http://thespook.deviantart.com/journal/ deviantART Journal for thespook 15 http://a.deviantart.com/avatars/t/h/thespook.gif http://thespook.deviantart.com/ 50 50 http://thespook.deviantart.com/journal/20264646/ http://thespook.deviantart.com/journal/20264646/ I have to tread lightly here, because this isn't meant to be a rant. Consider it... an observation, and... I hesitate to say, an opinion - nay, A CALL TO ARMS! ... Mon, 01 Sep 2008 11:23:11 -0000 I have to tread lightly here, because this isn't meant to be a rant. Consider it... an observation, and... I hesitate to say, an opinion - nay, A CALL TO ARMS! As the title says: ...enough with the contests!Contests are great, I've got nothing against them. But... I feel that there's too damn many of them around here. Why does everything have to be a "DA TA DADA! CONTEST EVERYONE! WIN PRIZES!" ?Why can't we just have... y'know, a community project instead? Or people creating stuff because it's what they like doing? Why does it always have to be a contest with winners and losers? Why should the motivating factor to participate in the community be winning some sort of prize?Again, I've got nothing against contests, they can be fantastic and wondrous events (*eCSSited I'm looking at you) - but you don't have to make everything a friggin' contest. Especially if the only prizes you've managed to organise are a few months subs (if that) and some 'journal features' Meagre prizes are not the problem though, don't linger on that point too much. I dunno. Is it just me? I doubt I'm the only one that can see contests as some sort of obsession around here. Look at AR run contests for instance, for dA's birthday this year, who can guess how many contests were held? No cheating! Seriously, take a guess, a wild one if you have too, and then hover for the answer, and click to see the birthday contests category. So what you might say, there's a lot of deviants around here now. Well, what do you say to this: On average, at the time of writing, there are 30 or so submissions per contest. That's an AVERAGE. Until we started poking people, the pirate themed Resources contest had something like... 8 submissions. Contrast that to the Easter Egg Challenge held in 2006, that had 283 entries (disclosure yes, Nadia, ^bleedsopretty, my wife, organised that one - if I was familiar with another contest that did as well or better, I'd have used that as an example instead). Yes, overall, this year's birthday contests in total have around 521 submissions, but I dare say some of `kuschelirmel's privately run contests have received more than 30 entries. So. Too many contests dilutes their significance, but again, this is not entirely the problem I have with them, and the above example could be seen as a criticism of the birthday contests rather than having too many contests in general.What troubles me most, is the culture that permeates through all this. I don't want to be too judgemental, but I think it kinda sucks that if you want to get people creating art you've got to dangle a carrot in front of them. This is an art site, for artists and creative types - we should all jump at an opportunity to create something new. This might not be the best example, but it's a recent one I came across and thought was awesome: check it out. A bunch of pixel artists just making freakin' pixel art because they love it. The reward is in the making, and in seeing what other people come up with. That's fucking beautiful isn't it? Makes deviantART look like Mc-fucking-Donalds in comparison. You know what's great about projects like that? Since it's not a contest, they can all help each other make their entries better. They can collaborate if they wanted (unless that was a forbidden condition ) They're not shooting for a prize, they're doing it for the love of the art. *eCSSited's first CSS contest - the code only contest - was freakin' awesome, but what sucked was when it came time to judge them, and pick winners, what I wanted to do instead was look at them as a group and shout HELL YEAH! AWESOME! and then go through each one and leave a comment. I couldn't, because I was a judge, but neither could the other competitors for obvious reasons. That made spook sad, but all the same I was so proud of the vibe of that contest. I'm sure a few of the people that entered thought they had no chance of winning, but they did all the same. Imagine if that dark cloud of 'winning/losing' wasn't hung over people's heads. IMAGINE!And DAMN guys, now that we've got collections, here's a rhetorical question: how easy is it to group and display the artwork people have created for this projects? OH MAN - imagine pixel artists, with those tile-based projects they love doing, they could create a collection for it, and as people submit their entries, the organisers could use the collection CSS to BUILD THE CITY/TILE-THING WITHIN THE COLLECTION. Double awesome is that people can +FAV the collection, rather than the organising deviant's deviation. Shit. okay, I'm going on a tangent there. But you see my point. Collections + CSS = awesome opportunity. So. To close, and re-focus, contests are a good thing, but lets see some more community projects. They don't have to be epic, you could just keep it to your circle of friends. All the rules change when you take away the chains of a contest. Lets see people making art/stuff because we're artists and that's what we do. http://thespook.deviantart.com/journal/20210221/ http://thespook.deviantart.com/journal/20210221/ Just an update to clarify things - skip to the end.I hate that little suffix. It's evil. Evil like "No offence, but..."Same goes for people telling you "Oh, well, that's your opinion" or "Well. You've go ... Sat, 30 Aug 2008 09:23:16 -0000 Just an update to clarify things - skip to the end.I hate that little suffix. It's evil. Evil like "No offence, but..."Same goes for people telling you "Oh, well, that's your opinion" or "Well. You've go the right to an opinion and everything, but..."I smack the next fool to use such lines of argument. No shit it's your opinion! - anything that comes out of your stupid mouth is your opinion you cretin. Another reason I hate it is because people will use it to put forward baseless arguments (sometimes even 'facts'), and then hide behind "their OPINION." When I hear someone say something is "their OPINION" my bullshit alarm goes off. If you know what you're talking about, just fucking say what you think. If you ARE stating your opinion however, the best way to make that clear is to say "Well, I think..." and take it from there.And don't ever, EVER say to someone "...that's just your opinion", as if that negates having to engage their arguments and thoughts. It is one of the rudest things you could say to someone, and instantly hikes a MORON flag up out of your trousers and above your head. And gives you buck teeth.The whole point of talking to someone else is to share opinions. When two or more people get together and talk about shit, what they're doing is sharing opinions. Telling someone they just gave you their opinion is akin to reminding them that they're talking to you. "Well, yeah, you just said a bunch of shit." So by informing them it's just their opinion, you're only stating the fucking obvious you douche bag. Go fill some empty air with "umms" and "aaah" Eventually we get old enough to know it's stupid to prefix an insult with "No offence, but..." (ie, no offence, but you're fucking ugly. Or, no offence, but you smell like rhinoceros poop!) - but it seems we just replace it with "...in my opinion." -"No offence, but you're a fucking ugly idiot that smells like rhinoceros poop.""You're a fucking ugly idiot that smells like rhinoceros poop ...in my opinion."See? See how fucking stupid it looks/sounds? If you think someone is ugly, and you think the need to know it (who knows, perhaps no one has ever told them they're ugly?) just fucking say it to their ugly face.fin.My next rant will be about people posting ironic comments. Yes, I'm looking at you, mr. hurr hurr hurr I'm going to leave an "...in my opinion" comment lulz. Try me. Just try me, if you're feeling lucky.clarification: I don't mind so much when people prefix what they're about to say with "In my opinion..." It's mainly when people use it as a suffix to cover their ass, or when they tell you "well, that's just your opinion" (the latter especially when you've just stated actual commonly accepted fact, like, oh, say, evolution.)So, yeah. I realise it has valid uses, but over time it has been hijacked by purveyors of spin and rhetoric. http://thespook.deviantart.com/journal/20163472/ http://thespook.deviantart.com/journal/20163472/ links.... Tue, 26 Aug 2008 15:57:09 -0000 links.stuff.things....but this is a fun and productive way for me to unwind/reset between working on things wot need to be done. Of course, I'm referring to this journal CSS here. I'll release it for public use around the same time I publish the other one you were all so eager to beta test I've got a list of things to write about, and a list of things to do. Right now isn't the time for either, right now is time for food. And some of my recent favourites: yerr. s'all then. time for food. http://thespook.deviantart.com/journal/20108199/ http://thespook.deviantart.com/journal/20108199/ another quick little journal. What do you get when you combine :visited with the property visibility? ... Sat, 23 Aug 2008 13:18:51 -0000 another quick little journal. What do you get when you combine :visited with the property visibility? ...a sticker book! http://thespook.deviantart.com/journal/20050664/ http://thespook.deviantart.com/journal/20050664/ So yerr. It's both my RL birthday, and my dA birthday at the same time. Though I joined on the 21st in Australia, it was the 20th in the US. How about that eh?... Wed, 20 Aug 2008 05:24:45 -0000 So yerr. It's both my RL birthday, and my dA birthday at the same time. Though I joined on the 21st in Australia, it was the 20th in the US. How about that eh? http://thespook.deviantart.com/journal/20033114/ http://thespook.deviantart.com/journal/20033114/ I'll be posting this for all to use soon....feedback and beta testers wanted!... Tue, 19 Aug 2008 07:01:46 -0000 I'll be posting this for all to use soon....feedback and beta testers wanted! http://thespook.deviantart.com/journal/20008211/ http://thespook.deviantart.com/journal/20008211/ repost: I fixed the link so it don't point to crazy music video. viva la pepe! le sigh.... Mon, 18 Aug 2008 02:36:50 -0000 repost: I fixed the link so it don't point to crazy music video. viva la pepe! le sigh. http://thespook.deviantart.com/journal/19925691/ http://thespook.deviantart.com/journal/19925691/ (+ skip to the update - and Katie, if you read this, I am working on 'it'.)`insaneone has been as... Wed, 13 Aug 2008 06:30:26 -0000 (+ skip to the update - and Katie, if you read this, I am working on 'it'.)`insaneone has been asking some good questions lately, in his poll: When and how did you discover dA?, and his journal ([link]) where he asks why members of this community act so harshly/negatively towards new (and often young) members.I figured my thoughts on both are worth posting here as a journal, though I've expanded on them from my original comments.I joined deviantART on August 21st, 2001 - in Australia that is, by the timezone in the US I actually joined dA on my birthday, how about that eh? After checking out the readme of a deviantart inspired winamp skin I came here looking for more. For those that weren't around back then, this is what deviantart looked like, poke around and see how much things have changed since then.At first I didn't quite get it, there was all kinds of art and app skins, even crappy MS Paint doodles (of which I debated whether they were just crappy art, or had deeper artistic meaning) it didn't quite register to me that you could sign up instantly and start submitting your own work.I told a school friend about it (~phunkdust - who has left and come back, and left again. You can find his work now at flickr - [link]), and he signed up and uploaded a few photos. The next day he excitedly told me about the comments he'd gotten, and that motivated me to sign up too.At the time I actually considered myself an illustrator, most of my creativity was in drawing or writing short stories. Up till that point I had essentially lived in a box, so it was intimidating, but also very exiting to be suddenly connected to other like minded people through deviantart. Showing your art to your friend, or your mother, is one thing, but sharing it amongst other artists is where the adventure really begins. The first thing I ever uploaded was an AVS pack for winamp (since deleted.) If you ran it in a tiny window they actually looked kinda cool, but from a technical standpoint it was crap, just a kid tweaking effects and values. Keep in mind I was only just 17 at that point. If you're around that age, and you feel old, or experienced, wait a few years and you'll see how young you really were. Anyhow, along comes `nemoorange and leaves me my very first comment (at least, I'm pretty sure it was my first ever.) To this day it's one of the best comments I've ever received. Helpful, polite, encouraging and most importantly, constructively critical. It really planted a seed for me.All it took him was a few minutes of his time to download and test that pack, then come back and write that comment - but it made the world of difference to me, even 7 years later.Imagine if he gave me attitude, if he called me an idiot etc. Maybe I would have left deviantart, maybe I wouldn't have, but my entire perspective would have been different.So, err, with my little story out of the way, why do people bash noobs? There are countless reasons, but I think the best answer is because these people (the noob bashers) probably don't really belong here. They don't get it, they don't see the significance of being a member of this community.Now, 'Community' gets thrown about a lot, it's become one of those terms that I think has lost it's gravitas, but when it finally clicks in people's minds just what makes deviantart the site it is - the fact it's a community of artists, not some social network filled with wankers - I think that's when people stop flaming noobs and start treating people with the respect they deserve.That's when we start acting like peers in a sort of gift economy. That's when the true value of being a member of this community becomes apparent. For me, this realisation made it easier for me to be a positive agent on deviantart - you'll only ever get out of it if you put in.Lets get a meme happening.I encourage everyone that reads this to sit down and think about how you came to join deviantART, what those early days were like for you, and about your journey so far. Meditate on it.I think a lot of us take for granted how profound it is to be a part of a community like deviantart, and the effect it has had on their lives. Forget the website, entity, company, deviantART, I'm talking about the community - the people who have commented on your work, your friends, your fans, artists you admire. I've been a member of deviantart for 7 years. I've seen the site go through lots of changes. I've made friends, and seen them come and go. I've changed a lot in those 7 years too. But it has taken me a while to really 'get' the community thing. I think all of us airing our stories will be a constructive exercise, for ourselves and the people who will read our journals. ...we might have talked about how/why we joined deviantart before, in addition to `insaneone's journal and poll I know $FallenRox asked a similar question a while back too (link to their comments) BUT what we haven't done as a community is write journals about how you came to join deviantart, about you experience with deviantart. Journals can have thumbs of early deviations, journals can tell stories that don't fit in comments. So go. Go write a journal. Take your time, reflect. Tell us your story. Urge others to do the same.Don't mention me, don't link back to this journal and say it was "thespook's idea", that's not the point. Just tell your story and ask others to do the same. Encourage them to write journals, if they leave it as a comment give them a smack.addendum.I thought some people (especially those newer folk) might be interested to hear a little bit of dA history. Here's some of the things I remember.Back in the day: ...devwatching someone added all their deviations to your devwatch. it was so bad you'd think twice before watching someone ...there was a rating system on deviations, which was simplified, and then became the +fav system we have now. For a short while too dA would give you a little popup window with &#039eople who +faved this also +faved these'. Like the ability to rate people's comments, deviation ratings where dropped because they where kinda useless. People would either rate highest, or lowest. ... 'p didn't always parse as &#039 ...it was possible to comment (or at least view) every deviation submitted each day. ...I was online right as the brush gallery went live. Up until then, people would submit their brushes into the Texture gallery for lack of a better place, and I was the first person to move my brushes into their new home. I kid you not. ...I was also online right as the pixel art categories where put in place. I'm not much of a pixel artist, but I love the artform and it was an awesome time to be on dA. Imagine a totally new artform coming to dA now, get me? ...there was only one DD per day. Eventually there was a Poetry DD too, and a skin DD, and now there's DDs for any gallery with a GD. Oh, and there was no such thing as GDs in the beginning either. ...you couldn't comment on journals. ...you couldn't reply to comments. ...for a while there was this neat feature called mosaics. People could start a mosaic project, and participants would receive a piece of the patchwork quilt that included a little bit of the adjacent tiles. It was an actual feature of the site, with a script that handled it all. Not sure why it went kaput though. ...there was a special program built to browse deviantart called the deviator. Long after it ceased being supported the forums still had it listed, which was quite amusing because people would either confuse it for the deviants forum, or post questions about wtf deviator was. Not sure why it took them so long to kill the forum . ...the main method to browse dA wasn't by a wall of thumbs, it was either by a list of their titles (no, really!), or the preferred method was with a thumb with the deviation details below, followed by another block that had a thumb and details - see here. When thumbnail browsing was introduced we actually lost the ability to click a 'next' link to view the next deviation, and it wasn't until last year that this feature was brought back. ...there weren't subscriptions. ...there was a period where the site was so freaking slow it was torture. Perhaps $spyed remembers referring to this time as 'the great bandwidth crisis' ...you could choose from a list of site skins. ...you could submit a header image for dA, and everyone could choose to use it from a drop-down list in their options. ...if you where a member of an art group, like depthcore or breedart, you got a fancy # symbol next to your name. Poor ^lemontea only just got his when they stole the symbol back for use with dAmn ...you could search for users by name.I'll split this list into a separate journal later and add anything else I remember - any old timers got something to add? http://thespook.deviantart.com/journal/19781179/ http://thespook.deviantart.com/journal/19781179/ the news item!To celebrate deviantART's eighth birthda... Tue, 05 Aug 2008 06:13:05 -0000 the news item!To celebrate deviantART's eighth birthday the Resources and Stock GDs are holding a pirate themed contest, aptly named Pieces of Eight. There's two parts to this contest. One is to create pirate themed artwork using the resources and stock photos within the Resources gallery, and the other is to create pirate themed resources or stock photos. Think of it as two separate contests - you can choose to enter only one, or both if you're feeling frisky.Pirate ARRR'TIn creating your artwork you don't have to use eight different resources, but it would be an interesting challenge don't you think? Make sure to link to the deviations you use in your artwork. If you do not list your sources your entry will be ineligible to win.The resources you choose to use are entirely up to you, but don't forget how easy it is to search for pirate themed resources:A simple search for 'pirate' under Stock Images turns up countless buccaneers.A search for 'paper' within textures turns up many textures that could be used for treasure mapsPirate RESOURCESAny of the categories within Resources are open to this contest, so if you make Stock Images, lets see your buccaneers! If you make textures, lets see your treasure maps, barnacles, and decks that need swabbin'. Maybe you'll create a tutorial on how to talk and walk like a bona fide pirate, or how to tie a mean pirate knot. Perhaps you'll create a set of brushes that Blackbeard himself would use, if'n of course they had Photoshop in them thar days. You can submit as many resources as you like, but you can only win once of course - and individual quality will trump sheer quantity. Pirate DETAILSAll submissions, ART and RESOURCES, must be submitted to:Contests & Projects > Contests > 2008 > deviantART 8th Birthday > Pieces of EightAt the time of writing those categories aren't live yet, but they will be soon. The prizes are:1st place - $30 devcash, and a Jolly Rodger keychain. 2nd place - $20 devcash3rd place - $10 devcashThat's both for art and resources, in other words, there are six winners.The contest ends on September 4th, have yerr submissions in by then or yar be walkin' the PLANK!The contest will be judged by ^bleedsopretty, ^LawrenceDeDark, ^znow-white, ^Hanratty-Stock, ^lyastri, and myself - `thespook http://thespook.deviantart.com/journal/19663472/ http://thespook.deviantart.com/journal/19663472/ ...then you just have to watch this video on youtube - [link]Works best if you watch the whole five minutes and fourteen seconds without skipping ahead. I went from curious, ... Tue, 29 Jul 2008 21:42:13 -0000 ...then you just have to watch this video on youtube - [link]Works best if you watch the whole five minutes and fourteen seconds without skipping ahead. I went from curious, to unnerved, to outright uncomfortable, to the feeling one would get as they see a car accident about to happen. And lord help anyone that ventures to their userpage to see what else they've got... so, in other words, lord help me because I watched [link] too. I love the internet, I really do, but WTF is it with crazy people and their insane fetishes for things?