I don't think there's anywhere near enough of an open population on tSR for people looking to give paid work. Literally everybody here looking for pixel artists are doing it for a fangame, and are looking for people to do their entire game for them without pay.
That's because the mainsite caters only to fangame makers. literally no sprites on tsr can be used in an original game, which is a put-off for people like me who want to make a real game. maybe try getting custom royalty-free sprites up or something?
I think we need to specify further rules for the forum. Specifically the requests forum, and the Sprite Discussion forum. Most criticsm is not adhered to being constructive as I've noticed in the Sprite Discussion forum. I'll admit I've been a bit of a jerk myself to some newcomers, and it made me realize it should not be tolerated at the level it has reached now.
As for the requests forums...it's nigh-useless at this point. People rarely contribute to it no matter what the case, and much to often are the replies 'make them yourself'. I find this shallow and depressingly sad. I am a firm believe in the idea that spriting is for the people, by the people. I believe it is about giving to others without wanting anything in exchange. I believe spriters should help those who need it when it comes to spriting, and people should not be put down for their ideas or requests. Once again negative critcism tends to strike a lot in the request forums, as well as useless posts. There needs to be a slightly stricter moderation to these two forums, and request should be treated fairly.
Your idea of handing over stuff to the people who needs it is good, but I've noticed that many requests could have been avoided by just googling for the stuff (Google Image search does wonders if you need to find sprites) and also I've noticed that many people just comes to make abusive requests like asking full, original sheets and they want it done for yesterday.
And if they don't get immediately what they want, they start insulting people, which doesn't helps them at all to get what they need.
A bit of education and common sense could help requesters a lot IMO.
I think we need to give people a second or a better warning before bumping old topics. People who bump really old threads don't really seem to notice that small warning in the quick reply box.
I think that the site could do with a Sound effects section. I know this has been said before, but there's hardly any sites on the Internet that let you download sound effects.
Some time ago a few persons commented that deleting the reputation ratings made by banned members would be a good idea. Considering how some people have made dummy accounts to praise themselves or to "punish" others until caught and banned, deleting their ratings doesn't seems a bad idea, actually.
(04-30-2010, 07:19 PM)Carpaccio Wrote: [ -> ]I think we need to specify further rules for the forum. Specifically the requests forum, and the Sprite Discussion forum. Most criticsm is not adhered to being constructive as I've noticed in the Sprite Discussion forum. I'll admit I've been a bit of a jerk myself to some newcomers, and it made me realize it should not be tolerated at the level it has reached now.
As for the requests forums...it's nigh-useless at this point. People rarely contribute to it no matter what the case, and much to often are the replies 'make them yourself'. I find this shallow and depressingly sad. I am a firm believe in the idea that spriting is for the people, by the people. I believe it is about giving to others without wanting anything in exchange. I believe spriters should help those who need it when it comes to spriting, and people should not be put down for their ideas or requests. Once again negative critcism tends to strike a lot in the request forums, as well as useless posts. There needs to be a slightly stricter moderation to these two forums, and request should be treated fairly.
Once you have made quality customs sprites and can do it consistently, then you will know why NO ONE will make good sprites out of decency for others for no reason. Make them for friends? Sure. Make them acquaintances? Maybe. Make them for total strangers who only joined the forums to beg for custom sprites? No fucking chance.
@Carpaccio:
Also take into account the fact that the Requests forum is for fulfilling requests other than complete custom sheets. And don't say that nobody ever answers those kind of requests either, because I've done it myself and I'll beat you to death with your post if you make it. >:O
I have a suggestion, can we have sub- and superscripting?
I understand the level of relationt that's required to make oneself feel like doing a custom sheet for someone else. But I'm not talking about just customs. Whatever the case though, there's a clear lack of respect for the request forum, and I would suggest having a minimum post count for posting there if we must have a request forum. I'm a little tired of us getting like fifty members for all of them to make only a single request and not follow up on any other topics. Also perhaps if we have a request forum we should have the stipulation that one must have submitted sprites which were ALSO ACCEPTED.
I want to make it clear that I'm not upset because "people never fulfill requests" because I'm aware some requests have been filled. Even my request of Morshu and Ganon was fulfilled, and that's a wretched CD-I game that's nearly impossible to emulate, much less rip from properly. I think people should just be more appreciative of the fact hat some people actually DO fulfill requests.
Anyway, what I'm saying is, the request forum should have a few rules and guidelines to be able to post there. I think there should be a system of exchange as well, somewhere. Maybe sprite trade, such as "I'll rip Dr. Robotnik from Sonic 3d Blast for you, if you rip Dr. Weil from Mega Man Zero 3 for me." But even witht hat there would have to be rules. Mayeb collective topics with each person's preferences and abilities, such as "I prefer to rip from GBA and SNES, usually through tile ripping and VRAM viewing."
Also, I think there should be less 'trollish' posts in legitimate topics. I notice people are sometimes being jerks just for the sole purpose of being jerks, for absolutely no reason to people who have been down on their luck and have had soem sort of misfortune, such as when someone loses their cache of sprites due to a hard drive error. I, for example, posted a request for some sprites to be ripped that I had once had but lost due to a hard drive failure, and rather than having posts that were legitimately contributing to the topic and constructive, they were pretty much stupid and not worth saying such as 'owned'. Not only was this completely useless and a waste of a post, also bumping a topic for good reason, but it was condescending and rude. I believe people should be a bit more respectful and if they must troll or flame, they leave it at Spamhaul where it belongs and let people who are attempting to conduct legitimate work on spriting alone.
...Whew what a rant...
Say when are we going to change the customs page layout? I thought someone made that suggestion a while ago and it was gonna go through.
I mentioned adding a post limit for requests a while ago, but it was never looked into, I don't think.
Koopaul, Dazz hasn't been around much and I don't have the access/know-how to do that stuff, so it's going to have to wait. :/ Same with the Textures we've been saving forever...
Since this attacthment thing is a problem, why not have it only restricted to certain member groups? because a few Junior Members seem to abide the rules and do so, eating up MB with HUGE incomplete sheets without a reason, even with the new rule.
Just a suggestion to avoid something like a mass attachment flood and going past -insert number name here-k.
The problem is Dazz wants to leave the attachments so newbies can submit sheets at the submission forum. I think I've suggestioned before but I'm going to suggest again: turning off the attachments to all forums except the submission one.