On Recent Actions Involving the Spriting Board(s)

[Terry. T.]

Re: Not to be rude, but...

I already know how to make them. And people can't copy if they don't know how. BUT, remember Shellder, the first one?

 

[alonsyalonso]

Re: Not to be rude, but...

My First ever contest was deleted... that actually made me really upset. I was excited when it started. They might close this too...
Heres the link to my only surviving Comp, b4 they close that 2
http://www.dragonflycave.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2732&highlight=beginnings

 

[Mewtwo]

Re: Not to be rude, but...

...Don't Chatspeak.

And, ZC, if they never see the light of the Internet, may I make Pocket Candies? Because I've learned how to take the JPG efect away from things, and now have all your flavors and more!

(Typically meaning I don't upload them for other people, just for fun when I'm bored in my Paint program)

 

[cheesecake]

Re: Not to be rude, but...

And, ZC, if they never see the light of the Internet, may I make Pocket Candies? Because I've learned how to take the JPG efect away from things, and now have all your flavors and more!

HAY GUYS IT WAS HIS IDEA.

Unless ZC gives you permission, which isin't likely after reading his post here.

Really people, copying other people ideas= very rude

And so I stay on-topic, yeah, after about 100 contests and armies, I couldn't stand it anymore. Something new in the spriting world might get me spriting again.

*goes to eat ramen*

 

[Zeph]

Re: Not to be rude, but...

...Don't Chatspeak.

And, ZC, if they never see the light of the Internet, may I make Pocket Candies? Because I've learned how to take the JPG efect away from things, and now have all your flavors and more!

(Typically meaning I don't upload them for other people, just for fun when I'm bored in my Paint program)

No. Sorry, just no. What do you mean you have 'all the flavours'?

 

[Nope]

Re: Not to be rude, but...

No. Sorry, just no. What do you mean you have 'all the flavours'?

All the colours, maybe?

 

[ultraviolet]

Re: Not to be rude, but...

Why the hell do you need armies anyway? If you have a collection of sprites, then go uh, save them into your own file on your computer or something? The sprite contests are being deleted because most of them are all the same. Sprites & Pixel art is to show off your galleries.
If you want armies that much, go and store all your chaos/splices/whatevers on the gallery in your profiles. Nobody cares about them or wants to see them.

And, ZC, if they never see the light of the Internet, may I make Pocket Candies?

Oh my god, do you ever make anything original? All you do is rip off other people's ideas.

The adoptables are stupid too. Most of them are just crap copies of Dragon Cave's ideas, which were goddamn awesome. You know why the dragons did so well? Because they were original. Stop making adoptables. They're stupid.

Don't think up knew things to spam up the board, either. The million shops that are run by like four people each are enough already. It's supposed to be about showing off your art, not freaking internet popularity over sprites.

 

[alonsyalonso]

Re: Not to be rude, but...

But thats the thing the unique contests with a rule twist (to make thigns more interesting are getting deleted as well!

 

[Mewtwo]

Re: Not to be rude, but...

I took the JPEGness away from them- ah, just forget it.

And I think ZC abandoned his adoptables. Pikachu hasn't gained anymore cracks, and my Oddidh egg still wont crack!

 

[surskitty]

Re: Not to be rude, but...

I have been closing redundant sprite contests whenever I feel like checking to see if they still exist, yes. Why? Because your competition consisting entirely of SPLICE THIS WITH THIS or RECOLOR THIS POKEMON BLUE or MAKE A SCRATCH SPRITE OF MY FAKE POKEMON is pointless. It's clutter. It's also making any sprite contests showing effort at all look bad. A Halloween-themed contest during October makes sense and actually fits in; a "splice two legendaries" contest is dumb and not going to get smarter.

Sprite armies are closed whenever I get around to checking because a thread in which five million people post their sprites fitting a particular overly-specific theme is unnecessary. Put your sprites in your own galleries/shops or in that one stickied thread. Don't make a thread in which people post every single goddamn sprite that happens to be of one particular thing, and especially don't post a dozen slightly-different threads exactly for that purpose.


If I accidentally closed any threads that were used purely for either one person's sprites or one person and a few other people running a thread - but not a sprite army! - then by all means, tell me that I did so and I'll unlock it. Generic sprite contests are going to be locked whenever I care, and so will most army threads.

Also, if anyone wants to try running the contest thread, tell me because I can't be bothered.

 

[wolftamer9]

I kind of liked armies and contests. I didn't like the constant creation of new contests, especially because after that the best older contests got locked. it was also pretty good when there was only one or two armies, that was fun. I didn't like the spamming, or copying, but the rest was great. but even so, people go too far too often.

 

[surskitty]

Which is part of why I didn't do anything until there were about ten threads for each. Bandwagons for the sake of bandwagons are dumb, but I tried to leave the ones that showed some actual thought. :/

 

[wolftamer9]

Re: Not to be rude, but...

The adoptables are stupid too. Most of them are just crap copies of Dragon Cave's ideas, which were goddamn awesome. You know why the dragons did so well? Because they were original. Stop making adoptables. They're stupid.

not really. dragon cave wasn't the first to make adoptables, so they weren't original, just of good quality. there have been adoptables for a long time.

Stop making adoptables. They're stupid.

... you have the right to your opinion. that's not the same as stupid insults.

 

[Furretsu]

you know this forum's gone down the shitter when people start defending spam threads full of people posting gallade sprites they didn't even make

 

[wolftamer9]

you know this forum's gone down the shitter when people start defending spam threads full of people posting gallade sprites they didn't even make

if the threads were as bad as you word it, then why were they popular?

 

[Furretsu]

because the average member on these forums is completely retarded

there was actually a time when the member base here valued quality, believe it or not

 

[Negrek]

if the threads were as bad as you word it, then why were they popular?

I imagine because they were easy to create, they encouraged participation, and people love to feel like they're a part of something--even if it's something so small as a sprite army.

However, this is not the purpose of the sprite forum. The sprite forum is a place for one to showcase one's own spriting skills, or possibly to request a sprite from someone you think does them well. Sprite armies are made up of sprites that are probably already posted somewhere else anyway and serve no real purpose save to post in and feel good about yourself--nobody's going to searching through sprite armies to see all the Mewtwo sprites people on this forum have created. So I guess I'd call them fun to participate in, pretty pointless otherwise. To me, that sounds like something that'd be best suited for the insanity forum or forum games or something.

It's clear that many people enjoyed sprite armies, but the sprite forum is not the place for them, and they were interfering with the forum's actual function.

there was actually a time when the member base here valued quality, believe it or not

I don't remember such a time, nor do I believe that a lack of appreciation for quality is what this board's most major problem is at this point. But, that's a rant for somewhere else entirely.

Don't really know why I responded to this thread. Blech.

 

[Furretsu]

I don't remember such a time, nor do I believe that a lack of appreciation for quality is what this board's most major problem is at this point. But, that's a rant for somewhere else entirely.

Oh? I'd be very interested in hearing more about this.

Not trying to be an ass here - I am honestly very curious. =P

 

[Negrek]

Well, long story short, I feel like on this forum it's become "cool" to be a jackass to everyone who isn't in your clique. Established members can do everything short of directly insult a member who doesn't meet their arbitrary standard of quality, and they can even do that frequently enough because the moderators usually turn their heads the other way.

For a forum that apparently prides itself so much on liberality and free-thinking, there's a lot of close-mindedness on this forum. People who don't type properly get screamed at, but it's avant-garde to post without capitalization or punctuation. Heaven forbid you do that if you haven't enough forum cred to get away with it, though.

Used to be that I'd recommend this forum to people because I felt it had higher standards than others, but nowadays I'd tell them to stay away, honestly. It doesn't take a lot to get someone on your case looking to grind your face in the dirt because you broke some unwritten rule of forum etiquette, or dared question some prevailing opinion.

Okay, so you're "right" and they're "wrong." Maybe you're so right and they're so wrong that I don't even need those quotation marks. That doesn't mean you have any excuse to treat them like dirt. It's perfectly possible to run a tight ship without making a mockery of everyone who doesn't meet your almighty standards. It's perfectly possible to express disagreement without making the opposition feel stupid or in general insulting them.

And it's not even good argument practice. If someone says, "I like IE because it's easy to use and I've never had a problem with it," there are some flaws in their argument. But making some snide remark about it, whether or not that remark is totally accurate, doesn't actually further your case. People don't respond well to what they perceive as attacks on their intelligence, and if your response is along the lines of "oh my god I can't believe how people are too lazy to try something new why are they all such sheep why are they not as informed about this issue as I am here lesser being here are some resources to correct your egregious error in judgment" they are probably going to be less receptive to, say, switching to Firefox than they would be if you had been just *slightly* less offensive.

That, and the in-group does a lot of disgusting, "Yeah, you're so awesome. I'm so awesome. We're all so awesome--except you, you just don't measure up." There's a very powerful hierarchy here, and if you don't fit in near the top, you have to tread extremely carefully not to get ripped into.

Now, some members are strong enough to get through the derision phase. They clean up their posts, suck up to the right people, and eventually earn a favorable rating on the elite members' scale. But far more don't. Some would argue that that's a good thing, that we're driving out the dreck. But I think that it's not right for a small group of people to decide what sort of people are "acceptable" and discard all the others. Given time and--not even encouragement--a little time to learn how things work, most people do get better.

So, I feel like people around here are drunk on power and prestige and quite happily taking it out on people who happen to not share their views or who haven't quite figured out how forum posting works. In the end, there are going to be lots of people on any forum whom you don't like, threads you don't like, whatever. But here people actually actively eliminate these things rather than realizing that not everyone's forum experience is made favorable in the same way.

I know that if I hadn't joined here ages ago and had responsibilities to attend to, I would just be, "Well, fuck this. These people are just a load of dicks." and get the hell out of here. As it is, I rarely venture outside ASB and a couple other forums anymore because of all this nonsense. And I realize I'm far from blameless here--I've been harder than I should be on some people whom I just don't like, even though I try to be fair. I don't infract people, even when I think they should be infracted, for being assholes, because I'm too afraid for my own precious reputation and power to actually invite a contest of power against them. I get snappy, I want to bash in the heads of people who are, in my opinion, just acting dumb. But I do try my best to be civil and explain why I take issue with what they're saying rather than just letting them know that I think they're being stupid.

Which is not to say that I think everything should be roses and happiness and sunshine and omg friends!!! There are a lot of members who annoy me, too. There are some people who Just Don't Get it Why Are You Still Posting. But if they make a topic that's well-intentioned but dumb or ask a stupid question, then a bunch of people swoop in with stuff like "best thread ever" and in general have a good laugh at that member's expense, it not only makes those members look like complete jerks (which, in fact, they're being), but does nothing to actually improve that member's behavior.


So I guess I feel this forum has become more a place where you can express your opinion if it pleases certain members in high places and where you can get away with just about anything if enough influential people find you "amusing." Where people would rather sneer at members who don't please Their Lordships or who are having fun in a way that is just omg so stupid you guys than actually attempt to change things. Well, whatever. I just don't find this forum's prevailing sense of humor pleasant at all.

...now look what you made me do. I was supposed to be working. ;-; Sorry if it doesn't make much sense, I wrote it all out of order.

 

[Furretsu]

I read through that whole post twice... and I must say, it's certainly enlightening. Not quite sure how I feel about it at the moment, but I'll perhaps get back to you when I do. Thank you for taking the time to post that.