Improving CA.org - Please share ideas <3

[Jason Manley]

Thanks everyone. The thumbnails are being rebuilt now, which is taking FOREVER as there are millions of em. Hopefully it doesn't slow things down too much. We got the template above built out and I will put it up tonight barring any tornadoes (which will just be for temp as we have a whole new site coming finally). It feels good to get back in here and get to work on the stuff that helps on a daily basis.


j

[SpectreX]

Don't forget to put links in the header as at the moment you can't click on them (there is no link attached).

[Harkins]

If you have the links to where everything is going I can put those in the template I sent you. Let me know. You sure you don't want that font?

Also, when you get that yellow row filled get at me and I'll put that fade effect on those as well.

[Jason Manley]

working on it. I may need some help with the yellow ones. I have the thumbs and links done...adding links to the others now.

[Ian Barker]

This might not be possible, but what if there was a row up top that linked to random sketchbooks (changing whenever you load the page)? That way some attention is given to some of the newbies (like me! lol)

[tobbA]

Ok. Here's a CA pet peeve of mine. Why does ':'+'P' become ? That winking one isn't the smiley I'm after. There should be separate smileys for ';'+'P' and ':'+'P'.

[Candra H]

This might not be possible, but what if there was a row up top that linked to random sketchbooks (changing whenever you load the page)? That way some attention is given to some of the newbies (like me! lol)

Now I have to go visit your sketchbook!

[Nemome]

Time to throw two more ideas into this thread!

- Livestream list! People are a lot into livestreaming lately, so this would be a good feature to have built in.
http://livestreamstatuslist.appspot.com/ <- Like this list
A page like that, showing all the artists that are currently streaming, could be placed inside the bar "What's New? - Forum - Members Map - (Livestream List )"
We could probably ask Wolkenfels, who created the website above, he he could help us out.

- Now we have the challanges in the banner, which is really awesome. A small bonus would be if we could be able to feature the winners of the challanges somewhere.
This way people would love to get also featured, for getting a name out there, and a lot more people would participate.


Drop me your opinions!
Would love to hear comments about this.

[Jason Manley]

I can't do enough code to do all this so any assistance is appreciated. Love the live stream links idea.

Yes we can add the winners to the thumbnail bar just below the activity thumbs. I want to put thumbs for the sketchbook exclusives atop that forum too, but below the toolbar so its closer to the threads. Not sure how to do that.

[Nemome]

Alright, livestream idea is being looked at.

Another idea before I'll finally go to sleep:
- Create a "CA Announcements" / "CA News" section so we don't need to spam the lounge (where a lot of people don't even take a look in, just because they don't like the lounge) with threads about future updates, ideas, ...

Good Night guys...

[Ian Barker]

On another forum I go to it lets you know in the User CP any time someone quotes you. It's pretty handy, I wonder how difficult that would be to implement?

[Jason Manley]

We can do that. I will take a look.


J

[Jason Manley]

Thumbs too big? 100x100 at the moment.

[Jason Manley]

grr stretching

[SmallPoly]

Thumbs too big? 100x100 at the moment.

Actually I'd say the whole thing is too tall for something that will be on every page. On a 1280x800 laptop screen in Chrome, I have to scroll down to see even the title of the current thread (well, it is in the URL as well). It seems like 1/2 the height on most sections would be more ideal. I'd probably leave the X of the Week ones alone). Potentially a taller on could be on the main page and forum sections with compact ones in individual threads.

[Jason Manley]

yeah...we are working on it...If I knew code this would all be done by now...but alas...such things are no different than mindcandymans journey of an absolute rookie thread...and I am going to get there in time. Thankfully we have some good people around here.

j

[Ian Barker]

This would drastically change the look of the site so I totally get if you're not into this idea, what about cleaning up the banners up top? As it is you can't even view the forum until you scroll down so if there were a way to rearrange things it might be nicer. Here's a mock up to show what I mean.



Sorry about the mock up, I know that it's not so simple coding everything for real, just wanted to throw out the suggestion

[Nemome]

Looks interesting.
Let's see what Jason thinks about it.

Overall I would say that the London workshop part in the banner is taking a lot of space recently. It's a really huge event, but it still could be displayed a bit smaller.
It already has it's own forum section, so yep.

Beside of that the thumbnails in each category, showing featured artists, should be much smaller.
Like to featured sketchbooks in the header would be good.
Otherwise the whole site just looks blown up.

Just my 2 cents.
Nemome

[~KJK~]

fixing the weekly challenge winner icons would be a start :L

[Psychotime]

Overall I would say that the London workshop part in the banner is taking a lot of space recently. It's a really huge event, but it still could be displayed a bit smaller.
It already has it's own forum section, so yep.

Beside of that the thumbnails in each category, showing featured artists, should be much smaller.
Like to featured sketchbooks in the header would be good.

I agree with you on the London banner, but I disagree about the featured artists being smaller or a need for featured sketchbooks. If there's featured artists, what's the need for featured sketchbooks?

I like Ian's mockup, I gotta say.

[Jason Manley]

Ok...thumbnails are fixed in the various forums. Finally.

Added a major update to our SEO software which will make it easier to find your work on search engines. The thread titles are now much more readable too.

Adding a test skin as this one bugs me.

More to do...but first must wrap up the workshop site.


J

[Nemome]

Thanks Mr.
But what thumbnails are actually fixed?
I'm still seeing these pretty big buggy 3 pictures on a few sections with an html line over them.

Or dou you mean other thumbnails?
Thanks you in advance for pointing out.

And a new skin sounds damn sweet. This will make a lot of people (inlcluding me) happy.

[Care]

ok ok ok, what about this, rather than just have a thanks button, there is are different options, like Thoughtful, Hilarious, Insightful, Helpful etc... (could be anything) and that these could be used to rank posts depending on their nature?

I mean the ranking thing isnt essential, but i think it would be cool rather than just thanks there could be a button to explain why we give da thanks

[Ian Barker]

It's not really that important to rate every post. "Thanks" are just a way of saying you liked a post even if you didn't type a reply.

[Demo]

You guys are doing really amazing work! All site really is coming along, good to see you back Jason

[Care]

yea i know ian and this is what i meant, if u r saying u liked a post, maybe if there were some options as to why could be nice, see my thinking behind it is like, thanks is like recognition for something, and forums are for communicating with others, now by adding if a post was insightful, funny clever etc, that would be more interaction and more recognition, more understanding for a user using the forum to see why a post is liked so much and maybe a way to find good helpful info and could be possible since the code for thanks is already in place maybe just a case of duplicating it.... but on the other hand might be way too busy with all that info so yea... maybe scrap that idea heh i dunno

[joshbailey]

I am not exactly sure if this idea is possible to do on a forum based website. Anyway, here goes:

I live in Australia, that means many things and one of those things means slow internet haha. I love browsing sketchbooks and have one of my own (forum sketchbooks). The only problem is loading time. My idea is a gallery page for each member which displays thumbnails (like deviantart for example) so users can easily and quickly navigate sketchbooks, find the image, click, comment and move on to the next. I think this idea would also make it easier to comment on something more specific since the comment would be replying to a specific post instead of the whole sketchbook. Apologies if this has already been suggested, I've no time today to read through the previous comments.

[Nemome]

Share this post if you are the same opinion. Spread it around facebook, let new people find their way to this place and make this place like a place never seen before! Thanks for the kind words so far. : )

Sup, I actually want to make my statement in this post.
Yesterday when I heard about all the stuff happening right now I was unsure if I would stay at CA.O or not.
I visited the Daggers again and some german art forum.
None of these are places like CA.O.
And that's not a bad thing. For me, this site is something special.
I joined this site when I was around 14 years old and I bet a lot of you guys also joined at a very early age.
So why did we actually join this site?
Because we knew that this would be a good place to improve and hang out with other amazing artists.
Atleast for me (!) that was the reason to get in here.

Now let's look at the stuff happening right now. Does it influence the reason why you actually joined this site a few years (or for our newer members - months) ago?
For me it doesn't.
I am still here and now also in the team because I fucking love this site.
My earliest drawings are in my first sketchbook and when I am going through all my posts I also find all the childish posts with questions I would never ask today anymore.

So why should I actually leave this place?
Because Brad Rigney (who I really like as an artists) didn't get all the money yet? That's a damn fucked up thing. I agree with everyone being mad here.
But do you help Brad Rigney to get his money with leaving this site or quitting the workshop?
God damn NO!
There should be a discussion in the forum, and everyone should be allowed to be mad, to make things public and stuff like that (okay, we actually have a thread like this).
With this publicity people, who are involved in this money story, will try to fix it as soon as possible.
I don't want to tell everything I now, because it's not you being DIRECTLY involved. But all I can say that things are already getting solved.
Brad Rigney will get his money (at least I hope so). Okay, it's been pretty late then, but he achived then what he wanted to get with his journal entry.
Do you really think Brad Rigney wanted all of us to leave this forum? To stop the plan going to the workshop? No! All he wanted is to get the money finally.
And with his post he achived this I think.

It's sad that a story like this happened and that all people are going so crazy about leaving the place and getting Jason away.
With this I also want to add a few words to the Jason Manley topic.
I got to know him a few weeks ago and at this point I already knew that there was some stuff in the past where he was mentioned in a negative way.
But I ignored that and I got to know a very nice, open person who has great ideas for this forum.
Even if he fucked things up (again?) - he really cares about the stuff that is happening recently and I don't think he got much sleep recently. He's trying to fix this stuff and to give everyone the money that he, TAD, or whoever ows Brad Rigney and the other guys.
Beside of the current story he is working all day long on the forum to improve it and you guys are really seeing that things are getting changed quite a lot recently.
This thread here helped CA.O to finally start changing again and I don't see why we should stop changing this site now!

You all want the good old CA.O times back?
Then do something for it!
A lot of people behind the scenes are working on technical stuff, like the forum design, banner stuff, ...
But in the end it just matters what the community makes out of it. And you all have to agree that THIS community is still one of the biggest out there.
Help our newbies out, take part on the weekly challanges, write tutorials and all that stuff.
This is going to change this site! It's not going to change if Jason Manley is away. Then we just have one less man who is working hard to improve this site.
It's only going to change if we are contributing good stuff to this place.
Look how the placed used to look like a few years ago.
There were a lot of the big names contributing stuff to the site. Why were they doing this? Because they saw young artists working their ass off to get as good as they are and they saw a huge community where everyone was tied together.
Show everyone that you're dedicated about art.
Show that you want to get to the top.
Show that you care about other users too.
Make new friends, help them out and share what you have learned so far.

I personally will continue to work on this forum. I feel sorry for Brad Rigney and the other people not getting his money directly, but that doesn't really influence to work we are doing here.
They are two completely different stories - One story is about the money - and one story is about making this place what it used to be.
These two stories aren't really tied together, so let's focus on each topic individually.

I am actually wondering if anyone will read this post to the end, but thanks to the people who are actually doing it.
In the end it's up to you what you're going to do.
But in my opinion shouting at Jason, leaving this nice community or quitting the workshop doesn't solve any of the current problems.

Thanks for reading guys.
I will pick up my sketchbook now, get outside and do some studies from life.

PS:
To all the guys who are currently leaving:
I am not mad, angry or something like that at you. It's your own right to leave this place if you're not feeling comfortable here anymore.
But I'll be happy to see some of the old faces in a few months here again.
Till this happens we will all try to make this place as awesome as we can. < 3

[Velocity Kendall]

Great post.

[SpectreX]

Yes a very nice post! And so true, now let's fill our sketchbooks and improve the site