Are things slower around here?

[Kriven]

You guy really aren't getting it. Everything discussed in the past few pages could work as non-sprite related projects. Comics could work as not sprites, music could work without being pixel-related... But, just quoting Kosheh's post for a moment:

well it's not really a spriting project

He went on to propose a good idea, but the fact that it was somewhat apologetically introduced as "Not sprite related" speaks to the mentality of the community. The idea that this is a spriting forum is still too thick to expect other communities to grow. I'm not talking about a tangible change to the site's operations, I'm talking about an underlying mentality that permeates discussion. Everything is related to and compared with sprites, constantly, frequently, endlessly. And so far the only reasoning for this has been:

"Welp, it's operated this way for a decade."

Which is just the same old "We can't change because tradition" every other group uses when they don't actually want to change.

But anyways, I don't think the community is particularly "slow", so I mean, I guess you can all shut your faces with that one. It's not "slow", it's old, its userbase is old, and no amount of projects will fix that. You want to revive the community as far as the art scene? You need to push it in more lucrative directions. Projects and prompts are great... but maybe get representatives from studios coming in to do Ask Me Anythings about what it takes to break into the industry. Start some discussions about places where one can apply their skills for practical use.

The sub-board for paid requests is a good start. Keep pushing in that professional direction.

The spriters don't have to be modelers and musicians, and that mentality, that the current members should acquire these skills and teach them to one another, is wrong. You need to be attracting modelrs and musicians from off-site and make them on-site. People who were initially drawn to those mediums, people who have spent just as much time with them as you have spent with sprites. That doesn't happen by forcing pxls into every qualifying project.

It's also hilarious how the mods are taking this thread as "Mods, please fix the community" when that hasn't ever been said.

Literally the purpose was to brainstorm reasons for why the community is getting slow, possibly test those theories, and to come up with ideas for what could improve it. Not a single person has ever said: "The mods really need to pull more weight around here or the community is sunk." People have brainstormed, people have disagreed. Nobody has blamed the mods.

But I mean, if you want someone to blame you guys in some roundabout fashion, okay:

apathetic members

If the community you are responsible for running is apathetic and you do not like it, you are not performing your job in an adequate fashion.

You want to fix apathy? Answer this question: What has the leadership done to encourage it?