Topic awaiting preservation: Beating a Dead Horse?

Hey all,

Has this forum lost its purpose?

When I first started coming in here I was a lurker for a VERY long time. I studied everyone's work and was quite humbled (and still am) by the graphic ability of some of the artists that contribute to this forum. I watched and watched and watched all the while testing out techniques posted here and trying to learn all I could before I jumped from the frying pan into the proverbial fire...

I remember the first time I posted a sig....

Wow, the cold sweats and the nervousness really took hold of me and it took a lot of courage to click that "submit" button. It was if I was placing a kindergarten water color art class project up in the Louvre and asking everyone how it compared.

But I got better and worked hard and then started to enter the sig contests. The contests are like a homework assignment. Sometimes I hate the subject but to get better, to pass the class, to learn, I worked on my projects and submitted them for review.

I have won some and placed many times more so than not lately because of the lack of competition. Which brings me to my point...

Are we done here?

These past 3 or 4 months have been pretty dreadful when it comes to participation. I mean here it is the 23rd and there are only two submissions. I love Tao's but mine can't be the reason some are hesitant to submit their designs. I used to dread putting my stuff up for review, but all those people who inspired me and drove me to improve seem to have disappeared.

What was once the wild west of the Asylum forums where people came in and made this place alive with activity is now more like a deserted ghost town with the occasional stranger passing through and leaving a message.

Bottom Line: Has this forum lost its purpose?

I hope not...

Peace,




[edit]hard to type with ten thumbs[/edit]

(Edited by Jung on 03-23-2005 09:53)

Risking to be slightly off-topic: What is a SIG?

HersenSpinsels.nl

Yes and No, I mean peoples participation is extremely random, so one month everyone could post stuff then not again for a another few. But in general IMO this place is going a little downhill, maybe its the lack of the Docs presence or maybe its that more gobshites are signing up, who knows.

But .. "lost its purpose" I dont think thats accurate, I just think participation has gone down a little. I mean there used to be many new posts everyday, lately its been one or two new ones and a few replies each day. It'll pick itself back up.

hersenspinsels: Its short for "signature". Jung's poloroid above is a sig.

I had a long post with the history of this forum and all that jazz about those who participated, but I felt that it would be a waste. I will however give some little tidbits, of that which someone might think to expand on if it gets right down to it.

1) This forum is the bastard child of the PS forum. It was created so that all of the sig review threads would stop cluttering up the PS forum and the Site Reviews forum.
2) Amazing things have been done here that have pushed the limits to the edge. Anything posted here now is pretty much, been there done that. Not that the stuff done here isn't good, it is just that the stuff that is being done is not a DG's 666 last (but not really) post, or a Weadah pixel pushed master piece of even a Mahjqa supreme animation. (This leads into my next point)
3) The things that are currently being done here would be better off without using the "Sig" as their medium, because using the sig is a limitation, which somehow became an art form.

A lot of those who were really pushing the envelope on sigs took a step back and began working on larger products, while those who were newer to this area saw the great stuff going on started to get into it. But they were getting into it on the decline, as the stuff that was happening here had shifted. Server-side scripting had begun to take up a big part of the forum, and XML/CSS based designs were becoming big, the focus was on content and form, and the big flashy graphics faded out. Those who wanted to do flashy graphics moved onto things like speed painting, and even working on larger presentations. I know a lot of the people who did that stuff have left to work on private projects, such as Breedart for Weadah, or they left for DevientArt, which has a primary focus on the art and less on the art in web design.

So, is the Big-Sig-Forum dying. I would say it is dying as much as any other portion of this place is dying, but you feel it far more in that forum because it is a subset of the other forums. I think that it is time that we think about compacting this place again, and I will start a thread down in the MS Lab to see what others think, but that is something else.

The last thing I want to put in, is that you only get out of this place what you put into it. I am sure if you started giving detailed description of the process you went though to create anything new, and then encouraged other to try it you would start up something grand, but it takes a lot of effort. And I think it will take a whole lot more effort to really get the juices flowing in this place, than it did when it was in its infancy.

Dan @ Code Town

well, i think we have to see this from another point of view too: (but i completely agree with you above). the asylum has now more members than ever before of course, and there also a lot new coming every month. So more members, less sigs? less sig contest participants? I think its because how everything developed. i remember 3 years ago, photoshop was something special, photoshop was a program not everyone could handle. creating a sig was something which really identified you. 3 years ago a graphic with layer effects or something was something special. nowadays everyone can create "cool looking sigs" and i guess this also a reason why sigs became the victims of an "inflation". what i want so say is that probably many more people have a basic knowledge of photoshop nowadays....which was not the case some time ago.

what made this forum so special for me were the new techniques mahjqa provided to us. because this made me play around ;-)

my 2 cents.
edit: i forgot to add: i also think that several inmates just create new sigs without posting them here for a review....

B | T | E | P | L

(Edited by mas on 03-25-2005 15:16)

http://www.tryptych.net/index.php?page=psygnosis <- those were the days

A vast majority of the people that made coming to this place worthwhile have pretty much vanished - plain and simple. Weadah, Michael, deebs, Drac, DG, izz, Jeni... I haven't even seen my friends online in months. DG is off with his band and corporate whoring, Weadah's off keeping the dragon population in check, Michael is busy as hell as far as I know, Drac and Izz - like me - are constantly being raped by school, and I haven't seen or spoken with Jeni or docilebob for a very long time.

I miss the good times and I miss my friends, but we've all got lives outside of the Asylum that takes precedence.

So to answer your question, has this forum lost its purpose? No, the forum is still here for anyone that wishes to make use of it. Is this forum (and the Asylum) dying? In my opinion, the Asylum I knew died many moons ago.



(Edited by synax on 03-26-2005 00:03)

quote:

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I miss the good times and I miss my friends, but we've all got lives outside of the Asylum that takes precedence.

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you have been outside the asylum? TREATMENTS!
(btw you are right...miss all the good guys....oh and you forgot mahjqa!)

but mahjqa is still here, right?

He is. Mostly lurking, though.

And talking at the third person at times. The rumor says it's due to an abuse of shock therapy, but it can't be ...

wow. if that was a red flash, I suspcet I'd just have lolst all my asylum memories, mahjqa.

True, the Asylum is constanly dying. But it is also constantly being reborn. Old members leave, new members come,
ancient members return, disappear again, forums get lot of attention (serverside at the moment), forums get less attention
(sigs, pspong), it's all just part of the cycle.

I've never been one for sigs - I think I made one in total, and that was horrendous - but I believe I have helped quite a number of people
over in Server Side scripting.

As many of us 'old-timers' (if I may call myself that...) I've been spending less and less time here. Not because of developments in the Asylum, but more because of the world around me. "School rapes me", to mis-quote synax.

But I will always keep on returning.

Now, what we're really missing is someone like emps. Someone who delivers a whole load of quality posts each and every day...

So long,

->Tyberius Prime

If there is any flogging of a dead horse I'm quite happy to do it. I happen to have one in the back garden I have been knocking hell out for weeks - makes the meat tenderer (as do the maggots).

Anyway this discussion has been going on since before I arrived here - in fact I started this FAQ 3 years ago (Hell thats scary!!):

Is the Asylum finished?

So its great that you are concerned enough to start a thread because that gives me hope that people still care about the place. Sure I'd like to see people sharing more and throwing more stuff in (even if, like DmS' and DG's recent posts, it is a show and tell to keep us up to date on what they are doing) but sometimes other things interfere, and I know I'm guilty of this too, but in the end we can only do our best and hope that other people do the same.

___________________
Emps

The Emperor dot org | Justice for Pat Richard | FAQs: Emperor | Site Reviews | Reception Room

if I went 'round saying I was an Emperor just because some moistened bint had lobbed a scimitar at me, they'd put me away!

=> Emps, TP et al: Three big cheers!!!

Some of us newer members very much appreciate what we get from this great place but I'm sure many, like me, came here first up searching for answers to an image or syntax problem. The depth of knowledge here is so great that we are inspired, yes inspired, to try and do better. That is a long term thing and, other in the photo forum, I feel I have little to offer than moral support: most new inmates are in the same boat as me and the older ones certainly don't need my help.

I lurked for several years before joining because I was in awe of the depth of experience here; it was the launch of the new Grail that prompted me to sign on - if older members make all that effort, surely us newer ones can at least reveal our presence!

Dying, I doubt it and sincerely hope not -- changing, certainly - life has a cycle to it and people change - not to mention the big blue room - remember that place?

It's great to see some older members, even the Doc, drop in occassionly and keep us all up to date on their lives DYING _ I DON"T THINK SO

(Edited by lan on 03-27-2005 05:33)

I have to agree with TP above, it's dying and being reborn at the same time. it's called time

I've been around since 2000 and the place has sure changed... I too miss the amazing creations from ppl like Doc, wedeah (looked at tryptych and mmmhmmm from above and... wow...) and many more. to me the graphics produced nowadays are very very good as well, partly since they are well above my PS skills.
Thats also a big reason why I don't participate with images any more, I'm a lot better at the art of coding... That's my bag nowadays.

Basically, since life and family caught up with me I don't have the time to do more than my day job plus lurking with a post now and then. I'm in here at least once every day though.

But enough talk about the old guys there are a lot of new talent here, perhaps not all of them know that just yet, but with support they will know, grow and evolve and we will have had a part in that process. This is important to me, is it important to you?
/Dan

{cell 260} {Blog}
-{ ?The Internet treats censorship as a malfunction and routes around it.? (-Barlow, John Perry) }-

Hehe, I nearly cried.

"I was the kid next door's imaginary friend"

quote:

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hersenspinsels said:

What is a SIG?HersenSpinsels.nl

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Its a signature in a picture form usually created in PS but then you can use any program which creates graphics.

HTH

Make my day and give me a smile