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?

[Gors]

we are here to try and fix that, this is obvious and I do agree with what you have put into your post. Though what I meant is that it doesnt take a colored name to change it, you dont need us as a staff to actually do something.

I will study this case with the rest of the staff on how to perform our job in an adequate fashion then.

[Koh]

One way to get people interested in a competition of any sort is through cash or Steam prizes. Obviously, no one here is the bank, but what Youtubers and the like often do is pool donations to fund these sort of events. Make a game in a weekend for a $100 prize for 1st place, $50 for second, $25 for third, and $5-10 consolation prizes. Now I'm aware this would require a lot of donations, but people often get attracted to competitions where they feel they can get something worthwhile as the prize; it's the goal to put your best work towards. It's no different than going into a skateboarding contest to win a mountain bike, for example.

I may have only been here for about 4 years off and on, but I always like to see communities I've nested in evolve further.

[Gors]

i am not sure if money prize is going to work. according to dazz, we've had a donation button in the main site since it was created.

it generated 10 dollars so far



but your idea could work given if we can afford the games.

[JewyB]

I havent really been active here for a while, but i do plan on coming back when i have the means to be productive. Reading this though, it seems that the best way to help may be to go big with an overhaul of how the forums work?

From a spriting point of view, people want another TUGS, but why stop there? TUGS has always been singled out as one event, but why not link the competitions into it to make them seem more worthwhile? Keep the old system of the winner chooses the next topic, but have a competition organiser, and each competition earns you points that, combined with the usual entry requirements of TUGS, confirms your placement in the TUGS roster. You could hold a TUGS every 6 months, and sprite competitions bi-weekly, and rankings are decided by a community vote that, once ended you gain points based on your position, like racing etc. also have the site promote these competitions, with maybe a countdown to the next TUGS alongside? I could go further with this idea but im currently already in TL;DR territory.

As for a comics section, i genuinely think that could be a good booster for people, but i think it would work better if there were two subforums. The first would be for people to post their comics, uninterrupted, a post per page, but, you would have to message a moderator and request fort he topic to be made. Then, with this topic, another would be made in the next subforum, allowing for discussion on the comic, that the creator can choose to read or not read. This will make it easier for people and moderators to read the comics, and they could then be selected, if they were being hosted, much easier, and in a more organised way? Obviously there would be room for other sections, to discuss comics in general or to offer lessons etc on comic structure and so on.

I have a few more ideas ill post later when i have a bit more time but so far i think these are atleast worth mildly entertaining

[Kirbyfan42]

I don't know if I have the power to start a big spriting competition, but I'd be more than willing to shoot some ideas back and forth for a big sprite-oriented project (a la cool game). Who else is game?

no pun intended

[Dazz]

Gors, where did you get this from? We received enough to pay for the server for the month when we had the button up for 3 days. We don't take donations, we can cover costs from ads and I don't agree with taking donations where they aren't needed...

[Koopaul]

Well as you know I tried doing the Pokedex Project again and... that didn't work out so well. That's hardly even sprite related, it's mostly ideas and drawing. I think the problem is that I'm imposing to much structure, rules, and criticisms to it. Or everyone is just apathetic like you said.

It's odd, I see people on the MFGG work on something and sometimes even complete it! What do they got that we don't?

[Vipershark]

rabid mario fandom (aka lack of apathy)

edit- then again, a LOT of mfgg stuff (as far as i've seen) is just edits to existing things, and that doesn't exactly take much skill or originality
even an apathetic forum can pump stuff like that out no problem

[Kriven]

Honestly, the primary differences in terms of projects is standards.

MFGG has low standards, and they get shit done.
TSR has impossible standards and bicker the Smash project into the ground about the placement of a single pixel.

[Koopaul]

Well then, sprite comics, videos, and games wouldn't be a problem. If the sprites are already there, that means less work. A lot of people would be willing to post their easily slapped together work in a Comic or Video section. That would draw new members here.

But here's the twist. We'd give them incentive to improve.

Now you can either do what was suggested before, or you could try my idea. A Rating System.
Well there's already sort of a rating system but this one would work differently. It would affect their title and status on the forums.

Special titles like: "Pro Comic Maker" or "Master Comic Maker" depending on how high your comics are rated. That might get people to work harder on being the best they can be.

Eh just a suggestion. Not a very good one.

[Kriven]

That's a good way to create classism.

Why not just have each "submission" be created as a poll with "Host" and "Don't Host" options and go with the majority opinion?

[Gors]

Gors, where did you get this from? We received enough to pay for the server for the month when we had the button up for 3 days. We don't take donations, we can cover costs from ads and I don't agree with taking donations where they aren't needed...

idk where i got that from but looks like i was way off then, sorry about that

[Kirbyfan]

That's a good way to create classism.

Why not just have each "submission" be created as a poll with "Host" and "Don't Host" options and go with the majority opinion?

While I can, I'm suggesting that more than majority vote be required. Maybe like a 67%, 2/3 thing.


Making sure I'm on the same page as everyone else, so we can continue productively:
I'm pretty sure that the way to breathe life into tSR (or VGR or whatever) and spritework as a whole, as with any other thing, is to introduce it to popular mediums of art/entertainment. More and more games and videos are moving past sprite-oriented graphics. This is happening to the point where even higher-res spritework is considered "nostalgic". So all we have to do (said lightly) is make the sprite-oriented contents of this forum relatable to a newer audience. Whatever people are used to, we would have to show that it can be done at an equal/higher caliber with sprites instead of 3D or vector-based modeling.

Anything I'm missing/wrong about?

[Kriven]

Anything I'm missing/wrong about?

The excessive emphasis on sprites.