born-again-vampire Wrote: Do most people just go to the forum? Do many people use the link up top? I would like to see the whole fan art section (forum included) redesigned.

I'm not really sure what you mean by this statement. The fan art forum and the actual fan artwork/index page have different functions. People use this forum to comment on accepted submissions. The fan artwork page is designed to help users find artwork by one particular artist, and to see the overall rating of each artist. The page also gives each artist a sort of "portfolio", to showcase all of their artwork. I don't see the correlation between the these two entities.

I go to the forum most of the time.

7 out of 10 on the first shot.

but I end up going to the forum section anyway.
Because not all the art work there is posted in the Gallery.

Usually the only place I go to on this site is the Fan Art forum link on the right. I stopped checking the other forums about a month after I got MK:DA.

I go to the Fan Submission link up top only if looking for someone specific.

How would you redesign it? What would you change. The only thing I've really wanted to change was showing a person and their vote for an entry. I think that might create too much chaos though.

Wyatt

There is a frop down link up top that says Fan Submission. This has a list of all users and you can click one and see all their art work. You can get to the forum from there and from the forum you can get to the individual arts works.

~Crow~ Wrote: born-again-vampire Wrote: Do most people just go to the forum? Do many people use the link up top? I would like to see the whole fan art section (forum included) redesigned. I'm not really sure what you mean by this statement. The fan art forum and the actual fan artwork/index page have different functions. People use this forum to comment on accepted submissions. The fan artwork page is designed to help users find artwork by one particular artist, and to see the overall rating of each artist. The page also gives each artist a sort of "portfolio", to showcase all of their artwork. I don't see the correlation between the these two entities.

born-again-vampire Wrote: There is a frop down link up top that says Fan Submission. This has a list of all users and you can click one and see all their art work. You can get to the forum from there and from the forum you can get to the individual arts works.

I knew what you were referring to... hence me mentioning it in my statement several times..

I'm asking you why are you comparing the two? The forum is a place for artwork to be commented on, and for people to post artwork they would rather not submit for some reason. The other is, like I said, a place where you can view artists' ratings and their 'portfolio'.

Most people aren't going to use the Fan Artwork page unless they are searching for a particular artwork, and they happen to know what author it is by. Or they wish to see other past artwork from an artist they like. That's basically what that page is there for, other than providing a link to the 'submit' page. Its more efficient than the search feature, because some of the older artwork is scattered across two forums. I like the setup the way it is, very neat and organized.

As RaMeir said, the ability to view how one voted would be a great feature. However, thinking about it, an artist may question why a particular user voted the way he/she did. That would cause much chaos indeed. Really, only moderators and staff would need this information, and its something that could be in the future perhaps. If we ever decided to hold an official contest here, knowing the voting results would be critical.

My point is I would like to see some combination of the two sections. I like the layout of the forums and in general the site, but I don't find the fan art section(s) to be very user friendly.

~Crow~ Wrote: born-again-vampire Wrote: There is a frop down link up top that says Fan Submission. This has a list of all users and you can click one and see all their art work. You can get to the forum from there and from the forum you can get to the individual arts works. I knew what you were referring to... hence me mentioning it in my statement several times.. I'm asking you why are you comparing the two? The forum is a place for artwork to be commented on, and for people to post artwork they would rather not submit for some reason. The other is, like I said, a place where you can view artists' ratings and their 'portfolio'. Most people aren't going to use the Fan Artwork page unless they are searching for a particular artwork, and they happen to know what author it is by. Or they wish to see other past artwork from an artist they like. That's basically what that page is there for, other than providing a link to the 'submit' page. Its more efficient than the search feature, because some of the older artwork is scattered across two forums. I like the setup the way it is, very neat and organized. As RaMeir said, the ability to view how one voted would be a great feature. However, thinking about it, an artist may question why a particular user voted the way he/she did. That would cause much chaos indeed. Really, only moderators and staff would need this information, and its something that could be in the future perhaps. If we ever decided to hold an official contest here, knowing the voting results would be critical.

I don't get how you would make it better.

Hey Crow, I had another idea for a feature. Is it possible to show how many times a thread is viewed along with replied to. Or is that stat tracked?

It would be nice to know when activity is occuring even if there is nothing new to read.

Wyatt

RaMeir Wrote: Hey Crow, I had another idea for a feature. Is it possible to show how many times a thread is viewed along with replied to. Or is that stat tracked? It would be nice to know when activity is occuring even if there is nothing new to read. Wyatt

I've seen many other forums use such a feature. I doubt adding something like that would be too difficult in itself, but the main question would be whether or not it was wanted by the majority. Many feel it would only clutter the forum with another column, and others like yourself would like to know how many people view certain threads. I suppose it is all a matter of opinion. Personally, I've always had mixed feelings about it when I see it on other forums. Its all in the design as well.

Bleed Wrote: I don't get how you would make it better.

I sometimes find it very hard to find interesting art, when you don't know EXACTLY what you're looking for. I think it'd be a huge improvement if there were multiple options on how to sort all the artworks. You could either sort them by artist - like the system works now - or by rating, by type (artwork/fake, etc), or by subject portrayed in the artwork.
With the current system, it's pretty hard to find what you want, if you for instance are looking for artwork of a specific character, and only want pics that have, say, a rating of 3 or higher. The current system WORKS, but there's no doubt room for improvement.

Categories, that's a good idea.

So here's a possible list:
Artist (already exists)
Rating (like the stats-but make it browsable)
Media (Paint, Sketch, Ink, Computer colored, sprite work, CGI, and sculpture for those two)
Character (whose in the picture)
Subject (fatality, fight, concept art, comic, comedy, serious)

Some of these would take keywords obviously. Like on Elfwood, when you add a picture they let you type keywords as well. You could allow the user to decide on: media, character(s), subject matter.

Or just leave it like it is.
Wyatt

:\ I use both. I use the index mostly for what Crow described. But I use the forum to look at what comments others made and to add my own. Or I use it to find inspiration when I have a mental block.