rewards for SOTW. A single choice of VIP doesn't seem enough to me. People who are a part of this section don't care for hacks, people who came from external sections to participate did want hacks, but not enough people who actually had some creativity or appeal. Without CF VIP the popularity of SOTW just halved.

[Ryan]

Any ideas on rewards for SOTW. A single choice of VIP doesn't seem enough to me. People who are a part of this section don't care for hacks, people who came from external sections to participate did want hacks, but not enough people who actually had some creativity or appeal. Without CF VIP the popularity of SOTW just halved.

That might be a signal for people skilled enough to dominate the competition to step back and take a mentor-esque position, like Jimmy's suggestion. I don't get any kicks from automatically beating 90% of members anyways.

[[MPGH]Hero]

Any ideas on rewards for SOTW. A single choice of VIP doesn't seem enough to me. People who are a part of this section don't care for hacks, people who came from external sections to participate did want hacks, but not enough people who actually had some creativity or appeal. Without CF VIP the popularity of SOTW just halved.

Maybe a special tag and colored name?

[[MPGH]Ethereal]

Any ideas on rewards for SOTW. A single choice of VIP doesn't seem enough to me. People who are a part of this section don't care for hacks, people who came from external sections to participate did want hacks, but not enough people who actually had some creativity or appeal. Without CF VIP the popularity of SOTW just halved.

Well, if you take a look at most other sites it's really only a sotw badge people win..
I think Fringe gives away forum points too.
If Dave got the whole shop thing running, that wouldn't be a bad idea.
Tbh I think a badge and VIP is more than generous.
Essentially we should be getting a lot of people entering just for VIP alone,
oddly enough that hasn't really been the case.

Does anyone know how to whore views on Youtube really well?
We can always throw together a promo video together for the section,
and make sure we advertise SOTW as winning gets you free CA Vip hacks.
I browse all kinds of other forums, and trust me CA hacks are still in high demand.

[Kuro Tenshi]

Does anyone know how to whore views on Youtube really well?
We can always throw together a promo video together for the section,
and make sure we advertise SOTW as winning gets you free CA Vip hacks.

Well you can sticky a thread concerning a video about all of this at the sections where you might win a certain vip, so it's a option.
Tobad that CA hacks are almost like to easy to make 'n create... as i have seen lately.

But yeah anything new to SOTW i wouldn't add (personally) it's already allot more then most sites do.